Uncle Vanya

By Anton Chekhov, directed by Lisa Weaver
Commonweal Theatre

It seems like it has been a long time since we’ve seen Commonweal’s Executive Director Hal Cropp on stage, and his portrayal of the desperate Vanya is another gem. Vanya has come to the realization that his life may have been totally wasted: he’s toiled for 25 years managing the home estate of his deceased sister, sending the proceeds to support his brother-in-law, the esteemed Professor. In fact the entire household—Vanya, Sonya, Vanya’s mother, the household staff—have lived their lives vicariously through the success of the professor. The discontent arises when the professor retires to the home estate bringing home his new young bride.

Vanya is shaken from his reverence for the professor by the reality of the professor in the day-to-day flesh. Perhaps it’s jealousy that precipitates the change: a contemporary of Vanya’s, the professor has taken nearly all the income produced by the estate to live a lavish, celebrity lifestyle, and now in retirement he has come home with a young beautiful wife (played by Amanda Davis). Vanya on the other hand has lived a frugal, dispassionate life, and with the appearance of Yeliena, his life and future seem very lonely and very celibate. Cropp is able to capture this anguish in his pronouncement that not only is the professor a whining nuisance, but his intellectual production is also void of any original thought. Cropp’s Vanya sums up his new understanding of the professor by declaring him a “lump.” (Which would work better if the professor wasn’t played by the lanky Stephen Houtz, but Houtz makes up for his stature by confirming Vanya’s assertions.)

“Lump” is a good reminder that Chekhov wrote this play as a comedy, and there is much to laugh at in this production: irony, twisted logic, childish idealism, outlandish behavior. But audiences have been reluctant to laugh because of the anguish underneath the humor. (At some points in the play, I may have been the only one laughing.) This production, while not seeming to play to the laugh lines, certainly provides ample opportunity for laughter.

The underlying pace of Uncle Vanya plods with dialog that often goes nowhere. Characters engage in irrelevant banter about tea, crops, household routines, hereditary sweat disorders—while underneath, characters are tumultuously re-evaluating their lives and finding their current paths meaningless. Each of the main characters will break out of the slow pace to make a desperate attempt to salvage some possibility of happiness. These acts seem too large, too clumsy, and uncharacteristically too passionate.

Jill Underwood as Sonya and Hal Cropp as Uncle Vanya. Photo: Commonweal

While this is the first production of Uncle Vanya I’ve seen, I expected these desperate acts to be executed clumsily, yet within the Russian reserve that runs through Checkov’s plays—I imagine this reserve as being similar to “Minnesota nice.” Yet the Commonweal’s characters scream with passion in a way that makes a Minnesota audience squirm. I left the theater thinking that the acting was too passionate for Chekhov: Jill Underwood’s Sonya, who runs the estate with staid efficiency and stability, becomes an insecure adolescent when she confesses her secret love for the doctor; mustachioed Erick Knutson abandons his medical demeanor and his life’s work of reforestation to make sexual advances to the professor’s young wife; Vanya weeps openly and often, loudly professes his anger and disillusionment to anyone who will listen, and makes his own advances on Yeliena.

While these passionate outbursts may seem out of character for Chekhov, director Lisa Weaver is presenting exactly what passionate expression might feel like to a person who has spent a lifetime avoiding passion. This exaggerated passion allows the audience to feel the internal terror a dispassionate person might experience over even the smallest expression of passion. Sometimes this internal experience moves into the surreal: Vanya’s attempt to shoot the professor seems comic rather then terrifying. Afterwards, Vanya wonders aloud if the shooting was even real: “It’s queer! Here I’ve tried to commit a murder, and yet no one arrests me, no one charges me with anything…It must mean they think I’m a madman.” (trans. Elisaveta Fen).

Come to see Uncle Vanya prepared to laugh, prepared to squirm at the un-Minnesota attempts at passion, and prepared to explore your own missed opportunities and deferred aspirations. Cropp, Underwood, Davis, and Knutson turn in powerful performances that add to the impressive body of work of the Commonweal.

Uncle Vanya plays through November 11.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre

Tales Told 'Round the World

By Forest Musselman
Directed by Vivian Fusillo

Vivian Fusillo and the Winona State University Department of Theatre and Dance present Tales Told ‘Round the World this weekend. Tales marks the 40th annual Children's production for WSU and Fusillo, and it's the first of these productions specifically written for WSU.

Written by local poet/dramatist and WSU grad Forest Mussleman, Tales Told ‘Round the World, is a collection of stories and music specially selected for younger theatre-goers.

See Scott Bestul's article about the Tales Told ‘Round the World from the Winona Post.

Performances run October 19-20, 2007 at 7:00pm
Winona State Performing Arts Center
$7.00 General Admission
Box office: 507-457-5235

WSU Theatre and Dance Page.

St. Mary’s Department of Theatere Arts presents: Art

by Yasmina Reza
Directed by Dr. Steven Bouler

Yasimina Reza’s Art premiered in Paris in 1995, London’s West End in 1996, and Broadway in 1998—with each production winning major awards. It’s been translated into more than 25 languages and has become a favorite of actors and audiences around the world for its sometimes whimsical look inside the workings of friendship and inside the minds of three individuals who,for better or worse, think a lot like us.

Three long-time friends must re-evaluate their friendship when one of the men, Serge, purchases a very expensive painting, a white landscape (which may or may not have a hint of colorful or white stripes). While the painting does make an appearance, in Art, art serves as a backdrop for an examination of character and relationship. Each of these men display flaws that are at times, irritating, humorous, and fascinating. But most of all, these exposed flaws find uncomfortably fertile ground among theater goers.

The play is strong and engaging. The action is confined to the interactions between the three characters, with interesting freeze-frame asides that further explore the workings of the human mind. I first saw Reza’s Art in 2001 in a Commonweal production that was spell binding—a result of brilliant acting by the company and a tremendous play. Winona State students presented a strong production of Art a few years later. SMU's production offers a welcome opportunity to see another production of Art in Winona.

St. Mary’s production of Art runs September 28 - October 1.

Visit the Page Theatre website for schedule and ticket information.

Commonweal to Stage Readings of New Plays

September 18, 7:00 pm: The Seventh Seal
September 25, 7:00 pm: Ice Maidens

The Commonweal Theatre Company continues its new play development program with two public staged readings on September 18 and 25. Admission is pay-what-you-can with all proceeds benefitting the victims of recent flooding.

“We are very excited to share with our audiences the brand new work by these two gifted and inspired theatre artists,” said Commonweal Executive Director Hal Cropp. “And we are equally grateful for the opportunity to help our neighbors who sustained significant damage from the floods.”

Featured in the September readings are a theatrical adaptation of the late Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal on September 18th and the original drama, Ice Maidens on September 25th.

The Seventh Seal has been adapted for the stage by Charlie Oates, chair of the University of California San Diego Theatre & Dance department. Mr. Oates has created and performed interdisciplinary theatre events all over the world, and has taught several master classes for the Commonweal company over the last five years.

According to playwright Stan Peal, most native Midwesterners have stories about falling through the ice. His Commonweal-commissioned play, Ice Maidens, deals with one such story. Peal is an actor, playwright and musician who currently makes his home in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Both readings will be held on the stage of the new Commonweal Theatre at 7:00 p.m. with refreshments to follow. The audience is invited to provide feedback after the readings, and one or both of the plays may be chosen for a full production in the future.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre

Jon Hassler Theater: Tuesdays with Morrie

Opens Saturday, September 22; runs through October 21.

Tuesdays with Morrie
by Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom

This true story about the love between a professor and his pupil reminds us of the affection and gratitude that many of us still feel for the significant mentors of our past. Adapted by playwright Jeff Hatcher from the best-selling novel by Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie recounts the author's weekly visits with his terminally ill mentor, one-of-a-kind professor Morrie Schwartz, who, even on his deathbed, imports lessons on the power and joy of living life to its fullest.

Visit the John Hassler Theater for schedules and tickets: Jon Hassler Theater

Rochester Rep: Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming

Now in its 24th Season, the Rochester Repertory Theatre presents Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, which plays through October 6.

Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming
A Musical Written by Connie Ray; Conceived by Alan Bailey, with Musical Arrangements by Mike Craver.

It's October, 1945, and the gospel-singing Sanders Family is back together again. The war is over and America's years of prosperity are just beginning. But there's another kind of rite of passage at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, where Reverent Mervin Oglethorpe is giving his last service. He's been called to preach in Texas, and he's already bought a ten-gallon hat and is preparing to ride into the sunset with his wife June, who is eight months pregnant. Tomorrow morning, young Dennis Sanders takes over as Mount Pleasant's pastor. Join the Sanders Family as they send Mervin and June off in style, with hilarious and touching stories and twenty-five toe-tapping Bluegrass Gospel favorites.

For tickets, visit the Rep online: www.rochesterrep.org

Commonweal Presents Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya

Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya opened last weekend at the Commonweal Theatre Company in Lansboro, marking the company’s first production of Chekhov.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860 - 1904) lived in a transitional Russia, between the abolition of serfdom and the upheaval of the revolution to come. His major plays portray a Russia caught between centuries of tradition and a modern, egalitarian Russia, a transition that seems to leave both the peasants and the aristocracy displaced and disconcerted. While Chekhov treats his falling aristocratic characters with tenderness, their own foolishness serves to condemn the system that maintained their ancestors’ leisure luxuries.

Chekhov does not romanticize the past, nor does he extol the future with its “picture of gradual and unquestionable degeneration.” Nor does Chekhov romanticize the rural estate he portrays in Uncle Vanya. The beautiful summer countryside gives way to the cold and grey, and the professor knows that he will not be able to suffer the tedium of the country during the fast approaching winter.

The professor, retired, portentous and idle, returns to his estate with his beautiful young wife, Yelena. For many years, the professor’s daughter, Sonya, and her Uncle Vanya have sent the farm’s proceeds to the professor, receiving only a small salary in return.

Both Vanya and the local doctor, Astrov, fall in love with Yelena, Sonya is in love with Astrov, and Vanya gets so fed up with the professor he decides to take drastic action.

“All the characters want love,” observed the play’s director, Lisa Weaver. “And they are all so rich and complex. I’m also impressed by the many, still relevant ideas in the play about the environment, men’s and women’s roles in society, and what it means to be a success.”

Chekhov became the beloved principle dramatist for Stanislavsky’s experimental Moscow Art Theatre which premiered in 1898 and included Chekhov’s The Seagull in their inaugural season. His plays have been have been performed continually ever since and have had a profound influence on theater around the globe.

Director Lisa Weaver is a Commonweal Resident Company Member. She has also directed When We Dead Awaken, Lonely Planet and the world premiere of Marguerite Bonet.

The cast features Resident Company Members Hal Cropp, Amanda Davis, Eric Knutson and Jill Underwood as Vanya, Yelena, Astrov and Sonya, respectively.

Twin Cities-based actors Lavina Erickson and Stephen Houtz make their Commonweal debuts as Sonya’s nurse, Marina, and the professor Serebryakov. Rounding out the cast are Gail Fraser as the professor’s mother, Mariya and Milton Papageorge as Sonya’s godfather, Telyegin.

The show is designed by St. Mary’s University’s Kit Mayer (set) and Luther College’s Lisa Lantz (costume), with lighting by Jason Underferth, properties by recent Viterbo graduate, Troy Iverson, and sound by “Over the Back Fence” Artistic Director Stela Burdt.

Uncle Vanya plays in repertory with Wait Until Dark through November.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre