Commonweal Season Begins in April

Each year as I attend the Commonweal’s annual holiday production my enjoyment of the play is followed by the sad realization that I’ll have to wait until February for the next season’s opening. A couple of things changed that experience this winter/spring. First of all, I waited until the last weekend to see the Commonweal production of Inspecting Carol, and a winter storm prevented me from attending. So rather than feeling melancholy about having to wait two long months for the return of professional theater, I was mad at myself for waiting until the last minute and missing December’s offering. The other change is that the wait for the Commonweal’s Ibsen production is longer this year: Peer Gynt doesn’t open until April 26 (with previews starting April 18). The Ibsen festival will take place May 2 - 4.

In a meeting with local business owners last summer (as reported in the Preston Republican-Leader), Executive Director Hal Cropp and Managing Director Erick Bunge explained the condensed season (April - December rather than February - December) from several angles. First of all, with the new, larger theater, the Commonweal has the ability to fill more seats with fewer performances. By shortening the season, the company is trying to keep from overextending itself by having too many performances for its audience base. Presumably, fewer performances will save costs as the company cautiously incorporates the new expenses of owning and paying for a new building.

Cropp also pointed out that the Ibsen production is not always well attended beyond the opening week. And because much of the Commonweal’s audience must travel to get to Lanesboro, bad weather can further impact attendance as the picturesque roads that wind their way to Lanesboro can quickly turn treacherous. Ultimately, the theater’s board hopes that, for now, starting the season in late April will better financially serve the theater with larger, more predictable audiences.

It always seemed appropriate to consider Ibsen in February when the snow and darkness reflect Ibsen’s Norway. But Ibsen didn’t necessarily see his dramas as emanating from near the Arctic Circle. In the Introduction to his translation of Peer Gynt, Rolf Fjelde identifies a change in Ibsen’s work which dates to his first crossing of the Alps three years before writing Peer Gynt. Fjelde sees Ibsen metaphorically leaving the “Gothic North” with its “grinding poverty in cheerless, wintry towns,” to enter the “Mediterranean South.” Ibsen describes this Alps crossing as a turning point: “a wonderful soft brightness, shining like white marble, was suddenly revealed to me and was destined to set its stamp on all my later production, even if that production was not all beauty.”

Just as the revelation of a warmer south set Ibsen on the path of writing Peer Gynt and most of the Ibsen canon, perhaps the Ibsen Fest’s move to spring will allow us to look at Ibsen in a different light. But just to be sure, I’m not going to wait until the last weekend to see Peer Gynt; I don’t want to get snowed out again.

Peer Gynt

By Henrick Ibsen, Directed by Hal Cropp
Previews: April 18
Runs April 26 - May 18

2008 Commonweal Season

Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen
Harvey by Mary Chase
Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman
(A new American work, to be announced)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
New times:
Plays now run Thursday - Monday
Evening curtain: 7:30
Matinee curtain: 1:30

Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre

Upcoming Performances: Taxes and Greeks

The Fountain City River Players turn their attention toward tax day while both Winona Universities turn towards the Greek. Vivian Fusillo directs Medea at Winona State in early April while Steven Bouler directs Euripedes’ Iphingenia at Aulis later in the month.

April 2 - 6 Love, Sex, and the I.R.S.: A Comedy in Three Acts

By Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore, Directed by Judee Brone
Fountain City River Players
7:30pm April 2 - 5; 2:00pm April 6
Fountain City Auditorium
42 N. Main St.
Fountain City, Wisconsin
(608) 687-7174.

April 3 - 5 Medea

Directed by Vivian Fusillo
Winona State Department of Theater and Dance
Winona, Minnesota

From WSU Online Calandar:

Medea is a story of betrayal, revenge and murder from Greek mythology.

Medea is a woman who has given up her home and family in Corinth to help Jason and the Argonauts capture the Golden Fleece. Upon their return to Corinth, Medea and Jason wed and have two sons. However, Jason is unable to resist when Creon, the king of Corinth, offers his daughter to Jason if he will divorce and banish Medea, who is suspected of being a barbarian sorceress. Jason agrees in hopes of one-day becoming king. Medea is given one day to leave Corinth, and one day is all she needs to exact her revenge.

Medea is intended for mature audiences.

Visit the Winona State Theater and Dance Department website for schedule and ticket information.

April 18 - 21 Iphigenia at Aulis

By Euripides, Directed by Dr. Steven Bouler
St. Mary's University Department of Theater Arts
Winona, Minnesota

Description from St. Mary's Page Theater website:

The Greek fleet waits in the bay of Aulis in readiness to launch an attack on Troy, but the wind suddenly drops and the ships stand idle. The army blames its leader, Agamemnon, who, in danger of losing his command, is told by the oracle the only solution: sacrifice his teenage daughter, Iphigenia, to the gods, in return for a favorable wind and ultimate victory. As relevant today as it was over 2,000 years ago, this contemporary translation of Euripides’ Iphigenia (set prior to the Iraqi War) explores patriotism, war fever, and how far a leader will go to secure a military victory in the East.

Visit the Page Theatre website for schedule and ticket information.

When You Comin’ Back Red Ryder?

by Mark Medoff
Directed by Dr. Gary Diomandes

Starting off the 2008 Southeast Minnesota theatre calendar, St. Mary’s Department of Theatre Arts presents Mark Medoff's 1973 play When You Comin’ Back Red Ryder? February 28 - March 3 at the Academy Theatre, Valencia Arts Center.

This fast-paced drama by Medoff starts off innocently enough with a group of people going about their daily lives at a small New Mexico diner. The arrival of a too-friendly tourist quickly turns antagonistic, then violent, and the staff and customers suddenly find themselves held hostage by an armed madman. As they fight him and play out his demands, their brittle lives shatter, and no one escapes unscathed.

See St. Mary's Campus Notes for more information.

Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008 - 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 29, 2008 - 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 1, 2008 - 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 2, 2008 - 3 p.m.
Monday, March 3, 2008 - 7:30 p.m.
Academy Theatre, Valencia Arts Center
1164 W. 10th

Visit the Page Theatre website for schedule and ticket information.

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol

By Tom Mula, Directed by Jon Ferguson
John Hassler Theater, November 29, 2007

(As Jacob Marley learns, time can move very fast or stand very still, especially around Christmas. I’ve been kindling my Christmas spirit by playing my own version of Bob Cratchit these past weeks. That’s my apology for the lateness of this review.)

I thoroughly enjoyed Tom Mula’s version of the Dickens’ holiday classic at the Jon Hassler Theater. The story is a great mix between what we know (the visits by Christmas spirits to the miserly Scrooge) and what we don’t know: the surprising twists and turns in the otherworld that lead to Scrooge’s annual change of heart. Mula takes the audience on this playful journey while staying true to a Dickens’ formal yet playfully satiric voice.

The Jon Hassler production utilizes four actors who move seamlessly between characters and onstage narration, a technique that works very well. In fact, rather than breaking up the story, the characters’ self-narration makes the audience co-conspirators in the unfolding events of this particular Christmas Eve. This works particularly well for the Bogle (a sprite played by Jane Schranz) who gleefully gossips with the audience over the hapless Marley (played by Charles Fraser) as she guides him through the confusing world of spirits. In a unique twist, this narration often asks the audience to imagine the special effects that a story of the supernatural demands: sometimes this narration is simply humorous; sometimes it’s amazingly effective at creating the illusion of spirits, costumes, crowds, and travel in the other world.

With simple lighting, some simulated wind, and sparse sound effects, the production effectively creates this otherworld. Ralph Ruan’s set utilizes the theater’s wide stage area to good effect, using cantilevered platforms to create the image of a world suspended by chains. The Jon Hassler’s wide performance space can cause problems for the designer (and a “tennis match” experience for the audience); here, as in Mercy of a Storm, Ryan’s design utilizes the space well. In a particularly nice turn of staging, the counting house where Scrooge and Marley spent their accounting days becomes the counting house where Marley must account for his actions as a mortal. Fraser’s Marley is humbled to sit on a stack of ledgers in the counting house&emdash;the same ledgers he piled on Bob Cratchit on Christmas eve.

With a sparse staging and only four actors, the success of Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol depends on the actors. All four play several characters, including themselves as bumbling actors. For example, they unprofessionally peer at the audience from back stage before acts and even during scenes, and they seemingly can’t remember how scenes are blocked. And yet all four are able to conjure convincing versions of Dickens’s (and Mula’s)characters when the play requires it.

The end result is a production that re-tells Dickens’s classic with ample humor and playfulness as it moves the audience toward the expected catharsis with respect for both the story and the audience intact.

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol runs through December 23

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

Holiday Productions

I have to admit to being a bit of a Scrooge about holiday theater, particularly about A Christmas Carol. I’ve always felt that the first ghost is quite enough and that the following ghosts simply add to the suffering—of the audience. Much of that humbug feeling melted away while attending the Commonweal’s 2003 production. It’s likely that up until that appearance of Ghosts Past, Present, and Future, I’d simply never seen a production that handled Dickens with the humor, warmth, and inventiveness of a fine company like the Commonweal.

While no one is ever likely to say of me, “he knew how to keep Christmas well,” I have found myself enjoying A Christmas Carol and other holiday productions the past few Decembers. I realize that I’m the odd one; for many, a holiday-themed production may be the only theater they see all year. And that’s why theaters big and small produce holiday shows; it’s a dependable way to fill the seats and cover some of the year’s operating costs. And A Christmas Carol is the most dependable of the holiday plays.

This season, Southeast Minnesota Theater goers have the opportunity to see two A Christmas Carol “spin offs”: Inspecting Carol at the Commonweal and Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol at the Jon Hassler Theater. (Of course there’s sure to be many productions of the traditional version, including one at the Guthrie Theatre.)

Inspecting Carol

By Daniel Sullivan, Directed by Alan Bailey
Commonweal Theatre, Lansboro

In Daniel Sullivan’s Inspecting Carol, which is running at the Commonweal Theatre in Lanesboro this season, a non-profit theater is staging the holiday classic in hopes of staving off financial ruin. Unfortunately—for the fictitious company—everything that can go wrong in a production goes wrong. The play good naturedly lampoons actors, directors, arts administrators, subscribers and even the National Endowment for the Arts. Sullivan, one of the most sought after directors in the country, created Inspecting Carol while serving as the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s resident director, and the play was developed along with the Rep’s actors, who are in a pretty good position to know what’s funny behind the scene.

Inspecting Carol runs through December 23.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol

By Tom Mula, Directed by Jon Ferguson
Jon Hassler Theater, Plainview

Dickens opens A Christmas Carol with him: “Marley was dead: to begin with.” Tom Mula has taken the “to begin with” and spun a tale that he claims is the real story behind A Christmas Carol: “the story of Jacob Marley’s heroic behind-the-scenes efforts to save old Scrooge’s soul.” The result is a unique and humorous (irreverent, funny, and ultimately, deeply moving, says the publisher) take on the holiday classic.

Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol runs through December 23

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

Proof is worth taking in

Winona State’s production of David Auburn's Proof is well worth taking in. I just returned from the opening night performance, and I was impressed by Auburn’s script and the WSU staging and acting. It’s a very engaging play, and it’s also the first play I’ve been to that has turned to the Philosophy department for program notes.

Proof also marks the final play at WSU for Director David Bratt who has taught in the Theater Department at Winona State for more than 30 years. Kari Knutson did a nice story about Bratt for the Winona Daily News today.

See below for more on WSU's production of Proof.

Proof

by David Auburn, directed by David Bratt
Winona State University Theatre and Dance Department

This Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play explores the elusiveness of genius, presenting the difficulty of a mathematical proof as a metaphor for the uncertainties of love, trust, and integrity.

Presented in the Dorothy B. Magnus Blackbox theater in the WSU Performing Arst Center. Tickets are limited, so advanced purchase is highly recommended.

Performances run November 28 - December 2, 2007 at 7:00pm
Winona State Performing Arts Center
$7.00 General Admission
Box office: 507-457-5235

WSU Theatre and Dance Page.