This past weekend I made the journey to Winona Minnesota to attend the Great River Shakespeare Festival (GRSF) for the first time. Luckily, I had my learned colleagues, longtime Twin Cities Theater Bloggers, Jill Schafer of Cherry and Spoon, From MN Theater Love, and the world renowned barber shop duet, the Jackson Sisters with, to show me the ropes. GRSF is a repertory Theater company. For those who don’t know, it’s a company of actors who perform a set of of shows in rotation. Over the course of Saturday and Sunday we saw all three, of the three plays, they have in their repertoire this season: As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale both by Shakespeare, and the World Premiere of a new play Imbroglio by Co-Associate Artistic Director Melissa Maxwell.
This entry is going to be something a little bit different, I will share some thoughts on each of the plays but I want to focus on the experience itself. This is the 20th season for the Great River Shakespeare Festival. You can learn about how it started as well as what it’s like to perform in repertory theater on the recent episode of the Twin Cities Theater Chat Podcast, which Jill Schafer and Carol Jackson spoke with GRSF Artistic Director Doug Sholz-Carlson and Melissa Maxwell. To listen to that episode click here https://bit.ly/GreatRiverShakespeareFestivalTCTC. There are a few things to know so you get the most out of the festival. 35 minutes before each performance under a little white tent outside the theater, they hold the Green Show followed by Know Before You Go. The first, features actors from the professional understudy company who enact a variety of scenes from Shakespeare’s other plays providing entertaining information about the plays and his techniques. I always compare watching Shakespeare to watching a subtitled Foreign film, it takes about 10 or 15 minutes to adjust or tune into and then once you do, you have no trouble following along. The Green Show helps you tune into the heightened language so that when you go in for the play, you’re primed and ready. In the Know Before You Go portion, they will run down the characters and setting of the play and provide you with a handout cheat sheet to keep all the characters straight. I highly recommend planning to attend these little pre-show sessions, they’re really enjoyable and prepare you to get the most enjoyment out of the performances. Friday and Saturday evenings after the performances there are free ice cream socials during which you have an opportunity to mingle with the cast and crew and compare notes with the other members of the audience. Theater is meant to be a communal experience and this is a nice way to add to that aspect and foster a sense of community, plus ice cream’s awesome! Thursday evenings after the show there are talk backs, and Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM they have Company discussions at Blooming Grounds Coffee House in super cute Downtown Winona. There are other activities and educational opportunities throughout the festival, it really is so much more than just a series of plays. For a full rundown, visit their website at https://www.grsf.org/. Also be sure to leave time to shop at the gift corner in the lobby of the theater, I got a T-shirt to commemorate the occasion, a book and even a William Shakespeare Action Figure.
Before I dive into each play, let me say a couple of things generally about all of them. First, there wasn’t a bad performance in any of the shows the entire weekend, so I’ll likely touch on just one or two that really struck me in each. The seating is risers built on the stage in a thrust configuration, it’s wonderfully intimate and as such I don’t think there is a bad seat to be had. Now with the seats on the stage the choice was made for two of the shows to have minimal sets, only Imbroglio has what we think of as a traditional set. The two Shakespeare plays make do with a few set pieces like trunks that can be moved around, but don’t worry, it works. They make up for lack of sets with wonderful costumes, which my fellow bloggers and my wife were kind enough to point out to me. As my wife can attest, I have something of a blind spot for clothes … and jewelry, and hair, and make up. It is in this way, rather than a knowledge of cars or sports, that I present as the male of the species. Lastly, I’m not going to go into plot, there is one play in which it might be difficult to discuss at all without giving away things the audience would find more enjoyable to discover on their own. As for the other two, well you’ve had 400 years, so if you got this far without discovering their plots then go in blind, these plays are so well done, you will not be lost in them.
The first play we saw was The Winter’s Tale, I enjoyed both Shakespeare plays almost equally, which is to say, they were both really well done. But, if forced I’d give the edge to The Winter’s Tale. Probably because I was less familiar with it, as it’s been eight years since I saw it, compared to two days for As You Like It. The Winter’s Tale is considered by some to be one of Shakespeare’s “Problem Plays” due to its tonal shift from a rather dark drama in the opening acts to a light hearted comedy with a happy ending. It’s also contains one of the most famous stage directions in all of theater [Exit, pursued by a bear]. Which brings up one of the shining elements of this production, the Sound Design by Jeff Polunas, the bear attack being one example of a really effective soundscape. Performance wise De’Onna Prince in the dual roles of Paulina and Old Shepherd was a revelation. Trying to be the voice of reason and passionately pleading in the first acts as Paulina, she was utterly captivating, and then very entertaining in the second half as the Old Shepherd. Emily Fury Daly as Queen Hermione in the opening scene I wasn’t connecting with, but when she comes to be judged, she quite assuredly had everyone’s attention and that slight disconnect in the opening scene made this moment doubly powerful. Likewise, in the second half of the play as The Clown, she is thoroughly entertaining and her performance draws a lot of laughs from the audience and well deservedly.
Next up for our band of bloggers was As you Like it. In this one I did notice some of the very striking costume designs by John Merritt all on my own. Though to speak truly, not touchstone’s shoes, which I was instructed to note, and having noted them, I can proclaim them simply fabulous. I was taken with contrast between the costumes of those at court, which were primarily black and white with an almost fetishistic bent, all straps and leather belts and those of the characters in the forest, where more colors were employed. The characters that were native to the forest as opposed to those who had fled there, seem to have foliage growing out of the their costumes. The stand out scene in this play was the wrastling match between Charles and Orlando (pictured above). Director Tarah Flanagan’s idea to stage it as a slow motion action movie fist fight is brilliantly comic and the fight choreography by Benjamin Boucvalt milks the idea for every conceivable laugh and it’s expertly executed by Christopher Gerson and Chauncy Thomas. Boucvalt also gives a small but wonderfully broad comic performance as Audrey, a goatherd that Touchstone plans to marry.
The final play was about 400 years newer than the previous ones. Imbroglio as I stated early is having it’s world premiere at GRSF and was written and directed by Melissa Maxwell. The first rule of Imbroglio is, you do not talk about Imbroglio. At least you don’t until after everyone in earshot has seen it. Then all you can do is talk about it, it must have gotten my wife and I half way back to the cities discussing it. The cast was uniformly great, there’s no one to single out they all find the humor where they can and play the drama full on. This was the one play with what we traditionally think of as a set, in this case the living room of a house. It’s well designed by Ivy Treccani, I was caught off guard by a wall that is raised and lowered from the fly tower to show us the bedroom of the home. If you could only make it to Winona due to your busy summer schedule for one play, make it Imbroglio. I can’t tell you why specifically but I can tell you it’s original, engaging, and will have you discussing it long after you’ve left the theater. If you’re lucky you may run into Melissa Maxwell after the show and get some additional background on the plays genesis and structure. Our group was able to speak with her a couple of times during our weekend and the added glimpse into the creative process was fascinating.
GRSF runs through 7/30/2023 so there are still three weekends left to make it to Winona. We drove down Saturday morning and caught the Saturday matinee and evening performance and the Sunday matinee. Next year I plan to spend two nights in Winona, we got to see all three plays but we didn’t get to see much of Winona. From what we did see, I knew I wanted to see more next time. There’s a lovely downtown, unfortunately other than a few eateries and two shops, it’s basically closed on Sundays. So do your shopping on Saturday and your hiking and sightseeing on Sunday. Also when you look to planning your trip check out what other activities they have going on with GRSF and the town in general, maybe it makes sense to take Friday off and head down thursday evening after work or stay over until Monday, lots to do, make the most of it. For more information and to book your tickets to any and all of the plays go to https://www.grsf.org/. If you can’t make it this year, mark your calendars for next year, and if you are like me and glad to have some guides to show you the ropes the first year, as soon as I’m booked for next year I’ll post when I’ll be attending and will be happy to connect with any of you and show you what I learned on my summer vacation to the Great River Shakespeare Festival.
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