For a show that runs only about 75 to 80 minutes playwright Lloyd Suh packs a lot of generational trauma into a two character one location play that spans nearly two centuries. Sumptuously designed, lit and costumed, the only thing that outshines the look of this production are the performances by it’s two stars Katie Bradley and Michael Sung Ho. What begins with humor ends in grief, for the characters as well as the audience. That’s not a bad thing, it speaks to the versatility and power of the piece. It does that wonderful thing that the best theater is capable of, it creates empathy. It gives voice to the history of Asian Americans that is at once unfamiliar but also all too familiar. Open Eye Theatre earns its name with this show, it’s an eye opening experience, and one I’m grateful to have witnessed.

Throughout our history we see the way that those with a different skin color or cultural background have been treated. Using Afong Moy, a real Chinese girl sold by her father to an import company at fourteen, Suh is able to trace the history of the Chinese who came to the United States like so many others looking for a land of opportunity only to find a land of the free and the white. We are introduced to Afong Moy by her interpreter Atung, he as Moy tells us and he agrees, is irrelevant. Moy is fourteen and the first Chinese woman to immigrate to the United States. She is all wide eyed and curious and feels honored to be on display for the American people to learn about her culture. She describes her duties at the beginning of the hour sitting in a room surrounded by objects from China, she does not move or speak. At one point Atung will bring in a tray so that people can watch her eat with chopsticks and drink tea. Then she will get up and walk in a circle around the room, so those who have paid to see her can look at her feet which are tiny having been bound. Although I doubt there are many in the audience who hadn’t picked up on the implications of this existence, it isn’t until Moy cheerfully describes the process of foot binding she underwent at four years old that we really get a sense of how dark the script may get. In the beginning in 1836 at 14, Moy plays the unreliable narrator leaving us with our knowledge of history and the world to see things for what they really are. By the end in 2023 she is 201 and tells us the reality opening our eyes. Though this story is specifically that of Chinese Americans, for any BIPOC American the broad strokes will resonate and speak to their own generational trauma. Because it’s the same story over and over throughout history whether you are indigenous Americans, Black, Chinese, Japanese.

Katie Bradley as Afong Moy and Michael Sung Ho as Atung begin the show with a satirical edge and direct to the audience performances that belays the power they will both bring later in the show. Katie Bradley comes across as in control but naive at the beginning with Michael Sung Ho playing the subservient, only to later reveal he has the upper hand as she cannot speak English and so his interpretations can be whatever he wants to have her say. It’s playful at the start, but as the show progresses, so do their performances. Ho has a fiery speech where he recounts a dream and in it his true anger and fears come out, it’s a gripping moment that preludes a withdrawal and resignation to his fate as basically a slave to the Chinese Lady Show. Bradley’s transformation as all upwards from naive to passionate about what transpired between 1836 and 2023. The pain and anger are palpable, its an actor giving over her voice to a long dead woman so she can at last share her truth and her pain.

Eric Sharp makes his directorial debut with The Chinese Lady and based on this show I hope to continue seeing him direct as well as perform. The costumes designed by Matt LeFebvre are elegant and fit with the overall design work by Joel Sass (set and props) and Emma Gustafson (Wig and Makeup). I really felt that the lighting design by Kathy Maxwell added so much to the mood and tone of the show. Open eye has such a small stage area but that must lend itself to very precise and effective lighting, everything is very controlled and purposeful even the final fade to black feels like more of a statement than a show ending. The Chinese Lady runs through September 24th at Open eye Theatre in Minneapolis for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.openeyetheatre.org/

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/

I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. We also produce the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat!! which you can access through this link or wherever you enjoy podcasts https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/ . We post biweekly longer form episodes that will focus on interviews and discussions around theater topics. There is also shorter episodes in which we Bloggers tell you what we think you should get out and see as well as what we have on our schedules that we are most looking forward too.

I feel like I say this every review anymore so let me just confess right up front I’ve never seen A Chorus Line before. I haven’t even seen the film of this one. Yes, I’m aware that at one time it was the longest running show in Broadway history, and no, I have no excuse. But I would say that perhaps sometimes it’s worth the wait. Had I seen a production previously, I may have gone into this production reflecting on my memories of that production rather than with a mind that is of late, constantly struggling with the question of how theater survives in a post-covid world. With the eyes and mind I came to A Chorus Line with today I see it, perhaps not as it was originally intended in 1975, but as a reflection of the current state of theater today. I see it as a meditation on the performer, why they do it, the challenges of choosing that profession, and what you do when you can no longer do what you feel you were made to do. I don’t want to turn anyone off to this production with these thoughts, the show is very entertaining, there is fabulous dancing, some good humor, some really top notch singing and yes, some very emotional dramatic moments.

A Chorus Line book by James Kirkwood & Nicholas Dante with music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Edward Kleban is set during an audition for the Chorus line of a new Broadway musical. The initial group of 24 dancers is paired down to the final 17 of which only 8 are needed. Besides the dancers the only other characters are the Director Zach and the assistant choreographer Larry. After putting them through some steps he then asks them to tell him about themselves. The show seems designed to give the audience a chance to see beyond the sea of legs and arms and perfectly timed jazz hands to the individuals that make up a chorus line. It asks us to see beyond the entertainment to the human underneath. To remind us that what looks like a single line is made up of unique artists, each with their own lives and stories. In these times when unions are striking and the consumers of entertainment simplify their perspective on it by thinking actors are all rich and famous, it’s important to shine a light on the reality.

The show begins with 24 dancers on stage all trying to be the best and singing the opening song “I Hope I Get It”. Immediately we are reminded that this is what a working performer does, they try to get the next job so they can pay their rent and eat. When they get to the section where Zach is asking the dancers to tell him about themselves, it’s over the course of multiple songs, some about an individual dancer, while others are in montage. Once we have a glimpse of some and a deeper understanding of others, one of the dancers suffers and injury. It’s the kind of injury that could end a career and we can see it cross everyone of their faces that could be them. Now that we have achieved a level personal connection with them, we have an emotional understanding of what that could mean. After the injured dancer is taken to the hospital, Zach asks the group what would they do if they could no longer dance? It’s a question more and more dancers, singers, actors, and other artists are undoubtedly asking themselves everyday. Audiences have not returned to live theater to anywhere near the pre-covid days. Theaters are closing, that means fewer productions a year, fewer roles for performers. If you are an actor, a dancer, a singer, what would you do if you could no longer do that?

With a cast of 26, any attempt to summarize performance as a whole seems impossible. There are a few featured performers that I do think stand out from the crowd, though it may be the size of the role above talent, because in general I thought it to be a very talented cast. Kyler Chase as Zach is the one role that doesn’t require much in terms of dancing, but requires an actor who can take command of the stage at a moments notice. Chase moves in and out of the dancers in the opening and then takes to going up and down the stairs of theater, he is with the audience and we are with him, he is asking the questions that we want answers to, who are these people? what makes them dance? Jaclyn McDonald as Cassie, a former girlfriend of Zach who has realized she isn’t meant to be a star, she’s good at dancing and it’s what she loves. She has a wonderful solo number that illustrates how see feels “The Music and the Mirror”. Chris Sanchez plays Paul a young dancer who during a talk with Zach reveals how he came to dancing and his homosexuality and how he had to hide both from his family. It’s the really moving moment in the show and the one that made my eye leak a little. Sanchez earns the tears, with his vulnerable and compelling performance. Finally, a shout out to Marley Ritchie as Diana who sings the song “What I Did For Love” it’s a beautiful rendition of the song, and coupled with her dancing skills she was clearly one of the most talented of a very talented cast.

Director Scott Ford stages the location show as dynamically as he can. Having Zach come out into the audience so that it feels like his voice is coming from us was a great thematic choice as well as adding an element of variety to what is by design a very stagebound show. Lauri Kraft has done a miracle with the choreography. Lyric Arts isn’t a tiny stage, but it isn’t a huge one either and when she has 26 performers all on stage at one time dancing and the audience is able to see what they are all doing and remark at their synchronization, that’s a hell of a feat. Kraft uses the canny device of having someone who can do something special like a flip to raise the wow factor and punch up a dance routine. It’s always wise to incorporate any special techniques someone has rather than getting locked into a predetermined sequence, it always feels when you see that happen that it was done by someone who knows the value of collaboration. The Musical Director is Wesley Frye and he and his orchestra handle Marvin Hamlisch’s iconic music with the precision needed to perform all of the wonderful dance moves we see throughout. Finally a quick comment on Christy Branham’s costumes, far out!

If you are like me and have never seen A Chorus Line I highly recommend this production. Remember theater is now, theater is this moment, you can’t DVR it and watch it later, it’s what makes theater special. Everytime you put off seeing a show you miss the opportunity to experience something unique. But it’s also of the moment in the way this show feels as relevant today as it did over 45 years ago. Since I began going to the theater in ernest, this show hasn’t been performed locally, it probably will be again, but it may be five or even ten years, this might be your chance, don’t throw away your shot. A Chorus Line runs through October 1st at Lyric Arts in Downtown Anoka for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.lyricarts.org/a-chorus-line

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/

I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. We also produce the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat!! which you can access through this link or wherever you enjoy podcasts https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/ . We post biweekly longer form episodes that will focus on interviews and discussions around theater topics. There is also shorter episodes in which we Bloggers tell you what we think you should get out and see as well as what we have on our schedules that we are most looking forward too.

Much was made by me over Theatre in the Round Players perfect season last year, and well it should. In one season they went from a generally reliable if uneven community theatre, to one of the best bets in the Twin Cities Theater scene. Theater lovers should take note that they are also one of the most affordable. A perfect season is a hard act to follow, but with their first show of the 2023 – 24 season, Arsenic & Old Lace, is off to a strong start. Many will have seen productions of this show previously, it’s a staple of community theaters, colleges, and high schools. In what feels like a trend lately, I had never seen a stage production before, though I’ve seen the 1944 Frank Capra film at least a dozen times. It was a favorite of mine growing up and a love for it that I passed onto my son George who attended the opening night performance with me. We noted a few of the minor changes that were made when the play was adapted to film but were pleased with how similar the two are. At its heart this is a dark comedy that is so entertaining and funny that one completely loses sight that it’s essentially a play about serial killers.

Written in 1939 by Joseph Kesselring, Arsenic and Old Lace ran on Broadway in January 1941 and ran until June 1944. It’s the story of the Brewster Family, the elderly Aunts Abby and Martha whose kind heartedness and desire to do good deeds extends to relieving elder familyless men of their lonesome existences. They advertise rooms for rent and then establishing through the interview that the men who apply are old and alone and in their mind have nothing to live for, they dispatch them with a glass of homemade elderberry wine laced with Arsenic, Strychnine, and just a pinch of Cyanide. Their nephew Teddy, who believes himself to be Teddy Roosevelt, is told they are victims of yellow fever and he is charged with burying them in the locks he has dug in the basement for the Panama Canal. Mortimer Brewster their other nephew stops by with his new Fiance, Elaine, to tell the aunts the good news and stumbles upon what he at first assumes is the result of his brother Teddy graduating from harmless to homicidal. Mortimer decides the best course of action is to get Teddy committed ASAP in order to keep his aunts out of trouble. While he is out trying to make all the arrangements, a third brother Jonathan a ruthless and cruel killer and his accomplice Dr. Einstein strong arms his way into his childhood home and he has a body of his own to dispose of. Dr. Einstein is a plastic surgeon and has given Jonathan new faces once the police are onto him. His recent surgery made him look like Boris Karloff, this was an inside joke during the original Broadway run where the role of Jonathan was played by Boris Karloff. When Mortimer returns he tries to throw Jonathan out, but with every revelation of bodies and murderers the upper hand keeps shifting between the brothers. Things get complicated when the police get involved due to Teddy blowing his buggle in order to call for a cabinet meeting.

Cary Grant who starred in the film as Mortimer is a hard act to follow and it took Ron Ravensborg all of five minutes to make the role his own. He wisely doesn’t try and emulate Grants performance, but plays the character as written and finds his own voice for the role. The standouts performance wise are all of the actors portraying the Brewsters. Kristen C. Mathisen and Naomi Karstad play the sweet misguided aunts Abby and Martha. They have the sweetness down so perfectly that the audience really does, at least momentarily, forgive them for killing 12 men. Jared Reise plays Teddy perfectly with one caveat, I would have liked to see him really go for it everytime Teddy ascends the staircase, which to him is San Juan Hill. Lastly, in terms of Brewsters is Luke Langfeldt as Jonathan, whoever did his makeup did a fantastic job, you can see the resemblance to Karloff is achieved. I also want to mention Lucas Gerstner who plays Dr. Einstein, he actually elicits a sympathetic response from the audience as we root for him to wiggle his way out of the clutches of the police and Jonathan.

Director George M. Roesler doesn’t attempt to reenvision this classic play, he knows his audience and embraces the farcical nature of the play and succeeds with its main objective which is to entertain. Set Designer Lee Christian has once again gone above what we used to expect from Theatre in the Round Players. Creating multiple levels on the main floor and using one of the sections towards the top of the audience seating for the upper floor of the house. There is also a wonderful window seat perfect for stashing bodies in or to sit on and look out into the cemetery that lays outside the window. This design gives Roesler the opportunity to stage the action without compromising some of the classic moments, like Teddy’s charges up the stairs and Jonathan telling the Aunts who are up at the top of the stairs to go back to bed. Rebecca Karstad does a nice job with the costumes, they have a period feel and it was a nice touch dressing Langfeldt in a subtle homage to Karloff’s costume from the first two Frankenstein films.

I had a great time with Arsenic & Old Lace, I was prepared to do some debate with myself to squash any criticisms that came up from comparing it to the film, which would not have been fair. But the production didn’t need me to argue for it, it presents itself as a funny, engaging and very entertaining night at the theater. If you are a fan of the film, I think you’ll enjoy this take on it. If you are not familiar with it, I envy you a chance to see this play without any preconceived ideas. I can never see it without knowing what’s coming, but if you have someone like that in your life that wouldn’t know anything going in that’s the person to take to this wonderful production. The show runs through Oct 1st. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.theatreintheround.org/home/season-placeholder/72nd-season/arsenic/

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/

I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. We also produce the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat!! which you can access through this link or wherever you enjoy podcasts https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/ . We post biweekly longer form episodes that will focus on interviews and discussions around theater topics. There is also shorter episodes in which we Bloggers tell you what we think you should get out and see as well as what we have on our schedules that we are most looking forward too.

As faithful readers know I’m a big fan of the theater group known as the MORLS or The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society for long. Their live performances of classic as well as original radio scripts are a blast from the past. Watching the team of Shanan Custer, Joshua English Scrimshaw, Tim Uren, and Eric Webster give voice to multiple characters each while also creating all of the sound effects and music is an experience everyone should give themselves at least once in the lifetime if not twice a month, which I always try and do if I can. These are great shows for families from the school aged kids up to Grandma and Grandpa, who may actually remember hearing some of these shows on their original broadcasts. here’s what and where they are performing this month.

First up is The Mysterious Old Radio Workshop at Bryant Lake Bowl Theater on September 10th. The Doors open at 6:00 PM with the show starting at 7:00 PM. This is a great venue for these shows with the added benefit that you can order your dinner and enjoy your favorite adult of non-adult beverages while watching the show. Billed as a genre-crossing night of adventure, murder, and time-travel the program includes three stories.

“Get to the Castle, Part 1” from Grey Ghost and the Agents of Floor 10 (premiere): Eric Webster, creator of Shade’s Brigade, brings you an all-new adventure serial, Grey Ghost and the Agents of Floor 10! The first mission of the newly-formed team of agents takes them to a castle in Austria with a notorious and terrifying secret!

“The 13th Sound” from Suspense (1947): A widow is haunted by the murder of her husband. An experiment in psychology and sound from radio’s theater of thrills.

“Nikola Tesla and the Pigeon of Destiny” from Strange History (live premiere): Joshua English Scrimshaw brings you the untold and mostly untrue story of Nikola Tesla’s final confrontation with his time-traveling arch-foe, Thomas Edison!

for tickets to this performance and for more information go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mysterious-old-radio-workshop-tickets-702012376917

The second show of the month is Agatha Christie Night this time at Crooners Supper Club on September 23rd. It’s an Agatha Christie double-feature! The Society presents two audio plays by the grand dame of mystery. The first of which I saw them perform last April and it’s a winner!

“Philomel Cottage” from Suspense: When newlywed Alix finds a mysterious entry in her husband’s diary, their idyllic marriage turns suddenly sinister. A vintage tale of suspense based on one of Agatha Christie’s earliest stories.

“The Veiled Lady” from A Toast to Murder: Lady Millicent Vaughn is being blackmailed and only one man can save her – Hercule Poirot! A classic Christie tale adapted for audio by Joshua English Scrimshaw and starring Tim Uren as the great Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.

For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-mysterious-old-radio-listening-society-presents-agatha-christie-night-tickets-696218707897

You can follow the MORLS and listen to their podcast which I also highly recommend at https://www.ghoulishdelights.com/ There you can become a Patreon Subscriber like The Stages of MN. One of the many honors and benefits is that if you cannot attend one of their live shows as a supporter you can watch a video recording of the performance.

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/

I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. We also produce the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat!! which you can access through this link or wherever you enjoy podcasts https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/ . We post biweekly longer form episodes that will focus on interviews and discussions around theater topics. There is also shorter episodes in which we Bloggers tell you what we think you should get out and see as well as what we have on our schedules that we are most looking forward too.

Dark & Stormy Productions is a theater company that launched in 2012 and has, I’m assured, been producing strong productions for over a decade now. So how is it that The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is the first time I’ve ever seen one of their productions? Don’t even try and answer that, it’s an unanswerable question. Well now that we have connected, I can assure you this will not be the last. The play The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is an adaptation of the 1961 Muriel Spark novel. Written in 1966 by Jay Presson Allen it is a play that is as relevant now as it ever was. It focuses on the undue influence a charismatic figure of authority has on a group of you and impressionable girls. In an age of grooming and charismatic would be dictators, the themes explored in the play have eerie contemporary connections. Dark & Stormy’s production finds ways of highlighting those similarities without losing sight of the story it’s telling. It remains as much about the characters as it does the ideas which makes it, as a whole all the more effective.

Structured as a memory play, what we see is in the mind of Sister Helena, a Nun who is being interviewed by a journalist about a book she has written. She tells him about Miss Jean Brodie, a teacher, whom to hear her tell it is in her prime. She askews teaching in the traditional sense instead regaling her class with tales of her holiday in Italy and the great love of her life who died in the first World War. She selects four girls from her class and showers them with attention singling them out. She exclaims over and over how she is giving them all of herself at her prime, when clearly it’s all about them giving her all of themselves. The size of her ego is matched only by her ability to manipulate the naive girls in her charge with clever phrases and unique worldview. To those unaccustomed to thinking for themselves, she easily convinces them to buy into her values and follow her instructions under the guise that she is teaching them to think for themselves. At first, we can see the cracks in the in the foundation, but we can also see how attractive the attention of this “cool” teacher is to these young girls whom she makes feel special. By the time she is praising dictators and suggesting that inappropriate sexual actions are fine, it’s clear that if Donald Trump has ever read Spark’s book or seen the play or film adaptations, he may have taken some notes.

Sara Marsh who is also the Artistic Director of Dark & Stormy Productions plays the titular character with all the command and charisma the character requires. In lesser hands the sway she holds over her students, the men in her life, and the headmistress of the school might not work. You need to be able to feel the power she has as this force of nature and Marsh nails it. Her students are all played by relative newcomers all either recent graduates or students at the University of Minnesota. They are Shayla Courteau, Jennifer Donovan, Alice Wenzlow, and Cece Roth and they are all very good. Courteau has the biggest role as Sandy, the student on whom Miss Brodie feels she can always rely on. Courteau is going to be one to watch, she gets to to play different sides of Sandy as she grows the the obvious leader of the young girls, perhaps a little bit of a mean girl, to the one who sees through Brodie and begins to understand her for what she is. She’s particularly good when she reacts to the offhand slights Brodie throws around, she’s subtle while also making sure we in the audience register the hurt it causes. Katie Willer is very good as Miss MacKay, the Headmistress, her best scenes are her attempts to reason with and then eventually try and expel Brodie. Peter Christian Hansen and Alex Galick play the two love interests. Hansen uses is classical good looks and charms to full effect as the womanizing painter whose morals are atrocious but who nonetheless is able, when the time comes, to believably take the moral high ground over Brodie. Galick, the music teacher whom is completely under Brodie’s control, has a couple of nice moments of physical humor, that help to illustrate his characters subservience.

Director Allison Vincent seems to be everywhere lately and thank goodness for that. Here Vincent uses the Gremlin Theatre’s black box aesthetic as an asset in helping to create the feeling of a memory. Having the focus shift from the storyteller Sister Helena as she looks upstage into the past with the assistance of Lighting Designer Mary Shabatura. Rick Polenek’s scenic and prop designs are simple items that can be moved on and off quickly to suggest the new setting again reinforcing the notion that this is a memory and we are seeing just what is important in that memory, we don’t need to see the other dozens of school girls just the four that were the focus, just as we don’t need to see the Headmistresses entire office, her desk and two chairs and a flower on the desk are all that matters. Finally, the Sound Design by Aaron Newman also contributes to the memory idea, have voices come flooding in as the Nun begins to remember and a nice audio distortion that happens towards the end with the word assassin, which conveys the idea that that word was seared onto sister Helena’s memory.

Now maybe it sounds like it’s all a bit heavy but as I said before Vincent does a great job of making the themes and ideas present while still telling an interesting and entertaining story, there’s a lot of humor and some rather clever writing. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie runs through September 17th at The Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.darkstormy.org/current-production-1

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/

I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. Follow that group, It’s a great way to see reviews for shows I don’t get to or to get another blogger’s take on one I did. We also produce the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat!! which you can access through this link or wherever you enjoy podcasts https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/ . We post biweekly longer form episodes that will focus on interviews and discussions around theater topics. There is also weekly shorter episodes in which we Bloggers tell you what we think you should get out and see as well as what we have on our schedules that we are most looking forward too.

Generally when we talk about great acting we think of dramatic roles, something that requires a lot of emotions and an intensity that’s palpable in the back row of the theater. Well, Village Wooing is the exact opposite of that and it contains two of the best performances I’ve seen all year, maybe ever. When the play ended I turned to M’ Colleagues and said, “that’s real acting”. Staged in the space equivalent to a large living room where at any given moment I could have reached out and touched one of the two actors. It’s a light, witty, and charming romantic two person show that asks little more than a pleasant hour and change with its audience. These two actors, Anna Leverett and Ben Shaw, never for a moment break character or acknowledge our existence. There is never a sense of the actor, only the character, only the reality they are inhabiting. That kind of focus is is aided by intense emotions or dramatic interactions, to do it while maintaining the proper tone of levity and humor, is deceptively difficult.

Written by George Bernard Shaw in 1933, Village Wooing is a short 3 act play, the first act takes place on the deck of a cruise ship and is staged out of doors on a picturesque little patio on the grounds of the Germanic-American Institute on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. After a brief intermission, in which the audience is treated to complimentary summer beverages and treats, as they transition from the patio to the basement of the institute. Acts 2 and 3 take place in a village shop, the show itself runs about 65 minutes, not including the intermission. By all accounts, Shaw didn’t think much of this play when he wrote it, and it isn’t one of his that I’d ever heard of. I can only imagine Shaw’s opinion was due to not having seen it brought to life by Leverett and Shaw, and it’s lesser known status due to its short length. The length issue is solved beautifully by The Orchard Theater Collective, with the aforementioned refreshments and change of location. Ordinarily when a show running 65 minutes pulls an intermission it will result in a very vocal remonsteration, but in this case when the Brie and fancy salted caramel chocolates came out, all was forgiven.

Aside from the brilliant cast, a really engaging and witty script, and wonderful nibbles, there is a lot of other aspects to recommend this production. The preshow and interscene music is filled with timeless classics as if DJ’d by Dooley Wilson. The set for Act 1 is simply a couple of deck lounge chairs, but the basement is cleverly decorated as a village shop by Terri Ristow. The costumes in all three acts are by Jorie Kosel and capture the period nicely. The play is directed by Damian Leverett who keeps it simple and true creating something really wonderful between the two characters by not cluttering the staging up, but letting it be about the two characters. The performances as I have said are skillfully executed, living and breathing as much in the characters reactions as it is in their dialogue. This was the perfect show to close out the end of the theater season – light, witty, staged in a fun venue with delicious snacks. I highly recommend this as a tonic to the end of summer blues.

Village Wooing runs for two weekends only thru September 2nd. for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.orchardtheatercollective.org/villagewooing

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I’m really excited for the chance to see this again and wanted to make sure you faithful readers knew about it. Andrew Erskine Wheeler’s tour de force historical show is one of the best shows I saw at last years Minnesota Fringe Festival and when I ran into Andrew at the first day of this years Fringe he let me know that there was a slightly expanded remount being done later this month at Mill City Museum.

Here is the text from my review of the show from the 2022 Minnesota Fringe Festival:

Whoosh!… is… well first off, it’s The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner. Secondly, wow! What a performance by Andrew Erskine Wheeler. Portraying multiple characters throughout, each is a brilliant characterization, distinct and fully realized. It’s a story that incorporates so many different elements. The Civil War, post war, Artist Douglas Volk, it’s part ghost story, part comedic tale of an Irish immigrant and his survival going over the St. Anthony Falls. It’s so many different things yet it tells a cohesive and well structured tale. Allison Vincent does an amazing job directing the show. The timing and staging of how and when to move, pull props out, refer to visual aids, subtle changes in costume, all done brilliantly. Which brings us again to Wheeler’s performance, It is absolutely the best piece of acting I’ve see at Fringe, a true tour de force and a master class in stage acting. Saturday he has performances back to back, if you haven’t gotten to it, make sure you do. Frankly, I’m staggered by the thought of him performing twice with but 40 minutes between them, it is such a physical and intense performance it hardly seems possible.

Whoosh! Runs for August 17 – 19th For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.mnhs.org/events/772