After years of planning on the part of some members of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers and much practicing, we’ve officially gone live with our new podcast, Twin Cities Theater Chat. Before I forget, here is the link to our podcasts homepage https://bit.ly/TwinCitiesTheaterChatPodcast from there you can listen to our first two official episodes as well as two bonus bits of audio fun, which I’ll explain. But first, let me tell you about those official episodes, what they are and what they’ll be.
Twin Cities Theater Chat is going to consist of two different formats. The first will be a short form weekly podcast called TCTC Recommends. In those episodes, members of the TCTB community will gather and tell you what we each think is the show you should see that week. We’ll wrap up those episodes by letting you know what show we’re looking forward to the most. The first of those episodes has posted and it’s labeled TCTC Recs 6/5/23.
The second type will be a longer form, bi-weekly episode. The subject of these longer episodes will vary from episode to episode. Some will be interviews with a particular person, others will be discussions on a certain topic, we may focus on an upcoming production or a festival. We intend to explore theater from as many different perspectives and angles as we can. We’ve also published the first of those episodes and it’s an interview with the Artistic Director and co-founder of Theater Latte Da, Peter Rothstein, conducted by m’colleague Jill Schafer of Cherry and Spoon and Carol Jackson of http://www.mntheaterlove.com/
Now for those extra little bonuses, we have the audio from a Talk-Back that I moderated on behalf of the TCTB out at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. I spoke with the Director and stars of The Prom after a matinee performance on March 4th. The audio isn’t fantastic but our Producer, miracle worker, and driving force Carol Jackson has worked some magic and I think you’ll find it worth your time. It won’t be the same as being there in the room, that frankly was the highlight of my blogging career, to share the stage with those wonderful artists and to engage with the audience it what were truly meaningful ways. It’s almost a shame that was my first time hosting one of those, as I doubt I’ll ever top it. The second bonus is a test version we did a couple of weeks ago on the TCTC Recommends, it’s short and we do mention a few things that are still running so may be worth your time too.
At launch, the podcast has gone out to several of the most popular podcast listening apps, and more will be added over the next week or so. If July rolls around and it still isn’t available where you listen to podcasts, drop me a line and we’ll look into what we can do to get it on whatever site it isn’t hitting. You can always go to the host page and listen to episodes and follow me on facebook at @thestagesofmnand the TCTB on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers where we’ll post links to the latest episodes.
Some of the TCTB members at The Prom, but by no means all of them!!
Jay Owen Eisenberg (front), Stephanie Anne Bertumen, Dustin Bronson, Vinecia Coleman (back) ; at Hamline University; Photo by Lauren B. Photography
The Courtroom: A Reenactment of One Woman’s Deportation Proceedings is being presented by Jungle Theater in two locations. The first group of performances is taking place in a mock courtroom on the campus of Hamline University in St. Paul. This is where I saw it and unfortunately, it has sold out the remainder of that run already. It will transfer to the Jungle Theater on June 13th and run there through July 2nd. This was one of the best uses of a nontraditional performance space that I have been witness to. The play is simplicity itself. We are witness to reenactments of the actual transcripts from three hearings held in the deportation proceedings of Elizabeth Keathley. There are no dramatic monologues, no gnashing of teeth or howling at the injustices of the judicial system. The actors are matter of fact and it becomes increasingly easy to lose sight of the proceedings as performance and view what you are experiencing as a real hearing. Which is deceptively hard to actually pull off and what makes the event so unique and engrossing.
Elizabeth married John Keathley, a U.S. Citizen in July of 2003 in the Philippines where she had lived her entire life. In May of 2004 she moved to the U.S. on a Visa and in November 2004 she went to the DMV to get a State ID and inadvertently registered to vote in the state of Illinois. She received a voter registration card and in November of 2006 she votes in an election assuming it’s legal for her to do so since the State had sent her a card in the mail. The result is that the Department of Homeland Security denies her application to become a citizen and she is classified as deportable. What we witness are the various hearings that will determine the future of Elizabeth Keathley, mother of one daughter with John and stepmother of his daughter from a previous marriage. What is at stake is dramatic, but the presentation is understated in such a way that it draws you in without realizing it. Like when a teacher begins talking really softly but it has the same effect as yelling. It’s not monotone or devoid of emotion, it’s devoid of what we think of as acting, it feels real, which is a credit to all of the actors involved.
The only actor that really gets to do much in the way of emoting is Stephanie Anne Bertumen as Elizabeth Keathley. She has some moments when she needs to compose herself, but as with every aspect of performance in The Courtroom: A Reenactment of One Woman’s Deportation Proceedings, it’s indistinguishable from real life, so naturalistic and subtle. Dustin Bronson plays John Keathley and he’s making something of a name for himself playing characters that abhor being the center of attention. Like his character in Jungle Theater’s Georgiana & Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley last winter John is clearly ill at ease. Whereas then he turned that discomfort into comic gold, here it’s done in such a way that rather than laugh at him, we are won over to him, and becomes a person, not just a character, to entertain us. All of the judges and attorneys are equally grounded, there isn’t a false moment from anyone in the show. If you’ve ever had the chance to observe a actual hearing like this you’ll agree this feels like you’ve stumbled into an actual court hearing. The cast is rounded out by Vinecia Coleman, Alison Edwards, Jay Owen Eisenberg, Melanie Wehrmacher, Charlene Holm and in the performance I saw Understudy Megan Kim. The performance ends with the audience taking on the role of those about to be sworn in as new U.S. citizens. The judge for this portion will change between real local judges playing themselves and Lily Tung Crystal. For the performance I was at, we were given the oath by the Honorable Judge John Docherty. His remarks to the us as new Citizen’s are beautifully worded and express the ideals of our country. I wish his beliefs were those of all my fellow Americans, they echo my own, and they are a good reminder of what we as a country are meant to be.
The Courtroom: A Reenactment of One Woman’s Deportation Proceedings is directed by James Rodriguez. Rodriguez’s choice to present it as if it was the actual hearings is absolutely the right approach. Choosing not to dramatize but simply present, reinforces our empathy. We identify with the character precisely because they do not feel like characters. This is a true story, one that lays bare all of the idiocy of Government bureaucracy. Where we see how the laws that exist can be followed to the letter and create grave injustices. It’s a reminder that sometimes there can be no justice so long as rules and laws are absolute. I was completely under the spell of this production, I was on the edge of my seat throughout, and you will be as well as long as you take the precaution not to read through the program ahead of time or during intermission. It’s safe to read the cast bios and Directors note, but stay away from the rest until after the curtain call.
I urge everyone to avail themselves of this unique theater experience. This is theater with a social conscience brought down to the most human level possible. One story reveals so much about our world, it’s flaws, it’s realities, it’s small victories and it’s quiet devestations. It also reveals our ideals and our potential. As I mentioned the run at Hamline University has sold out. I have seen photos of the set and space at the Jungle Theater and I feel like it will give you enough of that courtroom reality along with the fine work of the cast to pull you into Elizabeth Keathley’s world. The Courtroom: A Reenactment of One Woman’s Deportation Proceedings runs through July 2nd, for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.jungletheater.org/the-courtroom
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.
I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), here 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 have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres or our Pajama Party with the TCTB on May 4th at Artistry in Bloomington.
I am thrilled to finally share with you, faithful theater fans, the new podcast from the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers called Twin Cities Theater Chat!! Here is the link to our podcast homepage https://bit.ly/TwinCitiesTheaterChatPodcast We have our first bi-weekly longer form episodes that will focus on interviews and discussions around theater topics. There is also the first of our weekly shorter episodes in which we Bloggers tell you what we think you should get out and see, what we have on our schedules, and what we’re most looking forward too. Click on the link to listen, like, and subscribe. The podcast is slowly propagating out to the various podcast apps. If you don’t see it where you usually go for podcasts keep checking back we are confident that it will be available in most places within the next week or so.
Armando Ronconi, Myia Ann Butler, Elijah Leer, Eric Sargent, Mitchell Dallman, Kyle Baker Photo by Old Log Theatre 2023
Million Dollar Quartet: The Musical is a musical that takes place on December 4th 1956 at the Sun Records Studio. It’s based on an actual event when Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash all happened to be in the same place at the same time and ended up jamming together. The session was caught on tape and has been released in various formations beginning in 1981. In total there were 46 tracks, though most are incomplete songs, in total in runs a little under one hour and 20 minutes. It’s an interesting and historical moment in rock and roll history to be sure. Wisely, the authors of the musical, Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux, use it as an incident to build a story around. Rather than utilizing the songs that were actually apart of that recorded jam session, they’ve sprinkled the show with a mixture of the four legends hits. The story such as it is, is threadbare and contrived and if you came to this show for a gritty behind the music drama about the early days in the music business, you’d be sorely disappointed. But, that is not the reason you should be attending Million Dollar Quartet: The Musical. The reason to venture out to the wild west of Excelsior to the Old Log theatre is the music. If you go with that in mind, you’re going to have a great time.
The show really comes down to the performers who are actually playing their own instruments. The star of the real recording session, according to Johnny Cash, was Elvis but in this production the performer that steals the show is Elijah Leer as Jerry Lee Lewis. Leer has Lewis’s flairtastic piano moves down, he stands to play, he sits to play, he plays while sitting on top of the piano. He also does a great job of mimicking Lewis’s unique vocal qualities. He goes for broke, which you need to do when playing Lewis, and it pays off. The second scene stealer comes from an unexpected corner, the character is Dyanne played by Myia Ann Butler. She is a stand in for Elvis’ girlfriend at the time Marilyn Evans who was a dancer. Dyanne on the other hand is a singer, which allows Butler to give us a fantastic rendition of the Peggy Lee song “Fever“. The character isn’t there for any reason other than Elvis had a girlfriend with him, but they don’t add any unnecessary jealous drama, instead she’s there to add a little class, some sex appeal, and give some stellar vocal performances. Mitchell Dallman plays Carl Perkins, the real life singer I’m least familiar, but he gives a good performance and sounds great rocking out. Eric Sargent plays Johnny Cash, he sings well in Cash’s style and is able to play the guitar in Cash’s unique style, he doesn’t look much like Cash, but what matters is the voice and he’s close enough on that count. Armando Harlow Ronconi plays Elvis Presley, he can play, he can sing, and he can dance, but there is a nagging sense watching him that he should be in Jersey Boys over at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. Elvis is so iconic that it’s almost impossible for an actor to pull off, Ronconi tries, and it isn’t a bad singing or acting performance, there’s just something that screams ‘this isn’t Elvis’ about him. That isn’t his fault, butmore a casting issue. Playing someone that iconic, there has to be some aspect of being so spot on it overrides all the other things that would pull an audience out.
The show is directed by Christine O’Grady and she does everything right. She doesn’t let us get to bogged down in the flimsy plotline revolving around various contracts. She knows that’s just the little nuggets of story we need to get to the music and doesn’t give them more of the spotlight than is necessary. I like the set design by Erik Paulson, which is the Studio with the famous photo of the Million Dollar Quartet on the soundproofing tiles. It easily flies off stage when it comes time for the finale, which is really just some talented musicians and singers giving the audience a mini concert. But hey, let’s face it, that’s why we really came. The Music Director is Kyle Baker who is also on stage playing bass as Carl’s brother, Jay Perkins and he’s actually quite funny as well.
Million Dollar Quartet: The Musical is running out at Old Log Theatre for the foreseeable future tickets are on sale through February 17th 2024 at this time. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://oldlog.com/Shows/Million-Dollar-Quartet.
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.
I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), here 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 have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres or our Pajama Party with the TCTB on May 4th at Artistry in Bloomington.
Launching this week is a brand new podcast from the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers called Twin Cities Theater Chat!! Be sure to watch the Stages of MN Facebook page and the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers page for the first episodes.
Chroma is billed as a color spectrum anthologyshow, it is a mixture of artistic mediums, film, movement, music, and a lot of puppetry. It’s not the type of show that really lends itself to a full review, it’s better to give a hint of what you’ll experience and who will best enjoy it. The show is structured into nine seperate segments, each using a color of the visual spectrum as it’s title. Two of the segments are bookends to the show as a whole, they are titled Black and White. It’s a very abstract section that seems to be exploring first the absence of color. I thought of what I was seeing as a black hole that was sucking all the colors that were presented into it, leaving only black. At the end, White seemed to be the release of all the colors back into the universe, at least that was story my mind filled in. The other segments are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. My two favorites were Red and Violet. Red, though I have no idea what the message was, it had a beauty to the movement that was wholly engaging. Violet, which was a dance duel using draperies, was visually eloquent and well choreographed by the writer of the piece, Dylan Kostman.
Every one of the segments had something interesting about it. I think the best way to approach the show is to get less hung up on finding meaning in each color, but to look for what connects or impresses you about each segment. Orange was a really beautiful puppet show about a Scarecrow. Yellow is a short film about a child’s memory. Green was another puppet story that was a little harder to relate to but had some really interesting movements. Blue is basically a live puppet show to a picture story book, which is being read to the audience about a crab and a huron, featuring some really well constructed puppets. Indigo was a shadow puppet show, that didn’t necessarily succeed on the story level but I found the visuals in sync with the music to be really creative. Which is a great example of how to approach each color, don’t get hung up on whether a certain aspect is working, look at the whole and zero in on what grabs you. I really enjoyed the music throughout. Before the show opened they play a lot of pop songs that have colors in them i.e. Yellow Submarine and Mr. Blue sky. Then throughout the show there was music created for them by Steven Zubich, Mahmoud Hakima, and Rhiannon Fiskradatz, all of it really well suited to the mood of each scene.
I think the show would be most enjoyed by families with kids who are into doing art projects and imaginative play. Phantom Chorus Theatre Presents Chroma: a Color Anthology Show runs through June 11th at Dreamland Arts in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://phantomchorus.com/
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.
I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), here 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 have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres or our Pajama Party with the TCTB on May 4th at Artistry in Bloomington.
Launching this week is a brand new podcast from the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers called Twin Cities Theater Chat!! Be sure to watch the Stages of MN Facebook page and the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers page for the first episodes.
Pictured: Noah Hynick, Kendall Kent Photo by Molly Weibel
The picture above is the view from the front row where I am seated for Lyric Arts production of Our Town by Thorton Wilder. It’s about an hour before the scene displayed in the photo, in just a few minutes the show will begin. Behind me is a theatre full of folks as different from one another as any group of people, and yet in many ways we are all the same. We all have hopes and dreams, have experienced love and loss. Just like the characters in the play, who in the specific details are different from you and I. But, in the non-specific, even though they live in a time over 100 years ago, they are surprisingly like us. Off to the side is an actor I recognize, Rick Wyman, in a few minutes he will get up and participate in the production. A few rows back is m’colleague Jill who writes Cherry and Spoon, she will not be joining the actors on stage. In the specific different, but they’re both here because they love theater and in that way, are similar. In the lobby the smell of popcorn grabs you as soon as you walk in the door. Is there anything more enticing that the smell of freshly popped corn? I think not. So of course I have succumbed to the aroma and am settled in next to my wife with popcorn and a diet coke to see what I’m told is the most frequently produced American play, not just in the U.S., but in the world. It’s the play you’ve seen performed in countless TV shows and movies, every school district has performed it, it’s nearly impossible to avoid it in some form or other. For me it has always been the other, aware of its existence thanks to references in pop culture from Father Knows Best, The Wonder Years, and the X-Files. Like Rick, Jill, and I love theater, how is it that this is my first exposure to the actual play itself? Another production just closed at Open Window Theatre the opposite side of the Twin Cities in Inver Grove Heights. I chose Lyric Arts to experience Our Town for the first time, I have a fondness for this theatre that we discovered the weekend my wife and I got engaged. Quiet now, It’s 7:30pm. The Stage Manager has taken to the stage to announce the cast and prepare us, the play is about to begin, or has it already?
Some time has passed, it’s now about 10:00pm. We have spent most of that time in a little town called Grover’s Corners. In those two and a half hours, we’ve seen the town and a sampling of its people through twelve years, from 1901 to 1913. We’ve learned about the town, it’s geography, geology, and it’s genealogy. We have met many residents of the town to be sure, but our focus has been drawn to the Gibbs and the Webb families. I recently read that all theater is about life and by extension death. Our Town would seem to be the perfect play to support that thesis. It’s divided into three acts, Act I: Daily Life, Act II: Love and Marriage, and Act III: Death and Eternity. The most moving and beautiful human emotions are our response to love and death. Watching people give themselves over heart and soul to another person is one of the most joyful things in the world, watching them grieve for a loved one is one of the most sorrowful. When a production finds the emotional truth in either of those events it connects and results in an emotional response from the audience. I spent most of the second and third Acts with wet cheeks. The cast and crew of this production of Our Town, nailed it.
I have no frame of reference to judge this production by, it’s what I expected, and it isn’t. I knew there would be a narrator, I thought it would be old fashioned, it did premiere in 1938 after all. Thornton Wilder won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for this play, one of three he won over the course of his career. My previous exposure to Wilder was for writing the first draft of the Alfred Hitchcock film, Shadow of a Doubt, which is about what happens when a malevolent force comes to a small town such as Grover’s Corners. Here Wilder allows the drama of life and death to unfold without an antagonist other than nature and life itself. He shows us a small town that could be any small town in the world, for most audiences Our Town becomes synonymous with my town by the end of the play. Thornton gives us details including dates that set the era but they all fade into the background because he wisely makes the character interactions universal. They’re not bogged down in current events or other things that might date them. They come from relationships between the characters: parent and child, husband and wife, young men and women. It’s amazing as one takes it in how little has changed in those dynamics over the 85 years since the play was written. Or perhaps it was the Directors and performers and the way they staged and performed the show. Either way, this doesn’t feel like a show that was written in the 1930’s.
The show is directed by Scott Ford, there is a decidedly minimalist approach to the productions design which is fine. The character of the Stage Manager makes no pretense that this isn’t a play. We have some chairs and tables that move about depending on where a scene is set. Ford emphasizes the meta vibe of the play and yet effectively creates a sense of reality in the firmly artificial setting. It’s the simplicity of the setting that allows us access to the characters souls. Ford lets the play speak for itself, his stylistic choices never distract from the characters emotional truth. Even the beautifully evocative dance that two ensemble actors Andrew Newman and Rae Wasson perform in the background while the young man and woman who will marry in Act II begin to fall in love doesn’t pull us out of, but rather deepens our connection to the underlying emotions of the scenes. A mention here of the music, Ben Emory Larson has composed a score for the play which is perfectly in synch with the tone of the production. Featured in the musicians is Jenny Liang who plays an instrument called an erhu, sometimes referred to as the “Chinese Violin”, has an amazing sound that seems to carry the souls of the characters along on it’s notes.
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.
I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), here 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 have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres or our Pajama Party with the TCTB on May 4th at Artistry in Bloomington. Launching this week is a brand new podcast from the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers called Twin Cities Theater Chat!! Be sure to watch the Stages of MN Facebook page and the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers page for the first episodes.
Hypnic Jerk Theatre and Theatre in the Round Players (TRP) co-production of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit by Margaret Edson. Wit is a wonderfully layered drama that contains a surprising amount of humor for a play about a woman dying of cancer. TRP has become the theatre that can do no wrong this season and Wit continues that streak. A one act play that runs without intermission featuring a powerhouse performance by Joy Donley who, if memory serves, doesn’t get a moment offstage in the nearly two hour runtime.
Telling the story of Dr. Vivian Bearing, a professor of 17th century poetry whose expertise is in the metaphysical poetry of John Donne, is diagnosed with stage IV metastatic ovarian cancer. Bearing begins the play by addressing the audience directly, breaking the fourth wall or since this is Theatre in the Round, breaking walls one through four. The character will transition fluidly throughout the play from being in a scene to addressing us directly. Bearing knows she’s in a play but that distance doesn’t shield her from the ravages of cancer. We the audience know we’re watching a play but that doesn’t shield us from investing our emotions completely. Bearing introduces herself and explains that the next two hours will tell her story from diagnosis to death. She then steps directly into her office visit with Dr. Kelekian who explains her cancer to her and offers an experimental treatment that will consist on eight rounds of full dose Chemotherapy. We will follow Bearing through her treatments and into the past, as flashbacks to a childhood conversation with her father, a conversation as a student with her mentor, and interactions with her own students. All of which inform the person she has become while allowing her to reflect on her life and behavior. Not content to simply tell Bearings story, Edson fleshes out her play with the doctors and nurses whose behaviors allow her to draw parallels and contrasts with Bearing. The single minded research driven Dr. Jason Posen, a former student, is a reflection of her own intelligence but also her emotional distance. The nurse, Susie, is a reminder that there are more ways to measure intelligence than academics, there is an emotional intelligence that is also vital to the human condition.
Vivian Bearing must be one of those roles that actors dream of getting the chance to tackle. She’s a fascinating character, fiercely intelligent but also flawed, a woman who has sublimated her emotional life to that of her life’s work, only to arrive at the end alone and scared. Joy Donley turns in a masterful performance effortlessly projecting the intelligence of Bearing. Throughout the play she discusses Donne’s poems and other aspects of literature and academia. I could barely follow any of it but Donely seemed ready to conduct a lecture on the topic. What Donely does to imbue her character with all of the expertise and at times, arrogance that comes from being the expert. That intelligence isn’t just present in the scholarly moments, it’s present in every side to the audience, in her self reflection, and in her interactions with the other performers. The humor, of which there is a surprising amount, is so effective because it is backed by and flows from that intelligence, we believe her wit. And that is only one aspect of her performance. She spends the entire play deteriorating from cancer, and it’s heartbreaking to see this fortress of thought and perseverance becoming muddled and weak. It’s astonishing, given the fact that she addresses us directly by clearly acknowledging that she is a performer and we are an audience, how authentic every moment of her performance feels.
Donley is the reason to see this show, that and the Pulitzer Prize winning script of course. But, I have to say her supporting cast from the four larger supporting roles to the four actors playing the Lab Techs, Students, Residents are really strong. Those ensemble players are Alex Church, Luke Peterson, Ben Qualley, and Kelly Solberg. They wonderfully capture things as tiny as the indifference of the person who wheels you from your hospital bed to the room they’ll be giving you chemo in. Brian P. Joyce is wonderful as both Dr. Kelekian and Vivian’s father in a flashback. Meri Golden plays Vivian’s mentor E.M. Ashford both as a flashback and in a visit to her hospital room towards the end. Golden understands that Ashford is a variant of the type of person Vivian Bearing. In the flashback she is much as Bearing herself is with her own students, as an older woman, she is what Vivian might have been if she had married and lived longer. In the hospital room, she knows to play her as unsure of how to comfort Vivian, but as someone who has learned how to try. She climbs into bed with Vivian and reads to her, uncertainty is there but also compassion. Dominic DeLong-Rodgers is Dr. Posner and Gillian Constable is the nurse Susie, they are both fantastic, it’s too simplistic to say they are representations of intellect and emotions, the performances are more nuanced than that. I’d happily follow those two characters as played by DeLong-Rodgers and Constable through to another play.
Wit is directed by Kari Steinbach who clearly knows how to stage a show in the round. At times it feels like an episode of E.R., the characters whisking around the hospital. Steinbach’s blocking of the piece adds a frenetic energy at times and at others she slows everything down to let a moment land and sink in. It’s always fluid, flowing at just the right pace from scene to scene form the present to the past. I don’t usually comment on the stage management, but in this case I want to acknowledge the work of Katie Sondrol who makes that fluidity possible by the efficient removal and placement of various set pieces in a show that never stops moving forward. Kudos to Set and Costume Designer Robert L. Graff, Lighting and Sound Designer Shannon Elliot, and Prop Designer Andrew Blake Stam for making this production look and sound amazing.
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. Also you can follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.
I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), 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 have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Pajama Party at Artistry and our Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th. If you didn’t make it to that event there’s still time to see the The Prom at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres (CDT) thru June 10th . You can view the TCTB Talk Back that we held on March 4th with the CDT Artistic Director and three of the stars of The Prom here https://bit.ly/promtalkback
Open Flame Theatre is an all-transgender/gender non-conforming theatre ensemble that has been in existence in some form or other since 2009, but I had never heard of them. Faithful readers will know that the information contained within that first sentence made this a must see for me. With a transgender son, I am always interested in plays representing transgender themes and storylines or feature transgender artists, either on or backstage. I also love finding “new to me” theater companies, it’s a wild card you never know what you’re walking into, amatuer hour or a new favorite. Open Flame Theatre falls squarely in the “new favorite” camp. Their new opera The Garden, is visually captivating and beautifully performed. With a text that is thematically rich, it’s at times very dark, at others quite humorous and ultimately wonderfully uplifting. Do not let the word “opera” scare you, if the press release didn’t state it was an opera, I wouldn’t have used those words to describe it. So if “opera” is triggering for you, rest assured this is not what you’re afraid of. There’s singing, but it’s all clearly understood, in English, and it seemed to me there was as much dialogue as there was singing, if not more. There’s even a song by Queen in it, you don’t need to be worried about the use of music in this piece
The Garden is Part Two of the companies Rewilding Triptych, but again do not worry, the parts are only linked thematically. They’re independant works that don’t rely in anyway on even the knowledge of the existence of the other parts. Created and written by co-Artistic Directors Katie Burgess and Walken Schweigert who also play the main characters. Schweigert is also created as one of the Composers of the songs along with among others Ludwig Van Beethoven and Queen. Schweigert plays Hayden a young trans man who is being subjected to conversion therapy under the care of Dr. Pannish played by Burgess. To escape, Hayden opens a portal to hell where he seeks refuge with the Devil, also played by Burgess. Ok, that part sounds a little like an opera, but trust me. The story follows Hayden back and forth between the hospital and hell and it’s left up to you to determine for yourself if these transportations are literally happening or if it’s in Hayden’s mind that the battle for his soul and identity is taking place. The answer to that question isn’t really important, the result of that battle is what matters. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I always understood everything that was happening in every moment, but rather than being a detriment to my enjoyment, it only made me want to see it again.
Schweigart has an exceptionally powerful vocal quality that is evident from his first moments singing in the hospital, it just about carries you up and out of the theatre towards heaven near the end when he sings “I Want to be Free.” Schweigart’s performance is equally captivating from a nonvocal perspective. It’s an incredibly vulnerable performance and one feels as though they have seen an actor who has laid his soul bare onstage in the service of creating understanding. Using song, movement, and performance to engender empathy within the audience. Burgess, in contrast to Schweigart’s moving and tortured character, gets to play both the Dr and the Devil as if they are two sides of a coin, the currency being chaos. Burgess begins playing Dr. Pannish straight but with an undercurrent of menace; however, as the show progresses so does her characters journey along the border between reality and absurdity. The Devil character has an almost Beetlejuice quality about her. On the surface the character is very similar to that of Satan in Paul Gordon’s rock musical Analog and Vinyl, but this character is much more detached from any sense of reality. Burgess is excellent at changing gears from moment to moment keeping you completely off balance uncertain what she’ll do next. The cast is rounded out by Dana Dailey and Sri Peck as Nuns, they don’t have much if any dialogue, but they add visually to many scenes and their absence would diminish the whole. The Infernal Orchestra is comprised of Silen Wellington on keys, synth, glockenspiel, and clarinet, and Alma Engebretson on the cello and tambourine.
The Southern Theater is the perfect setting for anything that flirts with the horror genre as the stage area with its battered stone archway, it reminds me of the ruins of Dracula’s castle in Transylvania. The look and the stageing of The Garden, under the direction of Richard Newman make full use of the environments inherent creepiness. Every aspect of the production adds up to a visually impressive whole. The production design is by Katie Burgess with Elisa Sugar, while relatively simple in terms of set pieces, it’s simplicity leads to an abundance of creativity to achieve some really effective moments. The lighting design by Heidi Eckwall is a highpoint creating menace in shadows and silhouettes and assisting in highlighting the puppet work by Orren Fen. There are many striking visual moments from the show that will stay with me long after this show has closed.
Please Note: Masks will be required to attend this performance.
Content Warning: Conversion therapy, live BDSM, sexual content, forced medication.
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. Also you can follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn.
I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), 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 have some exciting things in the works for 2023 for the TCTB and our readers. Follow us to be the first to know about those happenings like our recent Pajama Party at Artistry and our Prom Date with the TCTB that we held on March 4th. If you didn’t make it to that event there’s still time to see the The Prom at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres (CDT) thru June 10th . You can view the TCTB Talk Back that we held on March 4th with the CDT Artistic Director and three of the stars of The Prom here https://bit.ly/promtalkback
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