The Name Jar at Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins a Collaboration With Theater Mu

The Name Jar a 45 minute play is an adaptation of the book by Yangsook Choi by Susan H. Pak and Directed by Jake Sung-Guk Sullivan running at Stages Theatre Company through April 14th. The production is done in Collaboration with Theater Mu which is one of my favorite Theatre companies. One of the things I love about Theater Mu is that aside from always putting on quality productions I almost always learn something new about various Asian cultures. Sometimes it is as intricate as learning about a war I knew nothing about, other times as simple as how to pronounce a word. I love what the two companies have done with this production geared towards people age five and up; however, the up doesn’t mean 14 or 17 it means 101+. The message here is simple enough for school age children to understand but universal enough for anyone to learn from. It’s short, energetic, and yes geared towards children, but did I mention it’s short? Two hours of a showed geared towards five years old, without having a five year old with me would be rough. But I attended this on my own at 45 minutes I found if engaging and full of heart and I felt I gained knowledge and understanding.

The plot follows Unhei, a young girl who has just moved to the United states from Korea, as she attends her first day at school. None of the other children can pronounce her name and she starts to wonder if she should pick out an American name to go by at school. This is a difficult decision, in her family and indeed her culture, names are very important. It’s important to note that her classmates are not intentionally mean or tease her about her name. But, the enthusiastically grasp onto the idea of her picking a new name and create the name jar of the title into which they place suggestions of what she can call herself. We see how not Unhei feels different from the others and understand her natural instinct to try and change to fit in with her classmates. We also gain an understanding through her interactions with her Umma (Mom), Mr. Kim the Korean Grocery store owner, and her Halmoni (Grandma) about the ways in which a name differs in Korean culture from those of the average midwestern family. Director Sullivan does a great job keeping the play moving and of engaging the audience through some mild interaction. Encouraging the audience say Korean words and names along with the characters involves us in the story but also in the learning, we don’t simply let things wash over us we actively engage. Technically the show has subtle but effective use of projections, the scenic design by Sarah Brandner is versatile and well suited and more elaborate than I expected for the studio space. There’s also nice work done by Lighting Designer Alice Endo and Sound Designer Gretchen Katt in helping to create the locales and make for effective transitions.

The Name Jar is running through April 14th at Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.stagestheatre.org/name-jar/

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The Hatmaker’s Wife From Ten Thousand Things

Kimberly Richardson, Jim Lichtscheidl, Michelle De Joya, and Clay Man Soo. Photo by Tom Wallace

The Hatmaker’s Wife is only my second show from acclaimed theater company Ten Thousand Things and they are quickly becoming one of my favorite Theater Companies. Performed in the round with minimal sets, props and costumes, basically whatever they can fit in a Van, the focus on connection with the audience. The lights are on the only concession to creating mood or atmosphere is the accompaniment of live music, the focus is on the story and the performers skills in communicating it. One of the goals of this company is to provide access to theater to those who would not ordinarily have it. Part of the reason for the way they stage their shows is so they can travel with them and perform anywhere. Their schedule is divided into traveling dates out in the community which are free of charge and then two Thursday thru Sunday Weekends and two Minneapolis location which are paid admission, which help to fun the free performances. It’s a beautiful mission and it aligns perfectly with that of The Stages of MN, which is to create new theatergoing audiences. There are two steps to accomplishing that goal, the first is to get people who don’t make theatergoing a regular part of their lives into a seat at a performance. The second is to present something that will make them want to see another show. Ten Thousand Things does both of these steps incredibly well.

The Hatmaker’s Wife is at once complex and simple. Like a fairytale for adults with a straight forward message, but told through jumps backward and forward in time. The narrative technique does not confuse the audience but enriches the story adding layers of meaning and emotion in what is otherwise on the surface mainly comedic. This blend creates an entertaining work that has an emotional resonance by the end beyond what one expects given the humorous tone of the play. This is a story not of our world, but one very similar. Voice played by Michelle De Joya moves into a rental house with her boyfriend Gabe played by Clay Man Soo only to discover that the Wall, who is played by Tyson Forbes, has a story to share with her. Feeding her pages that flashback to the story of Hetchman, the Hatmaker of the title, and his Wife, who are played by the wonderfully physical comedic actors Jim Lichtscheidl and Kimberly Richardson. Hetchman loves his hat more than anything else in the world, his wife longs for a hat of her own, but Hetchman does not provide her with one. One day his hat goes missing and Hetchman is sad, next his wife goes missing and Hetchman is sad that his hat is still missing. His neighbor and best friend Meckel, played by Pedro Bayon, tries to help Hetchman to find his wife and convince him that she is the more important of the two things that have gone missing from his life. It’s a story that uses fantastical ideas to remind us of what is really important and how we can lose sight of that at times in our lives.

To engage an audience fully and tell a story without the usual trappings of lighting and sets means you have to have the best material and talent. The Hatmaker’s Wife Written by Lauren Yee is a wonderful script and the direction by Joel Sass displays that has a perfect understanding of the material and how to bring it to life. You couldn’t ask for better casting than Jim Lichtscheidl and Kimberly Richardson. They open the play with a nearly, perhaps entirely, wordless scene that relies on the their gifts as physical performers, of which they are among the very top in the Twin Cities. I have noted and wondered at their talents in Physical Comedy in past performances, Lichtscheidl recently in Dinner For One at Jungle Theater and Richardson so memorably in The Red Shoes at Open Eye Theatre, which impressed me so much I went back a second time. For them alone the show is worth seeing, everyone else is gravy on top, but it’s a rich and flavorful gravy that brings out all the nuances of the play. Tyson Forbes along with playing Wall, which magically talks, also plays Golem a symbolic creature from Jewish folklore is a costume designed by Sonya Berlovitz. Forbes does nice work covered in a massive costume without a face giving the Golem a personality and presence through movement and body language alone.

The Hatmaker’s Wife is a thoroughly entertaining and magical night at the theater with a superb cast performing a work that feels timeless in the way a fairytale does. It runs through March 17th at various locations, for more information, performance locations and to purchase tickets go to https://tenthousandthings.org/our-season/hatmakers-wife/

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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.

Little House on the Prairie at Lakeshore Players

Little House on the Prairie is a musical for those who grew up with the classic TV series and/or read the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder on which it was based. I grew up with both and as such I had a an affection for the material that helped me over some of the hurdles non fans might experience. It isn’t a great musical, but the cast and crew of Lakeshore Players Theatre do a nice job with their production. Newcomers to the story might find it a little hard going but those familiar and fond of Laura’s story will find enough to see them through. Based on the books by Wilder, the musical follows Laura Ingalls and family, Ma, Pa, her older sister Mary and her younger sister Carrie as the journey east to stake a claim in the west. The Government will give them the land if they live and farm on it for five years. As with the TV series, the family is beset by one tragedy after another. The first year is an especially brutal winter and the supply trains can not get through. The second year the crops are all burned up in a wildfire. Add to this, Laura’s sister Mary contracts Scarlet Fever and goes blind. Any fan of the TV series knows that if something can go wrong in pioneer days, it will happen to the Ingalls. But as with the series the focus of the musical is overcoming adversity and the grace and faith in each other with which the Ingalls family persevere.

The musical has a book by Rachel Sheinkin music by Rachel Portman and Lyrics by Donna Di Novelli and premiered at the Guthrie Theater in 2008 featuring the star of the TV series Melissa Gilbert in the role of Ma. This production is directed by Kristin N. Fox with choreography by Ruby Carlson and musical direction by Jack Johnston. The team does a nice job with the the exception of a few odd choices, one of which was at the end of a town fourth of July celebration dance, although rather short, the cast ends in a pose as if they’ve just wowed us with some really tricky footwork. It leads you to expect it’s time for intermission but it isn’t. It’s a bizarre choice that breaks the fourth wall which stuck out to both myself and my companion. The set design by Brandt Roberts makes versatile use of several section of a wood structure that can be rearranged in different configurations to create the different settings, from the Ingalls family house to Oleson’s store, and the schoolroom among others. For needing to be wheeled on and off continuously throughout the production the transitions were surprisingly smooth and quickly accomplished.

The cast has some stand outs both Kate Piering as Laura and Bridget Benson as Mary are very good vocally, their duet on “I’ll Be Your Eyes” was beautifully done and for me quite an emotional moment. Piering has the unenviable task in the first half of the play of being a twentysomething (I’m guessing) playing a younger girl in her early teens. It’s a tricky performance to pull off without grating on the audience and I thought she avoided the usual performance landmines and kept the audience on her side. Other standouts for me were James Lane as Pa who embodies the same characteristics that we came to know and love in the character on TV decades ago. Lane captures the wisdom and decency of the character and also proves to be a strong singer. Malea Hanson is very fun as Laura’s nemesis Nellie Oleson, particularly in her solo song “Without An Enemy” in which she laments the fact that Laura has gone away to be a teacher in another town. She is also great in a nonverbal scene towards the end at a wedding in which she stays in character even when no one is supposed to have eyes on her, always a sign of an actor who has committed to a role.

Little House on the Prairie runs through February 10th at Lakeshore Players Theatre in White Bear Lake. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.lakeshoreplayers.org/little-house-on-the-prairie