Jill Schafer - Page 10

It's finally summer in Minnesota, and that means lakes, parks, camping, hiking, and best of all - summer theater! You can't spend every moment of the summer outdoors, because you wouldn't want to get a sunburn, and also sometimes it rains. So take a break from outdoor activities to see some great theater this summer (or watch theater outdoors!). Here are a few of your choices for summer theater playing on stages and in parks around Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding area.

Devised physical theater company Transatlantic Love Affair won an Ivey in 2012 for BALLAD OF THE PALE FISHERMAN, an original work based on the legend of the selkie, a seal who takes human form. I did not see that production, having only 'discovered' TLA shortly before their Ivey win through their Fringe show ASH LAND. I saw it at the final 'audience pick' show because it was the talk of the festival that year. Seeing TLA for the first time was one of the most moving theater experiences I've had, and I haven't missed a show since. I'm thrilled they're bringing back BALLAD OF THE PALE FISHERMAN as part of the Southern's ARTshare program. Seeing it last night, it's obvious why it won the Ivey. No one casts a spell like Transatlantic Love Affair, as they tell a story and create an entire world with nothing but their bodies, voices, and souls. BALLAD OF THE PALE FISHERMAN is an achingly beautiful and completely engrossing 75 minutes of storytelling.

Why do we believe what we believe? Can our beliefs change? What happens when those we love don't believe the same things we believe? How important is it to find a group of people that believe in the same things you do? These are just a few of the questions raised by Walking Shadow Theatre Company's excellent production of the thought-provoking play THE CHRISTIANS. In just 90 minutes or so, we witness the pastor of a hugely successful church lose everything because he preaches what he believes, which contradicts the teachings of the church, causing everyone in his life to reexamine their beliefs as well. And it just might have this same effect on the audience.

Friends, something exciting is going on at the Guthrie Theater. In the wake of (not unjustified) criticism about their lack of diversity onstage and backstage, they are currently presenting a 60-year-old play written by Alice Childress, one of the most important female African-American playwrights of the 20th Century, and directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton, the first African-American woman to ever direct on a Guthrie mainstage. And I'm happy to report that TROUBLE IN MIND succeeds on so many levels. First of all, it's hilarious, engaging, and entertaining, and offers a behind the scenes look at the theater world we love so well. But more importantly, it talks about racism, sexism, classism, ageism in a smart and nuanced way that has as much resonance in today's world as it did in the 1950s NYC theater world depicted in the play. I was fortunate enough to attend on a night when there was a post-show discussion with the cast, which just made the experience that much richer. The best and most important work of theater is to start conversations about the world we live in, give voice to everyone's stories, and in doing so help us to better understand our fellow human beings. Trouble in Mind, and the conversations it will hopefully spark amongst its audience, is a fantastic example of that.

When the ingenious gentlemen of Four Humors apply their unique, clever, and hilarious storytelling style to a classic such as THE INGENIOUS GENTLEMAN DON QUIXOTE OF LA MANCHA, it's a thing not to be missed. And even though I've experienced many such unique adaptations by Four Humors, as well as original work, last night's world premiere opening night still gave me something unexpected. As the play points out, everyone knows Don Quixote, even if you're never read the book or heard the name Miguel de Cervantes. Four Humors tells the classic story about honor, chivalry, and madness in a unique way using puppetry projection and by making Cervantes a character in the play, allowing the characters to step outside the story and comment on it. I believe this is Four Humors' debut at the Guthrie, which will no doubt expose a new audience to their often accomplished mission 'to create art that celebrates the humor, stupidity, and beauty of our world by letting the artist connect with the audience in a vulnerable and honest way.'

The Moving Company is a unique theater company in this town of over 70 theater companies. The descendant of the beloved departed Theatre de la Jeune Lune, MoCo's productions are typically original ensemble-based creations. Like the proverbial box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get with them: over-the-top ridiculous comedy, lovely achingly beautiful poignancy, or more likely, somewhere in between. Their new piece EVERY SENTENCE IS FOR THE BIRDS falls more towards the sublime end of the ridiculous-to-sublime spectrum that they cover. The two-person show about a scientist and her subject is both simple and profound, dealing with topics no less than the nature of science and art, and what it means to be human. Words are inadequate to describe The Moving Company's work, so you should just go see it for yourself. I guarantee it's unlike anything you will see on any other stage in town.

Sometimes theater is more than just theater. Sometimes theater is about giving a voice to people whose voices are not often heard. Sometimes theater is about increasing our understanding of people who seem different than us, but who really are the same. Sometimes theater is about giving everyone a chance to see their lives and experiences reflected back at them, validating their existence and importance in the world. Mixed Blood Theatre's work often checks all of the above boxes, as is the case with the new play CHARM by Phillip Dawkins. Inspired by the true story of a transgender woman who teaches a charm school to homeless and at risk transgender youth, CHARM premiered in Chicago last fall, but Mixed Blood's production is the first to include five transgender actors in the cast, which lends an air of poignant authenticity to this moving, funny, and at times difficult story.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE MUSICAL - I've got an animal heart for you. Even though I have no familiarity with the successful book series or movies, I felt obliged to see Children's Theater Company's world premiere musical adaptation because of the talk about a possibly Broadway run, and producer Kevin McCollum also produced my favorite musical RENT. But all sense of obligation quickly went out the window as the show won me over with it's clever and musically diverse score, universally relatable story of a kid trying to find himself in middle school, and most of all this incredible cast of mostly Twin Cities youth. Whether you're a kid stuck in the middle (school), or a jaded grown-up, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: THE MUSICAL is simply irresistible, and I think it's going to go far.

The theory of the quantum multiverse suggests that many different universes simultaneously exist, based on every choice we ever (or never) made. I don't know if I believe that, but I do believe that we are where we are in life based on a million choices we've made in our life, both significant and seemingly insignificant. It's intriguing to think that if we had made one or a hundred choices differently, we might be in a completely different place in life, doing something completely different, surrounded by completely different people. English playwright Nick Payne's new play CONSTELLATIONS, the second production in the Jungle Theater's 2016 season, plays with that idea to great effect. In one of my favorite plays that I've seen all year, we are taken on a journey of a relationship, but not just one single linear journey, rather countless iterations of that journey, some funny, some heart-breaking, some hopelessly romantic, all focused on these two people that are connected in some way in every one of the universes traveled.

It may be spring (almost) outside, but inside Nautilus Music-Theater's tiny studio space in Lowertown St. Paul, it's most definitely September. The kind of September 'where grass is green and grain is yellow,' and 'no one weeps except the willow.' A lovely hopeful youthful September that slowly fades into a wiser, darker, and nostalgic December. While Nautilus is primarily dedicated to developing new works of music-theater, with their newest full production, they are presenting a new take on the longest running musical in the world. 56 years ago, THE FANTASTICKS was just the kind of piece that Nautilus would have developed, supported, and produced - an inventive piece of music-theater storytelling that pushes the envelope of what the genre can do. While that glow of newness and inventiveness has somewhat faded over the years, Nautilus is bringing it back in a new way with age-conscious and gender-conscious casting, and by presenting the piece as it originally was - in an intimate small-scale setting that allows the simple beauty and humor of the piece to shine. With limited seating and only 12 performances, make plans soon for this rare opportunity to see this classic musical performed by some of the Twin Cities best theater artists up close and personal.

Imagine being so wealthy and successful that you need to build a mall in your basement just to hold all of your excess stuff. Such is the situation that living legend of stage and screen Barbra Streisand has found herself in, as described in her 2010 book MY PASSION FOR DESIGN. Playwright Jonathan Tolins has taken his fascination with this idea, and Barbra herself, and turned it into a successful Off-Broadway play BUYER AND CELLAR. Hennepin Theatre Trust has brought this delightfully amusing one-man show to Minneapolis, starring the uber-talented local theater artist Sasha Andreev and directed by acclaimed director Wendy Knox of Frank Theatre. The one-person cast and many-person creative team have come together to create a wonderfully entertaining evening of theater that is funny, fantastical, chock full of pop culture references, and surprisingly touching. Playing through April 24, you would be wise to pencil this one into your theater schedule.

The weekend before last, New Epic Theater opened a strikingly beautiful and devastating production of the 1985 Off-Broadway play THE NORMAL HEART about the early days of the AIDS crisis. Last weekend they opened part two of their ambitious spring repertory production, Shakespeare's CORIOLANUS. The two plays share the same terrific eight-person cast, innovative and distinctive director Joseph Stodola, performance space, set, and overall look. Separated in time by about 400 years, THE NORMAL HEART and CORIOLANUS are in some ways similar and in other ways very different. Both continue the trajectory that this new company has set right out of the gate with visually and emotionally impactful work. The two plays will be performed in rep for the next two weekends, culminating in both shows being performed back-to-back on Saturday April 16. Friends, New Epic Theater is an exciting new addition to our bountiful theater community and I urge you to see one or both of these plays to experience their unique vision.

In just their second season as a theater company, New Epic Theater is tackling not one but two challenging and not often performed political plays with THE NORMAL HEART and CORIOLANUS, performed in rep (something that's also not often done). It's an ambitious undertaking for any theater company, much less a young one. But in this short time New Epic has already established themselves as a company that does striking work, both visually and emotionally. The first half of this pair of plays opened last weekend, a strikingly beautiful and devastating production of the 1985 Off-Broadway play THE NORMAL HEART about the early days of the AIDS crisis. Friends, this is a piece of theater not to be missed. The Normal Heart returns on April 7, but in the meantime you can see the other piece of the puzzle, Shakespeare's CORIOLANUS, this weekend, as I will be. Director Joseph Stodola and New Epic Theater have a unique vision, one that deserves to be seen.

The History Theatre in St. Paul is committed to bringing new plays and musicals to the stage, usually inspired by true events in Minnesota history. Their yearly Raw Stages festival, a series of workshops and readings of new works, often results in full productions in the following season or two. But I often wonder, what happens next? After a new play or musical is developed, produced, and well-received, where does it go? In the case of 2001's WATERMELON HILL, it comes back again 15 years later. As much as I love seeing new works of theater on History Theatre's stage, I'm thrilled that they brought this wonderful old new work back to the stage, giving it a fresh new production. Inspired by historical events, WATERMELON HILL tells the stories of three young women in the mid '60s, pregnant and unmarried, sent in shame to St. Paul's Catholic Infant Home to wait out their pregnancies, deliver their babies, give them up for adoption, and then leave and never look back. Surprisingly light and funny for such a somber topic, the play brings light to the all too familiar tale of the challenges and lack of education and choices facing women in the past, and perhaps to a lesser extant, even today. Along with THE HOW AND THE WHY and NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN, it's another fantastic choice of theater to present during Women's History Month.

I know next to nothing about jazz singer and Civil Rights activist Nina Simone. But I do know Regina Marie Williams, Aimee K. Bryant, Thomasina Petrus, and Traci Allen Shannon, the four women starring in the new play based on Nina's song 'Four Women.' So I knew I was in for a treat and an education with Park Square Theatre's world premiere of NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN. I was not wrong on either count. Proving once again that everything I know I learned from theater, I now have a greater understanding of the remarkable and talented woman that was Nina Simone, as well as the importance of her music and her voice in the Civil Rights movement. And watching these particular four women, some of the best voices and actors we have here in the Twin Cities, bring full and complicated life to the Peaches, Auntie, Saffronia, and Sweet Thing of Nina's song, is a treat of the highest order.

Collide Theatrical Dance Company is now in their fourth season of creating 'original Broadway-style jazz dance musicals.' As a theater geek who doesn't know much about dance but loves to watch it, Collide provides an accessible and theatrical way to get into dance. I've seen all of their productions over the last four seasons, and their newest creation DRACULA may just be my favorite of them all. Collide is at their best when they let the dancing do the talking, as they do here, telling this modernized story of the iconic Dracula strictly through movement and music. A live band accompanies this fantastic troupe of dancers as they perform innovative and evocative choreography to a wide variety of popular songs reinvented to fit the story. Created by Artistic Director and choreographer Regina Peluso and director Joshua Campbell, this DRACULA truly is a perfect collision of dance, music, and theater to create a new and exciting form of storytelling.

In one of those strange theater-going coincidences, the night after I saw two one-act plays at the Guthrie, I attended opening night of Penumbra's presentation of two one-act plays. Both paired plays by different playwrights linked by a common theme. But unlike the theater comedies THE CRITIC and THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND, THE DUTCHMAN and THE OWL ANSWERS are dense and meaty dramas dealing with heavy issues. They might not make you laugh (except, occasionally, uncomfortably), but they will definitely make you think. Written in the '60s as part of the Black Arts Movement, these plays take an unforgiving look at the racism, sexism, and classism of the day, that still have implications in today's world. A stellar ensemble cast and top-notch production design tie the two very different plays together and highlight the playwrights' messages. Though they are not easy to watch and I can't say I understood everything that was going on, I certainly came away with much to chew on, and a greater understanding of our shared history. Which is pretty much a given at Penumbra Theatre.

Chekhov's THE SEAGULL is a classic of the theater, but I had never seen it. That's not exactly true, it was actually the first play I ever saw at the Guthrie, but being almost 25 years ago, I have no recollection of it. So it was as if I'd never seen it when I sat down to yesterday's matinee production of THE SEAGULL by Theatre Novi Most, a company that specializes in Eastern European theater, as part of the Southern Theater's ARTShare program. It took me a few minutes to get into this story of many inter-related characters with strange sounding names, but by intermission I was completely under its spell. This is one of those shows that is so completely captivating that it's hard to shake when you leave the theater. Funny, tragic, odd, and completely enchanting.

YOU FOR ME FOR YOU. Judging by the title I wondered if this was a play about former American Idol judge Randy Jackson. But of course it's not, rather this regional premiere by Mu Performing Arts is about North Korea, a subject I (and most Americans) know less about than American Idol. I was fortunate enough to attend the play when there was a post-show discussion with the playwright Mia Chung and director Randy Reyes, facilitated by the Star Tribune's Rohan Preston (read his review here). Hearing from the playwright, the director, and the cast about their experiences creating this piece gave me greater insight into the story. Mia shared that because there is so little known about what North Korea is actually like, she felt freedom in creating this world through 'magic realism' and really tried to focus on the human aspect of the story. She succeeds beautifully, as I was completely engrossed in the lives of these characters as brought to life by Mu's strong cast. This specific story of North Korean refugees is also universal in its themes of family, love, and sacrifice, themes that will feel familiar to any audience.

2016 is the fourth year of Broadway Reimagined, the partnership that combines the resources of Hennepin Theatre Trust with the innovation of Theater Latte Da to create a new interpretation of a familiar Broadway musical. This year's selection is a beloved classic of the American musical theater canon, the 1959 Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim/Arthur Laurents creation GYPSY, based on the memoir of burlesque entertainer Gypsy Rose Lee. Theater Latte Da did this musical almost ten years ago in their old home The Loring Playhouse. Even though two actors reprise their roles, as do the director, music director, and choreographer, this is a different show in a bigger venue. And I'm convinced there is no better venue for this show in the Twin Cities than the beautifully restored Vaudeville theater that is the Pantages, where the historical characters in the play very likely performed nearly 100 years ago. There's a sense of history in this show which, along with Theater Latte Da's usual attention to detail in every aspect of the production, creates a beautiful, realistic, moving look into the world of show business and the quintessential stage mother/daughter relationship. As the song says, let Theater Latte Da entertain you, you will have a real good time, yes sir!