Freshwater Theatre to Stage World Premiere of New Musical PIONEER SUITE

Freshwater Theatre Company begins our 2015-2016 season with the world premiere of Keith Hovis's moving new musical Pioneer Suite, detailing the lives of three women who settled the Minnesota prairie in the late 1800s.

Meet Margaret Housel, of "suicidal fame," misunderstood and mocked by the press for exposing her husband as a murderer, Martha Angle Dorsett, the first woman admitted to the Minnesota Bar, and Mary Carpenter, a woman whose 13 year journal of life as a farmer's wife is a haunting look at the toll the prairie took upon its women. Pioneer Suite immerses you in the lives of Minnesota pioneer women in danger of having their powerful stories lost to history.

Keith Hovis is an exciting young composer whose mini-musical, The Nine Lives of Mrs. Housel, premiered as part of Archival Revival with Freshwater in the spring of 2014, and was featured at the 2014 Ivey awards, winning praise from L'etoile Magazine, saying: "Of all the musical numbers featured...the best musical number of the night had to go to Freshwater Theatre's fiery Mrs. Housel excerpt from Archival Revival." Keith has previously produced three original musicals at the Minnesota Fringe (Bad Deeds Done Bad in 2010, Teenage Misery in 2013, andShakespeare Apocalypse in 2014), and has been onstage in numerous places, including Minneapolis Musical Theatre.

Pioneer Suite will be directed by Freshwater Co-Artistic Director Ben Layne, who previously directed Freshwater's Going Down on the Queen of Minneapolis, and the regional premiere of The Gifted Program. Ben also recently directed Ariel Leaf's A Mermaid in Narnia (On LSD) in the 2015 Minnesota Fringe, Stop Kiss and A Slight Ache for Fortune's Fool Theatre, and was director/choreographer for Hovis's Shakespeare Apocalypse in the 2014 Minnesota Fringe.

The cast includes a slew of local musical theater powerhouses: Kendall Anne Thompson, Gracie Anderson, Philip Matthews, Kelly Matthews, Gail Ottmar, Jim Ahrens, Libby Anderson, Zach Garcia and Lars Lee.Dramaturgy by Ruth Virkus, stage managed by Alyssa Thompson, lights by Ariel Leaf, costumes by Lucas Skjaret, set and props by Scott Gilbert and Corinna Troth, and sound by Anita Kelling.

Running in rep, Freshwater Theatre will present our fourth annual Fringe Consolation Remount! This year, we are inviting Albino Squirrel Productions to join us for our fall run, in a remount of Pocahontas (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Mouse), a hilarious skewering of the American tradition of cultural appropriation.

Pioneer Suite
October 3, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, and 17 at 7:30pm
October 4, 11 and 18 at 3:00pm

Fringe Consolation Remount: Pocahontas

October 4, 5, 9, 11 & 14 at 7:30 pm

All performances at Nimbus Theatre - 1517 Central Avenue NE, Minneapolis, MN
Pioneer Suite Tickets: $18, $15 with Fringe Button, Student/Senior discount
Pocahontas Tickets: TBD
Reservations & info available at www.freshwatertheatre.com or call 612-816-8479. Photos available upon request.

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