History Theatre and the Brave New Workshop team up on Dudley: Rigged for Laughter!

History Theatre and the Brave New Workshop have teamed up to tell the outrageous life story of Dudley Riggs, a fourth-generation circus kid who founded the Brave New Workshop in 1958. Told in the fast-paced, ensemble-driven, sketch comedy style of the Brave New Workshop, Dudley: Rigged for Laughter! pays tribute to the man and the remarkable legacy of comedy he built starting with a storefront, some newspapers, and a lot of pluck.

Dudley: Rigged for Laughter!
Opens: Saturday, October 2, 2010
Through: Sunday, October 24, 2010
Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturdays @ 7:30 p.m.
Sundays @ 2:00 p.m.
(AD performance on 10/10/10 & ASL performance on 10/17/10)

At the History Theatre, 30 East Tenth Street, St. Paul, MN
Directions and parking information

TICKETS: Adults: $28-$32.00; Seniors (60+ years): $25-$30.00; Students (with valid college i.d.): $15.00
Discount rates are available for groups of 12 or more.

To purchase tickets, call the History Theatre Box Office at 651.292.4323 or go to www.historytheatre.com.
About the Play:

It is with a sense of awe, respect, and humility that the creators of Dudley: Rigged for Laughter! have approached this project. "It is foolhardy to even think that a single, stage production could encapsulate the life of Mr. Dudley Riggs," admits playwright and co-director Caleb McEwen. "The man's truth is stranger and more extensive than almost any fiction."

Given the remarkable life that Dudley Riggs led up to the formation of the Brave New Workshop, and then the extensive 52 year history of the institution itself there is a lot of ground to cover in just two acts. The first act explores Dudley's formative years in the family business as a performer in the circus and vaudeville. The second act revisits the early days of the Brave New Workshop and some of the amazing, creative, dedicated people who worked alongside Dudley to bring it to life and sustain it. McEwen, who has been with Brave New Workshop for years himself, says "So much of the Workshop's story is shrouded in myth, legend, and the misremembered haze that comes from generations of reiterations that it is nearly impossible to come up with one, definitive story that suits everyone."

At a celebration marking 50 years of the Brave New Workshop, Sue Scott, who performed with the BNW during the mid-80s and is currently a regular on "A Prairie Home Companion," struck up a conversation with one of the BNW's co-owners John Sweeney and the idea of doing a show about Dudley started to forM. Scott passed the idea on to her husband, History Theatre artistic director Ron Peluso, and soon after, Sweeney and Peluso began concocting a show about the legend himself; a tribute to a man who helped shape the Twin Cities theatre community and the craft of comedy in America. Peluso and Sweeney initially tapped Dane Stauffer, a BNW alum, to draft a script that was read in History Theatre's RAW STAGES in 2008. BNW artistic director Caleb McEwen then took over, becoming the main playwright and voice of the project. He created a new script using some pieces of Stauffer's draft along with some personal insights and stories from Sweeney. All of this with input from Dudley himself, along with conversations with alumni, and hours spent scouring the archives. This latest version of the script has the razor-sharp, fast-paced, sketch-comedy style that has come to be known as "Riggsian" while fitting comfortably onto the History Theatre stage. In the spirit of BNW's ensemble-driven style, this production is a truly collaborative effort by the theaters and the artists involved, which in itself is a fitting tribute to Dudley Riggs.

Dudley: Rigged for Laughter! was written by Caleb McEwen, John Sweeney, and Dane Stauffer. It is directed by Caleb McEwen and Ron Peluso, with music direction by Peter Guertin, scenic design by Justin Hooper, costume design by Lynn Farrington, lighting design by Michael Burgoyne, properties design by Gunther Gullickson, and stage managed by Janet L. Hall. Starring Joseph Scrimshaw, Shanan Custer, Paul de Cordova, Michelle Hutchison, and Matt Erkel.

 

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