Minnesota Fringe Trending: Rarig
Theatre Arts & Dance Department Chair Marcus Dilliard said, “On behalf of the U of M’s Rarig Center, we join our
neighbors at Mixed Blood, and Theatre in
the Round in welcoming to the West
Bank thousands of performers and Fringe goers." Located at 330 21st Ave South, Rarig Center is home to over 44
different productions, none longer than one hour. Each production is presented five times so
guests will have an opportunity to catch over 220 performances. No one selects the participating shows.
Instead, a Fringe lottery determines which of 400+ applicants win production slots in the
festival.
At the time of this writing the Fringe website reports the
following Rarig shows as trending:
Trial by Jury - The lovely Angelina sues Edwin for a breach of promise of marriage and captivates the Judge's heart, in Gilbert & Sullivan's the most successful British one-act operetta (Proscenium)
Spicy Masal Chai - A stirring Bollywood Dance Scene promises a
perfect recipe for a romance / drama of original storytelling and choreography.
(Proscenium)
The Consolation - War criminal Adolf Eichmann, on trial in Israel in 1961,
attempts to make sense of what brought him there, while at the same time
evaluating his own sense of what is true and what isn't.(Kilburn Arena/Liu
Stage)
School of Rhythm - A few ground rules: don't be late, keep
your pencil sharp, most importantly, don't lose the beat! Experience food
fights, secret handshakes, and other topics not covered on the exam. (Proscenium)
Our Students in the Spotlight
Caroline Amos, Silas Sellnow, JuCoby Johnson, Jim Poulos and Brian White in Romeo and Juliet.Great River Shakespeare Festival, 2015. Photo by Dan Norman.
Master Electrician Megan Winter (MFA’16), Actors JuCoby Johnson (BFA’15), Silas Sellnow (BFA’16)
Together Light Up Stage at Great River Shakespeare
This summer Megan Winter is
the Master Electrician for Great
River Shakespeare Festival’s (GRSF) three productions: Glass
Menagerie, Much Ado About Nothing, and Romeo
& Juliet. Responsible for translating the lighting
designers’ paperwork into the real world theatre space, Megan worked with other
supervisors organizing work calls, renting/purchasing equipment, supervising, and troubleshooting. Now in its 12th season, Winona's festival opened June 24
and plays through August 2.
Q: Lighting three different
productions in a very concentrated period of time in a new theatre space could
be daunting. What helped prepare you for this professional challenge?
Megan: The organizational systems and processes I’ve been learning at the
University of Minnesota plus working at
other venues in the Twin Cities area have helped, certainly. And I am especially grateful to have had such
a great team to work with here in Winona: the other supervisors, my interns,
and the lighting designers. I’m also indebted to the great support had from the
Twin Cities area from colleague former GRSF Master Electrician Jesse Cogswell
(MFA’13), Lighting Supervisor Bill Healey, and Advisor Marcus Dilliard.
JuCoby Johnson makes his professional debut playing the fiery
Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet and the
thoughtful Friar in Much Ado in the
rotating repertory -- quite the acting challenge for a student who just earned
his degree three months ago. Silas
Sellnow, a company intern last season, is cast as Juliet’s handsome suitor Paris
and the role of Sampson. In Much Ado
he plays Balthazar. Sellnow returns to
the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater Actor Training program as a senior
this fall; Johnson is newly graduated from the program.
After a recent Romeo & Juliet
performance, Applause caught-up with
the two actors, to ask about the transition from student to player working in a
seasoned company of professionals.
Q: How has your training at U got
at the University benefited you? Can you point to one specific example or two?
Silas: On a word I’d say the preparation you get. I had a path to approach
these two different roles in Romeo and
Juliet in a very short period of time. Preparation and training are
essential.
Q: What have been the biggest challenges given the Festival ‘s schedule
playing in repertory?
JuCoby: Yes, the BFA program preparation is very practical and hands-on given the daily demands of rehearsals here. I was in
the R&J rehearsals working on the fights [using knives] with Doug [Scholz-Carlson,
director of R&J and the artistic director.]
Intense physical stuff. He would
break it down into units demanding strong focus. Starting slowly, we gradually
got up to speed. On that same day, I’m called to Much Ado rehearsals for my appearance as the Friar– he has two solid
pages of text late in the play…. and thanks to my training, I knew how grasp the
material. I had worked on it in advance outside of rehearsal, so I was not wasting
director’s time explaining text and we could move into other stuff. My training saw me through.
(Watch JuCoby in combat rehearsal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QowE73iLlZo)
Silas: It’s been a great experience for me as well.
JuCoby: I’ve have enjoyed every part of
Great River Shakespeare, and am very grateful for the U’s training program.
Rex Davenport (BA ’15) Keeps a Cool Head
Park Square’s Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders Turns-up the Heat
Actor, director, former TAD peer representative, and editor of student
newsletter, Backstage Pass, Rex Davenport knows how to "keep it
cool” as possible backstage. Working on the running crew for Park Square
Theatre’s Sherlock Holmes and the Ice
Palace Murders has had its moments he confides.
Given the show’s precise timing, set changes, and trick props, the crew
had to be well rehearsed and poised for action. But stakes went up
considerably when lead actor Steve Hendrickson took ill opening night, and
could not appear. Show director Peter Moore, who is also an actor, stepped in,
but only temporarily due to prior commitments. So the leading role of Holmes
was taken over by the playwright Jeffery Hatcher who penned this new work set
in old St. Paul. Despite all these unexpected changes, Davenport reported “we
just kept focus and flexible to keep the show going, helping actors adjust as best we could” from the
wings. Cool heads prevailed and
Hendrickson, now recovered, returned to complete the run at Park Square.
Alumni in Action
Catching up with Casey Stangl
TAD Alumna returns to stage Guthrie Stage Kiss
Guthrie guest director Casey
Stangl says, “I loved my time at Rarig…the different performance spaces,
fantastic experience for me as a student.” She also remembers with great
fondness her teachers: Professors Lee Addy, Robert Moulton, Charles Nolte, and Jean
Montgomery. Stangl came back to her Minnesota
roots to stage Sarah Ruhl’s Stage Kiss
now playing through August 30 at the Guthrie. This occasion was her
introduction in the Guthrie’s new building; she had previously directed Top Girls for the theatre in 2003. “It’s
great to be back …just had coffee with Joe Haij. Very impressed.”
Following her 12 year tenure as artistic director of Eye of the Storm Theatre
in 2005 in Minneapolis, Ms. Stangl's career grew. She has directed all across the country including at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, Guthrie Theater, Denver Center Theatre
Company, Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays, Washington DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Portland
Stage, Cleveland Play House, Arizona Theatre Company, and Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Impressed?
“Now I’m based in Los Angeles,” Stangl explained, “and work a lot with South Coast Rep.” Casey’s recent staging of Venus in Fur them was a big hit with strong press. Her production
of Love and Information for the
American Conservatory Theater completes its run in California this month. She also does work with Burbank’s Falcon Theatre, and
Antaeus Company, where her production of Peace
in our Time won numerous awards. Her other local credits include Between Us Chickens, which she work-shopped at South Coast Rep and moved to
Atwater Village Theatre, Slither and The Chapel Play for Chalk Repertory Theatre, and the world premiere
of How Cissy Grew, named Best New
Play at the 2009 L.A. Weekly Theater Awards.
As a Fellow at American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women,
Stangl directed C U @ ED'S, a short
film that has screened at 21 film festivals and won several awards. Other credits
include the web series,Trudy O'Reilly
Consumer Rights Advocate.
So what’s next? “I’m back home soon,” directing J.C. Lee’s Women of a Certain Age at the Ojai Playwrights Conference (OPC), one
of the most acclaimed new play developmental programs in the country with an
extraordinary program of playwrights, new play workshops and special
performance events from August 2 through 9, 2015 in Ojai, California. Following
that, she directs Minette at Main Street
Theatre in L.A. next spring.
Feldshuh Stages his Yussle the Muscle for Illusion’s Fresh Ink Series
In “Yussle the Muscle,” writer and director David Feldshuh (kneeling) has crafted a drama around the friendship between a Nazi poster boy and a Jewish American. Actors in the play include, from left: Michael Hanna (Joseph Goebbels), Dustin Bronson (Max Schmeling), and Daniel Vinitsry (Yussle Jacobs).
StarTrib photo: Jim Gehrz
David Feldshuh (PhD ’75) directs Dustin Bronson (BFA’10) and Michael Hanna (BFA’13)
Actor, playwright, and medical doctor David Feldshuh, perhaps best known for his Pulitzer- nominated stage
play Miss Evers’ Boys which won Best
New American Play and 7 Emmy awards for its HBO movie adaptation, recently
returned to the Twin Cities. Feldshuh has
crafted a new drama in which he explores the friendship between the Nazi poster
boy and his Jewish American manager. Yussle
the Muscle received a workshop production in the Illusion Theatre’s Fresh
Ink series in July. Dustin
Bronson played manager Max
Schmeling and Michael Hanna took the role of Joseph Goebbels.
As a U of M graduate student, Feldshuh was a McKnight Fellow and became member
of the Guthrie Theater acting company.
Click here to read the StarTribune’s feature story about David Felshuh, his latest play, and connections to the Twin Cities theatre community.
Click here to read the StarTribune’s feature story about David Felshuh, his latest play, and connections to the Twin Cities theatre community.
Fringe ‘15 Features UMTAD
Alums, students make it all happen
With the help of UMTAD staff administrator Katie Willer
(BA alumna), here is a partial listing of individuals involved with this year’s Fringe
shows. Disclaimer: no way to even suggest this as comprehensive of all alumni
participants.
Lungs with Dustin Bronson (BFA ’10) and Katie
Kleiger (BFA’15)
http://www.fringefestival.org/show/?id=20150567
Too Punk To Care is actually a remount of an Open Stage show with students Bree Schmidt (BA’15), Kenzi Allen, Ryan Lundberg, Ryan Bockenhauer, Kasey Heimstead, Zach Holmquist, Daniel Sakamoto-Wengel, Audrey Rice (BA’15) and Austin Ruh. http://fringefestival.org/show/?id=20150479.
Too Punk To Care is actually a remount of an Open Stage show with students Bree Schmidt (BA’15), Kenzi Allen, Ryan Lundberg, Ryan Bockenhauer, Kasey Heimstead, Zach Holmquist, Daniel Sakamoto-Wengel, Audrey Rice (BA’15) and Austin Ruh. http://fringefestival.org/show/?id=20150479.
High Flight has our last MFA Acting graduate and a former undergrad--Noe Tallen (MFA '00) and Ben Tallen (BA '01): http://fringefestival.org/show/?id=20150117
Deus Ex Machina (http://fringefestival.org/show/?id=20150133 )
with Laura Hickey (BA '13) and Jacob Mobley (BA '15).
Frankenstein (http://fringefestival.org/show/?id=20150279 )
has Noah Bremer (BA) and Joanna Harmon (BFA '09).
105 Proof or The Killing
of Mack "The Silencer" Klein (http://fringefestival.org/show/?id=20150276 )
has Allison Witham (BA '10).
Pretty Girls Make Graves with Katie Willer (BA ’03) selected
as one of "10 Must See" shows by City Pages. http://fringefestival.org/show/?id=20150022 .
"Would you be? Could you be Billy's Neighbor?"
Billy Mullaney (BA '11) at Open Eye in August
Performance artist Billy Mullaney
presents a split evening of new works, featuring his own project Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood as well as hosting Seattle-based
artist Erin Pike and her show, That’swhatshesaid,
According to Minnesota Playlist, both scripts are "built
using contemporary forms of appropriation: transcribing, cutting, rearranging,
pasting, and re-contextualizing." Mullaney's and Pike's pieces are onstage at the
Open Eye Figure Theater August 13-16. Click link
for details and tickets .
"Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood is a verbatim staging of a full half-hour
episode of the eponymous television show (#1718: "Be Yourself, That's the
Best"). After performing excerpts and iterations of the piece in cabarets
and showcases in Minneapolis and New York, Mullaney's Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood " ...stages
the episode, featuring Mr. Rogers’ visit to a string quartet and a trip to the
neighborhood of make-believe."
That’sWhatSheSaid, a one-woman show featuring artist Erin
Pike, mashes up "only female dialogue taken from Theater
Communication Group’s 2013 top ten most-produced plays in America." By delivering
those lines out of context, Pike, writer Courtney Meaker, and director Hatlo
interrogate with laser precision on how women are represented onstage in
contemporary theater -- by both male and female playwrights.
Faculty Highlights:
Summer offers professional growthEncore! Costumer Matt LeFebvre designs at ATP
Costume designer and faculty
member Mathew J. LeFebvre returns
for another summer to American Players Theatre (ATP). This season he creates the clothes for Othello, Shakespeare’s timeless story about
race, love, jealousy, and betrayal. Previews begin August 7 .
Last summer Mr. LeFebvre designed The Importance of Being Earnest winning honors as
the top Wisconsin production of 2014 based on performance and design by Journal Sentinel. In addition, LeFebvre earned a special salute to designers who “made magic on stage," from the Milwaukee newspaper praising his “colorful and clever costuming [which] offered spot-on
commentary about the relation between a dandified pre-1914 England [for The Importance of Being Earnest ] and
World War I.” [for Travesties]
Devoted to the great and future
classics, APT is a professional repertory theater with eight productions playing
alternately this season from June to October. Founded in 1979 by Guthrie actor Randall Duk
Kim, ATP continues to be one of the most popular outdoor classical theaters in
the nation. The Theatre is located in Spring Green, Wis., on 110 acres of hilly
woods and meadows above the Wisconsin River. For more information, visit www.americanplayers.org.
Luverne Seifert climbs aboard Hoopla Train with Yard Master Yip and
his Polkstra
23 Whistle-stop performances in 14 towns from Nisswa to Sleepy Eye.
“Imagine Lawrence Welk Show meets Hee Haw,” says actor/producer and
faculty member Luverne Seifert, as
he attempts to explain Hoopla Train,
his current Sod House family entertainment, now touring small towns through
August 30. “Think of it as a tribute to
the variety shows of the 70’s with live music, singing, sketch comedy and
well…” he pauses. “Feats of amazement
are promised,” pipes up Twin
Cities actor and Hoopla Train’s
writer Jim Lichtscheidl, while plucking his guitar. The cast also includes Twin Cities actors:
Elise Langer, Nathan Keepers, Kimberly Richardson and Darcey Engen. CLICK here to read the full Star Tribune article http://www.startribune.com/summer-is-showtime-for-sod-house-minnesota-s-whistle-stop-theater/316148221/
This activity
is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board
through and appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the State’s
arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of
Minnesota on November 4, 2008.
Beware ValleySCARE
A Wicked Creative Collaboration
This fall semester
faculty member Luverne Seifert and guest theatre artist Jim
Lichtscheidl lead a BA creative collaboration in a unique partnership
with Shakopee’s Valley Fair where they hope to frighten the dickens out of
you.
"Each student will begin by
exploring a darker side, conjuring- up and contributing to an original
ghoulish tale, then together they will bring it to life in a
full-scale haunted environment." According to Seifert, " imagine a
cast of creepy characters, maybe dipped in blood curdling circumstances." Finally the student creators will act as performers and/or guides leading
audiences through a spirit invested house of horrors, nightly.
Together students will learn some of the
skills required of playwrights, designers, and stage managers. Next they
will build the sets, costume, make-up, arrange lights and sound and take roles in ValleySCARE, September 18
through October 31. Talk about a
frightening long mid-term exam! In coming weeks, watch for updates on the
public opening of ValleySCARE at
Valley Fair.
Kantor @
100--Not to be Missed
Michal Kobialka to teach TH1950 Topics course this Fall
Michal Kobialka to teach TH1950 Topics course this Fall
 |
| Tadeusz Kantor |
Polish visual artist and theatre
director, Tadeusz Kantor born April 6, 1915, “can be placed among a select
group of the twentieth century’s most influential theatre practitioners,”
according to Professor Michal
Kobialka. Kantor’s work “with his Cricot 2 theater company and his theories of theatre have not only challenged, but also expanded the boundaries of traditional and nontraditional theatre forms."
Kobialka. Kantor’s work “with his Cricot 2 theater company and his theories of theatre have not only challenged, but also expanded the boundaries of traditional and nontraditional theatre forms."
Professor Kobialka explains, “The
breadth and diversity of Kantor’s artistic endeavors align him with artists,
for example, Marcel Duchamp, Vsevolod Meyerhold,
Oskar Schlemmer, Jackson Pollock, Jerzy Grotowski, Allan Kaprow, Robert Wilson, or Pina Bausch. He was positioned within the avant-garde
movements represented by those artists.”
Kantor began his work during the
modernist revolution instigated by the first wave avant-garde in France and the
Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, then continued at the time of the post-war
European and American second wave avant-garde in the 1960s. His most widely known productions, outside of
Poland, The Dead Class (1975), Wielopole, Wielopole (1980), Let the Artists Die (1985), I Shall Never Return (1988), and Today is My Birthday (1990) co-existed
with diverse forms of postmodern art and theatre.
To commemorate Kantor’s centennial
year and celebrate his artistic life, Professor Michal Kobialka is organizing
an extraordinary learning opportunity for students and faculty. In a series of events, he will present
Kantor@100, (TH1950) a unique topics course. Attention students: Space is currently available to register for
TH1905.
No registration restrictions.
This course will meet September
14-18, 2015, 7-10 PM in Rarig’s Kilburn/Liu Stage and will consist of the
following lectures/screenings:
9/14: Why Kantor?
9/15: Memory and History—The Dead Class (1975)
9/16: Memory and History—Wielopole, Wielopole (1980)
9/17: The Self and the Others—I Shall Never Return (1988)
9/18: Notes on the Late Style— Today is My Birthday (1990)
Each screening will be followed by
a commentary provided by Ludmila Ryba, who was a member of Kantor’s “CRICOT 2” company from 1979
until 1992, performing and touring the world with Wielopole, Wielopole, The Machine of Love and Death, I Shall Never
Return, and Today is my Birthday.
On Saturday, September 19, Ms. Ryba
will conduct a day-long workshop (10AM- 7PM) for course participants and other
students, space permitting, which will explore and elaborate on some of
Kantor’s ideas about objects, actor, and space presented in his
productions. Workshop observers are
welcome, space permitting.
