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| U of M Centennial Showboat docked at Harriet Island credit: RiverRides |
In
celebration of the rich history of its productions on the Minnesota Centennial
Showboat, the University’s Department of Theatre Arts & Dance will
present Augustin Daly’s Under
the Gaslight, directed by John Miller-Stephany, July 7 to August 27, 2016, in the Showboat’s farewell
season. Docked on the Mississippi River at Harriet Island in downtown Saint
Paul, the Centennial Showboat offers this
sensational tale of a young woman’s harrowing journey to find her true identity
while battling against evil forces. When performed in the Minnesota Centennial
Showboat’s inaugural summer of 1958, Under the Gaslight proved a runaway hit with audiences. Reserved seats
for this summer’s final season of 60 performances are now on sale by
calling 651-227-1100 or visiting www.showboat.umn.edu
Since that summer of 1958
when construction of the first Minnesota Centennial Showboat was completed,
faculty and students from the University’s Theatre Arts & Dance Department
have produced entertainment aboard the Minnesota Centennial Showboat on the Mississippi
River; since 2002, the Showboat has welcomed audiences at the splendid location
on Harriet Island in Saint Paul.
This year on September 30,
the fifteen year agreement between the University of Minnesota and the City of
St. Paul for docking the Minnesota Centennial Showboat at Harriet Island will
end, requiring both parties to review the partnership. In the meantime, the University and the City
of St. Paul are working together on creative alternatives for the use of the
boat.
Production costs as well as
all repairs and improvements have traditionally been funded by Showboat ticket
sales, which have declined dramatically in recent years. Without University
support for maintenance and operating costs, the College of Liberal Arts has
initiated the process to eventually transfer ownership of the Showboat to
another entity.
The Department of Theatre
Arts & Dance has determined that it must establish opportunities for its
students that are more in line with the department’s mission, and move away
from the nineteenth century melodrama format with its often-problematic social
conventions.
Under the Gaslight will be performed in the fully
air-conditioned 200 seat theater styled after a vaudeville house complete with
painted scenery, footlights, nineteenth century stage magic, and live piano
accompaniment.
The Centennial Showboat
proudly presents Under the Gaslight
for this 57th and final
season of fun and laughter. Thousands have found it to be “a perfect Minnesota
summer evening” for a first date or family outing. Unsolicited comments by one
audience member sums up the response of many: “A talented cast of singers and
actors kept me laughing and entertained the whole night…I’m going again and
taking others with me.” Convenient FREE parking for cars and buses is
available. Arrive by bike on the
Lilydale Trail, or by boat and dock for FREE on the island. The University of Minnesota Centennial
Showboat is completely accessible.
Moored on the banks of the mighty Mississippi at Harriet Island in beautiful
downtown St. Paul, the Showboat offers welcoming public spaces, bars and a
beautiful upper deck lounge with spectacular views of the city’s skyline. Visitors
stroll along embankments with wide green lawns shaded by towering cottonwoods
as they step aboard.
Under the Gaslight plays 2:30 pm matinees every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and evenings at 8:00 pm Wednesday through Saturdays July 7- August 27, 2016. Thursday nights feature post-show Talk Backs, informal Q & A sessions with cast members. Ask about Family Fun Special rates for Friday nights and Saturday matinees. Discounts for students with valid ID, seniors 65+ and groups rates for 15 or more are available. Reserve tickets ($20-$25) by calling 651-227-1100 or by visiting www.showboat.umn.edu. for more information.
Congratulations!
The Star Tribune (April 17, 2016) and City Pages in their “Best Of” honors recently recognized the artistic excellence of the following talented individuals; all are current and former instructional staff members of the Dance program.
Ananya Chatterjea,
Best Choreographer, Star Tribune
“Chatterjea is unashamedly political. She taps into
social justice issues with fierce passion and empathy. Her dancers don’t simply
move, but channel a raw intensity that they seem to suck up from the earth
beneath them. We see a complex range of emotions in their faces but also in
their bodies, from their cores to their fingers and toes. As a choreographer,
Chatterjea’s distinctive vocabulary draws on the classical Indian dance form
Odissi with yoga technique and the martial art form Chhau. It’s an intricate
style that she employs to stir raw fury, anguish and hope as a call to action.”
Toni Pierce Sands & TU Dance Best dance company in
Minnesota 2016, Star Tribune
Under the leadership of power couple Toni Pierce-Sands
and Uri Sands, TU Dance boasts some of the best dancers in the Twin Cities, who
display both athletic prowess and a clarity of form. Somehow, the individuality
of each member of the diverse company always shines through in the work.
Whether they are bringing to life one of choreographer Uri Sands’ eloquent
pieces, or working with the many world-renowned guest choreographers TU brings
in to funnel new ideas and challenges, TU Dance is reliably crowd-pleasing and
emotionally riveting. tudance.org “
Erin Thompson, Best dancer in Minnesota 2016, City Pages
“A mature dancer with an ample and varied
expressive palette, Erin Thompson infused Joanie Smith's Tableaux Vivant, a
tribute to suffragettes and female icons of the early 20th century, with heroic
vigor and sly sensuality. Through shifting characterizations of women including
flappers, mothers, and militant feminists, Thompson charged each gesture with
fluid intensity. Movement purled through her lithe body as she imbued the
period dances and behaviors suggested in Smith's vignettes with swing, sass,
and rhythmic panache. Part of an excellent ensemble of dancers ages 22 to 75,
Thompson captured the eternal feminine in subtly detailed motion.”
Dustin Maxwell, ( Alum & former Dance program instructor)
Best Dancer: Star Tribune
“For someone with such a distinctive punk look,
Dustin Maxwell has an amazing ability to blend in, to become an integral part
of an ensemble. In works such as Christopher Schlichting’s “Stripe Tease” and
Morgan Thorson’s “Still Life,” Maxwell brought a special energy to group
dynamics, while moving cohesively with the other dancers. Maxwell also shines
as a solo performer. His unusually angular physique creates captivating lines,
and his nuanced, subtle understanding of movement results in meticulous,
enthralling execution.”
Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Best Musical
2015, (City Pages) as
produced by Theatre Latte Da, was a bloody hit of a show directed by Peter Rothstein and choreographed by Dance
program faculty’s Carl Flink. The two first teamed together for Spring
Awakening co-produced with Latte
Da and UMTAD in 2012 at the Rarig Center.
Sarah Bahr, MFA ’16 was in a news maker last month. Interviewed by the Star Tribune the use of social media by the theatre makers, Sarah uses the site Pinterest to share images with her directors and other designers. “It’s like giving the director a photo album with 20 or so options,” she said,” Then we can talk on the phone while we’re looking at the Pinterest boards.” (April, 3, 2016). Sarah recently designed costumes for Earthquakes in London.
Students Center Stage
The 2nd annual BA Senior Showcase
will be presented Monday May 9, 7:30 pm at the Southern Theater. This evening of short performances by graduating actors,
directors, performance artists and theatre makers will also include displays by stage
managers and designers. An informal reception with light refreshments follows
with an opportunity to meet and greet the artists.
TAD’s
Playwriting Showcase will be presented Friday May 13, 12:30 pm at
the Playwrights Center. The Intermediate Playwriting Class taught by Jerome
Fellow Andres Rosendorf will present excerpts from their new plays directed by
Joel Sass and Stephen Yoakam and read by actors Pearce Bunting, Jennifer Blagen,
Ryan Colbert, Emma Foster, Laura Mason and others.
Dance Repertory class
students taught by Carl Flink participated in”TPT-TV Takeover” co-produced by
Black Label Movement ( BLM) on April 30. The dozen students were featured in a pre-recorded video shot
earlier in the Barker Center for Dance. In addition, the student dancers performed a five minute version of BLM’s HIVE during the live portion of the
show in the St. Paul television studios. <Learn More
Alums on Stage
Nico Swenson (BA ’14) will be performing in Northern Sparks June 11 in The Night Library, an interactive collaborative installation exploring the role of information and the library in society for the Hennepin County Library. Share resources, gather information, and save the world through puzzles, storytelling, and theatre. <Learn More
Kiara Jackson (BA’13) and
Paul LaNave (BFA’13) play in Six Characters in Search of an Author, in Wonderlust's production, presented by Park Square Theatre though May 8.
Q&A with Joanna Harmon
Alums Joanna Harmon (BFA) and Noah Bremer (BA) are co-artistic
directors of the critically acclaimed Live Action Set. This award-winning physical
theatre company is “committed to creating original, ensemble –driven performances
that dissolve boundaries between artistic disciplines.” Founded in 2003, the Live
Action Set has emerged as one of the most influential theatre companies in the
Twin Cities and its work has been hailed as “courageous,” “beautiful,“ and “daring.” <Learn More.
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| credit: Star Tribune |
Their upcoming production
THE SPARROW, opens May 6 playing through
May 20 at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. Cast member include the BA alums:
Cate Jackson, Kalen Keir, Noah Bremer, Sam
Kruger and Peter Rusk <Learn More.
Between rehearsals, Joanna
Harmon took time to talk about their work for Live Action Set.
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Projects you’re most proud of, Joanna?
I’m proud that we explore artistic regions beyond what’s been
charted. It’s terribly unnerving, but if I didn't force myself from the safety
of what I've already mapped out, I'd be unsatisfied. I often feel like I’m
diving into the deep end without knowing how or when (or if!) the pool will
fill up. But inevitably water is there. Sometimes it's deep and warm, sometimes
it's cold and shallow, but the water is always there. I occasionally fall on my butt, or I
get lost in the woods. That's the price of exploring new artistic territory and
it's worth it.
Two recent productions both of us are particularly proud of:
Crime and Punishment was a production ambitiously large in scale: a huge cast, a huge
space, a huge design, a style unfamiliar to many audience members, and a very
small admin team... We didn’t have any grant funding, so I’m
doubly proud of the fact that the show basically paid for itself in ticket
sales...
The Half-Life was an intimate expression of profoundly personal emotions. I am
proud that in so many audience members the piece touched a soft part of their hearts. Because of an audience member’s suggestion mid-way through the run we added talk-backs after every performance...That desire
to process the piece together, was one significant way that the piece
felt immediate and purposeful. It was also my first time working with a
cast solely comprised of dancers. They had a beautifully poetic way of
receiving and interpreting direction...(so) the collaboration felt fresh and seamless in a way I had not previously experienced.
What motivated you to become a founder of a theater company?
I did not, in fact, want to start a theater company. When I
graduated, my goal was to meet the theater companies in the Twin Cities and
learn who was already pursuing a mission and an aesthetic that aligned
with mine. Live Action Set was one of those companies (founded 6 years prior).
With all of the wheels currently spinning and turning and trying to gain
traction, it was better for me (and I dare say the field) to become a spoke on
one of the wheels already in motion rather than trying to “reinvent a wheel” of
my own.
Very shortly after I started working for/with Live Action Set,
Noah Bremer was hired by Cirque du Soleil to tour in one of their shows. At the
time, we didn’t know when he would return, and so the company was “bequeathed”
to me during that time, and Noah stayed present from afar. So, a lot of what I
know, I learned by default and in the moment. But, frankly, that’s how everyone
seems to learn anything-- even the people I talk to who have been doing this
much longer than I have.
I recommend that everyone, and especially recent graduates, ask of
themselves: How do I strengthen what’s already here? If you find a hole that
isn’t being filled, then I say to you, “Go for it! Start a company!” But, 90
percent of the time, someone else is trying to fill in the same hole that you
are. The field is already tapped for precious resources---people, money, time.
Make it a team effort! So much of creating is about the team with which you’re
creating. People are the most important things in an artistic company. Yeah,
it’s about our product, too, but it’s mostly about the people involved (i.e.
the working environment, and therefore the process).
I found my team in Live Action Set. I love how the work lives in a
world in between dance and theater. It strives to create experiences that can only
be experienced live; nebulous worlds that aren’t explained easily with
words, they have to be felt; powerful experiences.
What are the skills that transferred from school and what lessons
have you learned?
The skills that I learned in the BFA Program as an actor that
translate to my job as an administrator and creative leader are:
A strong work ethic -- We have a lot of work to accomplish in the B.F.A. program. In
that pressured environment, you learn to stay focused, prioritize, and present
work when you aren’t fully “done.” Presenting/performing/doing, even when
“half-baked,” is how you’re going to grow.
A proactive nature -- As co-leaders of Live
Action Set, Noah and I together decide our performance schedule, avenues to pursue, strategic
goals, etc. Many people help us, but their help won’t come if we aren’t
proactive about what we want and proceed as if no one else is going to help.
Intention -- Every element should be purposefully created. A flick of a
finger can mean a lot for a character. The font one chooses on a postcard can
mean a lot for the tone of a production.
Prepare, prepare, prepare -- Have as big a tool box with as many tools in it as you can.
That way, you’ll have many strategies to try when you get stuck and feel as if
everything is going to fail.
Emotional truth and authenticity -- The BFA Program is all about this. This
quality makes you a better artist, a better collaborator, a better
administrator. Mostly, it makes me a better person, and that’s the most
important thing of all.
It’s never done. -- There is no “finished product,” just iteration after
iteration.
Self-worth comes from myself. -- We have many intensely dedicated, intensely
passionate teachers in the B.F.A. Program who all have their own valid,
individual responses that are sometimes quite different from one another. All
of these voices are useful. Similarly, audience members or ensemble members may
also have very different opinions. I add all of the voices together -- negative
and positive -- to my knowledge bank and care deeply about them. But, I don’t
cling to them for validation of my worth. Those voices don’t determine one’s
worth. One’s integrity does.
Who influenced you while at school?
In addition to all of my B.F.A. teachers, Michael Sommers (of Open
Eye Figure Theater) had a profound impact on me. I took a puppetry course from
him during one of my last semesters. He did two things: He expanded my brain to
see a different aesthetic of performance and storytelling, and he gave me time
to create without time pressure. We’d have a three-hour class, and for the
majority of the time, we’d be doing something as “simple” as cutting paper.
Cutting that paper taught me about my personal aesthetic and gave me the
confidence to pursue career paths that are uncommon.
How did you go about finding your path into the professional admin
world?
I am both an actor and an administrator, and the intimate
knowledge of both sides helps me be a more effective player on both sides. When
I graduated, Jon Ferguson (Theatre Forever) asked me to help him produce a play
called Super Monkey in the Dowling Studio. He saw something in me (and
I’m forever grateful for that) that said to him I’d be good at admin work. I think it’s
because I have a big picture brain. Even when I am performing as an actor, I
often see myself from a bird’s eye view. That
experience producing caused me to question the sustainability of small theater
companies in general, companies I cared about and wanted to thrive. Those ideas
eventually led to the creation of what has now become ARTshare at The Southern
Theater (headed by the tenaciously dedicated Damon Runnals). I have a strong
sense that we are all in this thing called “theater” together. Your success is
my success. And that belief leads me to being interested in theater admin. I
want the whole damn thing to work!
Why or why not should undergrads consider going to grad school?
I haven’t been to grad school. I was never interested in it, although,
of course, it crosses my mind from time to time. If ever I were to decide to
go, I would need to feel that grad school could fill a hole inside my creative
heart or my practical skill set. I feel that I’m learning so much right now
doing what I’m doing.
Any other advice or ah-ha moments:
Get over the aversion to saying, “no” to a project. You will
always be saying, “no,” because even when you say “yes” to a project, you are,
by default, saying “no” to some other opportunity. It’s the inherent yin and
yang of a decision. Embrace it. It is your power to say “yes” and “no”
to take control of your own life.
Faculty Summer Activities
Lisa Channer, BA program head travels to San
Francisco in June as a performer /writer
in RANT produced by Fools Fury Theatre
at the Fury Factory Festival. She also travels to England where she will be presenting research at the
International Brecht Society Symposium at Oxford.
Sonja Kuftinec, Associate Chair, will be at the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival during May/June attending productions and speaking with
Artistic Director Bill Rauch and other members of the company in preparation
for an article about the company. The trip is supported by Imagine Funds. In August, she will be speaking at the Association for
Theatre in Higher Education conference in Chicago. Her
topic: Women's Roles in Combatants
for Peace--an Israeli Palestinian alliance of ex-combatants who use theater,
storytelling and alternative rituals as a tool of their social movement work. Kuftinec will also be moderating two panels,“Irony
and Activism in Performance” and “Theatre of the Oppressed as
Political/Aesthetic Labor: Toward Timely (Never Timeless) Work.”
Montana Johnson, Audio and
Media Supervisor, created the sound design for Yellow Tree Theatre’s production
of Violet,
the Musical. The show which opened in April continues through May 8 in
Osseo, MN.
Bruce Roach, BFA acting
instructor, fresh from directing Earthquakes in London with the senior
BFA class of 2016 at the Guthrie’s Theater’s Dowling Studio, takes stage
himself. In June and July , he will be
appearing as Malvolio in Twelfth Night at the Heart of
America Shakespeare Festival in Kansas City, MO.
Barbara
Nordstrom-Loeb, Adjunct Faculty , will be teaching Dance
Movement Therapy at the Inspirees Institute of Creative Arts in Shanghai, China
in June.
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