Twelfth Night - UMD Theatre

Shakespeare Takes on the Swinging Sixties

The Bark

February 10, 2023

Seth Roeser

 

The Rolling Stones, Sinatra and Shakespeare aren’t three acts I’d normally associate with each other, but UMD’s production of Twelfth Night demonstrates it may not be such a far out idea.  From the music, costumes, set and performances, everything comes together to form a charmingly goofy play.

Directed by professor Jenna Soleo-Shanks and student Lou Divine, the creative team behind the play made the groovy decision to set Shakespeare’s classic comedy in the psychedelic swinging 60s. 

And it works, man. 

If I had to describe the vibe, I would compare it to the Soul Bossa Nova scene from Austin Powers, but two hours long and with about 900% more instances of the word “perchance.”  The actors’ dialogue is still very much Shakespearean, but lead Hope Davis manages the impressive feat of delivering her lines naturally and understandably to a non-Shakespeare familiar audience (like myself). In fact, through their cadence and body language, the entire cast makes the comedy surprisingly easy to follow. 

To nobody’s surprise, Jack Senske once again proves his quality as an actor. Jumping from Stupid F##king Bird earlier this year to Twelfth Night, Senske shows that not only can he convincingly inhabit two very different roles, but be entertaining while doing it. 

Being set in the greatest decade for music means the crew got to take advantage of some great tunes for the soundtrack. That's right – music is performed throughout the play with the help of the ensemble cast. 

Music is embedded in the DNA of Twelfth Night. A quick Google search tells me it's the only Shakespeare play to open and close with music. The first line is even “If music be the food of love, play on.” 

With music being such an important part of the original, it's just as vital in this adaptation. The songs of the 60s sell you on its setting. And the songs they used are killer. Among other tracks, there's some Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Beatles and a cheeky little Rolling Stones reference for good measure. 

But if the set and the songs don’t convince you of the setting, the outfits will. Costume designers Moriah Babinski and Archie Reed knew what they were doing. Deklan Boren’s character, Feste, looks like the lovechild of Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. Throw in the perfectly-fitting hair and makeup by Jeannie Hurley and you get a package that speaks for itself. 

If you are planning on seeing the production (you should be), I’d recommend reading a synopsis of Twelfth Night beforehand. Thanks to the cast’s delivery, you won’t be completely lost if you don’t do your research, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. 

The show is running until February 12 (ha) and tickets are available here. Depending on availability, rush tickets are available at the door.

 

 

Stupid F##king Bird - UMD Theatre

 

UMD Does a Play That is Not The Seagull

Lawrance Bernabo

November 5, 2022 

 

No, I am not going to put Stupid F##king Bird in the headline and I will resist the temptation to work in double hashtags throughout this review. Instead, I will just say that the production that opened at UMD on Friday night is an extremely engaging rollercoaster theatrical experience.

In case it is not obvious from that title, playwright Aaron Posner has stripped Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull down to the skeleton, with a few bits of flesh left (I recognized at least one line from Chekhov early on). There are a lot of interesting ways to characterize the end result, but I will go with dramaturg Gavin Orson’s use of “metatheatricality.”

The point is not that you need to know Chekhov to get this play. All that is necessary is that you love theater.

Chekhov intended The Seagull to be a comedy, but Konstantin Stanislavski’s production convinced people it was a tragedy. Posner’s version makes it a true tragicomedy.

In other words, you are going to laugh from the gut, but you are going to take a few punches there as well.

This plot presents a chain of unrequited love. Dev loves Mash who loves Conrad who loves Nina who loves Trigorin who loves Emma. That adds up to four intersecting love triangles, and establishes Conrad, the suffering young artist, as the play’s pivotal character.

Director Lauren Roth takes great advantage of the intimacy provided by the Dudley Experimental Theater. Every character has a lengthy monologue addressed to the audience, done up close and personal.

As Conrad, Hunter Ramsden goes on some epic rants, bringing as much passion as he does pure speed to these explosions. Posner likes to take sharp left turns with his dialogue, and Ramsden not only handles those, he constantly shifts his delivery as well. These rants break the fourth wall, and one of them is done without a net because it involves audience interaction.

Conrad is trying to revolutionize theater, to achieve something that is “authentic” rather than “make-believe.”

His muse is Nina, played by Isabelle Hopewell, the actress for his “Here We Are” work in progress and the object of his thwarted desire. In a show that has so many impressive moments of performance, there is Nina’s final monologue, where Hopewell had me laughing at a stupid T-shirt joke and then had tears in my eyes less than 30 seconds later.

Irie Unity plays the little black cloud that is Mash and it is wonderfully ironic how she expresses her depression in singing songs about how “life is disappointing,” while playing the ukulele.

Cody Do gives Dev a certain naïve charm that helps explain why the character is able to stay out of the line of fire when any combination of the other six goes after each other.

Maddie Froehle’s Emma is an actress who does not have to see a show first to denounce it. Emma is also Conrad’s mother, although in name only. Even when Emma says the right words, Froehle strips them of the requisite emotion.

What I loved about Luke Pfluger’s performance as Trigorin is that I hated the character the moment he walked on stage with that smug little smile. Trigorin quickly proved he was arrogant, pompous, and everything Conrad was not (and not in a good way).

The character caught in the middle by his exclusion from the love chain is Dr. Sorn, played by Jack Senske. We wait the entire play for him to confront the others, and I liked how he did most of it with his back to the audience.

He also has the best use of a Life Savers candy since “Horsefeathers.”

Chekhov questioned what theater should be in his day. He wanted realism. Posner wants something more. A measure of his success as a playwright and of these seven performers is that at the end of all three acts (intermission comes after the second act), the audience did not know it was time to applaud.

Because they were not watching the play, they were experiencing theater.

That, more than the romantic entanglements, is what you are supposed to take away from t##s play.

Almost made it...

Main Street - UMD Theatre

 

UMD Offers Brilliant Adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street

 

Lawrance Bernabo

Duluth News Tribune

October 1, 2022 

On Friday night, a new staging of Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street adapted and directed by Tom Isbell had its World Premiere on UMD’s mainstage.  This is a brilliant adaptation of the novel, creatively staged, and providing every cast member multiple moments to shine on stage.  Opening night was woefully under-attended.  This review is out to change that.

Lewis, who lived in Duluth in the early 1940s, was the first American author to win the Nobel Prize for literature.  In his 1920 novel Main Street, Carol Milford Kennicott collides with the small-town mentality of the folks of Gopher Prairie (a.k.a. Lewis’s hometown of Sauk Centre).

As soon as Thressa Schultz appears on stage in her gorgeous green dress, you know this is her story.  In the novel, Carol starts off as a bit of a ditz, but Isbell fast-forwards through that part and Schulz gives us a Carol, who is a shade smarter and more aware than almost anyone she meets, which is what makes her story tragic.

Schultz is also the show’s choreographer, which manifests mainly in Carol’s interpretive dances at the start and end of the play.  But I also found a large segment of Schultz’s portrayal of Carol is choreographed.  Over the course of the play, Schultz’s hands trace her character’s downward spiral as she goes from hands on waist, to hands on hips, to hands on her thighs.

Whether this was conscious or not, it really worked.  Carol spends a lot of time suffering in silence or speaking but hiding her true thoughts, leaving her to communicate non-verbally what is being unspoken to the audience.  You cannot take your eyes off of her.

Like Jane Austen, a lot of the good stuff in the novel is in the descriptions and not the dialogue.  Isbell’s solution is to create a Reporter, played by Olivia Nelson, who is not merely a substitute for the Stage Manager in Our Town.

While the style might be similar, especially with the scenic design by Curtis Phillips being a butcher block square stage and dark green chairs in perpetual motion, the substance of the two plays are diametric opposites.  Main Street is the harsh black-and-white counterpart to the red, white and blue Our Town.

Additionally, Nelson is always around the stage when she is not on it, providing constant editorial comment through a series of looks and headshots, even engaging members of the audience to ensure they are aware of the absurdity of the action.

Isbell’s script and staging creates more of a theatrical montage than a series of scenes, until the several significant scenes making up the play’s climax.

There is humor sprinkled throughout the show, often in the droll interplay between the Reporter and the characters.  But even more than the blackout where the “wolves” go after the “sheep” at Carol’s housewarming party, the comic highlight is the meeting of the women of Gopher Prairie to study English Literature.

These women would find the CliffsNotes versions of Shakespeare too lengthy to crack open, and the four distinct ways the characters played by Emily Bolles, Kaitlyn Callahan, Zsofi Eastvold, and Cindy Hansen get laughs are truly hysterical.

The dramatic highpoint is the forceful and compelling speech Jack Lieder gives as Dr. Will Kennicott to try and save his marriage.  It not only justifies his life’s work but eviscerates the would-be young artist who has captured his wife’s attention.  Lieder totally convinced me his character deserved better than he was getting from Carol.

Most of the cast play multiple roles.  In a nice little casting twist, Eastvold plays both the false and true kindred spirits Carol encounters.

Trevor Hendrix brings a necessary earnestness to Erik Valborg, Tanner Longshore invests Miles Bjornstam with a sense of simple honesty, Deklan Boren finds new ways to make most of his characters instantly unlikeable, and Ben Hanzsek-Brill comes up with a captivating cadence when he talks as Guy Pollock.

I have seen several original theatrical productions in Duluth.  This one deserves to be performed on other stages in both college and community theaters.

Pippin - UMD Theatre

 

UMD’s Musical Pippin Lacks Magic

Duluth New Tribune
Sheryl Jensen 

April 15, 2022


UMD Theatre Department’s opening night of the musical Pippin did not meet the level of performance excellence of many of their past musicals. While it did have some bright spots, on the whole, it was a lackluster evening of theater.

Telling the medieval tale of King Charlemagne and his eldest son Pepin (Pippin), the musical is typically done with its original 1970’s vibe that the music from composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz (of “Wicked” fame) helps to dictate.

Beginning with the show’s opening number, “Magic to Do,” the tone for an evening of theatrical razzle-dazzle should be set. From the start, sadly, there was very little sparkling spectacle happening on the UMD stage.

Choreographer and director Bob Fosse’s groundbreaking “concept” musicals, beginning with Pippin in 1973, and followed by Cabaret and Chicago, established an entirely new way of looking at musical storytelling and dance.

These shows with their darker and even sinister tones broke from the feel-good, happy, traditional musicals of stage and screen of the '40s and '50s.

According to guest director Dennis F. Johnson’s program note, UMD’s show overlays a classic 1940 and '50s Hollywood MGM movie musical style. This odd choice ended up creating a mishmash of costuming and staging, and more importantly, clouded a clear vision of the intent of the show.

While it isn’t, of course, necessary to duplicate Fosse’s iconic style down to the last hip gyration and use of jazz hands, it is still important that the show have a cohesive style which acknowledges his changing the face of musical theater forever. On that essential point, UMD’s show misses the mark.

Even though it is not musical “comedy” in the traditional sense, the show does have some genuinely funny moments. The UMD cast failed to bring out the humor enough in line readings, expressions and body language to land many of the “jokes.”

The UMD cast best succeeded with a few of the show’s quiet ballads such as Pippin (Nick Wright) and Catherine (Emily Bolles) singing ”Love Song” and Bolles’s lovely rendition of “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man.” A wonderful vocal moment came at the very end of the show with Theo (Zsofi Eastvold) doing a short reprise of “Corner of the Sky.”

The biggest sparks of energy and fun came from Laura Carlson in her role as the “leading player.” While she, at times, lacked some of the more menacing side that the role requires, the stage came to life when she helped to tell the story and kept the pacing moving. She also had some powerful vocal moments that showcased some of Schwartz’s music.

To be sure, the UMD cast looked like they were having fun, and the audience, which included mostly students, was vocal in their responses to their fellow students onstage.

Like every other college theater program, UMD is trying to come back after a two-year COVID gap of missing out on some of their students’ essential training and live performance. Thankfully, students are again attending in-person classes and performing onstage doing what they are being trained to do.

I look forward to next season, when I anticipate more of UMD’s musical magic will be uniformly showcased again.

The School for Lies - UMD Theatre

 

Lots of Hot Comedy in The School for Lies

Duluth New Tribune
Lawrance Bernabo

February 4, 2022 

 The School For Lies, David Ives’s “translaptation” of Moliere’s classic comedy The Misanthrope, opened at the University of Minnesota Duluth on Thursday night.  This is a show that slowly simmers for the first one-third, starts boiling and then refuses to stop.

Alceste the misanthrope is now named Frank because that is what the character clearly is as he rudely criticizes everyone’s flaws.  The young widow Celimene is equally critical of others and pursued by a trio of inept suitors.  Once Frank’s wingman Philinte tells Celimene’s gal pal Eliante a strategic lie, the romantic ball starts rolling and wackiness ensues.

Director Lauren Roth has put together a production where every single member of the cast has multiple moments to shine.

As Frank, Ian Wallin wields his caustic opinions like a baseball bat, while Kelly Solberg’s Celimene favors using a rapier in her attacks, when she is not rapping or going vapid Valley Girl.  She is up on points by the end of the night.

Even funnier is how their victims steal the moments back from their tormentors.  This show gets into gear when Celimene skewers Mikela Anderson’s Arsinoé who then loses it.  Completely.  On several levels.  Likewise, when Frank offers his insulting “apology” to Oronte, Nick Wright’s inarticulate rage was just epic.

In this comedy of manners, the most comic manners, both quantitatively and qualitatively, goes to Jake Lieder’s Acaste, who also displays a nice array of sudden shifts in delivery to humorous effect.

Ives is working in iambic pentameter and while there are certainly several payoffs to the rhyming couplets, the best humor comes when the characters break up the meter.  Especially when the cast starts playing things broadly, while keeping the characters grounded, which perfectly defines Maddie Schafer’s performance as Eliante.  Schafer used her voice, face, and body to punctuate her passionate dialogue.

Add to that moments of hysterical physical comedy that should stop Moliere from spinning in his grave over the whole translaptation thing.  Such as when Bryce Melton as Clitander makes his case for why he would be better, in a certain area of marital relations, than his competitors.  Others might be haunted more by where Frank’s encouragement of Jack Senske’s Philinte to woo Eliante takes the two of them.

Emily Crawford’s exquisite scenic design has a trio of chandeliers casting shadow on a black and white checkerboard floor and a settee covered in cursive and printed script, while the back wall offers a quartet of pop art portraits in the style of Andy Warhol.

Jeannie Hurley’s costumes are a luscious mix of gorgeous gowns for the women and excessive elegance for the men, topped off by wigs created by Ora Jewell-Busche.

Ives ends his version with a compilation of Moliere’s greatest hits: the royal ex machina from Tartuffe, the return of a long-lost character from The Miser, and the revelation of twins from the one where twins are revealed.

However, I do have a serious concern that the serving tray used by Hunter Ramsden’s Dubois cannot possibly survive the entire run of this show.

DanceWorks 2021 - UMD Theatre

  

UMD's Dance Works 2021 Brings Variety of Dances to Stage

Kelly Sue Coyle,

Duluth News Tribune 

December 4, 2021

Matthew Wagner, Dance Works 2021 artistic director and assistant professor of dance and musical theater, showcases a blend of faculty, student, and community works to an arts-starved audience coming off a year-and-a-half-long sabbatical.

The performance opened with a quintessential parody of a ballet class, choreographed by LilaAnn Coates White. This piece was presented in three parts scattered throughout the show. Standout Erin Clark had lovely technique. Clark consistently used good turnout (external rotation of the hips), stretched well through the legs, and demonstrated fluid motion.

"The Big Scare in the Big Easy," choreographed by Willa Gulstrand, another parody, was reminiscent of the 1970’s cartoon Scooby Doo. Lighting designer Braden Kowalski did an excellent job bringing bold vintage geometric shapes to the backdrop that framed the dancers well.

An interesting piece, "Hotel California," choreographed by Bettie Schultz, had some very nice choreographic elements. The corps began in two rows semi-silhouette by stage-left side lighting. With most dancers in black, the one woman in red stood out nicely by contrast. This piece had some lovely port de bras (carriage of the arms) while filling the space well. Although I can see why Schultz chose the acoustic guitar introduction version of the music, the live recording with audience noises was distracting to the piece itself.

The upbeat "Go Big or Go Home," choreographed by Jaclyn Nessett, was a lot of fun to watch. The dancers had good energy on stage, but at times seemed to be waiting for the music. Lighting designer Andrew Norfolk almost used his lighting as a percussive support which helped the stage come alive.

"Day by Day" was the strongest tap piece of the show, choreographed by Danielle Mattson and Matthew Wagner. Mattson, who performed "Day by Day" with clear strong sounds, kept excellent time with her quick riffs and pullbacks. "Exile" by Kylee Berude was by far the cleanest and best-executed choreographic work. The movement contained both axial and locomotor movement, good use of space and relationship of dancers, and even energy. Overall, an excellent piece.

The 218 Dance Project dancers stole the show. The pint-sized dancers executed a lyrical piece that blew my socks off. With the choreographic genius of Courtney LaPlante, the stretchy little dancers jumped, twisted, and turned with artistry beyond their years.

By and large, this was an enjoyable show that highlighted faculty, student, and guest artists' work. The costumes and lighting throughout helped to highlight the narrative and created mood. The show provided a nice variety of ballet, contemporary, lyrical, and tap. However, all speaking parts were very difficult to hear and an insert with the guest performers' and choreographers' names was missing.

Maxa, the Maddest Woman in the World - UMD Theatre

 UMD’s Maxa Has Its Flaws, But Delivers the Big Moment 

Lawrance Bernabo 

Duluth News Tribune 

October 15, 2021

The one thing Duluth theater needs to power up to the next level are original works. University of Minnesota Duluth contributes to that endeavor with the world premiere of Maxa, the Maddest Woman in the World.  The new horror musical takes a bumpy road to a powerful payoff delivered by the two actresses playing the title role. 

With book and lyrics by Mika Kauffman and music by Thomas Jacobsen, and codirected by William Payne and Naomi Brecht, Maxa is inspired by the life of Paula Maxa.  Ultimately, the creators are more interested in Paula, as a rape survivor, than in Maxa, the actress who died 10,000 times in myriad horrible ways at Paris’ Grand Guignol Theater. 

The scenic design by Curtis Phillips and Sam Keran uses lights and projections to create a gorgeous crimson symphony of gothic shadows looming over a blood-soaked stage. 

Act 1 has Laura Carlson’s Older Paula looking back on the life of Younger Paula (Mikayla Payne), who seems distracted by the future that she apparently wants (“Wicked”). 

Her subsequent rape is briefly represented in silhouette, which calculatedly undercuts its devastating impact. The trauma is repressed/ forgotten during the rest of the act as Younger Paula first takes over the stage and then the entire theater at the Grand Guignol. 

Act 2 becomes a psychological nightmare setting up Older Paula for “The Game,” where Maxa will “die for the last time.” The biggest thing Maxa has going for besides its look is its cathartic climax delivered by Carlson and Payne in the emotionally wrenching “Despite It All.” 

Jacobsen has pulse-pounding base lines in “The Maddest Woman in the World” and “No Limits, No Rules,” and Patrick Colvin’s band sounded great. But a lot of Kauffman’s lyrics were lost at crucial times because of sound issues. You are struck more by the moments their music creates for the characters and the story than the music itself. 

There is a degree of disappointment about the level of gore at the Grand Guignol because after all the buildup about “The Strangest Showhouse in the World,” you want to see effects several cuts above the “Haunted Irvin.” 

As Georges, Trevor Hendrix plays a pivotal role in the production of the jarring fast-forwarding to his relationship with Paula (“Lovely”). But in both “Georges’ Goodbye” and “I Never Told You,” Hendrix convinces us his love for her is real. 

Maddie Schafer’s lilting voice is used to good effect as Paula’s Mother in “Let Me Hold You” and the “Finale.” Ben Knowlton’s histrionics as the mad doctor were spot on for a Grand Guignol performance, as was the intensity Kelly Solberg brought to “House of Pain.” Jake Mathey has fun as Camille the campy but creepy M.C. of the Grand Guignol. 

Because it is a world premiere, the audience does not know when songs end so they can clap, like they should have at the end of Carlson’s poignant “Scream Into Silence.” Also, it is annoying there are so many students in the audience — presumably theater majors — incapable of seeing the characters because they insist on giggling at their classmates.