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. 

Alice in Wonderland - UMD Theatre

 

Down the Rabbit Hole on the Glensheen Grounds

Sheryl Jensen
Duluth News Tribune
September 14, 2021

Glensheen’s beautiful grounds were transformed into a magical playground for the University of Minnesota Duluth Theatre’s immersive performance of Alice in Wonderland on Monday. With patio-style string lights and other colored lighting throughout the property, the beautiful trees, and the site’s natural and man-made nooks, crannies, hollows and elevations, the overall visual effect was stunning.

Director Jenna Soleo-Shanks’ concept of having the audience follow Alice “down the rabbit hole” and on the path to the sites of various vignettes from the story was inventive. Unfortunately, the actual execution was, at times, much less successful.

Being so immediate to Lake Superior’s crashing waves was wonderfully atmospheric but added to the difficulty of hearing the unmiked actors. The cast’s relative position to the audience in some places, and blocking that didn’t open them up enough, also caused the audience to miss some of the dialogue.

And while the lights were gorgeous and added dramatically to the ambiance, the actor’s faces were often unlit, causing some of their facial expressions to be lost.

In one instance, audience focus was jarringly split between a smaller scene and, in another location, dialogue, lighting and even an explosion.

Costuming was a mixed bag. Alice’s powder-blue dress, with its twinkling lighted skirt, was absolutely charming. The Mad Hatter’s colorful coat and top hat, and the Red Queen’s elaborate dress and conical hairdo were on point. Some of the other costumes, however, looked like pulled-together pieces from the costume shop that lacked a cohesive concept.

While their performances were enthusiastic and energetic, the cast’s level of acting was uneven. With some diction and projection issues and lack of creative characterization, some of the dazzle of author Lewis Carroll’s imaginative menagerie was lost.

Straight out of Disney casting and with a pitch-perfect voice, Thressa Schultz embodies Alice from the top of her blond head down to her Mary Jane shoes. As the Mad Hatter, Zac Pollitt is appropriately frenetic, and as the Queen of Hearts, Mackenzie Ammon has just the right gravitas and bluster.

I highly recommend audience members bring their own flashlights to help light the irregularly surfaced path. More ushers and the pixie/floral ensemble could also have used additional flashlights to illuminate where people were walking.

If UMD had decided to do a few matinees, younger kids could have come and would not have been afraid of the show’s spookier elements in the dark of night. The show is recommended for ages 10 and over.

Bravo to UMD for tackling a challenging project and venue, and the risks of an outdoor performance in Duluth in the fall. Luckily, on opening night, the theatrical gods were kind, and the rain held out until the very end.

Audience members are advised that they will be continually standing, walking on uneven paths and navigating over stone slab stairs. People are advised to wear appropriate footwear for a walk, and to dress according to current weather conditions. Masks are required.

bare - UMD Theatre

Masked Actors Bare Their Emotions in UMD’s Pop Opera

Sheryl Jensen
Duluth News Tribune
April 30, 2021

Socially distanced onstage and masked, the company in UMD’s bare had to find new ways to employ their craft, since only their eyes were visible, and they could neither touch or even get too close to their fellow actors.

Kudos to Thomas Jacobsen, director and music director, and choreographer Matthew Wagner, for helping their cast members find new ways to express themselves, with their acting and dance stylized with lyrical grace and symbolic movement to fit the restrictions of staying true to COVID protocols.
Evoking moments of the musicals Spring Awakening and the more comic Do Black Patent Shoes Really Reflect Up?, bare explores some familiar themes of gay love, parental conflicts, bullying, drugs, and suicide, with the intriguing overlay of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Shakespeare’s classic tale of young, doomed love dovetails with the stories of the musical’s Catholic high school students in rehearsal for the play.  Even some of Shakespeare’s lines are incorporated cleverly in the lyrics of some of the songs.

Telling the story of a hidden love, also doomed, between two boys Peter (Jake Nelson) and Jason (Christopher Hoffman) is the heart of the story.  Trying to keep their love secret from their fellow students, their parents, a priest, and the watchful eye of Sister Chantelle, is a high wire act that is destined to fail.

Nelson and Hoffman are spot on in their portrayals of the geeky, shy and innocent Peter, and Jason, the gregarious, swaggering jock who has girls following in his wake.  Both their songs together and their solos are gorgeously sung with emotion and poignancy.  Both used their expressive eyes as a meaningful part of their journey throughout the show.

Jenessa Iverson as Ivy, the girl who comes between the two boys, shows how even the prettiest girl in school may have real depth and be more than just the “portrait” people see in her.  Iverson used body language and her beautiful voice to bring Ivy to heart-wrenching life.

Daylen Moore, playing Nadia, Jason’s twin sister, was the standout of the show, with her mature and commanding voice coming through crystal clear, even from behind her mask.  Whether in her comic lamentations or soul-searching ballads, she was vocally and emotionally rock solid.

At times, however, for particularly some of the supporting players, the masks did interfere with clarity.  Using subtitles in the exclusively streamed performance may have helped audiences with lyrics in a show that was probably new to most.  The full company harmonies were still, however, absolutely stunning in several spots throughout the production.

I couldn’t stop thinking, though, as I watched the show on my computer at home, how much I would have loved to see it again with a live audience inside Marshall Performing Arts Center and a COVID-free world outside.

I wanted to see the actors’ faces reflecting the unbounded joys and crushing heartaches of young love, to hear their voices unmuffled, and to be a part of the enthusiastic applause and standing ovation that they would have so richly deserved.

 

DanceWorks 2020 - UMD Theatre

 Even While Masked and Socially Distant, UMD Dancers Still Connect

Sheryl Jensen

Duluth News Tribune 

December 18, 2020

Dancing on a lonely gravel road, in a dimly lit ballroom studio, by the shores of Lake Superior at sunrise — the settings for the University of Minnesota Duluth's Virtual DanceWorks 2020 concert were as eclectic as the musical styles and choreographers’ visions.

In many ways, this virtual concert, done as individual videos, made for an appropriate study in “art-making in the COVID era,” as described by Rebecca Katz Harwood, co-artistic director and UMD associate professor.

Co-artistic director and new assistant professor Matthew Wagner noted the key ingredients were “the resiliency and adaptability” of everyone involved from the faculty, student choreographers, dancers, videographers and the legion of collaborators it took to make this happen, including the MMAD Lab (Department of Art and Design).

VIDEO: Pandemic sparks creativity for UMD dance students

While there were plenty of BA and BFA theater majors featured prominently, there were biology, criminology, history, public health and a variety of other majors and minors who were on board for the sheer joy of dancing, expressing themselves in ways that allowed them to break free from the cloistered lives most have been living for months.

Some of the pieces were at times uneven and under-rehearsed. Some seemed like those dances one does alone with no one watching, while others took flight and soared with elegance, whimsy and grace.

Three of the most polished and well-conceived student choreographed pieces were “something” by Audrey Lokken, “Feel It Still” by Bri Shea, and “Birds of Prey” by Emily Chittenden. Each used their chosen music and talented dancers to make very different statements using the medium of dance.

Patrick Timmons’ evocative, self-choreographed piece, “A Love Letter to The Self,” had a lovely mix of American sign language hand movements, facial expressions and ethereal scarves blowing in the midst of gorgeous outdoor scenes. Kudos to videographer Christopher Hoffmann’s fabulous work done in black and white.

“Homeward,” Katz Harwood’s introspective piece, recreated the spirit of the “poor wayfaring stranger,” with dancer and collaborator Elsa Hennessey-Barnes. Videographer Colin Hennessy-Barnes wonderfully captured the iconic nature of a solitary country road in the middle of nowhere.

Wagner’s “Rhythm Rooms” was an exciting tap number with “islands” of small platforms: six dancers doing solos, dancing together and providing the rhythm underscore for each other. The only music used was the staccato of the tapping, in one of the evening’s highlights.

Bryn Cohn, a Los Angeles-based choreographer, filmmaker, movement director and educator, was the show’s guest choreographer on “Center Center.” Katz Harwood, Wagner and the three talented dancers — Patrick Timmons, Camryn Buelow and Danielle Mattson — worked on the UMD campus virtually with Cohn to bring her brilliant piece together.

A mix of dance and musical styles gave Cohn’s piece a theatrical Broadway quality that allowed each of the performers a chance to strut their stuff. Videographers/editors David Cowadin and Dan Fitzpatrick did incredible work moving from location to location on campus, down hallways and steps and then moving into the theater onstage and in the empty audience seats for this total wow of a finale to the concert.

Henry V - UMD Theatre

 Live Theater Returns with Shakespeare in the Rain

Lawrance Bernabo, Sheryl Jensen, Tony Bennett, Mark Nicklawske & Kelly Sue Coyle
Duluth News Tribune
September 25, 2020

Technically it was “drizzle,” not “rain,” gently falling upon the UMD Theatre Department’s outdoor production of Shakespeare’s Henry V on Thursday.  But whatever the official designation, the precipitation was insufficient to stop Duluth’s first theatrical show since the world went dark in March.

The approximately 60 patrons attending the performance had brought their own chairs and blankets.  I had a wide-brimmed hat to keep my glasses dry on the outside, but the inside kept fogging up because I was wearing a mask (which certainly kept my face warm).

“Hank Cinq” (pardon my French) is an ideal production to stage in the time of COVID-19. The work is in the public domain, so no royalties need be paid.  More importantly, in the play’s prologue, Chorus explains there is no way the cast can actually stage the epic battle of Agincourt, so we should use our imaginations to pretend there are armies and horses.

So performing outside in Ordean Court with all the off-stage cast members in view and UMD students periodically wandering by seemed utterly appropriate.

Director Tom Isbell streamlined the play into a 90-minute production, performed by 14 cast members without intermission.  Except for Jake Nelson’s King Henry, everybody is playing multiple parts as they race on and off stage.

Most of the scenes are played at a fast tempo and high volume, which took a bit of getting used to. Henry’s rebuke of the Dauphin’s gift of tennis balls seemed too fast, and his “once more unto the breach” speech could have been bigger.

In contrast, Laura Carlson’s Chorus was more measured and always provided a sense of the drama she was describing.

The scene in French where Alice (Mikayla Anderson) gives Katharine (Camryn Buelow) an anatomical English lesson delighted the opening late afternoon audience.

Ryan Horrocks does a nice job shooting his mouth off too much as the Dauphin; Christopher Hoffmann plays up Fluellen’s lush Welsh accent; and as Ancient Pistol, Patrick Timmons gets laughs boasting with small scissors.

The Battle of Agincourt was presented as an interpretive dance, which actually could have gone on much longer.  Background music was provided by a trio of drummers.

One surprising aspect of the outdoor performance was the effective use of colored lights, as when they cast blue lights on characters setting the mood for the little touch of Harry in the night.

For most of the play, I never gave a thought to how performers were socially distancing.  Only when Henry asked for the count of the dead and the herald placed the messages on the stage for the king to pick up, did I suddenly remember the new rules.

The cast wore microphones to deal with the twin burdens of performing outside while wearing masks, so we could hear everybody.  I took their wearing masks for granted until the princess showed up with her flowing black tresses, making her mask look like she had a beard.

But then, in the play’s penultimate scene, that same mask became part of an utterly novel way for the future royal couple to seal the deal.

Machinal - UMD Theatre

 

Woman Yearns to be Free in Expressionist Drama Machinal

Lawrance Bernabo
Duluth News Tribune 

March 6, 2020

6

A young woman arrives late (again) for work. Her boss talks to her, and when he puts his hand on her shoulder, her reaction is so visceral, you know more than her physical space is being violated.

 

Sophie Treadwell’s psychodrama Machinal plays at UMD’s Dudley Experimental Theatre the weekends before and after spring break.

 

This is a provocative play, confronting the audience with performances ranging from naturalistic to absurd that recalibrate characters with each episode, all progressing toward a tragic end.

 

The characters have names but are reduced in the program to simple archetypes. As Young Woman riding home on the subway, Madison Lang looks exactly like a beleaguered heroine from a German expressionist film by Murnau or Wiene.

 

Several episodes have Young Woman assaulted by voices in her head, and Lang has to use only her face and body through these extended sequences to express her inner turmoil.

 

The playwright suffered from anxiety and had been institutionalized, so behind the expressionist exaggerations of Young Woman’s crippling anxiety attacks, there is a cold, harsh reality.

 

Ian Wallin shades Husband’s words ever so slightly, conveying a malevolent entitlement. Anna Matthes’s Mother is stuck in perpetual nag mode, hearing but not listening to her daughter.

 

As soon as we see Eukariah Tabaka as First Man, his plaid flannel shirt and jeans signify he is different from the other characters, especially since he speaks like a human being.

 

The baker’s dozen ensemble play multiple supporting roles and help change the sets, marching through their paces with metronomic precision. Director William Payne, along with the cast and crew, make each of the nine episodes a unique combination of expressionist elements.

 

The opening episode is driven by the rhythms of the workplace: an adding machine, typewriter, switchboard and filing cabinet. Each worker’s costume is accented by a tie, vest, hem, or scarf covered in letters and numbers. Their harsh barking laughter signifies something darker than humor.

 

In stark contrast, another episode takes place in the dark, light provided momentarily by a struck match and then a dim streetlight. Projections on a distant back wall are used to establish a sense of place for most of the episodes or to present constantly shifting inky images that become almost recognizable at times.

 

Chris Harwood’s sound design is a critical component throughout the show, and the strategic selection of period songs is most obvious with “The Wedding of the Painted Doll” before the honeymoon episode.

 

The scenic design by Stella Vatnsdal is such that you really want to be sitting in the center or left of center, to be able to see everything that is happening down the corridor.

 

Treadwell wrote Machinal in 1928, and a literate audience of that time would have recognized Young Woman’s plight in the stories of Emma Bovary, Anna Karenina, and Edna Pontellier. Not surprisingly, Treadwell had a different endgame in mind.

 

The expressionist elements give Machinal its theatricality, but Young Woman’s story and Lang’s performance provide its dramatic weight as a tragic tale.

 

The Little Prince - UMD Theatre






The Little Prince Comes to Life on UMD Stage
 
Lawrance Bernabo
Duluth News Tribune
February 7, 2020 


“One sees clearly only with the heart.  What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

For her final play at UMD, director Ann Aiko Bergeron has selected the beloved story of The Little Prince.  The tale is a testament to the power and importance of imagination, and this production, which opened Thursday night, beautifully brings all that to life on stage.

As the wide-eyed Little Prince, Austin Becker cultivates one of those odd but interesting ways of speaking that makes a character instantly captivating, and sound both young and wise.  Jack Senske’s Aviator has to be the adult in the relationship for most of the play, but his closing lines are the night’s biggest emotional moment.

The performances are clearly calibrated for the young, and certainly the youngest audience members responded gleefully when the Little Prince traveled to other planets to meet an oddball quintet, all of whom are played by the tag-team of Zachariah Sterner and Liam Jeffrey.

Sterner finds three different ways to go big with the King, the Businessman and the Geographer, while Jeffrey gives the Conceited Man and the delightful Lamplighter decidedly different accents.

The way the laughter passed from the kids to the adults reminded me of in “Neverland” when J.M. Barrie plants the orphans in the opening night audience of “Peter Pan.”  Of course, the second half of The Little Prince enters philosophical territory way over the heads of the kids.

Jeffrey also plays a pivotal role as the Fox, who is able to teach the Little Prince more than all the silly grownups combined.  Daysha Ramsey plays the vain Rose that is the object of the Little Prince’s affection, and then returns as the Snake, who certainly seems very serpent-like.

The rest of the cast consists of an eight-person “Environsemble,” who morph from stars in the night sky to the Aviator’s airplane to a field of rippling wheat.  They are the dancing wind, the Little Prince’s opponents in a game of whack-a-baobab, a well in the desert, an echo, a mirror, a wall of cacklin’ roses, and even a scorpion.  The common denominator is Bergeron turning the story into a more compelling theatrical experience.

The gorgeous scenic design by Ashley Wereley is complemented by the colorful costumes of the Environsemble.  The projections designed by Ben Harvey charmingly let us see the Aviator’s artwork throughout the evening.

The choice of characters cut by Rick Cummins and John Scoullar in adapting the novella is crucial.  By abandoning some of the more ambiguous elements, this script actually heightens the allegorical nature of Saint-Exupéry’s work.

One of the reasons those who love The Little Prince return to the story time and time again is that as you continue to grow up, new meanings are revealed in the telling of the tale.  This production helps make that visible to the eyes of its audience.