Ghostlight Series: "Heroic Acts of Music" streaming from Theater Latte Da

The third installment of Theater Latte Da's fantastic virtual cabaret series called "The Ghostlight Series" is now available! The five-part series began with the powerful and moving Twelve Blocks From Where I Live, Regina Marie Williams's response to the murder of George Floyd in photos and song. Next was Re-Cast, which gave some of our favorites the chance to sing a song from a role they would never be cast in. And now we have Heroic Acts of Music, honoring 20th Century musicians (and others) who used music for protest or support in difficult and dangerous times. All three shows are available to watch now and as many times as you want through August with the purchase of a season pass. These gorgeously filmed and edited 30-minute shows with fantastic performances from some of #TCTheater's best are worth every penny, helping to bridge the gap until we can gather in person again to share stories and music (hopefully very soon!).

"Once" by Theater Latte Da at Ritz Theater

Ever since it became available for regional productions a few years ago, I've been (im)patiently waiting for a #TCTheater company to do Once, the eight-time Tony winning musical based on the Irish indie film that won an Oscar for best song. My (im)patience has finally been rewarded with a production by my favorite company of theater musically that is, in a word, grand. Theater Latte Da used to have a series called "Broadway Re-imagined," but the cool thing about Once is that the original production on Broadway was already re-imagined, at least in terms of what you usually see on a Broadway stage. It's a small intimate story lacking the traditional (clichéd) happy ending; it features folk-rock music; and there is no separate orchestra, rather the ensemble also functions as the band in one cohesive celebration of music, love, joy, and pain. So very Irish. Still, Latte Da has managed to put their own unique spin on it and cast 13 multi-talented local performers to create something truly special that will make your heart ache in the best possible way.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "A Part of Me"

Day: 2

Show: 6

Title: A Part of Me

Category: Drama / Musical Theater / Original Music

By: Imagined Theatre

Created by: Julie Ana Rayne and Phil Darg

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: Two patients waiting for an organ donation meet in a transitional care facility.

Highlights: This sweet and lovely story of friendship in difficult times caused me to shed my first #fringetears of the festival. The patients, musician Sean and teenager Jimmy, connect over their shared situation (waiting for a liver and kidney transplant, respectively) and their love of music. Sean teaches Jimmy to play the guitar, begrudgingly allowed by understandably overprotective mother Rita. Caregivers nurse Cate and administrator Liz try to make their lives as comfortable as possible, but the situation is dire for both of them if they don't get a transplant soon. I don't want to tell you too much of what happens, but suffice it to say connections are made and lives are changed. The songs are on the whole lovely and melodic, with poignant or funny lyrics. Dan Piering's Sean accompanies many of the songs on guitar (an instrument he's as adept at as his usual cello), with additional accompaniment on keyboard played by, I'm going to assume, composer and lyricist Julie Ana Rayne. Dan, Abilene Olson as Rita, and Rachel Schmidt do most of the singing, and beautifully so. Katie Consumas is natural and believable as one of those angels on earth, a nurse, and young Logan Schuneman is adorable as Jimmy. Amidst the zaniness that is most of Minnesota Fringe, it's a rare treat to experience a moving drama such as this.

If you're interested in becoming an organ donor, visit www.organdonor.gov.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Six Degrees of Separation" by Theater Latte Da at the Ritz Theater

Theater Latte Da "we do theater musically" is closing out their brilliant 2016-2017 season (which also included an exquisite Ragtime, the return of favorites A Christmas Carole Petersen and All is Calm, and a delightfully playful Peter and the Starcatcher) with Six Degrees of Separation. If you're thinking - wait, that's not a musical - you're right. But Latte Da has added music sparingly and organically to make the storytelling better and clearer. There's so much depth in this piece that I haven't yet been able to unpack it all. It reminds me of Mad Men - the highest form of the art we call television. Watching Mad Men, I always felt like everything meant something - every prop, every costume detail, every camera angle, every word, every pause. I may not have known what it meant, but I could tell that every detail was intentional. That's how I feel about Theater Latte Da and director Peter Rothstein in general, and this production in particular. Every detail of design, direction, acting, means something. I might not know what it all means, at least not upon first viewing, but I appreciate the amount of thoughtfulness that goes into every choice.

"Escape from Alcina's Island" by Mixed Precipitation at Falcon Heights Community Garden

For another installment of summer outdoor theater in Minnesota, we have Mixed Precipitation. Every summer they deliver something they like to call a "picnic operetta," which is just what it sounds like - a little light opera with food. Perhaps the "mixed" in this company's name refers to the mixture of food, music, theater, and the outdoors, perhaps it refers to the mixture of classic operetta with pop music. Either way it's a fun, charming, delightful, and yummy example of the outdoor theater that can be had in Minnesota. And even better - they travel around to area parks and gardens, so you can likely find a performance near you.

Handel's opera Alcina, about a seductive sorceress (Carolyn Cavadini) who lures Ruggiero (Dan Piering) away from his beloved Bradamante (Maggie Lofboom) with the help of her sister Morgana (Lizz Windnagel), has been transformed into a story of truckers on the road (adaptation by Director Scotty Reynolds and Music Director Marya Hart). This allows them to bring in some great old Country-Western road and heartbreak songs like "Six Days on the Road," "Heartaches by the Number," "The Race is On," and the classic George and Tammy duet "We're Gonna Hold On." It's great fun to hear these songs played by the four-piece classical/country orchestra, interspersed with Handel's lovely music sung mostly in Italian (with some surtitles charmingly rolled out by hand on a scroll to the left of the stage).

Morgana's Melon Margarita

There's nothing serious about this show, except that this cast can seriously sing. The show is loose and playful, performed with great enthusiasm by the large ensemble which includes several children and teens. Their Western attire adds to the fun and informality of this operetta. The acoustics aren't always great with the wind and the nearby soccer game, but that's part of the charm and spontaneity of outdoor theater.

Alcina's Antipasti

And then there's the food (created by Nick Schneider and Kimlinh Bui). The five courses are announced by the cast and somehow worked into the plot, usually as Alcina offers her guests hospitality. Each of the courses is a perfect little bite of flavor, all of them vegetarian and some of them vegan (make sure to ask about any dietary needs). Plates are passed among the crowd seated on the ground or in camp chairs as the show continues. So come hungry (but not too hungry, they are small bites).

Mixed Precipitation offers a unique, fun, and summery opportunity to enjoy good food and entertaining music-theater in your neighborhood park. I know it's mid-August, but summer in Minnesota isn't over yet so be sure to get in this last taste of outdoor theater before the snow falls! Performances continue at parks and gardens around the Twin Cities area and beyond - see their website for the full tour schedule.

the charming scene at the Picnic Operetta - the race is on!

"Song of Extinction" by Theater Latte Da at the Guthrie Theater

I went to Theater Latte Da's production of Song of Extinction at the Guthrie' Dowling Studio, expecting to see great drama.  But what I didn't expect is that for a few moments, the drama in the audience overshadowed the drama on stage!  About ten minutes into the show I could hear people talking behind me.  My first thought was, "how rude, to talk out loud at the theater!"  But then I realized they were saying "we need medical attention," and, as you usually only hear on TV, "is there a doctor in the house?"  Within seconds the house lights came up, the action on stage stopped, and the ushers and numerous other important looking people rushed in, while we were told to "remain calm and in your seats."  A woman had passed out in her seat, but regained concsiousness before the paramedics arrived.  After a few minutes the actors went backstage, and the stunned silence in the audience turned to chatter as we waited for the paramedics.  The woman was taken out in a wheelchair and is hopefully OK.  The scene was reset, the lights went out, and we rewound to the beginning of the scene that was interrupted.  On with the show.  I have to admit, the excitement totally took me out of the play.  But fortunately it was near the beginning and I was soon able to get back into the world that was just beginning to be created in front of us.

Theater Latte Da usually does musicals, but they occasionally do what they call "a play with music."  This is one of those times.  Song of Extinction, directed by Artistic Director Peter Rothstein, is a new play by EM Lewis about science and life and death and relationships and music.  Max is a 15-year-old boy (played by high school junior Dan Piering, an impressive actor and musician) whose mother (Carla Noack) is dying of cancer and trying to protect her son as best she can.  Max's biologist father (John Middleton) seems to care more about a species of bug he discovered in Bolivia than what's happening with his family.  Faced with losing his wife and his life's work, he chooses to focus on the one that he might have some control over.  Max has no one to turn to, other than his music (he carries his cello in its battered case like a security blanket) and his science teacher, a Cambodian refugee who was the only member of his family to survive the Khmer Rouge.  Mr. Phan (David Mura) understands death and loss and is reluctantly drawn into being there for Max and his family when no one else can.

The theme of extinction runs through the play on several levels.  Max's father's species of bug only exists in a Bolivian rain forest that's about to be destroyed.  He desperately pleads his case to the businessman in charge, telling him that we don't know what the effects of the loss of one species are.  Mr. Phan's whole family became extinct, and as a science teacher he also teaches his students about extinction.  He assigns them a twenty page paper, and when Max is too frightened to be either at the hospital with his mother or at home with his father, he goes to Mr. Phan for help on the paper.  An angry Max asks, "why shouldn't I blow up the school if we're all going to die anyway?"  Mr. Phan calmly gets him to explore the idea in terms of the paper, but he sees that there's more going on, and gets Max to confide in him.  When Max finally turns in his paper after his mother's death, it's a story about his dad the biologist, and his mom's death, and ends with a song he wrote for the cello (an original piece composed by Latte Da Musical Director Denise Prosek).  The play ends with Max playing his "song of extinction" and pouring all of his feeling into the music.

The set design by Michael Hoover is really interesting and effective.  The main focus is a hospital bed surrounded by see-through walls with panels in them that also function as screens.  Old fashioned slide projectors are lined up at the front of the stage and project different designs and colors, as well as pictures of bugs, around the stage.

Song of Extinction is another great piece by Theater Latte Da that, while not a traditional musical, explores the place that music has in our lives.