"at low tide" by The Moving Company at The Southern Theater

I love The Moving Company, but they make my job very difficult. Because mere words cannot describe the magic that they create on stage. I didn't fully understand everything that was happening on the Southern Theater stage last night, but I found myself inexplicably moved by the combination of words, silence, movement, performance, sound, and lighting. I guess that's why they call themselves The Moving Company; they move people, and isn't that what art is all about? So I can't tell you exactly what you'll see if you go see at low tide (and you should), and what you see may be different from what I saw. But I can guarantee that you will be moved, and transported into another dimension for about 80 minutes.

"This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, and this girl does all three and loves it! For their current production, Ten Thousand Things has found a fairy tale gem of a play that feels like it was written for their "All the Lights On" barebones straight-to-the-heart storytelling style. And it feels like it was written for this excellent five-person cast, so natural and rich and true are their performances. The story feels like a myth or a legend that could have been told around campfires for centuries, about three sisters - triplets - whose happy childhood is interrupted by tragedy, which sets them on three separate paths that eventually come back together again. This Girl is funny and sweet and heart-warming and joyful, in a way that only TTT shows can be. The show moves to Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church this weekend (an easy-to-get-to location near the Walker, with a free parking lot) and continues through March 16. Don't miss it!

"Twelfth Night" by Ten Thousand Things at Capri Theater

No one does Shakespeare like Ten Thousand Things. And though they also perform other classic plays, musicals, and new work, they often return to Shakespeare because "the stories allow for deep investigations of humanity in ways that speak to all audiences" (from a note in the program by Director Marcella Lorca and Assistant Director Peter Vitale). In the way only they can, TTT is able to distill Shakespeare's (and other) plays down to the emotional truth of the story, building it back up into something that's accessible and relatable for everyone - from experienced theater audiences to those in their performances out in the community. Twelfth Night, one of his most popular comedies, contains many of Shakespeare's favorite elements - twins, a shipwreck, mistaken identities, and fools. This incredible cast of eight plays all of the characters in the story and tells it with much playfulness, joy, and humanity. You can catch it at Capri Theater next weekend and next, or at Calvary Church November 17-19.

"Emilia" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

A few months ago, the Guthrie Theater brought us the brilliant new play Born with Teeth, imagining meetings between playwrights Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, and the theory that the two co-wrote some of the history plays attributed to Shakespeare. Now, Ten Thousand Things is taking another look at this subject, from the feminist side. Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's play Emilia premiered at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in 2018 and explores the life of Emilia Bassano, one of England's first published female poets. The play theorizes that she and Shakespeare were lovers, and that he took some of their conversations and put them into his plays, making her a contributor to the work of Shakespeare. There's lots of discussion about who really wrote the plays we know as Shakespeare (e.g., this article "Was Shakespeare a Woman?" by Elizabeth Winkler, which has been expanded into a book to be released this month). The truth is we'll likely never really know. And that's not what this play is about, anyway. It's about women's voices, women's stories, and why they have been systematically silenced throughout history. Told by an all-female cast, Emilia is the story of a historical woman who would not be silenced, even if it did take a few hundred years for history to recognize her contributions. It's a story that's all too relatable for modern women, and one we can take inspiration from.

"Pericles" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

When I first saw Pericles, at the Guthrie earlier this year, I wrote, "I had a bit of a hard time with the play (as I often do the first time I see a Shakespeare play, unless Ten Thousand Things is doing it)." Lucky for me, Ten Thousand Things is doing it! And while I appreciated that production of Pericles, it didn't resonate with me the way that TTT's new production does, it didn't get inside me and make me feel for the characters and understand their plight. I should just give up seeing anybody else do Shakespeare, because no one does it like Ten Thousand Things. They make these 400-year-old plays so relevant and relatable and current, in a way that makes me love Shakespeare! The complicated plot of Pericles, filled with many characters and locations, is made simple through the use of smart editing, props, costumes, and most of all these eight incredible actors who make Shakespearean language sound so natural and easily understandable. Trust me, you've never seen Shakespeare quite like this.

"Two Gentlemen of Verona" at Jungle Theater

Welcome to Minnesota theater, Sarah Rasmussen! The Jungle's new Artistic Director begins her first full season this year (the Jungle's season runs January to December rather than September to August) and makes her directing debut this month (as AD, she previously directed the lovely In the Next Room a few years ago). Like the Guthrie's new AD Joseph Haj, Sarah makes her directing debut with an innovative and energetic Shakespeare play that originated at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. But unlike the Guthrie's Pericles, Sarah's take on Two Gentlemen of Verona features a mostly local cast, and an entirely female cast (well, except for the dog, more on him later). It's an exciting debut that promises good things to come, while maintaining the high quality of productions that the Jungle is known for.

"The Unsinkable Molly Brown" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

No one does musicals like Ten Thousand Things does musicals. And even though it defies everything we know about musical theater, after seeing a TTT musical I think that maybe that's the way musicals should always be done. The music, like everything else about the show, is stripped down to the very basics, extraneous layers removed to reveal the very heart of the matter. A one-man orchestra provides the minimal accompaniment, and the small cast imperceptibly transitions from speaking to singing, so that you can't even tell where songs end and begin, it's just all one seamless story. And above all else, Artistic Director Michelle Hensley and all of the artists at Ten Thousand Things are storytellers. Whether it's Shakespeare or a classic American musical, they share the story in a pure and unadorned way so that all of their audiences, whether prisoners or seasoned theater-goers, can hear it and see themselves in it. One such masterpiece is their latest musical venture, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, a reprise of their very first musical venture 15 years ago. It's lovely, spirited, sweet, funny, moving, heart-warming, and real.

I had never seen the 1960 musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown (with music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson, who also wrote The Music Man, which happens to be TTT's last musical), nor heard any of the music. The only thing I knew about Molly Brown is that she was on the Titanic (remember Kathy Bates in the movie?). But now she's my new hero. Or at least, this fictionalized version of her as played by the indomitable Maggie Chestovich. I'm not sure how much of it is Molly and how much of it is Maggie, but this character has so much spirit, determination, and hope wrapped up in a tiny package. She wants a better life for her and her pa, and she goes out and gets it. From humble beginnings in Missouri, she decides to move to the big city of Denver, stopping at the mining town of Leadville to earn some money as a waitress and singer. There she meets Johnny Brown (Tyson Forbes, tall and lanky with plenty of aw-shucks charm), who eventually woos her with the promise of riches as well as happiness. He delivers on both, but eventually it becomes obvious that they want different things in life. Johnny wants a simple life in Leadville with his friends, while Molly longs for riches and high society. It drives them apart, but Molly is a woman who doesn't stay down for long and always gets what she wants. And after she survives the great disaster, she decides she wants Johnny.

Johnny and Molly Brown (Tyson Forbes and
Maggie Chestovich, photo by Paula Keller)

Maggie and Tyson make a most charming pair in one of the sweetest love stories I've seen in a while (the song "I'll Never Say No" is irresistible). But don't worry, it's not cloyingly sweet, these are two strong people who know what they want and don't always agree, but also love each other. The wonderful leads are backed by a fantastic ensemble who each play multiple characters and are all just a delight in each one. Highlights include H. Adam Harris as the genial bar owner, George Keller as Denver and European royalty, Eric Sharp as Molly's loving father, Austene Van as the friendly princess, Max Wojtanowicz as the nasal butler and charming prince, and the always entertaining Kimberly Richardson as a particularly snooty Denver socialite, who might just be hiding a bit more depth underneath it all. And as always in a TTT production, another character is the sound, even more so in a musical. The one and only Peter Vitale plays a banjo, a toy piano, and everything in between, and manages to create a full and complete soundscape for this world (with occasional support by Max on trombone). Like the music, the choreography (by Kimberly) is also simple and organic to the story, but ever so charming, including a delicious slow-mo fight scene, an intense wrestling scene, and a bit of party dancing.

Perhaps I should mention, for those of you unfamiliar with Ten Thousand Things (seriously, where have you been?), that in addition to paid performances at Open Book and other locations, they routinely tour their shows to prisons, homeless shelters, and community centers in the area. This requires them to travel light, literally and figuratively. Performances are in a small fully lit room with just a few rows of chairs creating a square on the floor where the magic happens. Actors look you in the eye from just a few feet away, or brush past your knees with swaying skirts, creating an intimacy and connection between audience and cast unlike any other. Set pieces are minimal and easily transportable, leading to some wonderfully creative choices. In this case, that means tiny furniture mounted on wavy poles, which the actors adorably lay a finger on to represent sitting. Costumes must also be minimal and easily transitioned between, and for this show range from drab rural clothing, to fashionably black, to European gold, and of course, Molly's red silk dress. (Sets by Stephen Mohring and costumes by Sonya Berlovitz.)

I'm quite certain that The Unsinkable Molly Brown is ruined for me as a musical now. If I ever see the typical full production of it, I might not even recognize it. But if I did, I'm sure it would pale in comparison to this sparsely lovely version that, like all TTT shows, strips away the unnecessary and serves us up a simple, unadorned, beautifully true story. See it for yourself - performances continue through March 8.


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

"Crimes of the Heart" at the Guthrie Theater

If you have not seen Crimes of the Heart at the Guthrie in the last month, you have just over a week to catch it before it closes. I was previously unfamiliar with this tragicomedy set in the South in the 1970s and was delighted by what I saw. It's darkly funny and features a very real, somewhat dysfunctional, but loving family fully and comfortably inhabited by this six-person cast.

The Magrath sisters grew up in the small town of Hazlehurst, Mississippi with their grandparents following a tragedy. As often is the case, the eldest Lenny stayed behind to care for her ailing grandparents as the other two went off into the world. Youngest sister Babe married the successful town lawyer, while middle sister Meg went off to Hollywood to find her fortune as a singer. After Babe shoots her husband, for reasons that unfold over the course of the play, the sisters reunite in their grandparents' home to "get through these real bad days here" together. The "getting through" is complicated by cousin Chick, who's always resented the sisters and is more of a hindrance than a help, and Meg's encounter with an old boyfriend. At the end of the play we don't know if Babe will go to jail, if Meg will reunite with Doc, or if Lenny will be able to stop playing family caregiver and be happy with her new boyfriend, but we do know that for better or worse, the Magrath sisters will be there for each other.

Georgia Cohen, Maggie Chestovich, and
Asley Rose Montondo

As the three sisters, Maggie Chestovich, Georgia Cohen, and Ashley Rose Montondo create very full and different characters in Lenny, Meg, and Babe. Maybe it's because they've been performing the piece for a month, but the familial bond between them is palpable. Sarah Agnew is a hoot as cousin Chick, strolling into the house like she owns it and bossing the sisters around. David Darrow brings a great energy and physicality to the role of Babe's lawyer Barnette, literally jumping around the stage in excitement. Sam Bardwell usually plays the role of Meg's old boyfriend Doc but was out on paternity leave the night I saw the show, so understudy Dustin Bronson filled in. I consider it a privilege to see understudies perform; it's so wonderful to watch someone step into a cast that has been performing together for some time and seem like they've always been there, and you know they're going to give it their all since it's one of the few times they get to perform the role. Such is the case here. This is a cast that works and plays well together, centered on the three sisters.

This is one of those Guthrie sets that I wanted to climb right into and sit down with a glass of lemonade. James Youmans designed the cozy and lived in Magrath home with see through walls, so that you can see the blue sky and power lines behind it. The '70s period costumes by Clint Ramos are super cool, from Meg's Charlie's Angels outfit and classic wrap dress, to Barnette's three piece bell-bottom suit, to Chick's perfectly tailored bright-colored suits with matching shoes.

Crimes of the Heart is funny, tragic, poignant, and engrossing. Go visit these sisters at the Guthrie before they depart and move on with their crazy lives.

"As You Like It" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

I know I gush a lot on this blog, but there's a lot to gush about when you're talking about theater in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  No more so than when you're talking about Ten Thousand Things, the theater company that takes their work out into the community, to people who don't normally have the opportunity to see theater (prisons, homeless shelters, community centers, libraries, etc.).  If you're a theater fan who lives in the Twin Cities and you've never seen a TTT show, you really must go as soon as possible.  I guarantee you're in for a theater experience unlike any you've ever known.  With full lights, minimal sets and costumes, a small intimate space, and nothing but a few feet of air between you and the actors, it's as raw, immediate, authentic, and thrilling as I've ever known theater to be.  It's a strange thing; you're more aware that this is make-believe because you can see everything that's going on with no illusions, so you know it's not real.  But in a way, that makes it even more magical when you're completely transported into a new world purely through the power of collective imagination.  Mere words cannot adequately describe it - you have to experience it yourself.

Ten Thousand Things' current show is the Shakespeare comedy As You Like It (paid performances continue weekends at Open Book through March 11, as well as a number of free performances throughout the area).  I saw this play several years ago at the Guthrie, but I don't remember a whole lot about it other than the trippy 60s vibe of that production and the inclusion of music (always a plus in my book).  But it wasn't hard to get into the story and the language in the hands of TTT.   As You Like It is your typical Shakespearean romantic comedy, full of disguises and mistaken identities and banishments and declarations of love and hate, with everyone appropriately coupled off and happy at the end.  But the journey to get there is pure delight.

Ten Thousand Things always attracts the best theater artists in the deep pool of talent that is the Twin Cities theater community, and this six-person cast is no exception:

• Maggie Chestovich is the slacker in the group - she only plays one character.  ;)  But in her defense Rosalind is more or less the main character, and she also dons the clothes of a man through much of the play so as to travel more safely in the forest after her banishment from the court.  I've seen Maggie several times in TTT productions, and she's always fully present and real in her portrayal.  
• The busy and talented Randy Reyes is Orlando, hopelessly in love with Rosalind and also banished from court by his greedy jealous brother.  Randy also plays an old shepherd, which gives him the opportunity to ham it up in funny glasses and a hat.  He's always entertaining in everything he does, and he's particularly good at engaging the audience here.
• Aimee Bryant (who just recently left the role of Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray at the Chan) is Rosalind's cousin/friend, and lucky for us, she also takes on the role of Amiens, which means she gets to sing and play a ukulele (with only two strings!).  It's a joy to sit around the pretend campfire and listen to her sing, along with this guy...
• As I've said before, I don't think there's anything Bradley Greenwald can't do - comedy, drama, and that voice!  Whether singing or speaking, silly or serious, I love to listen to him.  He plays a pompous wrestler, the cruel duke who banished his brother as well as the kinder banished duke, a lowly shepherd, and a "country wench" who hilariously delivers a calf.
• Pearce Bunting (the only member of the cast I hadn't seen before) does a wonderful job creating three vastly different characters who bear little resemblance to each other.  He's the entitled elder brother of Orlando, a smart-talking clown who falls for the aforementioned country wench, and a friend of the banished duke mired in thoughtful and hopeless melancholy.  Each one is a distinct character.
• Kimberly Richardson's roles are pretty diverse too.  She's a frail old man who is loyal to his master until death, a stuffy and formal court messenger, and a silly country girl, each with a specific physicality that would tell us who she is even without the costume changes (which in some cases are very quick!).
• The sound by Peter Vitale is almost like a seventh actor in the cast.  It's like a soundtrack for a silent movie, accentuating every emotion and movement without distracting from it.

Some TTT plays are more serious, like last year's exquisite Doubt, A Parable.  But with a comedy like this, they can be more relaxed and play a little more.  If unexpected things happen, the audience is in on the joke and goes along for the ride.  Artistic Director Michelle Hensley always introduces the show and tells a little bit about their experiences so far (for more information on that you can read the TTT blog, with commentary by Bradley Greenwald).  She talked about how their audiences have been hungry.  For laughter, for love, and for language.  As You Like It is definitely just what the doctor ordered.

"Life's A Dream" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

I attended my first Ten Thousand Things production, My Fair Lady, earlier this year. I've been hearing about them for years, but just hadn't gotten to a show. After that first show, I was hooked, and bought a season pass for this year. If you've never seen a TTT production, it may be a bit jarring at first. They perform in an open room with almost no set, simple costumes, and full lights. The actors look you in the eye as they deliver their lines a few feet in front of you. The reason they perform like this is because their main focus is to bring theater to people who don't usually have the opportunity to go to the theater - people in prisons, homeless shelters, and treatment centers, for example. "Because theater is richer when EVERYONE is in the audience." For those of us fortunate enough to be in the position to go to the theater, they also hold public paid performances, but they perform in the same style as they do for their less fortunate audiences. It's theater unlike I've ever experienced it before. With no distractions, it's all about the acting and the piece. And they use some of the best actors in the community (and apparently also draw some of the best actors to the audience: I spotted Sarah Agnew from 39 Steps at the Guthrie across the aisle from me!).

But on to the show at hand: Life's a Dream. With mistaken identities, women dressing as men, kings and princes, prophesies from the stars, and swordfights, it felt a little like a Shakespeare play. It was written around the same time, although not by Shakespeare, but by Spanish playwright Pedro Calderon de la Barca. King Basilio of Poland receives a prophesy before his son is born that he will cause destruction to the land. When Sigismund is born, Basilio has him imprisoned in a tower, where he grows up and lives his life, never knowing who he is. When it comes time for Basilio to name an heir, he decides to give his son a chance to defy fate. He is brought to the palace unconscious and given one day to prove himself a worthy king. If not, Basilio will take him back to the tower, where he will wake up and be told it was all a dream. From which comes the central theme of the show: Is life a dream? And if so, what should we do with that dream, when we know it could be over at any moment?

The cast is wonderful. Dennis Spears plays King Basilio as an elegant and powerful man anyone would gladly follow. Namir Smallwood is his son Sigismund and makes you feel every bit of his torment, rage, and hope. Elise Langer is the comic relief as Clarion the clown, and Maggie Chestovich is Rosaura, the scorned woman who goes on a quest to win (or kill) her love and find her father. She's a spitfire who wields a sword and wears a pretty party dress (check out Maggie's blog to find out more about the places they've performed the show).

The next TTT show is Doubt starring Kris Nelson and Sally Wingert - the Meryl Streep of the Minneapolis/St. Paul theater scene, fresh off of her Broadway debut in La Bete. A must see in my book, as is the last show of the season, Man of LaMancha. If you want to see theater in its purest form, unencumbered by elaborate sets, fancy costumes, or dramatic lighting, go see a Ten Thousand Things show. If you believe in the power of theater to change the world, or at least to make one person's life a little better, support Ten Thousand Things in the work that they do.

Life’s brief
So let us dream.
Let’s all remember
that we must wake up when we least expect it.



Celebrity Sighting
I saw Sarah Agnew sitting in the audience across the aisle from me, watching the play.  She's currently appearing in the uproarious 39 Steps at the Guthrie, where she was doing two shows that day.  In between shows she ran across Washington to take in a little theater.  I ran into her at the bathroom and couldn't resist telling her how much I loved the show, and that I didn't know how the cast didn't crack themselves up every night.  She said they did!