"Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol" at Park Square Theatre

A few days ago I said, 'tis the season for holiday shows. At the time I had seen five shows with Christmas or winter themes (Christmas in the Airwaves and A Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas at Lyric Arts, Penumbra Theatre's Black Nativity, Snow Queen at Park Square Theatre, and Walking Shadow's A Midwinter Night's Revel). But now it truly 'tis the season - I'm seeing five holiday (ish) shows in four days this weekend! Park Square was nice enough to let me attend a preview of Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol (playing downstairs from the magical and musical Snow Queen) so I could fit everything in. And even though I'm not seeing the Guthrie Theater's large and luscious production of A Christmas Carol this year (it's pretty much the same show as last year, read my thoughts about it here), I've seen it 10 of the last 12 years and I love Dickens' story of redemption and second chances. This one-man-show tells that same story but with much less pomp and circumstance. It's less of a spectacle and more of a simple story, but with the same humor and heart.

Park Square Theatre's Season 2014-2015 Announcement

I had a great St. Paul theater day this past Sunday. In between seeing two powerful plays at the History Theatre (The Things They Carried and Lonely Soldiers: Women at War in Iraq), I stopped in at Park Square Theatre for their new season announcement. They have an exciting and ambitious new season planned, which includes opening a second stage, named for one of the theater's biggest supporters, Andy Boss, who passed away last week.

Park Square will put on 19 productions on the two stages, a crazy number of shows for one theater in one season. This new space in St. Paul is coming at a great time, since we recently lost the Ordway's McKnight Theatre on the other side of Rice Park. The new stage will house both Park Square productions and productions by other theater companies. In particular, Park Square has a three-year partnership with three nomadic theater companies - Theatre Pro Rata, Sandbox Theatre, and Girl Friday Productions.

After mingling in the lobby (or in my case, local theater celebrity spotting) with free drinks and food, the crowd moved into the theater where Artistic Director Richard Cook and Managing Director Michael-jon Pease led an informal discussion of the upcoming season, allowing the audience (mostly made up of artists and season subscribers) to ask questions. But first - a performance from the truly innovative and delightful Trick Boxing by Sossy Mechanics, a show so good I cannot wait to see it again on the Boss stage early next year.

A few other shows I'm looking forward to next season:

• The Color Purple: I saw the Broadway touring production several years ago and wept like I never have before or since at the theater. Alice Walker's story is so moving in book and movie format, and adding music just pushes the emotions over the top. I cannot wait to see it with an all-local cast, and if I were in charge of casting, I'd choose Brittany Bradford as Celie and Austene Van as Shug Avery.
• Sherlock Holmes and the Ice Palace Murders: The brilliant and hilarious playwright Jeffrey Hatcher is adapting this novel by Larry Millett which re-imagines Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota. I'm not sure what this means for the whole is Benedict Cumberbatch coming to Minnesota controversy, but it's sure to be good fun.
• Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol: A returning favorite in which one actor plays all of the roles in A Christmas Carol. I can only hope that the one actor is again Jim Lichtsheidl, master of transformation.

Most of the other shows I'm not familiar with, but I look forward to discovering. Finally, the discussion ended with another excerpt from an upcoming show, the very funny, silly, and poignant 2 Sugars, Room for Cream. In this new scene, writer/performers Carolyn Pool and Shanan Custer worked out a custody arrangement for the Ivey they won last year. This is a show I will gladly go see a third time.

And that's it. Some good stuff is happening in St. Paul. You can see the full list of shows on their website, where you will also find info about the various season ticket packages. I wish them much success with this new venture. See you in St. Paul!

"Red" at Park Square Theatre

Red is my kind of play. More about character and ideas than plot or action, it's a feast for the ears and the mind. And the eye, with replicas of the main character's (Russian-American abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko) murals on display on the stage. It's the kind of play that makes me want to run home and research the subject to learn more about it, and hopefully one day visit a museum where Rothko's work is displayed. I must admit, I've never heard of him before; I don't know much about art. Which is another thing this play makes me wish - that I had taken more than just that one art class in college. This play is about art, expression, and creation, but it's also about the more global themes of loss, death, and relationships. It's just a fantastic play (written by John Logan, who's written screenplays for several movies including Gladiator and Hugo). The Tony voters agree with me; Red won six Tonys in 2010, including best play. But I have a hard time imagining that it was any better than the production currently playing at Park Square Theatre. It's a definite must-see.

Red takes place in the late 1950s, when Rothko was painting a series of murals on commission for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York's brand new Seagram Building (where people like Don Draper would dine). In this fictionalized account, Rothko hires an assistant named Ken. Ken is also an artist, although Rothko never treats him as such. He's an employee, there to do what he's told and not offer an opinion. Their relationship develops over time as they work together from nine to five, five days a week. Ken begins to challenge Rothko about his work, his ideas, and his lifestyle. Rothko eventually decides to turn down the commission, return the cash advance, and keep the paintings (they now hang in the Tate Modern in London, the Kawamura Memorial Museum in Japan, and the National Gallery in DC). He releases Ken do his own work and live his own life, while Rothko continues his solitary pursuit of art.

I can't say enough about this cast. These are two intense, deep, layered characters, and J.C. Cutler (Rothko) and Steven Lee Johnson (Ken) bring out all of those layers. They also have a great chemistry together as teacher/student, employer/employee, friends, and adversaries. I've seen J.C. several times and he's always great, but this is truly a standout performance. Steven is a still a student in the U of M/Guthrie BFA program, but he's already a fantastic actor. He was wonderful in Theater Latte Da's Beautiful Thing this spring, and very much holds his own against the veteran actor in this production.

The Park Square Theatre stage has been converted into a well lived-in and worked-in artist's studio, with paints and canvases tucked in every corner (the set was designed by Lance Brockman, with scenic assistant Anne Henly painting the Rothko replicas and instructing the actors in the act of painting). The characters spend the first two scenes in this one-act play talking about painting and mixing paint, building the tension so that you're just itching to see that paint hit the canvas. And when it does, it's a beautiful release. Classical music (and a bit of "modern" jazz) provide the soundtrack, seemingly coming from a record player in the corner, and act as another character in the play. Directed by Park Square's Artistic Director Richard Cook, this play is an almost visceral experience, with art, music, ideas, words, appealing to all of the senses.

I don't often tell you what to see, preferring to share my thoughts and let you decide if it interests you. But I'm telling you, go see this play. One of the best new plays, two amazing performances, lofty ideas, intense emotions, an interesting set filled with huge canvases, what more can you ask for? At a relatively brief 90 minutes with no intermission, it's well worth your time. Here are a few of the paintings you'll see on stage. Photos do not do them justice. Nor, I assume, do the replicas. Hopefully one day I'll see them in person, yet another example of something I first experienced at the theater.

from Rothko's Seagram Murals

from Rothko's Seagram Murals