Engen and Seifert shared the stage with a troupe of performers to put on the production billed as “Lawrence Welk meets ‘Hee-Haw.’” The Sod House Theater project began in 2011 when Engen and Seifert collaborated to create the condensed version of Anton Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard” with Twin Cities colleagues including Sarah Myers, associate professor of theater at Augsburg.

This year the “Hoopla Train” has garnered the attention of media outlets across Minnesota, including the following organizations and stories:

• BringMeTheNews — Hoopla Train: The touring theater variety show coming to a stage near you
• — Summer is showtime for Sod House, Minnesota’s whistle-stop theater
• — All aboard the ‘Hoopla Train’ bound for Faribault
• Rochester Post-Bulletin — ‘Hoopla Train’ pulls into town
• — Professional Twin Cities Theater Troupe to perform at the American Legion in Nisswa
• Sleepy Eye Herald-Dispatch — ‘Hoopla Train’ show coming to Sleepy Eye next week
• — ‘Hoopla’ brings old-fashioned fun to outstate Minnesota

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A ground-breaking production of Henrik Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt” will take theater goers on a fantastic voyage that includes oversized birds and trolls, original music and simultaneous scenes, all while attendees and performers travel a quarter-mile portion of the .

The play, a 1.5-hour production condensed from Robert Bly’s 3-hour script of 2008, represents a first-time collaboration between theater departments at Augsburg and the University of Minnesota. It’s also probably a first for site-specific theater of this scale for theatergoers in the Twin Cities. “Peer Gynt” will be performed seven times from April 10-13.

Collaboration at work

“We created an accessible, site-specific production that is rich for the actors and the audience,” said Darcey Engen, associate professor and chair of Augsburg’s Theater Arts. “This adaptation demanded new partnerships between schools and with many theater artists – puppeteers, movement specialists, musicians, fight choreographers. It means audience members will be pummeled with sensory stimuli.”

Engen said the production is complex partly due to the many logistics, some that can be planned for and others that cannot. The student cast is nearly 40 people from two institutions. Original music was developed. Set pieces had to be built with consideration of the changes that occur throughout the arboretum. Then there’s the weather.

“It might be sunny or raining or breezy,” Engen said. “But as performers, that’s part of the challenge of site-specific theater. For attendees, it’s the chance to see what is – because of the variables – a once-in-a-lifetime performance and to leave having been an active traveller with the actors in the play.”

But all this makes a production such as this particularly rewarding for students.

“Students at Augsburg and the University of Minnesota are hip deep in creating this play. They are building hands-on experience in creative problem-solving with some of the Twin Cities’ finest in theater and are gaining exposure to our master puppeteers, musicians, movement professionals,” Engen said. “It’s a chance for students to explore the many ways to work in theater and to challenge them to meld these disciplines into a story that will rivet the audience.”

Engen is co-directing the play with Luverne Seifert, head of the Department of Theatre Arts & Dance. Engen and Seifert three years ago established Sod House Theater, which specializes in site-specific productions in rural communities and that partner with local theaters and actors.

Augsburg College is set in a vibrant neighborhood at the heart of the Twin Cities, and offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and nine graduate degrees to nearly 4,000 students of diverse backgrounds.  The theater department was named by Backstage magazine as among the top five U.S. institutions for theater majors who wish to continue their studies professionally.  Augsburg College educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders.  An Augsburg education is defined by excellence in the liberal arts and professional studies, guided by the faith and values of the Lutheran church, and shaped by its urban and global settings.

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Asking big questions develops critical thinking skills

Darcey Engen, associate professor and chair of the Theater Department, said the rehearsal process raised important questions for the cast members. “1930s Germany was a time of great wealth and great poverty, and the middle class was stressed,” Engen said. “We discussed the conditions, drawing similarities to what is now happening in our country.”

Rehearsals began shortly after the proposed Minnesota Constitutional amendment to define marriage was defeated and following the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. These events helped cast members relate current issues to the circumstances in 1930s Germany and the discrimination that centered on race, class, and sexuality.

“We talked a lot about discrimination, intolerance, and violence and how all of those themes are presented in this musical,” Engen said. The cast reflected on how those issues created the conditions that made possible the rise of the Nazi party and wondered whether the current U.S. culture makes people tolerant to injustice and violence.

“The fact that we are young people doing this show and trying to understand history and the current state of our world has really expanded our minds,” said Brianna Olson-Carr ’13, an English and theater major. During a rehearsal, the cast was asked to make a list of all of the problems they believed the U.S. was facing. “It was a long list but we kept adding to it. It was overwhelming.”

Themes connect to the present day

Andrew (Kleidon) James ’16 said many lines in the play will seem meaningful to today’s audience, but the cast didn’t make any changes to the script in order to reference modern issues. “The moment that stands out to me is when Sally [a cabaret performer] says that people should just be people,” James said. “That relates in a lot of ways to the issues we are facing in the gay rights movement today, and it’s really striking.”

Olson-Carr wants theater-goers to think about an important question her character asks in the play—what would you do? She plays Fraulein Schneider, a German boarding house owner who is engaged to marry Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Jews were the target of intense discrimination on the part of the Nazi party. After Schneider is told that marrying a Jew could be detrimental to her business, she calls off her engagement.

“She gave up love for survival, but she could have fled or made a different choice,” Olson-Carr said. “I get a sense from this character that some people really don’t have that choice, and I feel that I have learned what it feels like not to have choices. That is why I want that question to stick,” she said.

Engen hopes that by asking questions and analyzing their current lives, students will learn to think critically and to be reflective about important issues. “I also hope they will train themselves to be allies for others so that we can live in a world of equality and non-violence. And ultimately, I want them to create art that causes others to think critically as well.”

James, a first-year student who plays Herr Schultz, said his mind has been opened and his calling has been strengthened through his involvement in this production. “My life’s goal is to create meaningful work, to make art that makes people think,” he said.

Collaborative theater teaches teamwork

Giving students opportunities to create in collaboration with faculty and artists-in-residence is central to the Augsburg Theater Department’s mission. Being involved in Augsburg productions gives students skills and knowledge that they can bring into their careers, whether they work in the theater or in a corporate job. This and other aspects of the program led to it being named by Backstage magazine as one of five top theater programs outside of New York.

For Cabaret, Olson-Carr said the cast explored possibilities of songs and scenes and “got to the bounds of the imagination.” She said that experience was valuable even if the cast members’ ideas were not used in the final version of the production because students learned to utilize their creativity and to be open to others’ ideas.

James noted that being involved in Cabaret, his first production at Augsburg, has been very different than his previous acting experiences. “Darcey spent the first weeks of rehearsal letting us play with ideas and shape the show in different ways. Our production stays true to the script but it’s a different entity in itself,” he said. James said he feels that he has a personal stake in the show because he helped design it with the rest of the cast.

James has used his theater learning experience in other classes to be more open to different perspectives and to incorporate new ideas. “It was exciting to me to learn that everything was fair game. Now I realize that if you don’t try things, you’ll never know what could be,” he said.

“The critical thinking that comes with creating collaborative work, the teamwork building and deep analysis, can be applied to almost any job,” said Olson-Carr, who wrote a paper on collaborative theater for her summa cum laude examination. She believes the skills she has learned in Augsburg’s Theater Department will make her marketable as she searches for a career after graduation. “I would prefer to work in a creative environment because I’m so used to it, and I think I’ve gotten good at it,” she said.

Cabaret

By Joe Masteroff

Music by John Kander

Lyrics by Fred Ebb

Directed by Darcey Engen

Music Direction by Sonja Thompson

Reserve tickets

Preview performance, April 11, 7p.m. Reduced prices: $2 students and $4 non-students

Added performance, Wednesday, April 17 at 7 p.m.

Additional performances April 12, 13, 18, 19, 20 at 7 p.m.; April 14, 21 at 3 p.m.

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Engen and Siefert will share the stage—actually historic Minnesota homes and the surrounding grounds—with four performers known for their work with Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater, Jungle Theater, and Theatre de la Jeune Leune. The production will also feature local actors and musicians in each community.

This project began in 2011 when Engen, associate professor and chair of Augsburg’s theater program, and Siefert, head of the undergraduate theatre performance program at the University of Minnesota, collaborated to create the condensed version of Chekhov’s play with their Twin Cities colleagues and Sarah Myers, assistant professor of theater at Augsburg. The group premiered the production last summer in the Lind House in New Ulm, Minn.

Engen said she and Siefert decided to expand the project in 2012 in order to work with local actors, including high school students who may be interested in studying theater at Augsburg, and to bring classical theater to people who might not have had a chance to experience it. “When you bring meaningful literature to a community, you show people how the stories relate to their lives.”

The Cherry Orchard documents a family’s loss of their estate, an issue faced by Minnesota families who have experienced farm foreclosures. “After the show, people always stick around and grab our hands and say how much they enjoyed the experience,” Engen said.

For Engen, performing in seven shows a week for five weeks helps her dive back into the subject she teaches. “To be performing such a long run and such a significant role in Western literature is a great re-check-in with material I’m teaching in my acting classes,” she said. “It’s fantastic for me to have that opportunity to leave the expectations of my teaching world in the summer and to focus on performing.”

After teaching for 20 years, Engen said that both she and Siefert believe this project has been a meaningful part of their professional careers. “We feel like we hit on something that helps us do our art and, at the same time, make a difference and show what theater can do for a person’s life.”

The production is being made possible by an Arts Tour Minnesota grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

Performance schedule:

Kenyon, MN, Historic Gunderson House,

July 11, 12, 13 at 7:30 p.m.; July 14 at 3 and 7:30 p.m.; July 15 at 3 and 7 p.m.

Little Falls, Historic Musser Mansion at Linden Hills, 608 Highland Avenue

July 18, 19, 20 at 7:30 p.m.; July 21 at 3 and 7:30 p.m.; July 22 at 3 and 7 p.m.

Taylors Falls, Historic Folsom House

July 25, 26, 27 at 7:30 p.m.; July 28 at 3 and 7:30 p.m.; July 29 at 3 and 7 p.m.

Worthington, Historic Dayton House

August 1, 2, 3 at 7:30 p.m.; August 4 at 3 and 7:30 p.m.; August 5 at 3 p.m. 7 p.m.

Blue Earth, MN, Historic Wakefield House, 405 East 6th Street

August 8, 9, 10 at 7:30 p.m.; August 11 at 3 and 7:30 p.m.; August 12 at 3 and 7 p.m.

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Set in the historical Charenton Asylum, Marat/Sade is a “play within a play” performed by the Charenton inmates. The main story takes place on July 13, 1808, after the French Revolution; the play in the play, directed by the Marquis de Sade, takes place during the Revolution in 1793, culminating in the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat.

Because the play centers on the subjects of revolution and transfer of power, director Darcey Engen took the cast to an organizational meeting of the OccupyMN movement at “The People’s Plaza” (the Hennepin County Government Center plaza) in downtown Minneapolis.

OccupyMN is part of the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in September. The movement is aimed at “corporate forces of the world” which, according to the movement’s declaration of occupation, “place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, [and] run our governments.” Protesters in Minneapolis have been posted at the Government Center plaza since October 6.

In her director’s notes, Engen wrote, “We all sat on the grass with a large, peaceful crowd of people from every walk of life. The organizers of the rally explained the importance of horizontal organizational decision-making and taught the group various ways to discuss the issues at hand that included everyone present.

We felt the visceral passion and intellect of the larger group. We felt the calm patience that everyone seemed to possess. We felt the power of numbers as we participated in the large discussion. We were experiencing something related to what the characters in Marat/Sade experienced during the French Revolution.

Our trip downtown to the Government Center gave us a glimpse of what it might be like for a very large group to communicate and work toward a common goal, a common cause.”

Liz Behnke, a theater major, said she was surprised at the organization and sense of community at the OccupyMN site, which the cast visited on the second day of the movement. “People who perhaps did not even know each other decided to get together and change the injustice happening in the world. And they are doing it by listening to one another and discussing the changes that need to happen,” she said.

Sophomore music and theater performance major, Michael Wesely, plays the Marquis de Sade. Wesely, who said he has spent a lot of time researching his character and his role in the French Revolution, said the OccupyMN movement showed him similarities between what was happening in France and what is now happening in the U.S.  “I saw how close to a revolution we are,” he said.

Performances of Marat/Sade are Nov. 4, 5, 10, 11, 12 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 6, 13 at 3 p.m. in the Tjornhom-Nelson Theater. Request tickets online.

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This production focuses on the struggles of a family in the throes of losing their estate through foreclosure and was chosen to bring attention to the rash of farm foreclosures in the Southern Minnesota farming community. Although inherently tragic, this production will illuminate the comedic and eccentric nature of Chekhov’s rich characters. Actors dressed in period costumes will lead up to 30 audience members into the home and through the grounds to experience the interplay of the characters from a very close proximity.

Luverne Seifert ’83, a professional actor/director in the Twin Cities and head of undergraduate theatre performance at the University of Minnesota, is spearheading the project. Sarah Agnew, Nathan Keepers, and Eriq Nelson perform in the play along with Augsburg theater professors Darcey Engen ’88 and Sarah Myers. Myers did the adaptation of the text and is plays Dunyasha.

The production is being made possible by an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and is also sponsored in part by the Schell’s Brewing Co.

Show dates:

July 28 – 7 and 9 p.m.

July 29 – 7 and 9 p.m.

July 30 – 7 and 9p.m.

July 31 – 2 p.m.

Tickets for the production are $15 and can be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/181880.

Submitted by Darcey Engen

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“You do it because you shouldn’t,” says Darcey Engen, associate professor and director of Augsburg’s re-envisioning of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, which opens tonight and runs Feb. 5-14.

“The play has been problematic since it was written,” Engen says. “But it has helped the students think about their acting choices as political.”

The story is that if Petruchio can get Katherine to agree to marry him, Baptista (Katherine’s father) will give Petruchio part of his fortune. Katherine does not want to marry Petruchio, so he tries to “tame” her by isolating her from her family, starving her, and denying her sleep.

Petruchio’s tactics, though clearly abusive, are presented in a comic tone, which contributes to the play’s problematic nature. “Once we drape violence in humor, it becomes permissible for us to think of it as normal,” Engen says. Examining this led Engen and the cast to ask what other aspects of our culture, such as violence or overt sexuality in the media, are not really seen.

The play’s humor is a powerful tool, which the cast uses to emphasize the interactions between men and women. This and other techniques, Engen writes in the director’s notes, “are used to ultimately expose the violence in order to disrupt the disturbing domination of Petruchio over Katherine.”

Engen writes that the production is “firmly planted in feminist performance theory, which asks all of us to recognize and think about how characters are constructed in this text, how they behave, and ultimately, what their behavior says politically about power issues between men and women.”

Performances of Taming of the Shrew are February 5, 6, 11, 12, 13 at 7 p.m. February 7 and 14 at 3 p.m. The February 13 performance is CTL Night at the Theater with a limited number free tickets available for faculty and staff and a dessert reception with the cast following the play. Contact Terry Martin, martint@augsburg.edu for information.

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“Top Girls,” by British playwright Caryl Churchill in 1982, explores

feminist themes and encourages a deeper look at socialist ideals. Marlene, “Top Girls” main character, is a businesswoman who has recently achieved a promotion within the employment agency where she works. Her sister, Joyce, is a working-class cleaning woman who

adopted Marlene’s child at birth and has raised her as her own. While the sisters are joined in caring for their daughter’s welfare, the two are quite different in their political and class views. Marlene is presented as an individualist who does whatever it takes to move ahead. She values power and success for herself at the expense of others. Her sister Joyce represents a more socialist-collective perspective that sees achievements of women happening only when all women and other oppressed groups are included.

Caryl Churchill explores themes of women’s success and survival through the context of the daughter Angie. While there might seem to be a wide chasm between success and survival, Churchill appears to look upon it as a continuum, albeit a fragile one. At any time, a circumstance or relationship can pave the way for progress or failure. In order to succeed, women negotiate time and relationships, compromise goals with motherhood, and depend on or exploit others. We see some of this in our contemporary culture and in our political

system as women gain equality with men. In “Top Girls,” Caryl Churchill asks how women negotiate in a male-dominated landscape and what they give up to participate.

Tickets for Mainstage Productions are $10 for the general public; $8 for ACTC faculty, staff, and students; and $2 for Augsburg students and children under age 12. For reservations or other information, call 612-330-1257.

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