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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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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“The Visit” tells the story about a rags-to-riches millionaire, who as a young girl once lived in the decrepit and poverty stricken European hamlet of Guellen, who returns home for a visit. The town, giddy with the opportunity to climb out of its destitution, joyously welcomes her back, only to realize that she conceals a dark secret and that her generosity will come with a cost. Durrenmatt’s tragic comedy unfolds a haunting story of human greed and vengeance.

Performances run Feb. 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 at 7 p.m., and Feb.3 and 10 at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $2 Augsburg College Students; $8 ACTC faculty, staff, and students; $10 general public.

For reservations and more information, please call 612-330-1257.

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