Programs from UMN Morris Theatre Discipline and Meiningens productions.
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The Trojan Women, November 14-16, 1999
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Trojan Women by Euripides and Brendan Kenelley, directed by Brenna Jones.
Synopsis: This play follows the fates of Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra and the other women of Troy after their city has been sacked, their husbands killed, and their remaining families about to be taken away as slaves.
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The Wishing Stone, May 6-8 & 12-14, 1999
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Wishing Stone based on a story by Wolfram Eberhard adapted by Alexander Barrett and directed by Amanda Petefish.
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Many Moons, May 8-9, 1998
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Many Moons by James Thurber, adapted by Charlotte B. Chorpenning and directed by Sarah Nylander.
Synopsis: Princess Lenore falls ill of a surfeit of raspberry tarts and cries for the moon. The king tells her she can have it today—tomorrow at the latest—and summons his wise men. First comes the Lord High Chamberlain, who wears thick glasses that make him look twice as wise as he really is. Then comes the Royal Wizard, who wears a high-peaked cap with silver stars on it. Finally, the Royal Mathematician, who can walk in squares, appears. But none of them can help the king get the moon. In fact, they can't even agree on how big it is or how far away. In despair, the king rings for the Court Jester. The way in which he obtains the moon and the lovely philosophy that goes with it make this one of the finest plays available to children.
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Marvin's Room, Nov. 19-21, 1998
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Marvin’s Room by Scott McPherson and directed by Julie Rae Patterson-Pratt.
Synopsis: First produced in 1990, Marvin’s Room tells the story of two sisters, Bessie and Lee. They have not seen each other for many years but when Bessie is diagnosed with leukemia, Lee travels to Florida to be tested as a bone marrow donor for her sister. Bessie has cared single-handedly for their father, Marvin, who suffered a severe stroke and is now bed-bound. She also looks after their eccentric Aunt Ruth, who has electrodes (her “cure”) wired up to her brain to help ease the pain of three collapsed vertebrae. Bessie cares for her father and aunt without question, despite the leukemia becoming increasingly aggressive. Lee has been estranged from the family for years and does not understand Bessie’s selfless service to the family. However, when Lee arrives with her two troubled sons, Hank (who is in a mental institution after burning down their house) and Charlie (who permanently has his head in a book, yet is struggling badly at school), the trio find themselves gradually transformed for the better by the guileless Bessie. Lee is, at last, able to show some affection and care for her dying sister when she offers to style Bessie’s wig. Despite its potentially sombre plot, Marvin’s Room is both funny and touching in equal measure.
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Personality, May 21-22, 1998
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production Personality by Gina Wendkos & Ellen Ratner and directed by Mark Halvorson.
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All in the Timing, March 5-7, 1997
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of All in the Timing by David Ives, directed by Julie Rae Patterson-Pratt.
Synopsis: All in the Timing is a collection of one-act plays by the American playwright David Ives.
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Fool for Love, May 22-23,29-31, 1997
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Fool for Love by Sam Shepard and directed by Nathan Carlblom.
Synopsis: This play takes place in a cheap hotel room. May, Eddie and the Old Man are the main characters. The old man, however, is a figment of May and Eddie's imaginations. May can't decide if she wants Eddie to stay or go. Eddie has had affairs and she is deciding whether she should leave him. She gets dressed up to go on a date with Martin. At the end of the play, May leaves with her suitcase packed.
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Winnie the Pooh, May 9-10, 1997
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Miline, dramatized by Kristen Storgel and directed by Jason Schommer.
Synopsis: Winnie-the-Pooh is Christopher Robin's fat little "bear of very little brain" who would like to drift peacefully through life, humming tunes and stopping frequently to eat "a little something." However, he finds himself involved in all sorts of frantic adventures, assisted by such friends as the dismal Eeyore, Piglet and Rabbit, with his countless relations. Pooh's intentions are always the best, but his passion for honey and condensed milk keeps getting him into trouble. When friend Piglet gets roped into Kanga's household and Kanga starts bathing him (with soap!) and forcing down spoonfuls of Strengthening Medicine, Pooh wants to fly to the rescue, but he's had so many snacks he gets stuck in the door. A.A. Milne's wit and special understanding of young people make this one of the most successful plays available.
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Charlotte's Web, May 3-4, 1996
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Charlotte's Web by Joseph Robinette and directed by Rachel Smoka.
Synopsis: A stage musical based on the book of the same name by E.B. White about a literate spider that weaves an elaborate plan to save a young pig from the butcher's block.
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Measure for Measure, May 16-18, 1996
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota Morris production of Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare and directed by Anne M. Ellis.
Synopsis: The play's plot features its protagonist, Duke Vincentio of Vienna, stepping out from public life to observe the affairs of the city under the governance of his deputy, Angelo. Angelo's harsh and ascetic public image is compared to his abhorrent personal conduct once in office, in which he exploits his power to procure a sexual favor from Isabella, whom he considers enigmatically beautiful.
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Meiningens Menagerie, April 22-23, 1996
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota Morris production of Meiningens Menagerie, a production of three plays: The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year by John Guare, Lone Wolf by Greg Riedesel, Deceptions by Eric Michael Bauer, and True Capricorns Can't Fall in Love by Miss Evol Jennifer Sayre.
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Taruffe, November 14-16, 1996
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Taruffe by Moliere and directed by Julie Rae Patterson-Pratt.
Synopsis: The story takes place in the home of the wealthy Orgon, where Tartuffe—a fraud and a pious imposter—has insinuated himself. He succeeds magnificently in winning the respect and devotion of the head of the house, and then tries to marry his daughter and seduce his wife and scrounge the deed to the property. He nearly gets away with it, but an emissary from King Louis XIV arrives in time to recover the property, free Monsieur Orgon, and haul Tartuffe off to jail. And so his duplicity is finally exposed and punished. But not before the author has mercilessly examined the evil that men can commit in the guise of religious fervor and the dangers that imperil those who would believe only what they choose to believe despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary.
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The Pajama Game, February 29-March 3, 1996
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota Morris production of The Pajama Game written by George Abbott and Richard Bissell and words and music by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, directed by Eric Johnson.
Synopsis: The story deals with labor troubles in a pajama factory, where workers' demands for a seven-and-a-half cent raise are going unheeded. In the midst of this ordeal, love blossoms between Babe, the grievance committee head, and Sid, the new factory superintendent.
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Top Girls, February 27-28 & March 1, 1996
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Top Girls by Caryl Churchill and directed by Beth Cherne.
Synopsis: Marlene has been promoted to managing director of a London employment agency and is celebrating. The symbolic luncheon is attended by women in legend or history who offer perspectives on maternity and ambition. In a time warp, these ladies are also her co-workers, clients, and relatives. Marlene, like her famous guests, has had to pay a price to ascend from proletarian roots to the executive suite: she has become, figuratively speaking, a male oppressor, and even coaches female clients on adopting odious male traits. Marlene has also abandoned her illegitimate and dull-witted daughter. Her emotional and sexual life has become as barren as Lady Macbeth's.
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Alice in Wonderland, May 12-13, 1995
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Alice in Wonderland adapted by Brainerd Duffield and directed by Zachery Anderson.
Synopsis: Alice plunges down the rabbit hole and becomes involved in that madcap and deliciously satiric series of adventures immortalized by Lewis Carroll.
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Marat/Sade, February 22-25, 1995
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade (Marat/Sade) Peter Weiss directed by Michael Shiller.
Synopsis: In the Charenton Asylum in 1808, the Marquis de Sade stages a play about the murder of Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday, using his fellow inmates as actors. The director of the hospital, Monsieur Coulmier, supervises the performance, accompanied by his wife and daughter. Coulmier, who supports Napoleon's government, believes that the play will support his own bourgeois ideas, and denounce those of the French Revolution that Marat helped lead. His patients, however, have other ideas, and they make a habit of speaking lines he had attempted to suppress, or deviating entirely into personal opinion. The Marquis himself, meanwhile, subtly manipulates both the players and the audience to create an atmosphere of chaos and nihilism that ultimately brings on an orgy of destruction.
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Stages, April 21-22, 1995
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Stages: four stories about love, heartache and all of the stage in between.
Synopsis: The Man in a Cas by Wendy Wassterstein -- Varinka is a free spirit in love with the older Byelinkov, the most proper man in town. But his inhibitions and worries about how he and Varinka are perceived when she boldly rides a bicycle about town threatens to unravel their impending marriage.
27 Wagons Full of Cotton by Tennessee Williams -- After Jake, a shady, middle-aged cotton gin owner, burns down rival Silva Vicarro's mill, Vicarro attempts to enact vengeance by seducing Flora, Jakes delicate young wife. A "Mississippi Delta comedy."
Tell by Victor Bumbalo – Tell has become a place where sensuality, pain, remembrance, escapism, imagination, and the harsh reality of AIDS all intertwine. It is a place where remembering the past helps escape the pain of today.
Sure Thing by David Ives -- Two people meet in a cafe and find their way through a conversational minefield as an offstage bell interrupts their false starts, gaffes, and faux pas on the way to falling in love.
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Stages: four stories about love, heartache and all of the stage in between.
Synopsis: The Man in a Cas by Wendy Wassterstein -- Varinka is a free spirit in love with the older Byelinkov, the most proper man in town. But his inhibitions and worries about how he and Varinka are perceived when she boldly rides a bicycle about town threatens to unravel their impending marriage.
27 Wagons Full of Cotton by Tennessee Williams -- After Jake, a shady, middle-aged cotton gin owner, burns down rival Silva Vicarro's mill, Vicarro attempts to enact vengeance by seducing Flora, Jakes delicate young wife. A "Mississippi Delta comedy."
Tell by Victor Bumbalo – Tell has become a place where sensuality, pain, remembrance, escapism, imagination, and the harsh reality of AIDS all intertwine. It is a place where remembering the past helps escape the pain of today.
Sure Thing by David Ives -- Two people meet in a cafe and find their way through a conversational minefield as an offstage bell interrupts their false starts, gaffes, and faux pas on the way to falling in love.
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The Rivers and Ravines, November 16-18, 1995
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Rivers and Ravines by Heather McDonald and directed by Anne M. Ellis.
Synopsis: This is an engrossing political drama about the contemporary farm crisis in America and its effect on rural communities.
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Picnic, November 10-12, 1994
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Picnic by William Inge and directed by George Fosgate.
Synopsis: On a sweltering Labor Day morning, the women of a quiet neighborhood on the wrong side of the tracks are preparing for the annual picnic. Watchful mother Flo Owens has hopes that her beautiful daughter Madge will get a proposal from Alan, the local millionaire’s son. Younger sister Millie, the “smart one”, yearns to grow up and leave her small town behind. Good-natured Mrs. Potts is happy to get a break from taking care of her aged mother. And spinster schoolteacher Rosemary Sydney cheerfully keeps her boyfriend Howard at arms’ length. This seemingly placid feminine environment is disrupted when Hal Carter, a muscular and charming young drifter who happens to be a former fraternity brother of Alan’s, hops off the freight train, and straight into Mrs. Potts’ hospitable home. Hearts are broken and lives are changed in the following twenty-four hours, as Hal’s lively, dangerous, masculine energy wakes up the sleepy community. A small Kansas town in the 1950s is the setting for William Inge’s bittersweet melodrama Picnic, which explores themes of sexuality, repression, rites of passage, and disappointment.
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The San of Youth, How Quickly & The Dressing Room, February 24-26, 1994
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Sand of Youth, How Quickly and The Dressing Room by Shimizu Kunio.
Synopsis: The Dressing Room (Gakuya) is a play that takes place backstage. In the play there are four actresses who are getting ready for a production of The Seagull, a play by Anton Chekhov. However, during the play it is learned that everything is not just what it seems. The play has theme of memory not being perfect and memory lasting beyond the body and into death.
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Waiting for the Moon to Rise, January 26-28, 1995
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Waiting for the Moon to Rise – a trilogy of women’s plays.
Synopsis: Am I Blue by Beth Henley and directed by Jen Brooks -- Am I Blue, the first play of well-known author Beth Henley, is a brief one-act that opens on a rainy street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. John Polk, a young college student, is having a drink at a dingy bar when he meets Ashbee, a small and feisty 16-year-old girl dressed a bit maturely for her age. She’s hiding in the bar to steal their ashtrays, and sees herself somewhat as Robin Hood, stealing objects from establishments she doesn’t like to gift to poorer residents and street-dwellers in this part of town. Though her presence is clearly irksome to John Polk, who is trying his best to stay drunk, Ashbee charms and cajoles her way into begrudging conversation with him. Her keen observance of the characters that come through her neighborhood means she can easily figure out that John Polk is here waiting for an appointment with a prostitute at a brothel close by. When the waitress, Hilda, realizes that both are underage, she kicks them out of the bar, and Ashbee encourages them to visit her home while he waits for his appointment at the brothel. Her father is out of town, she explains, and her mother and sister live in Atlanta. Once they arrive at her run-down apartment, it’s clear that Ashbee exists outside adult authority. She makes John Polk feel at home in her unusual, independent way, and shows him how she carves out personal space for herself in a wild world around them. Ashbee, who has needed to grow up too fast, is anxious to be validated by someone who admires her true qualities, and John Polk needs a friend with whom his naivete won’t make him feel ashamed. As John Polk waffles over whether to show up at the brothel and Ashbee encourages him to be true to himself, an unmistakable bond is formed that allows each character to confront some of the less simple parts of their longing for connection. Am I Blue, both sweet and yearning, wrestles with coming of age, especially in terms of human sexuality, and reflects on what it means to grow up with agency, on your own terms, instead of at the hands of the narrative society expects of you.
How It Hangs by Grace McKeaney and directed by Erin Schloo – An infectious comedy set in Wyoming that explores the friendship of four women each seeking a different way to reconcile with the past and rediscover the joy of life’s celebration.
Calm Down Mother by Megan Terry and directed by Natalie Anne Diem -- Three women undergo transformations, beginning with a girl who approaches two Jewish women in a store who are more interested in their allergies than in serving her. Suddenly the women change: the one who has been the backbone of the family is stoned and lamenting the inevitable loss of the mother who upheld the family when father turned alcoholic. Next, the women are arguing in a cathouse, and then they devolve into plain people talking about female problems.
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Mother Courage and Her Children, November 18-20, 1993
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht and directed by Michael A. Shiller.
Synopsis: Mother Courage and Her Children, follows one mother -- Mother Courage -- and her three children -- Eilif, Swiss Cheese, and Kattrin -- as they struggle to survive the Thirty Years War that ravaged Europe in the early 17th century. As a canteen woman, Mother Courage attempts to make a profit off the war by selling goods to soldiers. The very war that Mother Courage seeks to use to her advantage, however, ends up depriving her life of all its worth. At the end of the play Mother Courage is left bereft and alone to make her way in the world, moving forward the only way she knows how: following an army regiment, pulling her wagon behind her, and hawking her wares. Created in 1939 by Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children, is considered one of the most powerful anti-war plays in existence, and was written in just over a month near the beginning of World War II to protest the rise of Fascist Germany.
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A Midsummers Night's Dream, 1992/93
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of A Midsummers Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, directed by Raymond Lammers.
Synopsis: Four Athenians run away to the forest only to have Puck the fairy make both of the boys fall in love with the same girl. The four run through the forest pursuing each other while Puck helps his master play a trick on the fairy queen. In the end, Puck reverses the magic, and the two couples reconcile and marry.
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King Patch and Mr. Simpkins, 1990/91
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota, Morris production of King Patch and Mr. Simkins by Alan Cullen, directed by Melissa Nyman.
Synopsis: An unemployed jester, down on his luck, recklessly releases a jinn from captivity, who grants him a wish. Against the advice of his companion, a distinguished English sheepdog named Mr. Simpkins, he wishes to be a king. But this proves complicated, as he first has to pass the Test, and he finds his kingdom impoverished and endangered and protected only by two bumbling baronets who are constantly on the verge of killing each other for love of the Lady Fenella. Bewitched unintentionally by Basil the Wuthering Beast, King Patch begins to turn into a rabbit, then falls into the clutches of Drusilla the Hag of the Crag, who needs a rabbit and a dog for the sinister supporters of her coat of arms. It takes the Yale, "an absurd figure with spots and serrated horns curving opposite ways, and inconsequential tufts of hair, like a goat gone wrong," to rescue King Patch and Mr. Simpkins, foil Drusilla, find Lady Fenella's true knight and restore the kingdom to prosperity.
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Lovers, November 14-17, 1990
Theatre Arts Discipline
University of Minnesota Morris production of Lovers by Brian Friel and directed by Raymond J. Lammers.
Synopsis: Lovers consists of two parts: Winners and Losers. In Winners, two commentators speak without emotion about the life and death of young Mag and Joe, who are destined to be married in three weeks due to Mag’s pregnancy. The two young people are bursting with life, enthusiasm, and hope. Mag and Joe truly care for each other, and though their youth often leads to heated arguments, they soon dissipate through vows of love and carefree joking. Their youthful passion, however, threatens to overwhelm them and cut short their futures.
Losers, on the other hand, tells the story of an older couple, Andy and Hanna, who are trapped in Hanna’s home by her invalid mother, Mrs. Wilson, who demands every moment of Hanna’s time. Before Andy and Hanna are married, Mrs. Wilson rings for Hanna whenever there is silence downstairs. After their marriage, she rings for her daughter whenever they speak, thereby effectively ruining the couple’s relationship before it begins and after it has commenced.