"Nature" by TigerLion Arts at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

"This one thing I know for sure, we must all return to Nature." So says Henry David Thoreau in TigerLion Arts' outdoor walking play Nature, and I couldn't agree more. That's one of many reasons why I love this unique theater piece so very much and saw it last weekend for the fourth year in a row. It's truly one of my favorite theater things. Nature checks off all of my theater boxes: it's funny, whimsical, poignant, musical, physical (for performers and audience), immersive (but not interactive), historical, spiritual, inspiring, silly, 90 minutes no intermission, and performed in the best location ever - the great outdoors. It fills my heart with joy and my mind with challenging thoughts about the interaction between civilization and nature. The 2017 tour (which included a trip to Concord MA for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Thoreau's birth) has concluded, but follow TigerLion Arts on Facebook and/or Twitter for information on future performances and an upcoming documentary. As long as TigerLion Arts keeps performing Nature and there exists Nature in which to perform it, I will follow them on this beautiful journey.

"Nature" by TigerLion Arts at Elm Creek Park Reserve

A few weeks ago, I spent four days and three nights in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, just outside of Ely, MN. Even though I've been to New Zealand and Northern Alaska, this was the most in Nature I've ever been. After paddling into the nationally designated wilderness area, the only signs of civilization I and my six companions saw were the campsite fire pits and latrines (if you can call a copper stool with a hole in it standing in the middle of the woods "civilization"). Nothing soothes my fears and relieves my stress like being in Nature. Those four days were like a balm to my soul; the challenge is to carry that feeling with me back into civilization. TigerLion Arts' outdoor walking play about the friendship between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, simply titled Nature, challenges the audience to escape from civilization for an hour or two and feel Nature's balm. After touring around the Midwest, it was at the beautiful Elm Creek Park Reserve, just north of Maple Grove, last weekend. This was my third time seeing it and the third location (after the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and my alma mater St. John's University), and I will continue to go see it every year they continue to do it. It truly is one of my favorite theater experiences.

"Sunshine" by Dark & Stormy Productions at Grain Belt Warehouse

After a string of 11 holiday shows, it was time for a palate cleanser. Dark and Stormy Productions once again fulfills that space with their "anti-holiday programming," this year with the dark comedy Sunshine by William Mastrosimone (whose much darker and much less comedic Extremities they tackled this summer). But at its heart this really is a sweet story about two (or three) people who are looking for love in all the wrong places (to quote a great old country song). Presented in an intimate and appropriate non-theater space, with a terrific three-person cast, this is another strong showing from Dark and Stormy that serves as a nice cap to their third season.

"Nature" by TigerLion Arts at the St. John's University Arboretum

Nature is truly one of the most special and unique theater experiences I've ever had, and I've had a lot of theater experiences in the last five years of writing this blog, and in the years before. This "outdoor walking play" about the lives, writings, and friendship of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau was created in 2010 by TigerLion Arts' Tyson Forbes (a descendant of Emerson) and Markell Kiefer, et al., and has continued to be developed into its current form as the touring production known as Nature for the Nation. With the state of our global and local environment, it's quite obvious this that Nation needs Nature, and this piece is a beautiful way to connect to, explore, and comment on Nature. And beyond that, it's an incredibly inventive and unique piece of theater that is a perfect illustration of the concept "content dictates form." When your content is the very personal and yet infinite idea of Nature herself, there is no better form that getting the audience out in Nature while watching, and participating in, this experience. Nature is everything I love about theater, combining comedy, drama, music, physicality of performance, physicality of the audience in walking through the space, creativity, an inspiring true story, and a stunningly gorgeous natural location.

Nature leads the way through the SJU Arboretum

I first saw Nature last year at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen, where it played for several weekends in the late fall. It's definitely one of those shows you can see multiple times; it's such a rich and full experience with so much to take in, and it's different every time due to the main character, ever-changing Nature. This year's tour presents multiple opportunities to see it again. I was invited to the opening in Minneapolis, but I decided I'd rather see it at St. John's University, my alma mater (technically I went to St. Ben's, but they're really the same school). Every fall I visit the SJU campus with my family (most of whom live in the St. Cloud area, many of whom attended or are attending CSB or SJU) to walk through the woods and have a picnic by the lake. This is one of the places where I have felt a connection to Nature over the years, so I wanted to experience Nature there. And to make it even more special, my super-talented 16-going-on-17-year-old cousin and goddaughter Greta was part of the community chorus, and it was a perfectly gorgeous fall day, making it well worth the 150-mile roundtrip.

the cast of Nature at the Arboretum last year

As at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum last year, the play took place in four locations at the SJU Arboretum, a place I'd never visited in my 20-year history with the campus. The community chorus (gathered from local volunteers at each location who rehearse on their own and briefly with the cast, which in this case happened to also include Mark McGowan, co-founder and former member of my favorite a capella group Tonic Sol-Fa) led us to the first location - a church. It was there that the play began with the introduction of Emerson and Thoreau and their early lives. We followed them to a prairie hill with grasses blowing in the breeze as we watched the friends take a walk, something they loved so dearly. Next we paid a visit to Thoreau's Walden Pond cabin, where we learned more about the complicated friendship between these very different men who shared a love of and respect for Nature, but went about it in different ways. Finally we watched Thoreau working in the fields, while "progress" started to overtake Nature, much to his dismay and disgust. This is where the conflict set in, as we followed the story back through the various locations and ended where we began - at the church. We have traveled with this story through time and space and Nature, and come full circle having experienced something truly beautiful.

Emerson (Tyson Forbes) and Thoreau (John Catron)

Most of the cast from last year returns to the tour this year, forming an absolutely delightful, playful, and endlessly watchable ensemble that includes Kate Guentzel as Emerson's wife Lydian, Kimberly Richardson as his aunt Moody (and choreographer), and too many wonderful people to mention (check the tags at the end of this post for a few). Tyson Forbes and John Catron are Emerson and Thoreau once again, and are the perfect embodiment of these two men and their friendship. For at its heart, this really is a love story - in the friendship of these two men and their love for a third party that drew them together. No, not Lydian, although there was a bit of a soap opera love triangle there. Their most important love was for Nature herself. And I cannot imagine anyone else as Nature than Norah Long. She is Nature personified, with her golden halo of curls blowing in the breeze, a look of absolute serenity and oneness on her face, and a voice like the goddess herself (and my cousin tells me she was also wonderful working with the chorus in their rehearsals and the performances). The music provided by Norah (she also plays by the violin), Andrew Forbes (playing bagpipes, flute, guitar, etc.), the cast, and the chorus is so lovely and transporting and perfectly appropriate to the time period and the setting.

There are so many wonderful things about Nature that I can't even begin to tell you about all of them (the whimsical sound effects, the exaggerated apple-eating, the charming letter delivery). It truly is something you need to experience yourself. Return to Nature, take a walk, watch the sky through the trees, be embraced by the earth, and let this talented group of artists take you on a journey that you'll never forget. There are two more stops on the 2015 Nature for the Nation tour, south of the Twin Cities at Gustavus and Carleton Colleges (more info here). But Nature never ends, and hopefully neither will Nature. They're hoping to take it on a National tour, eventually arriving in Concord in 2017 for the 200th anniversary of Thoreau's birth.This beautiful and important story, so well and appropriately told, needs to be heard and is an absolute joy to experience.

"Nature Crown" by Theatre Forever at the Guthrie Studio Theater

I went to see Theatre Forever's newest creation Nature Crown not knowing what it was about. I left the theater still not knowing exactly what it was about, except that it's lovely, delightful, innovative, poignant, creative, and incredibly moving. The original fairy tale deals with the ideas of home, place, and change, but I'll let creator and director Jon Ferguson explain it: "It's about returning to a source or place of origin, honoring that place and letting it go, all at the same time. It's about love and change and re-connection. And that's what I hope for everyone. Through the experience of this play I hope that this story and this place becomes yours. I hope that we find parallels between us, to better understand each other, and ourselves, in order to live better together."

The story centers around a typical working man named João (Diogo Lopes) who is fired from his job, sending him off on a life-changing adventure (or dream?) in a village on the other side of the woods. He meets a mysterious woman (Aimee K. Bryant) who he later learns is Nature or the Earth herself, and chases a boy (13-year-old Lorenzo Reyes) to a quaint little village preparing for a once in a century celebration, at which point everything is destroyed and life begins anew. After presenting himself to the King (Brant Miller) and Queen (Catherine Johnson Justice), João remembers the village and doesn't want it to change, so he believes the royal assistant Rupert (Tony Sarnicki) when he tells him he must slay a monster in the woods to prevent the village's destruction. Things don't go as well, but "this is a fairy tale, so everyone gets what they need." João returns to his life forever changed, with the memories of this place and this experience bringing a new energy and joy to his life.

the villagers (photo by Eric Melzer)

But this plot summary does not even tell one-tenth of the story. This is one of those pieces that's difficult to put into words, because what is created in that in-the-round space by the 14 members of the ensemble, four musicians, and the six-member Artemis Chamber Choir* is beyond words. It's so creative, and playful, and physical, and fun, and unabashedly sincere and hopeful. The village is created by little houses mounted on backpacks, so of course the castle is a suitcase. It's England so there's lots of tea pouring and drinking. Two young villagers (Paul Rutledge and Ben Mandelbaum) learn to transform themselves into trees and logs and rocks. A mysterious backpacked man (Peter Lincoln Rusk) and his apprentice (Nick Saxton) help to guide the events as they're supposed to happen. Flower petals represent leaves and blood, depending on what's called for. Things pop up out of the floor when needed. A spoon is a recurring motif. None of it makes any sense, but somehow it all makes sense.

"Home is where the heart is," the saying goes. Or perhaps the heart is where home is. We all carry places around inside of us, places that meant something to us at different times in our lives. Places that we may never see again, or places that we may return to and find them not at all how we remember them. "You can never go home again," goes another saying, but this piece seems to say that we can carry the memory and spirit of that place inside us, to give us courage for what lies ahead.

If exploring the ideas of home and change and courage ("be brave or you'll miss everything") with music, movement, delightful props, heartfelt performances, and much theatrical innovation is intriguing to you, go see Nature Crown, and be reminded of those places that lie inside your heart (continuing in the Guthrie's Dowling Studio through April 4).



*The Artemis Chamber Choir performs in the lobby of the Dowling Studio before the show, and the acoustics of the space combined with lovely harmonies create something quite haunting.


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

"The Big Show" by Theatre Forever at the Southern Theater

I grew up on game shows. Shows like The 10,000 Dollar Pyramid, Hollywood Squares, The Joker's Wild, and my favorite, Family Feud. Theatre Forever's The Big Show hearkens back to those good old days, and it's great fun. But it also digs a little deeper as popular host Jackie Cartwright takes the opportunity of his final show to look back on his life and the sacrifices he made to get where he is. In addition to being funny and entertaining, The Big Show is also sad and poignant at times, with some really beautiful images created in the gorgeous space that is the Southern Theater. Unfortunately the show is closing tonight, so let me get right down to it:

• Brant Miller as Jackie Cartwright is, as always, so funny and inventive and totally committed to his character. Jackie is a combination of every game show host from the 70s, with more than a little Richard Dawson and his penchant for kissing the ladies and the catch phrase "survey says!" But there's a desperation just underneath the big personality, as he contemplates what his life will be like now that the show is ending after he pushed everything aside for it.
• This wonderful ensemble (who also helped to create the piece along with director Jon Ferguson, Dominic Orlando, and Brant Miller) includes Joanna Harmon and Tony Sarnicki as game show contestants, as well as Jackie's wife and son; Katelyn Skelley and Leslie O'Neil as the game show assistants/dancers with their perfect 70s hair; and Mark Benzel and Robert Haarman as a couple of stagehands that help to set the scenes both in the game show and in Jackie's life.
• The trippy 70s vibe is fantastic, and the women's costumes are especially fab, from the flowy pastel dresses of Jackie's assistants, made for twirling, to Joanna's super cool floral jumpsuit.
• The lighting (designed by Per Olson) helps to create the mood of reflection, with some really lovely effects created by the hanging light bulbs and light bulbs on sticks wielded by the cast. Various props are also put into effect, my favorite being the single feather that softly and elegantly falls from the ceiling. Jackie has an obsession with the night sky, which comes into play in the beautiful ending. 

A note in the program summarizes the impetus for the show as such: "Brant wanted to make a game show, Jon wanted to make a piece about afterlife, and Dominic wanted to make a piece about a nervous breakdown on television." Mission accomplished on all fronts. Fresh and original, with a touch of nostalgia, tons of humor, and some really lovely moments such as the one below.