Duluth Superior Magazine / July 2011 / On Stage

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On Stage

How Local Theatre Programs Are Preparing a New Generation of Actors

For an area its size, Duluth has a wide variety of options available for theater fans. In addition to places like the Playground, Teatro Zuccone, and the Playhouse, the local colleges also offer a steady stream of productions, attracting crowds from all over the region. But it’s important to remember that they also serve an important role to students who need to gain experience acting or doing behind-the-scenes technical work.
 

“One of the things we work very hard to do is to provide an academic element to our shows,” says Merry Vaughan, Director of Theatre at Duluth’s College of St. Scholastica.
 

Vaughan says that St. Scholastica’s recent production of And Then There Were None was a success. “We were sold out the entire first weekend. The cast and crew were a phenomenal ensemble.”
 

From the April 8th to the 17th, St. Scholastica is putting on the show 9 Parts of Desire, a show about Iraqi women that was originally done as a one-woman show, but the script is adapted for up to nine women.
 

Unlike, say, a college sports team, who may play a public game virtually every weekend for months and months, college theater productions are intense experiences where a large amount of the time spent getting the show up and running has to do with offstage activities, like casting, promotions, and rehearsal. Consequently, the colleges can realistically only manage a few shows a year.
 

“We do three shows per year,” says Cathy Fank, Associate Professor of theater at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. In November, UWS put up Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, a childrens’ play called Afternoon of the Elves followed in February, and Neil Simon’s classic The Odd Couple is opening on April 21st.
 

Like St. Scholastica, UWS necessarily puts the quality of the experience for students at the top of their priority list. “First of all, it’s an educational facility, so a lot of show selection has to do with the training of our students,” Fank says, “and so when we’re picking a season of plays, we’re picking plays that we think would be good training opportunities for the students that we have at that time.”
 

But they’ve got to be good shows, too, and their popular appeal is absolutely an important consideration, as well.
William Payne, Interim Director of the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s School of Fine Arts, echoes the sentiments of Fank and Vaughan when he’s asked about the specific sort of theater experience that his school provides. “From acting to stage management to design, we train students in all aspects of the art form.”
 

Payne says UMD’s 2010-2011 season has been a solid one. “This past fall, I directed South Pacific. The show played to over four thousand people and was a great success. Our other fall semester production, Richard III by Shakespeare, directed by Tom Isbell, was selected to be a part of the Kennedy Center American College Region 5 Theatre Festival in Ames, Iowa this past January.”
 

So, remember, when you go and see a play at one of the area colleges, you’re getting a glimpse into the educational experience of many people, and that, for them, these shows will surely remain in their memories as some of the best times of their lives. And, who knows, maybe they’ll stick with you a while, too.