Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC Lights Up Prairie Fire

How long have we gone in Bloomington-Normal without a Sondheim show on one of our stages? Too long.

Prairie Fire Theatre is stepping in to fill that need with a new production of A Little Night Music, the waltzing, romantic and cynical musical adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's enchanting 1955 film Smiles of a Summer Night. Prairie Fire's Night Music opens August 2 and runs through August 11.

In both the original Swedish film and the Sondheim/Wheeler stage musical, the story revolves around an actress named Desiree Armfeldt and her romantic life. Desiree is trying to deal with the sudden reappearance of her ex-lover, a lawyer named Fredrik Egerman, who has a much younger wife, virginal Anne, as well fend off her current lover, a military man named Carl-Magnus, who is more than a bit of a hothead. Adding complications to this love triangle -- or square, or possibly hexagon -- are a few extra folks like Fredrik's son and Carl-Magnus's wife.

In A Little Night Music, Desiree Armfeldt gets one of Sondheim's most famous, most beautiful songs -- "Send in the Clowns" -- as this story, of mismatched lovers taking a trip to the country during an endless summer night, unwinds. "Send in the Clowns" may have gotten most of the press, but the rest of Sondheim's score is equally wonderful, regretful, sweet and wry, as Desiree sings about her "Glamorous Life," her mother reminisces about her own "Liaisons," Carl-Magnus's unhappy wife Charlotte duets with Anne on "Every Day a Little Death," the company prepares for "A Weekend in the Country," and Fredrik, Anne and Fredrik's son Henrik lament whether "Now," "Later," or "Soon" is the right time to make a move.

For Prairie Fire Theatre, this "musical tapestry of comedy, affairs of the heart, and bittersweet romance" is directed by Rhys Lovell, with Cristen Susong as the delightful Desiree, Caroline McKinzie as her daughter, and Uretta Lovell as her mother, the wise and wily Madame Armfeldt who is watching out for the evening sky to "smile." Joe Penrod will play lawyer Egerman, Emily Honzel takes the role of his wife Anne, and Sean Leeds rounds out the Egerman family as his gloomy son Henrik. Bob Mangialardi will portray the martinet Count Carl-Magnus, with Lyndsay Byers as his wife Charlotte.

A Little Night Music will be performed at the Illinois Wesleyan University Memorial Center on August 2, 3 and 4 and 9, 10 and 11, with Friday and Saturday shows at 7:30 pm and Sunday matinees at 2:30 pm. You can see the entire cast list here, along with a link to buy tickets. If you prefer to reserve by phone, you can dial 309-824-3047 for reservations.

Summer On Stage Is Back, Now with Fewer Mutants but More Lockers

Illinois Wesleyan University is offering its second annual Summer on Stage Theatre for Youth program. So if your child wants to keep busy this summer, learn some fun new skills, and even put on a play, you can sign them up right away. Space is limited, the young actors from last summer enjoyed themselves immensely, and spots may be hard to come by. That means you are advised to register now.

The whole idea of Summer on Stage is to "provide a safe, nurturing and professional environment in which students can explore the dramatic arts." All activities take place inside the E. Melba Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre at the south end of the IWU quad.

There are two choices of camps, divided by age. Footlight Camp is intended for kids in the 7-to-11 range (or entering 1st to 6th grade in the fall), and it will involve campers in acting, improvisation, dance, voice, movement, team and confidence-building activities. Instructor Cristen Susong will offer two sessions of Footlight Camp -- one weekday mornings and one weekdays afternoons -- from May 28 to June 7. At the end of the sessions, "campers" will put on a public performance combining the efforts of the morning and afternoon sessions. You can see a picture of last summer's performance below. "This is the perfect camp for your budding actor or actress," Susong notes.

Last summer's Goldie Spock & the Two Klingons

If your child is between the ages of 12 and 16 (or entering grades 7 to 12), they'll want to try Spotlight Camp, a more intensive theatrical training experience. Daily sessions will run from 9 am to 3 pm Monday through Friday between June 10 and 28, with a focus on acting, dance, singing and technical theater classes in the mornings and choreography, blocking, character development and more of a rehearsal experience in the afternoons.

Susong has announced that Spotlight Campers will be working on the play The Locker Next 2 Mine, which has roles for ten boys and ten girls. The Locker Next 2 Mine will be performed on Friday, June 29, with a 4 pm performance for parents and friends to see what their Spotlight kids have accomplished.

To see price and registration details for both Footlight and Spotlight Camp, click here.

TIME STANDS STILL Is Shattering and Unforgettable at Heartland Theatre

Just into Act II of Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still, the characters are discussing a hot new play that two of them, James and Sarah, saw recently.

It's clear that James, a journalist, did not like the play, even though its subject matter -- Middle Eastern atrocities -- is exactly what he and Sarah, a photojournalist, have spent their professional lives covering.

Richard, their editor, asks why they went to see it in the first place. Sarah notes that it got an "incredible review."

JAMES: "Shattering!" "Unforgettable!"

SARAH: Place was packed.

JAMES: People are dying to be shattered. They'll pay a hundred bucks to be shattered.

And then Richard's much younger girlfriend, sweet, naive Mandy, offers that she prefers musicals and can't understand why people would pay so much to see shows that depress them. "I'm with you, kid," says James.

Part of the beauty of Time Stands Still is that Margulies gives equal time to both viewpoints, not just in terms of entertainment, but also in career and work. Is it better to spend your life in the midst of chaos, adrenaline, tragedy, to feel that you are doing important work and using your time on earth on important principles? Or is it okay to look for something calmer, gentler, safer, to surround yourself with beauty and love and comfort instead of just pain?

So if Margulies, through James and Mandy, is suggesting that it's fine to reject theater that is "Shattering!" and "Unforgettable!," he's also written a play that is both. And Heartland Theatre's production of Time Stands Still, directed by Sandra Zielinski, succeeds amazingly well as a "Shattering!" and "Unforgettable!" piece of theater. There are no easy answers here, no easy characters. Instead, we see people who truly believe in where they are at this moment, who want to connect emotionally, who do love each other, but can't get past the divide between them. James has grown past needing to feel shattered to know he's alive. But Sarah... She fiercely believes in the power of reporting. She can't change the world or its horrors. But that's not her job. "I'm there to take pictures," she tells us.

On paper, Sarah may seem unsympathetic and unreasonable at times. But on stage at Heartland, Cristen Susong gives her the touches of warmth and humor that help us understand why James tries so hard to save her, to love her, to keep her in his life. Dave Krostal also offers a 3-D portrait of James, with a little panic and instability under the Nice Guy surface, reminding us that he, too, has his demons. Together, they seem like the kind of couple who's been together forever, who can read each other, who just click. And that's what makes their troubles so moving. Kudos to both Susong and Krostal for terrific work, and to director Zielinski for choreographing their scenes perfectly.

If Margulies has created valid arguments for both sides of his central conflict, he has also mixed enough humor into the play to temper the angst. Zielinski and her actors navigate those shifts in mood and tone without a hitch, as the entrance of Richard and Mandy, his inappropriate girlfriend, takes the action in a completely different direction, one that exposes the "women" side of "women's work" along with an exploration of compassion versus objectivity. It helps that Harold Chapman, who gives Richard a gruff sweetness, and Colleen Longo, a lively and engaging Mandy, invest as fully in their characters as Susong and Krostal, making them worthy adversaries and friends as the issues in the play develop.

Kenneth P. Johnson's spartan Brooklyn loft setting provides a neutral battleground at the same time it neatly defines Sarah and James and their lack of roots, showing once again that the intimate space at Heartland is exactly the right place for thoughtful, personal drama.

There are only two performances left of this shattering, unforgettable piece of theater. You are well-advised to pack the place tonight at 7:30 pm or tomorrow at 2 pm.

TIME STANDS STILL
by Donald Margulies

Heartland Theatre Company

Director: Sandra Zielinski
Assistant Director: Noga Ashkenazi
Scenic Designer/Tech Director: Kenneth P. Johnson
Lighting Designer: Anita McDaniel
Stage Manager/Board Operator: Kirsten Turner
Costume Designer: Brittany Powers

Cast: Cristen Susong, Dave Krostal, Harold Chapman and Colleen Longo

Running time: 2 hours, with one 15-minute intermission

Remaining performances: March 2 at 7:30 pm and March 3 at 2 pm.

For reservation information, click here.

TIME STANDS STILL Tomorrow at Heartland Theatre

You may recall Dinner with Friends, the Donald Margulies play that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama back in 2000. In that play, Margulies took a sometimes comedic, sometimes serious look at two couples, longtime friends, and the repercussions in the lives of Couple No. 1 when Couple No. 2 split up. With a script that moved from the Humana Festival to an Off-Broadway production and then to HBO for a TV movie, Margulies showed a knack for understanding what makes relationships tick and what makes them explode.

He continues that quest to understand how we connect emotionally with other people, along with some added insight on how we connect emotionally with the world, in Time Stands Still, the 2010 Tony Award nominee that opens tomorrow night at Heartland Theatre.

On Broadway, Laura Linney played Sarah, the prickly photojournalist who was injured on the job while taking pictures of some far-off conflict, now returned to New York and wondering where she belongs, with whom, and under what circumstances. First she needs to heal on the outside, but then... Can she get married and "settle down" like normal people? Or is her mission in life to observe and record, but not get involved? How can she find a way to handle a life without bombs exploding and people dying every time she looks through her camera lens?

Cristen Susong

Cristen Susong, who has brought all kinds of warmth and charm to her roles in the past, will play Sarah for Heartland Theatre. This new character -- purposefully distant, sarcastic, antisocial -- seems like a bit of a departure for someone like Susong, who is quite clearly firmly connected to her family and her community. I asked Cristen whether she thought Sarah was as different from her as I did. After saying that she "can't help but get emotionally involved" in her world, Susong describes Sarah as "so able to compartmentalize. She takes the whole experience with Tariq [a colleague she lost] and she locks it away. She won't engage with the reality around her."

I think it's that distance, that lack of engagement, that Margulies was going for, both as an examination of the traditional role of a journalist -- to record and report, but not get involved or try to solve anything or save anyone -- and whether that's a healthy way to live, as well as a critical take on defense mechanisms. If looking at the world and its terrible troubles causes us pain, should we blind ourselves? If reaching out to other people causes us heartache, should we cut off the joy along with the sadness?

Sarah faces those questions in her relationship with her longtime boyfriend, James, played for Heartland by David Krostal, her editor, played by Harold Chapman, and the editor's much younger girlfriend, Mandy, played by Colleen Longo. Mandy looks at life from an opposite perspective from Sarah -- she's young, happy, naive, optimistic -- and that, too, gives Sarah pause.

The different moods in the script add up to a challenging directing assignment, but if anyone if up to it, it's veteran director Sandra Zielinski, who most recently took on Brecht's Mother Courage at Illinois State University, Chekhov's Three Sisters as a showcase for ISU's last class of MFA actors, and Joel Drake Johnson's dysfunctional family drama The End of the Tour for Heartland. End of the Tour also featured Cristen Susong, that time playing a wife, mother and daughter at the end of her rope. It was the family connections that were plaguing her in that play, and Sarah's life with no strings and no connections might've looked pretty attractive to poor Jan in The End of the Tour.

Time Stands Still opens tomorrow night at Heartland Theatre, with performances Thursday through Sunday from February 14 till March 3. For information about the play, click here. For reservation information, click here.

There's a New Shakespeare Troupe in Town

The Intercity Shakespeare Troupe is taking its Midsummer Night's Dream on the road!

This brand-new troupe, created in conjunction with the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and composed of students from five Bloomington-Normal area high schools, will perform a one-hour version of Midsummer this week.

Cristen Susong directs a cast of 20, which includes Maggie Brothers, Shannon Jirik, Christopher Abel and Nick Clark as the mismatched Athenian lovers, Jacob Mattia, Timothy Zaitzeff, Susan Rudahindwa and Maxx Lawrence as the nobles, Katelynn Shennett, Bradley Ogilvie, Kyle Aschbrenner, Amelia Dirks and Elliot Lusk as the band of players meeting in the forest to rehearse a show, and Jake Stille, Alexys Ogorek, Becky Taber, Kyleakin Helm, Natalie Lade, Katryce Bridges and Dulcie Church as the fairy royalty in the piece.

Susong is assisted by Haleigh Makemson, the student stage manager, technical director Joe Fehr and set designer Emily Hahn.

Performances are scheduled for:

Wednesday, January 23 at 7 pm at Central Catholic High School
Thursday, January 24 at 7 pm Normal Community West
Friday, January 25 at 7 pm Normal Community
Saturday, January 26 at 2 pm at Bloomington High School
Sunday, January 27th at 2 pm at University High School

Tickets (available at the door) are $3 for students and $5 for adults. All profits go to support the participating high school theater programs.

More Casting News: TIME STANDS STILL at Heartland

Heartland Theatre and director Sandi Zielinski have announced casting for their February production of Donald Margulies' Time Stands Still, a Tony nominee for Best Play in 2010.

Cristen Susong will lead the cast as Sarah, a photojournalist injured while taking pictures in a Mideast hot spot. She has come home to New York to try to patch herself together, physically and emotionally, while grappling with the realities of everyday life. Now that she is in less danger, she has more time to reflect on who she is and what she wants. Her longtime boyfriend, James, who will be played for Heartland by David Krostal, is also a journalist and he, too, made his living reporting on strife and violence in other lands. But he is ready to kick back and relax, while Sarah isn't. Margulies' script raises issues of personal responsibility -- Is reporting enough? How can witnesses not intercede, even if they are carrying cameras? -- as well as what makes life worthwhile and what makes life for a woman worthwhile, contrasting Sarah's life of work and adrenaline against the more traditional world of marriage and motherhood.

Susong was last at Heartland in The End of the Tour, the dysfunctional family drama from Joel Drake Johnson, while Krostal played the fantasy husband in Woman in Mind and half the town of Tuna, Texas, in A Tuna Christmas.

Also in Time Stands Still will be Harold Chapman as Sarah's editor Richard, and Colleen Longo as Mandy, Richard's much-younger romantic interest. Chapman's name is new to me, but Longo's is familiar from her recent terrific work in These Shining Lives at Heartland as well as her days at ISU, where she was a lovely Rosemary in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Heartland Theatre's production of Time Stands Still opens with a special Pay What You Can preview on February 14 and continues through March 3, 2013.

Goldie Spocks and the Two Klingons?

Goldie Spocks and the Two Klingons

I once drew "Goldilocks and the Three Hitmen" out of a hat in a writing workshop. I wrote the short piece required for that instant exercise, but I also kept the slip of paper with "Goldielocks and the Three Hitmen" on it, thinking the idea was amusing enough to write it into a whole book someday. Francesca Moore clearly had something of the same idea (only better) since she put together a children's play called "Goldie Spocks and the Two Klingons." Which is an awesome title, any way you slice it.

Just from that title, we can surmise that Goldie is now a Vulcan and probably an intergalactic traveler. And maybe she is lost in space and trying out the porridge and/or sleeping quarters on a Klingon vessel?

That's my speculation, but I'll have to go to "Goldie Spocks and the Two Klingons" Friday afternoon to find out for sure.

This Goldilocks-meets-Star-Trek children's theater production, with its one and only show scheduled for tomorrow at 4 pm, marks the end of the season for director Cristen Susong and her Footlights summer theater camp. Cristen notes that the play is 15 minutes long, and doors will open at 3:50 pm at the E. Melba Johnson Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre on the Illinois Wesleyan University Campus.

Susong herself is narrating the piece in the guise of a Trekkie and/or Trekker, with a cast that includes Trinity Bornder as Jane "Whey" Muffet, Jack Courtard as Keith Klingon, Ashley Hennefent as Little Red Space Helmet, Dalton Spalding as Keeton Klingon, and Eden Susong as Captain Goldie Spocks.

"Creature Feature" From the Summer Camp Kids

Back in May, we learned that actress/singer/all-around-cool-person Cristen Susong, in conjunction with Illinois Wesleyan University, was organizing "Summer on Stage," three different summer theater camps for kids, with the session for the oldest group finishing up on June 29. That's next week, and Susong reports that the Spotlight Camp kids (ages 12-15) are putting the final touches on their camp finale show.

"Creature Feature: Modern Day Mutants," by Christian Kiley, will be performed on Friday, June 29, at 3 pm at IWU's E. Melba Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre. The cast includes Adam Alexander, Katryce Bridge, Dulcie Church, Jessica Dolan, Kyleakin Helm, Eli Kalam, Jamie Keller, Nate Mixon, Alex Roy, Eli Susong and Jacob Sussina. Lianna Pfister is acting as assistant director and stage manager.

So what is a "Creature Feature"? Here's how the play is described at YouthPLAYS: "Tired of the constant pressure to be like everyone else? Are you ready to stand up and celebrate who you are and your uniqueness? Well, meet 'The Originals' and be a part of a new movement that will be sweeping every school in the world. Each member of 'The Originals' has a unique physical feature that is different than 'The Normals.' Grippy’s hands, Dumbo’s ears, Cranium’s brain, Coke Bottles' eyes, Cyrano’s nose, and Charlie’s heart. Together they try to create a united front against conformity and the idea that everyone should be the same in this charming, often comic and ultimately enlightening celebration of uniqueness."

Summer theater camp is a perfect place to celebrate individuality, so this show sounds like just the right vehicle to cap off the campers' summer.

It will not be the end of summer for Cristen Susong or Summer on Stage, however, as she announced last week that the camps had proved so popular she was adding another session of Footlight Camp, this one open to any and all children who will be entering 1st through 6th grades in the fall. The camp begins July 23 and runs through August 3, with sessions daily from 1 to 4 pm. And, yes, there will be a performance of a play like "Creature Feature" at the end, for parents and friends to come and watch. The cost of this added Footlight Camp session is $150 for the two weeks. Considering some of the expert instructors who have been working with the kids -- Cristen and Scott Susong, Sheri Ann Marley and James Wagoner -- that is an amazing bargain!

For more information on the new session of Footlight Camp, check here. And for details on the "Creature Feature" performance, click here.

Summer Camp for Theater Kids 5 to 15

Do you have a child who likes to put on plays in the back yard? Someone who recreates numbers from "American Idol" and "Glee"? A child who uses your white tablecloth and the upstairs window to stage either the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet" or the big song from "Evita"?

If you have a child who is itching to release his or her inner actor, actress or performer (or just likes to play Pretend) or you think would benefit from learning to express him or herself, Illinois Wesleyan University is offering three theatrically-inclined summer camps for kids under its Summer on Stage program. All three camps will be held at the E. Melba Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre, the same black box theater IWU's School of Theatre uses for about half its shows, located in the McPherson Theatre building at 2 Ames Plaza East on the IWU campus.

Cristen Susong

Cristen Susong, who is herself an amazing singer and actress, will be teaching and leading these theatre summer camps. You may've caught Susong on stage in ISU's "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," where her beautiful singing voice stood out, or in Heartland Theatre's "The End of the Tour," where her acting skills took center stage. Susong describes Summer on Stage and these camps as a way "to provide a safe, nurturing and professional environment in which students can explore the dramatic arts. Theatre can teach creativity, problem solving, collaboration, public speaking, concentration, confidence, adaptability and promotes a curiosity to learn." What kid can't benefit from that?


GREENLIGHT CAMP is intended for the youngest set, offering fun and games for children between 5 and 7 years old, or those who will be entering kindergarten, first or second grade in the fall. Greenlight Camp involves a two-week session from May 29 to June 8, from 9 am to noon, at a cost of $180, which includes a camp t-shirt. I am given to understand that registration has been brisk for this level, so you are advised to sign up your youngster right away if they are between 5 and 7 and they are looking for an introduction to theater games, improvisation, stage movement and vocal performance. And please note that the children in Greenlight Camp will offer a fully produced play for friends and family at the end of the session. (The performance is scheduled for June 8 at 4 pm.) Cristen Susong notes that this is "the perfect morning camp for kids who love to be dramatic or need to break out of their shell or express their creativity." Which means it's perfect for pretty much every kid who needs an outlet during the summer.

FOOTLIGHT CAMP focuses on children a little older, those between 8 and 11, or entering 3rd, 4th or 5th grade in the fall. Footlight Camp is also a two-week session, and it's scheduled for the afternoons (1 to 4 pm) during that same May 29 to June 8 period. It's also offered for $180, and yes, the camp t-shirt is included. Footlight Camp is a little more advanced, and Susong says it's "the perfect camp for your budding actor or actress." Susong and her campers will work on their acting, improvisation, dance, voice and movement skills, as well as team and confidence building activities. And the Footlight Camp troupe will also end their summer season with a performance on Friday June 8th. This one has also been popular in terms of registrations, so parents should sign up for this one quickly.

SPOTLIGHT CAMP takes another step up, with kids 12 to 15, or those who'll be in 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th grade in the fall. As the age of the campers increases, so does the level of theatrical involvement and the intensity of the training. That's why Spotlight Camp is a three-week session instead of just two, and kids will be busy all day (or from 9 am to 3 pm, anyway) over the course of the session (from June 11 to 29). The cost is $250, and participants will get a camp t-shirt and a snack every day! The students involved will get a complete theatrical experience, with work on choreography, blocking, character development and everything they'll need to "put on a show." Mornings will be devoted to acting, singing, dancing and some backstage technical work, with afternoons spent rehearsing for their season-ending show on June 29.

If your child has been trying out for the school play or local children's theater productions and not getting anywhere, this might just be a path to the top of the cast list. I'm pretty sure I would've been begging Mom and Dad to sign me up when I was 13 or 14 and getting discouraged by not getting a speaking role in anything at my junior high. So if you want to save your budding star from having to be the silent court stenographer in the background, this is your chance!

The registration form for all three camps is here, with more information on Summer Stage (including the possibility of scholarships) here. If you have questions, Cristen Susong can be reached at 309-553-9323 or IWUsummeronstage@yahoo.com.