Young at Heartland Takes the Spotlight June 23 and 28

It's always a hot ticket when the Young at Heartland troupe of senior actors perform. Every summer, they take the stage at Heartland Theatre for two showcases that highlight their acting and writing talents.

Young at Heartland's actors, all over 55, will perform at Heartland Theatre on Friday June 23 at 1 pm and Wednesday June 28 at 7:30 pm. There are no reservations and no set price; they simply ask for a donation at the door. And yes, it's a popular event, so you are warned to get there early -- at least 20 minutes before curtain, when the doors open -- if you want a good seat.

No word on what they'll be performing in this year's program, which represents the culmination of a two-month acting workshop led by veteran director Sandra Zielinski, but I can see what looks like chefs, clowns, firefighters, a matador, a bunch of Wizard of Oz characters, and a bevy of fans and fanatics in this year's photo. (Click on the image above to see a larger copy.) The scenes and short plays these actors perform were all written just for them by current and former YAH colleagues.

Young at Heartland was founded by Ann B. White and continues under her leadership, with two semesters of workshops and performances each year. Ann is the one holding her pom pom high (fourth from the left) in the photo above. She was recently named one of eight area "Women of Distinction" by the YWCA of McLean County for her stellar work with Young at Heartland.

For more information on Young at Heartland, click here. You can also see their entire schedule of area performances here.

Discovering an Undiscovered Classic: New, Funny, Political Ibsen at Heartland

It's not surprising that Henrik Ibsen would center a play on a critique of politics and politicians. He was a playwright very much in tune with his times, with his harsh look at immorality and religion in Ghosts and the government cover-up at the heart of An Enemy of the People. But... Funny?

Hedda Gabler, Ghosts, A Doll's House... Not exactly a barrel of laughs. There are lighter moments in Peer Gynt in some directors' hands, but even so, Ibsen's reputation as a playwright is not built upon comedy.

But A League of Youth, a play that came a year after Peer Gynt and ten years before A Doll's House, relies on cynical humor to tell its story. Ibsen's jabs at Norwegian politics made A League of Youth very popular in Norway, although it has only rarely been done outside that country. It did get a professional production in England that kept the Norwegian setting and added an Obamaesque poster (seen above) to underline the political nature of the action. That Nottingham theater also created an intriguing trailer for their League of Youth here.

Chicago playwright Nigel O'Hearn has taken a different tack with the material, calling it An Alliance of Brats, making the characters American and setting the play right now at an Iowa caucus during the presidential race. The spine of the play is still there, focused on an upstart who decides to launch a political campaign, pulling in young, disaffected voters to topple the corrupt fat cats. But that upstart is compromised by his own runaway ambition and lack of principles almost before he gets started. O'Hearn is banking on the fact that political naivete, demagogues and backroom deals never go out of style. Witness the current presidential campaigns...

Joey Banks, a third-year MFA acting candidate at Illinois State University, is working with O'Hearn and director Sandra Zielinski to give An Alliance of Brats a try-out of sorts, a staged reading at Heartland Theatre with a strong cast combining ISU actors and local favorites and some design elements to see how it works. There are discussions scheduled after each performance -- tonight's features the playwright himself along with McLean County Board representative Victoria Harris -- to look into the play's issues and this new adaptation more deeply.

Banks will play Ted Staynsgore (Stensgård in the original), the opportunist who kicks the alliance of brats into gear, with Todd Wineburner as Elias Bratsberg, a local aristocrat and money man; John Bowen as Monty Patronymic, a rich landowner; Bethany Hart as Audra Lundestad, the establishment politician; Kelsey Bunner and Gabrielle Munoz as Bratsberg's and Patronymic's daughters who become romantic interests for Staynsgore;  Mitch Fscher as Erik Bratsberg, shady son of the power broker; Colin Trevino-Odell as Alekson, a newspaper man; Jaimie Taylor and Tommy Kawalek as other members of the press; Andrew Piechota and Alejandro Raya as a manager and doctor who work for Bratsberg; Tim Wyman as a once-wealthy man and general troublemaker, and Riley Zobel as one of the young voters Staynsgore is reaching out to.

An Alliance of Brats has three performances left. Tonight and tomorrow the show begins at 7:30 pm, with a matinee on Sunday at 2 pm. For all the details on who's speaking after each performance, check Heartland Theatre's showtimes page. For this event, tickets are $5, payable at the door. To make a reservation, call 309-452-8709 or email boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org

TRIBES Finishes Its Powerful Run at Heartland Theatre

Heartland Theatre's Tribes -- a powerful, irreverent, emotional play about an idiosyncratic British family with a deaf son who has functioned as the quiet eye of their hurricane -- has already finished two weekends of performances. What does that mean? Only one weekend left!

Audiences have been responding very enthusiastically to director Sandra Zielinski's production, led by Illinois State University MFA actor Colin Law as Billy, the deaf son caught in the crosshairs of a smart, ferociously verbal family. His parents are writers of different stripes; his sister fancies herself an opera singer, and his brother is in the midst of a thesis about linguistics and language. At the play's onset, Billy doesn't know sign language, but he is a skillful lip reader. But as the others shout around him, sparring with quips, insults and some very colorful curses, Billy tires of trying to keep up. Is everyone too self-involved, too impatient to notice how much their son doesn't fit into this tribe?

When Billy meets a young woman named Sylvia, everything changes. She is pretty much his opposite, a hearing child born into a deaf family, someone fluent in sign language and very much a part of the deaf community. Billy is taken with her fairly quickly, but he's also taken with this new world she's opened up. And that's the premise at the center of Tribes. Where does Billy belong? What does his family owe him? What does he owe them? Is Sylvia stealing him away from them, or is he using her as a life raft?

Raine's play has some tricky twists and turns, moving from comedy to despair and back again,and Zielinski and her actors navigate the trouble spots beautifully. Colin Law is terrific as Billy, giving the play a steady center and then deconstructing it bit by bit as the drama escalates. He is matched nicely by ISU senior actor Kaitlyn Wehr, who has fire and elegance as Sylvia, the girl of his dreams. Both tear it up when it comes to expressing emotion through sign language, a credit to dramaturg and signing specialist Brooke Hausmann.

The ensemble is strong across the board, with Timothy Wyman and Cristen Monson adding warmth and irascible charm to the family mix as Billy's parents, Aaron Sparks portraying troubled brother Daniel with edgy vulnerability, and Connie Blick turning sister Ruth into a tempestuous (and funny) drama queen.

Rob Fulton's scenic design is as eccentric and detailed as the family it houses, offering a perfectly drawn platform for their messy, complicated lives, while Jeanine Fry's costumes are especially good for Ruth and Sylvia, giving us visual clues about who they are.

Tribes continues through the 27th, with performances tomorrow, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and a matinee at 2 pm on Sunday. The Thursday performance features sign language interpreters.

To see show times, click here. Try this link for reservation information.
 

OTHER DESERT CITIES Auditions Tonight and Tomorrow at Heartland Theatre

Director Sandra Zielinski will hold auditions tonight and tomorrow night for three roles in Heartland Theatre's production of Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz, scheduled for performance in Feburary 2014.

Heartland has produced Baitz before, with A Fair Country in 2002 and Three Hotels back in 1997. Baitz's work often delves into family dysfunction and political and ethical conflicts among family members, an excellent match for an intimate space like Heartland where you can see all the characters up close.  

A Fair Country and Other Desert Cities were both finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with the 2011-12 Broadway production of Other Desert Cities also nominated for five Tony Awards. Judith Light won the Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in Featured Role in a play for her role as Silda Grauman, a warm and funny woman who also happens to be a bit of a mess. Silda depends on the financial support of her wealthy sister, Polly Wyeth, even though they have diametrically opposed views of the world. That's where Baitz's skill with fully drawn characters comes into play -- everybody has shades of gray, good and bad, no matter which side of the political or social divide they fall on.

Polly and Silda are two of the characters Zielinski will be looking to cast at these auditions. The third is Lyman Wyeth, Polly's statesman of a husband, a former ambassador with all the right connections in all the right places even though he is officially retired from politics. On Broadway, Stacy Keach played Lyman, while Stockard Channing took on Polly, his sharp, polished, perfect-on-the-outside wife.

The other roles in the play are the two Wyeth children, novelist Brooke, who has come home carrying a tell-all memoir that divulges her side of family secrets, and TV producer Trip, who tries hard not to take sides in the family wars. Those roles have been cast, but their presence as characters is key to understanding how their parents and Aunt Silda operate within the context of the play. It's Brooke's arrival with her time-bomb of a book that sets everything in motion in Other Desert Cities. Rachel Griffiths played Brooke on Broadway, while Thomas Sadoski, recently seen in HBO's The Newsroom, played Trip.

For all the details on Polly, Lyman and Silda, click here to see Heartland's audition notice. Auditions will be held from 7 to 9:30 pm at Heartland Theatre tonight and tomorrow, November 24 and 25. Actors will be asked to read from the script, with no prepared monologues necessary.

Performances dates are February 20 to March 9, 2014.

ISU's KCACTF Entry MOTHER COURAGE Cleans Up in National Honors

As you may recall, Illinois State University's production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children, directed by Sandra Zielinski, was selected to be performed at the regional level of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. That regional festival was held in January in Michigan.

Mother Courage was a very successful production, one that earned its cast and production staff all kinds of accolades when it first played Westhoff Theatre last October, and again when Mother Courage dragged her cart to Michigan. During the Michigan performance, a national panel of adjudicators watched and evaluated Mother Courage, as they did all the regional selections at all eight regional college theatre festivals. After viewing all of those college productions from all over the country, the national panel selected which shows they wanted to single out for praise and awards, with Mother Courage singled out for some very special honors.

Here's are the awards handed to ISU's Mother Courage by the national Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival judges:

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A MODERN CLASSIC

DISTINGUISHED DIRECTOR OF A PLAY: Sandra Zielinski

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS: Abby Vombrack

DISTINGUISHED COSTUME DESIGN: Brittany Powers

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMPOSITION: Zack Powell

Vombrack portrayed Mother Courage herself, while Powell created new music for this production of the play. Congratulatons to Zielinski, Vombrack, Powers and Powell, along with everyone else who contributed to this fierce and ferocious production of Mother Courage and Her Children. The cast (with Vombrack pictured inside Mother Courage's iconic cart) is pictured below.

To see the complete list of KCACTF national honors, 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.

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.

ISU's MOTHER COURAGE Headed to KC/ACTF Regionals in Michigan

Illinois State University's School of Theatre and Dance has announced that their "fierce and ferocious" October production of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage, directed by Professor Sandra Zielinski, has been invited to perform at the regional level of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. That means ISU will be taking their entire production of Mother Courage up to Saginaw, Michigan, in early January to showcase their show and their program. And you can help!

As they take their act on the road, you can contribute a dollar or two (or a hundred or two) and ISU's Friends of the Arts will match your gift. I suggest you go big and make Friends of the Arts match your generosity!

ISU's Mother Courage was really terrific, with exceptional performances from Abby Vombrack as Mother Courage and Michele Stine as her mute daughter Kattrin, among others in the talented cast. Zielinski's use of music and on-stage musicians helped keep it properly epic, while the actors made it affecting and powerful. If you'd like to refresh your recollection of the production, you can see a cast photo, a couple of sketches of the scenic design, and a cast list here.

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival was created in 1969 to connect theatre students from universities all over the country, allowing them to network, perform, and hear opinions from voices outside their own departments, with the overall goal of improving the quality of college theatre across the United States.

Every fall, colleges and universities enter their productions for consideration, with the finest among them chosen to attend regional festivals held annually in January and February. In addition to handing out awards to excellent productions and scholarships to worthy students, the regionl fFestivals offer programs, workshops and symposia on acting, directing, design, playwriting, criticism, dramaturgy and stage management. Regional festival productions like Mother Courage are judged by a panel of three judges selected by the Kennedy Center and the KCACTF national committee. These judges select four to six of the "best and most diverse regional festival productions" to travel to the national festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

ISU's Mother Courage will be performed at the Region III festival in Saginaw along with Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel, as performed by cast and crew from the University of Wisconsin -- Parkside, Ghost Bike, a new play from Laura Jacqmin, produced by Wisconsin's Carthage College, a production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest from the University of Wisconsin -- Whitewater, In the Soundless Awe, from Chicago's Concordia College, co-written by Concordia professors Andrew Pederson and Jayme McGhan, and another new play, Three Generations of Imbeciles, by Bill Baer, presented by Cuyahoga Community College.

To help ISU and Mother Courage get to Saginaw, you can find contribution information here, or proceed directly to the ISU Foundation online giving page.

Auditions Announced for TIME STANDS STILL at Heartland

Time Stands Still, the Donald Margulies play about journalists, ethics and how covering international conflict affects one's personal life is scheduled to play at Heartland Theatre next Feburary. In the meantime, director Sandra Zielinski will be assembling her team of actors and getting the play's gritty issues up on their feet. To that end, Zielinski will be holding auditions December 16, 17 and 18 at Heartland Theatre.

There are two women and two men in Time Stands Still, with photojournalist Sarah front and center. When the play begins, Sarah is attempting to mend after suffering injuries in a bombing somewhere in the Mideast. She's used to recording events as they unfold, right there on the front line, and this recuperation period safe at home makes her uneasy. Does no excitement and no danger also mean no purpose?

Her long-time boyfriend, James, himself a journalist, is already there, waiting at home. He was injured, too, and that has made him think it's time to settle down and stop traveling halfway around the world, putting himself in the middle of other people's messes. He wants to get married, have kids, and act like normal people for a change.

Sarah has never considered herself the marrying kind, and the example of her editor, Richard, and his new bride, Mandy, who's half his age, isn't exactly endearing Sarah to the institution. To Sarah, Mandy seems like a cheerfully brainless twit. The fact that she's perfectly happy that way is is even more infuriating.

Who's right? Who's wrong? What is the point of a well-lived life, anyway? Is it ever possible to be an objective observer and not get involved when the world is exploding around you?

In the Broadway production of Time Stands Still directed by the legendary Daniel Sullivan, Laura Linney played Sarah, with Brian d'Arcy James as James, Eric Bogosian as Richard the editor, and Alicia Silverstone as Mandy. Earlier this year, Austin Pendleton directed it for Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, with Sally Murphy as Sarah, Randall Newsome as James, ISU alum Frances Guinan as Richard and Kristina Valada-Viars as Mandy.

If the play's issues of responsibility, ethics and personal choices appeal to you and you feel like you fit one of those roles, you'll want to pencil December 16, 17 and 18 in on your calendar. Auditions will be held from 2 to 4:30 pm on Sunday the 16th, 7 to 10 on Monday the 17th, and 7 to 9 pm on Tuesday the 18th. For more information, you can visit Heartland's Auditions page here, or the current season page here.

And if you'd like a copy of the script to study up, email me, 'cause I have one!

Fierce and Ferocious: MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN at ISU

Everybody knows Brecht isn't easy. His plays are uncompromising, political and harsh. The power of Brecht's message makes his work as difficult to watch as it is important.

Mother Courage and Her Children, his 1939 play about a woman who pulls a cart around Europe during the Thirty Years War, selling booze and bread and belt buckles to soldiers of every stripe, was Brecht's reaction to the rise of Hitler and Fascism in his own Europe. The message is clear: War never goes away. War is an economic necessity, dug so deeply into our pockets that we will never be rid of it. And you may think you can build your empire on its pile of corpses, but it will destroy you in the end, the same way it destroys everything else.

Illinois State University's production of Mother Courage, directed with clarity and strength by Sandra Zielinski, broadcasts that message every time Mother Courage's cart is dragged in circles around the stage. The cart moves in an endless cycle. Courage herself, plus her children and anybody who gets pulled into her orbit, are no more than workhorses, beaten down and savaged by the very war they plan to profit from.

It's a natural for playwright Tony Kushner, who is also concerned with Marxism, the economics and politics of culture, and how the proletariat gets stomped, to take on a translation of Mother Courage. Kushner's voice is perfect for the material, with a contemporary sound and forceful language that never strays too far from the heart of Brecht.

Zielinski's staging and stage pictures are sharp and arresting, with Brechtian effects like supertitles framing the action and voiceovers (courtesy an uncredited Patrick O'Gara) offering a cynical commentary. The theatricality of the staging, a folk-music-meets-70s-soft-rock score from recent MFA grad Zack Powell, and ferocious performances, especially from Abby Vombrack as Courage herself and Michelle Stine as her mute daughter, Kattrin, give this Mother Courage a powerful punch.

Vombrack is all fire and muscle, pushing the play along from beginning to end by sheer force of will, while Stine has a haunted quality and an expressive, luminous face that speaks volumes about the horrors of war.

Courage's other children -- Tommy Malouf as the brash, violent Eilif and Alex Kostner as pale, sad Swiss Cheese -- are also good, as are Matthew Scott Campbell as the boisterous Cook, Andrew Rogalny, Jr., as a vacillating Chaplain, David Fisch as a cigar-chomping general, and Hayley Camire, whose camp-following hooker Yvette makes a vivid impression.

Malouf and Kostner join Devon Nimerfroh and Pat Boylan in a quartet of musicians that pops up to accompany the singers and add music at interludes, making Powell's music sound lively and on-target.

Delia and Linnea Kerr-Dennhardt also contribute to the tableau as Children of War; Linnea has a charming bit with an umbrella and both stand on the sidelines, as mute as Kattrin, near the end, to bear witness. It's a telling image, as we see how the violence and bloodshed around them have robbed so many of any voice at all.

And Zielinski's choice of a final freeze, as Mother Courage struggles to hoist her wagon one last time, twists Brecht's knife one last time.

MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN
By Bertolt Brecht
Translated by Tony Kushner
Original Music by Zack Powell

Illinois State University School of Theatre and Dance
Westhoff Theatre

Director: Sandra Zielinski
Scenic Designer: Jake Wasson
Costume Designer: Brittany Powers
Lighting Designer: Joanna Szewczuk
Sound Designer: Aaron Paolucci
Media Designer: Shannon O'Neill
Hair and Makeup Designer: Mary Rose
Voice and Dialect Coach: Connie de Veer
Music Vocal Coach: Cristen Susong
Dramaturg: Gloria Clark
Fight Director: Paul Dennhardt
Stage Manager: Matthew T. Black

Cast: 
Abby Vombrack (Mother Courage)
Alex Kostner (Swiss Cheese)
Tommy Malouf (Eilif)
Michelle Stine (Kattrin)
Matthew Scott Campbell (Cook)
Andrew Rogalny, Jr. (Chaplain)
Hayley Camire (Yvette)
Carlos Kmet (Army Recruiter, Soldier)
Storm Angone (Sergeant, Soldier)
Devon Nimerfroh (Farmer, Soldier, The One with the Eye Patch)
Pat Boylan (Farmer's Son)
David Fisch (General, Lieutenant, Soldier)
Eduardo Curley (Quartermaster, Young Man, Soldier)
Ashley Donahue (Soldier)
Tyler Riggin (Soldier)
Lauren Pfeiffer (Old Woman, Voice Inside, Clerk, Soldier)
Becky Solomon (Young Woman/Soldier)
Randolph Schmaltz (Colonel, Regimental Secretary, Soldier)
Jenna Liddle (Farmer's Wife)
Delia Kerr-Dennhardt (Child of War)
Linnea Kerr-Dennhardt (Child of War)

Running time: 3:10, with one 15-minute intermission

Remaining performances:  Tonight at 7:30 pm and tomorrow at 2 pm, October 23-27 at 7:30 pm

For information about the show, click here or here. For ticket info, click here.

Opening Tonight -- Brecht's MOTHER COURAGE at ISU's Westhoff Theatre

The title of Brecht's play is really Mother Courage and Her Children, although people often forget the kids are there. That's how indelible a character Mother Courage is. Fierce, hard, practical and cynical... She's a woman who does what she needs to do, changes sides as often as she needs to, keeps pulling her cart, keeps selling trinkets to both sides in an endless war, and mostly just finds a way to survive.

But her children -- Eilif, son of a thief, Swiss Cheese, whose father was a Swiss (of course) engineer, and mute Katrin, with a German dad -- don't survive. They're the price she pays for building her life around war.

Mother Courage isn't her real name, of course. She's called that because she once drove her cart through the middle of a battle just to sell moldy bread. "I'm not courageous," she tells us in Tony Kushner's version of the script. "Only the poor have courage. Why? Because they're hopeless."

Brecht wrote his play in 1939, with Hitler and fascism threatening all of Europe. The play isn't set in anything 20th century, however. Instead, Brecht went with the Thirty Years War, a particularly devastating and prolonged conflict that raged all over Europe in the 17th century. But Mother Courage has been done all over the world, against the backdrop of just about every war imaginable. Some productions, like the one with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline at the Public Theatre in 2006, mix bits and pieces of uniforms and weapons from different parts of history, just to illustrate how little things change and how closely tied to human existence (and economics) war is tied.

Sandi Zielinski directs Mother Courage and her Children in Westhoff Theatre for Illinois State University, opening tonight with a 7:30 pm performance, and running through October 27. Because Westhoff is not a large space, its shows tend to sell out, so you are advised to get your tickets early and arrive early, as well.

This production is using Tony Kushner's script, which played to good effect in New York (as discussed above, with Meryl Streep) as well as in London with Fiona Shaw in the title role.

For ISU, Abby Vombrack steps into Mother Courage's boots, with Tommy Malouf, Alex Kostner and Michelle Stine as her ill-fated children. Matt Campbell, MFA directing candidate who just finished up The Glory of Living, plays the Cook, another character out for the main chance, while Andrew Rogalny takes on the role of the cowardly, hypocritical Chaplain.

Although there are songs in the show (expected with Mother Courage), this production is not using the score Jeanine Tesori wrote for Kushner's adaptation. Rumor has they're looking for more of a rock edge, with guitars on stage instead of the usual piano.

For more information on ISU's production, check out this Facebook page for Mother Courage and Her Children or ISU's productions page.

Two Heartland Notes for Sunday the 26th

You already know that Heartland Theatre is currently running Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius," with performances through March 4, right? (And I did interviews with Sarah Stone Innerst and Kevin Paul Wickart, who play Jackie and Phillip in the play, to catch you up if you need it.)

If you've seen the play and want to discuss the issues it raised, or if you haven't seen it and think the best performance for you is the one with value-added discussion, then you need to put tomorrow's matinee on your calendar. After the 2 pm performance of "Mauritius," director Sandra Zielinski, Professor of Theatre at Illinois State University; Alaina Winters, Associate Professor of Communication at Heartland Community College; and V. Loree Adams, MSW, LCSW, Instructor in the Sociology Department at Illinois Wesleyan University, will speak to the sibling rivalry, betrayal, family dysfunction and societal implications in the play. The panel discussion will begin at approximately 4:15 on Sunday, February 26th, at Heartland Theatre.

"Superior Donuts" on Broadway

And later that day, director Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson, who is in charge of Tracy Letts' "Superior Donuts," the next show on Heartland's schedule, will conduct auditions. "Superior Donuts" began at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, with a cast that included Michael McKean and Jon Michael Hill. When "Donuts" moved to Broadway, Hill was nominated for a Tony for his performance as Franco, would-be author of the Great American Novel. Thibodeaux-Thompson will be looking for seven men and two women, with a need for two African-American males, two males (one extremely tall) who can handle Russian accents and two males who don't mind engaging in a protracted, painful fight on Heartland's stage.

If you are interested in acting in "Superior Donuts" -- and frankly, everybody ought to, because it's a terrific play -- you'll want to come to Heartland Theatre Sunday the 26th and/or Monday the 27th from 7 to 10 pm. Thibodeaux-Thompson will do callbacks on Tuesday the 28th if necessary.

Tense "Mauritius" Packs a Punch at Heartland Theatre

Tension and intensity are the keys to Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius" as it uncoils on stage at Heartland Theatre. There's tension among all the actors and the characters they play, as they circle hungrily, not unlike a pack of wolves, around a potentially valuable stamp collection. Director Sandra Zielinski adds intensity to the mix with her staging, ramping up into physical violence as her characters shove each other aside on their way to the prize.

Two half-sisters, Mary and Jackie, have been left behind after the recent death of their mother. Mom also left behind a stamp collection, which both half-sisters profess to own. Mary, the older daughter, argues that the stamps were the prized possession of her grandfather (a grandfather she did not share with Jackie) and that they are therefore of sentimental value to her and her alone. But Jackie was the one who stayed at home with her mother through what sounds like years of financial distress and emotional abuse, and she is desperate to sell the stamp collection to provide the funds for a new life far away from her mother's house of pain.

Neither consults a lawyer. That's understandable, since most of Rebeck's conflict would fly out the window if they did. Probably better to just call that poetic license and move on. Oh well.

Instead, Jackie takes the stamp collection to a less-than-posh stamp shop, owned by the cranky, uncooperative Phillip, to try to figure out what it's worth. Phillip isn't in the mood to rouse himself to look over her stamps or offer an opinion on their value, but Dennis, a cagey younger guy always looking out for just this kind of score, is willing to jump in. He notices immediately that there are some very rare, very valuable stamps in the album she's toting.

And that's when things start to get good. Are the stamps real? If they are, who owns them? What will Jackie and Mary do to each other in order two keep their hands on them? And who among the trio of pursuers -- slick, charming Dennis, worn-out Phillip or greedy, menacing collector Sterling -- will bend the others to his will?

Rebeck's script is all about cross and doublecross, smackdown and backhand, with clever dialogue that comes out in naturalistic bits and pieces, as well as a fair share of swearing, shouting and swagger. In the intimate confines of Heartland Theatre, the violence -- both verbal and physical -- is in-your-face and scary, with edge-of-your-seat suspense. The actors work quite well together, which is absolutely necessary when they're choreographing this much action in such a small space.

Sarah Stone Innerst leads the cast as Jackie, who comes off stubborn, hard and just unhinged enough to do some serious damage as she faces off against the world. As her sparring partner, older sis Mary, Kate McDermott-Swanson is flinty and snooty, a real piece of work, the one who had all the advantages but still doesn't feel like she needs to share.

The three men are different enough, and yet each threatening in his own way. Kevin Paul Wickart is world-weary and hang-dog as Phil the Philatelist, brooding in the background and nursing his hurts like a perennially sore tooth, while Michael Pullin's Sterling is really, really scary. Pullin's physical presence is menacing from the first moment he appears in a long, plush coat, swirling it like his super-villain cape, casting a dark shadow over everybody else.

Andrew Head finishes out the trio, playing Dennis as a smooth wheeler dealer who thinks if he throws out words fast enough, nobody will noticed they're being conned. Head's Dennis is less the self-assured seducer of the off-Broadway production and more a boyish overachiever, an Artful Dodger, a whiz kid. It works just fine, as Dennis becomes the irresistible force opposite Jackie's immoveable object, and Head and Innerst strike up a nice chemistry.

Scenic Designer Michael Pullin, who also plays Sterling, contributes a snazzy set, which I am told offers a gray-green back wall with inset squares to reference the color of money and the shape of stamps. Nicely done. 

"Mauritius" continues with performances through March 4, with a panel discussion after the matinee this Sunday, February 26th.

MAURITIUS
By Theresa Rebeck

Heartland Theatre

Director: Sandra Zielinski
Scenic Designer: Michael Pullin
Lighting Designer: Grace Maberg
Costume Designer: Judith Rivera Ramirez
Sound Designer: James Wagoner
Fight Director: Paul Dennhardt
Stage Manager: Melissa Jean Mullen

Cast: Andrew Head, Sarah Stone Innerst, Kate McDermott-Swanson, Michael Pullin and Kevin Paul Wickart

Remaining performances: February 23-25 and March 1-3 at 7:30 pm; February 26 and March 4 at 2 pm

Running time: 2:10, including one 10-minute intermission

Opening Tonight: "Mauritius" at Heartland

If you've been hearing Theresa Rebeck's name in the news recently, it's probably because of "Smash," the new hit show on NBC about putting together a Broadway musical. Rebeck is the creator of "Smash," as well as the head writer on the show, and she has deep writing and producing credits for TV ("Law and Order: Criminal Intent," "NYPD Blue") as well as for the stage ("Seminar," currently on Broadway, "The Understudy," "The Scene.") Rebeck was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 as the co-writer of "Omnium Gatherum" with Alexandra Gersten.

"Mauritius," which opens tonight at Heartland Theatre, is prime Rebeck, featuring smart, flawed people with mixed motives behaving badly in pursuit of some irresistible object. In this case, what they all want is a possibly valuable stamp collection, one which may contain the so-called Mauritius Post Office stamps. These stamps, issued by the British Colony of Mauritius in 1847, were printed with the words "Post Office" instead of "Post Paid." There were only about five hundred printed of each of them -- one orange and worth a penny, the other blue and worth two cents -- and the printing mistake is what makes them so sought after in the world of stamp collecting.

That theme, of what we're worth, mistakes and all, recurs throughout the play. Or, as one of the characters in "Mauritius" puts it, "If only people were more valuable because of their mistakes."

Rebeck is very good at creating snappy, dynamic dialogue and the edgy characters to go with it. "Mauritius" features a set of five of those characters, from Mary and Jackie, the half-sisters who each think they should have dominion over the stamp album in questions, to Dennis, the smooth operator always on the lookout for a score, Phillip, owner of a sleepy stamp shop who can be roused to action if the right circumstances present themselves, and Sterling, the mysterious collector with a briefcase full of cash and a "gimme gimme" attitude to go along with it. 

Sandra Zielinski, Professor in ISU's School of Theatre, directs this Heartland Theatre production, with a cast that includes Sarah Stone Innerst as Jackie; ISU MFA candidate Kate McDermott as Mary; Kevin Paul Wickart as shop-owner Phillip; Andrew Head, a graduate of Bradley University's Department of Theatre Arts, as slippery Dennis; and Michael Pullin, a Heartland favorite who is also the resident Scenic Designer, as Sterling, the avaricious money man.

From L: Michael Pullin, Andrew Head and Sarah Stone Innerst

Photo credit: Jesse Folks

Performances of "Mauritius" open tonight with a special Pay-What-You-Can preview, followed by 7:30 performances on February 17-18, 23-25, and March 1-3, with 2 pm matinees on February 19 and 26 and March 4. A discussion about the play will follow the February 26th afternoon performance, with Alaine Winters, an expert in language from Heartland Community College's Communications Department; Loree Adams, from IWU's Department of Psychology; and director Sandra Zielinski appearing to discuss the issues presented by the play and take questions. This panel discussion is open to the public and free of charge.

For more information about Heartland's production of "Mauritius" or to make reservations, click here.

Up Close and Personal with Kevin Paul Wickart on "Mauritius"

Heartland Theatre's production of Theresa Rebeck's "Mauritius" opens two weeks from tonight. To get an inside look at the show, I put actor Kevin Paul Wickart (shown below), who plays Philip, the owner of a scruffy stamp shop, under the microscope.

Hi, Kevin! Thanks for chatting with me. Congratulations on being cast in Theresa Rebeck’s “Mauritius” for Heartland Theatre. Had you heard of the play before the audition notice went up?

Thank you, Julie. No, I hadn't heard of the play before. I had done some research on the show that Heartland had originally been looking at, and later noticed the change in the schedule. I kept in touch with (i.e. "hounded") Mike and Gail Dobbins to see about getting a review copy of the script, so I was familiar with the play before auditions were announced.

You’ve described “Mauritius” this way: “The discovery of a possibly-valuable stamp collection brings out the absolute worst in five people.” What can you add to that? What is “Mauritius” really about? And what does the title refer to?

That was my "one breath" synopsis for Facebook. The slightly longer version is: "Mauritius" is about two half-sisters whose mother has passed away after an extended illness. In going through her belongings, they find an old stamp collection that may contain the Holy Grail of stamp collecting--two incredibly rare stamps from the island country of Mauritius. When one of the sisters attempts to have the collection appraised, three men begin plotting to get hold of it.

Rebeck has taken some flak for supposedly writing “Mamet Lite” with this play, with some comparisons to “American Buffalo.” What do you think about that?

I think that some of the comparisons to Mamet are inevitable, given the use of profanity in the show. Like Mamet, Rebeck uses profanity to give her characters a measure of contemporary verity, rather than for shock value. I'm not sure what comparisons to Mamet's "American Buffalo" can be--or are being--made, other than use of the device of collecting and a bunch of people behaving badly. In plays of this type, there is always a "McGuffin," the thing that is sought by the characters, and the seeking of which invariably reveals their true natures. Whether that McGuffin is a stamp collection, coin collection, or the Hand of the Maiden Fair, the core plot is that of The Quest. What remains is the question of what each character is willing to do to get it. So...yeah, there are similarites.

How does your character, Philip, fit into things? How can you describe him?

Philip is a stamp dealer and expert, in whose store much of the play takes place. He has a history with the character of Sterling; though their views regarding stamps are quite similar, there is an "unpleasantness" between them.

As you go through rehearsals, what are you enjoying most about the play?

There are so many things! As an actor, I'm really enjoying the process of finding my character's motivations and voice, and seeing how he plays out against the other characters. And, of course, I love being part of a show that includes new and old friends.

I’m going to guess that the fight rehearsals are your least favorite part, given your description of being “slammed, punched and pummeled repeatedly about the head and body.” Or maybe you enjoyed that? Who knows?

Actually, I am loving fight rehearsals! I can only imagine what it'll all look like from the audience, but from my perspective it's completely awesome!

What is it like working with director Sandi Zielinski and the rest of the cast? Have you worked with Andrew Head, Sarah Stone Innerst, Michael Pullin or Nancy Sultan before? I would imagine a lot of snap and crackle with those scene partners.

Working with Sandi is amazing. She continually challenges us to look deeper into our characters, to keep us from getting complacent.

Also keeping me on my toes is the fact that I'm working with a group of talented and experienced actors. I worked--and sang and danced--with Sarah in "The Pajama Game" at Community Players, and I worked with Michael as an actor in last October's Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery. Nancy and Andy were new to me, but we're all blending quite nicely. And yes, there is a lot of "crackle" in some of the scenes.

Although I have known you for a while, I realized I don’t actually know much about your past theater career or non-theater career, for that matter. So when did you first step on the stage and who or what were you playing?

Hmm...easier asked than answered, I think. Assuming you mean local stages, my first foray was as Mr. Meeker in Heartland's production of "Inherit the Wind" at the Historical Museum in 1990 or thereabouts.

I actually did mean your first role ever, and now that I know that’s hard to answer, I’m even more intrigued. Was it traumatic, like you were a Goose A-Laying in a Christmas pageant? Or a ham, like Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird”? Or is it just that you’ve done so much theater that you really can’t remember? Maybe you were Cousin Oliver on “The Brady Bunch” and you don’t want to reveal your secret identity?

Ah. Well, then...my first role that I can recall was that of Baby Bear in my second grade production of "Alice in Christmasland."

How long have you been in Bloomington-Normal?

I came downstate to attend ISU in 1977, and pretty much forgot to go back home.

What did you study at ISU?

I studied a little Physics, a little Computer Science, and some Psychology.

All good things for keeping your acting honest and your singing on the beat! And what do you do when you’re not on stage?

I've been known to put some time in as a Bank Technician at State Farm Bank. In my copious free time I relax at home with my family, hang out with friends (most of whom are theatre folk), or build model rockets.

I know you have performed locally in both musicals (“Titanic” at Community Players and “HMS Pinafore” for Prairie Fire) and straight plays (“Don’t Forget to Play My Numbers” at Heartland last summer), plus you directed a Neil Sedaka revue for Prairie Fire Theatre. Do you have a favorite role you’ve played thus far? How about a role you’d love to play if you were running the world?

My favorite role so far was my debut with Community Players, playing seven characters in their production of "The Woman in Black" in 2008. As far as a role I'd love to play (if I were running the world), I think I'd have to go with something from Shakespeare--Hamlet or Puck, perhaps. I love the language, the poetry, and the intensity of his characters.

Wow. Hamlet and Puck are not usually in the same actor's repertoire. Interesting. (Note to casting directors out there: You have a potential Hamlet or Puck who can also handle the physics in "Copenhagen" and "Arcadia." Just sayin'.)

Back to "Mauritius" as we close out here. How is “Mauritius” different from what you’ve done before?

Mainly, it's my first use of violence and profanity on stage. Considering the number of shows I've done over the years, I find this rather amazing.

And, finally, what (aside from the violence and profanity) makes “Mauritius” a do-not miss for audiences?

We have a top-notch cast and crew, the characters are complex and being fine-tuned every day, and the script is excellent and fast-paced, having been crafted by an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. All the elements are there for a top-level show, under the guidance of an amazing director. All we need now is an equally fine audience.

Thanks, Kevin!

It's been my pleasure!


"Mauritius" opens at Heartland Theatre on February 16th, with performances running through March 4. For reservation information, click here.