1991-92

1991-92

SEASON

STAFF
Producer & Co-Artistic Director – Lynn Lohr
Playwright in Residence & Co-Artistic Director – Lance S. Belville
General Manager & Tour Director – Thomas H. Berger
Education & Group Director – Carole Marget
Box Office Manager – Olenka Nowytski
Box Office Assistance – Christine DeZelar, Karen Kullman, Leah Lowe
House Management – Lisa Anderson, Karen Kullman, William Wilkins
Summer Group Sales Intern – Claudine Hennessey

Scum City: A First Amendment Comedy
September 21-October 19, 1991
By David Hawley

Scandal sheets and yellowdog journalism in Minneapolis sparked a national furor and the country’s most famous Supreme Court ruling on First Amendment rights. The play is based on a 1931 US Supreme Court case, Near vs. Minnesota, and eavesdrops on newsroom shenanigans of two sleazy journalists in 1920s Minneapolis. Newspaper editor Jay Near and his muckraking publisher and friend Howard Guilford malign a variety of Minnesota public officials. Ready to take on the journalists is County Attorney and soon-to-be Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson.

Cast
Howard A. Guilford – Larry Roupe
Eddy Morgan – Jeff Tatum
Spencer Walker – David Moore
Jay M. Near – Grant Richey
Sam Shapiro – Walt Weaver
Floyd B. Olson – Rod Pierce
Weymouth Kirkland – David Moore
Radio Announcers – Jeff Tatum, David Moore
Unseen Voices – John A. Cochrane, Woodrow Leafer
Understudy – Jeff Tatum

Dave Moore and Grant Richey

Artistic Staff
Director – Ron Peluso
Scenic & Lighting Designer – Chris Johnson
Costumes by Pins & Needles – Mary Alden, Joan Gerten, Brigitte Heaney
Dramaturgs – Lance S. Belville, Ellen Mills
Stage Manager – Ryan Julien
Assistant Stage Manager – Karen Gundlach
Properties Designer & Scenic Artist – Robin McIntyre
Sound Engineer – Charles Amundson
Carpenter – Trevor Vasey
Carpenter’s Assistant – Rose Holmes
Art Assistants – Rose Holmes, Deanna Schwalke, Benjamin Greene
Technical Assistants – Floyd Anderson, Charles Amundson, Rose Holmes, Chris Kelderman

Comment
As a newspaper critic, I wrote reviews of History Theatre productions during its first decade. And then, after returning to being a reporter, I had the unique experience of writing a handful of plays that were staged by History Theatre during its second decade and later.

The newspaper business and the theater business have lots of things in common. Both engage people with strong egos who hope to create something that is better than they are. That could be a definition of good art: Something that is better than those who create it.

When everything works and the product is great, there’s sense of relief, pride and joy, along with a bit of mystification. How did we do it? When things don’t work out, newspaper and theater people shrug off their wounds and continue on. There’s always a new story to tell.

The History Theatre people took quite a chance with me. I wrote my scripts like a reporter on a deadline — the deadline being opening night. I wrote and rewrote during rehearsals, sometimes scrapping whole scenes or changing the entire direction of the shows. Actors came to dread my arrival with new pages for them to learn. On one occasion during the final week of rehearsal for one of my shows, director Ron Peluso took me out into the theater lobby, shook a new scene I had written and exclaimed, “What in hell are you trying to do here?”

“I’ll figure it out by tomorrow,” I said.

In the end, that scene worked. Ron and the actors made it work. In retrospect, it was gloriously fun. Lance Belville once observed: “There’s a reason why they use the word ‘play’ to describe what we do.”

History Theatre, which specializes in pulling the past into the present, gave me the chance to play. Thanks.

– David Hawley, Playwright

Through The Wheat (World Premiere)
October 26-November 17, 1991
Adapted by Thomas W. Olson from the Novel by Thomas Boyd

The story of United States Marines defending Paris in the summer of 1918 during the bloody, month-long Battle of Belleau Wood. The title refers to a wheat field 40 miles from Paris where the Marines made a stand to stop the German columns advancing on Paris. Advancing through a quarter-mile-long field of wheat, three companies of the Third Battalion, Fifth Marines approached a French hunting preserve to the north of the Marne River called Belleau Wood – and entered their greatest battle since America declared war against Germany.

Cast
Private William Hicks – Dennis Paton
Private Jack Pugh – Mark McCahon
Corporal Gordon Wormwrath – Bruce Abas
Private Kerfort “King” Cole – Mark Yeager
Private Daniel Hartman – Daniel D. Douthit
Private Matthew Lepere – Dave Kolstad
Sergeant Carl Bullis – Loren Lazerine
Corporal Paul Krueger – Bill Holer
Sergeant Alex Ryan – Trevor Vasey
Lt. Timothy “Doc” Bedford – Matt Klein
Captain Henry Powers – Don Cosgrove
Boy – Zachary Erickson
Elder Peasant – Don Cosgrove
Peasants – Matt Klein, Dave Kolstad
German Soldier – Dave Kolstad
Understudy – Chris Alexander

Production Staff
Director – Stephen DiMenna
Scenic and Lighting Design – Chris Johnson
Costume Design – Nayna Rayme
Sound Design – John Michener
Stage Manager – Monty Hicks
Properties Design – Ryan Julien
Scenic Artist – Nayna Rayme
Carpenter – Trevor Vasey
Carpenter’s Assistants – Randy Austin, Scott Thun, Teresa Konechne, Skip Shirey, Quintin Warford
Electricians – Floyd Anderson, Michael Burgoyne, Diane Galvin, Rose Holmes, Ryan Julien, Earl Ratliff, Dave Riisager, Karen Mulhausen
Technical Running Crew – Paul Allshouse, Floyd Anderson, Rose Holmes, Julie Jackson, Ryan Julien, Skip Shirey
Drill Sergeant/Marine Education – Sergeant Stephen Frank
Aikido Training – Kathy McClure
Hair Styling – Sergeant Benally

A Country Christmas Carol
December 1-December 29, 1991
Book by Ed Graczyk
Music by David Tolley
Lyrics by John Dempsey

Based on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the authors re-set the plot to Eureka Springs, Minnesota in the middle of the Great Depression and re-named characters as a study in the politics of economic selfishness. Then they added heel-kicking country music. The play begins after the 1936 re-election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Cast
Ezekial Skrudge – Walt Weaver
Amos Greeley/Ghost #2 – Clark Cruikshank
Myron Thorn/Ghost #3 – Ron Ravensborg
Clovis Watson – David Graetzer
Seth Parker – John Demmings
Sarah Parker – Olivia Kurth
Charley Olson/Elwood Finchley – Tom Bengston
Ike Flitner/Edgar Thorn – Paul Reyburn
Ghost #1 – Tony Denman
Gertie Delmer – Margo Andrews
Lizzie Simpson – Corey Snyder
Elfie Clark – Amelia Barnes
Ruby Parker – Siobhan Tolar
Cora Simms/Daisy Finchley – Janice Murphy
Nora Claybourn – Shelly Olson
Understudies – Kesha Dent, Trevor Vasey

Musical Numbers
Act I
Eureka Springs, 1936 – Company
It’s Christmas Eve – Seth, Ruby, Sarah, Company
The Old Song & Dance/Taken To Task – Skrudge, Greeley
Hurry On Down! – Ghost 1
Holiday Hoedown – Elwood, Daisy
Yesterdays – Lizzy Simpson

Act II
There’s Hope In You Yet – Ghost 2, Mission Band, Company
Now! – Sarah, Seth, Company
Our Little Girl – Seth, Sarah
Going, Going Gone – Gertie, Ike, Company
I Will – Skrudge
Yesterdays (reprise) – Skrudge
God Bless Us, Everyone – Ruby, Company

Musicians
Piano – John Jensen
Keyboards – Andrea Herschler
Percussion – Bruce Wintervold

Production Crew
Director & Choreographer – Michael Ellison
Musical Director – Andrea Herschler
Scene Designer – Robin W. McIntyre
Lighting Designer – Chris Johnson
Costume Designer – Katherine B. Kohl
Stage Manager – Monty Hicks
Assistant Stage Manager – Al Crom
Properties Design – Teresa Konechne
Sound Engineer – John Michener
Carpenters – Trevor Vasey, Scott Thun, Rose Holmes, Dave Carter, Daniel Widerski, Richard Palmquist
Carpenter’s Assistants – Ian C. Myvel, Skip Shirey
Master Electrician – Rose Holmes
Electricians – Floyd Anderson, Ryan Julien
Stitchers – Lisa Benson, Terry Doyle
Technical Running Crew – Paul Allshouse, Floyd Anderson, Rose Holmes, Julie Jackson, Skip Shirey, Ian C. MyVel

The Meeting
January, 1992
(in repertory with The Life and Times of Deacon A.L. Wiley)
By Jeff Stetson

Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were dedicated, in different ways, to advocacy for African Americans. They only met once, and only for a few moments, during the 1963 March on Washington, DC. This play deals with what might have happened if these two men had been able to meet at length and discuss the problems they faced and solutions available to them. Unfortunately, within five years of their brief meeting, both men had been murdered.

The approximate timing of this play’s performances and other information is based upon advance marketing and advertising material in our archives. Unfortunately, a program for this production, our primary source of data, could not be located.

Production Crew
Director – Chuck Smith

The Life and Times of Deacon A.L. Wiley
January, 1992
(in repertory with The Meeting)
By G. Travis Williams

Set in 1904 in the basement of Los Angeles’ First AME Church, a devout deacon and father of five with a fetish for gambling talks and sings about his experiences as a slave and a free man. This is an intimate theatrical experience with a man who refused to fight tor his freedom in the Civil War, yet cherishes freedom as his greatest possession.

Cast
Deacon A.L. Wiley – Gregory Alan-Williams

Production Staff
Director – Chuck Smith

Irish Stew, or The Irish and How They Got That Way
February 6-March 1, 1992
By Frank McCourt

A raw, raucous and raunchy personal experience rendered into a vivid document of social history almost as a matter of psychic survival. This one-actor show (with many characters) is a kind of political cabaret of the heart. The author and actor in this production is best known as the author of the novel Angela’s Ashes, which served as the foundation for a major motion picture

Cast

Frank and friends – Frank McCourt

Musicians

Guitar, bouzouki, accordion, bodhran – Sean O’Driscoll

Flute, penny whistle, concertina, other exotica – Laura MacKenzie

The songs in the show are traditional Irish & Scottish songs and English music hall songs. The final song, “Green Groves of Erin”, was written by Sean O’Driscoll.

Production Crew
Direction – Devised by Mr. McCourt & Company
Scenic Design – Thomas H. Berger
Lighting Design – Chris Johnson
Stage Manager – Al Crom
Properties Design/Scenic Painters – Rose Holmes, Ian MyVel
Master Electrician – Rose Holmes
Technical Running Crew – Floyd Anderson, Rose Holmes
Technical Assistants – Ryan Julien, Ian MyVel
Literary Intern – Michael Maupin

L-R: Laura MacKenzie, Frank McCourt, Sean O’Driscoll

Olle From Laughtersville (World Premiere)
March 14-April 12, 1992
By Lance S. Belville

Swedish songs, stories and ritual, as presented from vaudeville stages from 1915 to the 1930s by actor Hjalmar Peterson, playing the role of Olle I. Skratthult.

Hjalmar Peterson (R) as Olle I. Skratthult

Cast
Olle I. Skratthult (Hjalmar Peterson) – Michael Ellison
Bert Danielson – Clark Cruikshank
Olga (Lindgren) Peterson – Valeria Lari
Voice of Charles Widden – Steve Benson
Understudies – Margo Andrews & Paul Reyburn

Musicians & Actors
Vilhelm (violin, mandolin) – Bill Hinkley
Judit (guitar) – Judy Larson
Pre-Show Musician – Maury Bernstein

Production Crew
Director – Lynn Lohr
Musical Director – Sally Reynolds
Choreographer – Michael Ellison
Scenic Design – Nayna Rayme
Lighting Design – Chris Johnson
Costumer – Katherine B. Kohl
Dramaturg – Anne-Charlotte Harvey
Stage Manager – Monty Hicks
Assistant Stage Manager – Al Crom
Properties Design – Rose Holmes, Floyd Anderson
Tech Director/Carpenter – Scott Thun
Technical Advisor – Tom Barrett
Scenic Designer Assistant – Karen Milhauser
Master Electrician – Rose Holmes
Rigging Assistants – John Sielaff, Allan Lindblad, Dan Herman
Technical Assistants and Running Crew – Paul Allshouse, Floyd Anderson, Rose Holmes, Julie Jackson, Larry Hoskins, Diane Galvin, Ryan Julien
Literary Intern – Michael Maupin
Monologue Translation – Anne-Charlotte Harvey & Karen Kullman
Song Translation – Paul F. Anderson & Anne-Charlotte Harvey
Adaptations – Michael Ellison, Sally Reynolds & Bill Hinkley
Research Consultants – Anne-Charlotte Harvey Maury Bernstein

Small Town Triumphs and Cowboy Colors
(World Premiere)
Act I – Small Town Triumphs
April 25-May 17, 1992
By Barton Sutter

Based on a book of poems by Barton Sutter. Voiced for the theater by Lance Belville and Bart & Ross Sutter.

Ensemble (in order of appearance)
Paul Douglas Law
Paul Smith
Karen Kelley
Margo Andrews
Tony Denman

The Poems (in order)
Pine Creek
Pine Creek Parish Hall
Real Estate
The Visitor
Icehouse
George
Geneva
Husbandry
The Stallion
The Beaverhouse Downriver
The Berries
Old Mrs. Court and Her Quilt
Mrs.
Sky
My Father At His Height

Musicians
Ross Sutter
Marya Hart

The Music (in order)
In The Garden – C. Austin Miles
Wild Hay Blues – Gust Nordvall
Out In The Meadow – Swedish Traditional
Good Times/Sad Song – Jerry Rasmussen
Go Tell Aunt Rhody – Traditional
Miller Tae My Trade – Traditional
Du Skanning – Swedish Traditional
What A Friend We Have In Jesus – Converse & Scriven

Act II – Cowboy Colors
April 25-May 17, 1992
By Paul Zarzyski

A staging of poems, based on two books of Zaryski’s poetry: Roughstock Sonnets and The Makeup of Ice. Arranged for the theatre by Lance Belville, Paul Zarzyski & Stephen DiMenna

Cast
Performed by Scott E. Thun with Paul Smith and Tony Denman

Musicians
Ross Sutter
Marya Hart

The Poems (in order)
Blue-Collar Light
Riding Double: 16 & Beating The Heat
The Bucking House Moon
Luck Of The Draw
How The Lord Throwed-In With Mom To Make Me Quit The Broncs
Partner
Call Me Lucky
Hunting
Staircase
All This Way For The Short Ride
Words Growing Wild In The Woods

The Music (in order)
Reelin’ and Rockin’ – Chuck Berry
Hesitation Blues – Blind Blake
Git Along Little Dogies – Traditional
I’m Back In The Saddle Again – Ray Whiteley and Gene Autry
Squeeze Me But Please Don’t Tease Me – Duke Ellington
Lulu – Traditional
Are There Any More Real Cowboys? – David Briggs and Ben Keith

Artistic Staff
Director – Stephen DiMenna
Music Direction – Ross Sutter
Scenic Design – Chris Johnson
Lighting Design – Nayna Ramey
Costume Design – Mary Beth Ast Gagner

Production Staff
Stage Managers – Monty Hicks, Alva Crom
Asst. Stage Manager/Intern – Heather Snedeker (in association with Studio Craft, Inc.)
Carpenters – Trevor Vasey, Scott E. Thun, Rose Holmes, Robert Lane
Scenic Artist – Kay Kropp
Technical Assistants – Michael Burgoyne, Paul Allshouse, Gay Michelle Glenn, Ryan Julien, Rose Holmes,
Floyd Anderson

Theatre Staff
Literary Intern – Michael Maupin
Publicity, Touring & Marketing Assistant – Gina Aker
Box Office Assistants – Gina Aker, Christine DeZelar, Deb Kahnke
House Managers – Gina Aker, Kris Boorsma, Lorenzo Davis, Ryan Julien, Bonnie Tieso