The Tempest: I am SO PROUD of this show!

The final show of the Gustavus season, as well as a huge alumni reunion to celebrate 75 years of Theatre at the college, and the retirement of a legendary theatre professor, Rob Gardner. Amy Seham directed, the set was student designed by Melissa Friebe, and lighting was designed by Sarah Leigh. I designed the costumes, and alum Jenny Kelly returned to do make up and hair. She also took these fabulous photographs.


Miranda (Emily Coussens) listens to Prosperpo (Rob Gardner) tell their history.
The island world belongs to Caliban (Brian Evans), and includes Ariel (Alissa Paris Gilbert, with Ferdinand, Matt Dittes).



and a world of Spirits who were the island, harnessed into performing Prospero and Ariel's magic:



The court world, guilty or complicit in Prospero's expulsion from Milan by his usurping brother, are stranded on the island by the Tempest. Here, that brother, Antonio (Evan Hilsabeck) wakes regicide in Sebastian (Adam Butler)....
The court world also inlcudes Trinculo the court fool (Marlinda Tyson) and Sebastian the drunken butler (Michael J Sielaff), who meet Caliban are led around the island... Caliban leads them to kill Prospero, and everyone gets drunk:


Prospero, who knows everything on the island, leads the court through trials with the help of Ariel -- the Harpy calls King Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonis "three men of sin" ...this was an awesome effect with the spirits as wings and a beak...


and perhaps my favorite shot of the show.... Ariel runs up the vaum on this huge root to the sound of a Harpy scream. It gives you goose bumps.

it may be the airport, but it's still stunning. This view from the end of a five day stint in Phoenix, and the USITT conference.
It was a really rewarding trip... a lot of people from the U of I, and from Santa Clara... many interesting things learned, and almost enough sun soaked up.

at long last a photo post...

The first year at Gustavus is a good one. We've opened two of three theatre productions for the year, and the dance concert this past weekend. It's a good place to be.
Jacob's been here since September, our 2 bedroom apartment in the southwest suburb of Prior Lake is cozy. He's on tour as a sound engineer right now, and I'm headed to Phoenix for the rest of the week to attend the USITT conference and see many friends and teachers and colleagues and be in 90 degree weather. So we're busy and life is good, better still with the thaw this week.

It's kind of a "Christmas card" summary, but it's been a long time, and this way you've missed the constant weather report of last winter (seriously, thought, 11 days in a row with temperatures below zero will mess with your morale...but two snowstorms in a week will result in two snow days and a snow angel in our backyard will brighten the landscape significantly)... no pictures of the snowstorm (or the snow up over the seat of a deck chair on our back deck for two or three days), but the icicles on the front side of the house were documented

the water ran down the icicles so slowly that they formed like flat ribbons of pulled taffy... then when they started melting and the water ran faster, they looked like stalactites. It was pretty awesome.

This is the Anderson Theatre Stage, our 300 seat, 3/4 thrust space. We have a tiny black box too



My costume shop, out of focus and messy looking....which likely surprises no one. That's a Tempest idea on the dress form.


a Cherry Orchard dress, which I designed and patterned. My gracious predecessor came back to help, she did all the velvet bias cut trim... The blouse fabric came from Berkeley, and the suit wool from SR Harris here in Minneapolis. (Pattern based on one from Truly Victorian, which is a company I recommend heartily)

the supply cabinet and the record collection that came with the shop

At Gustavus there's a January term, which is an intensive course --in our case a production. These are photos from The Cherry Orchard... it was the final directing project for a faculty director who is retiring after 36 years of shaping the department. He brought back alumni from across the country to act with students in the production.

(no... that mustache didn't stay...)

The matriarch's brother, Gaev, was played by Peter Breitmayer ...on the left is Tasha Carlson, as Anya, and on the right, Taylor Granlund as Varya. Anya's totally amazing wig was fronted by Heather Fleming. It is so great to be able to connect with classmates and friends from grad school as problem solvers and professional connections.


Alum Alissa Pritchett played th eccentric governess, Charlotta... For those of you who think like this, this is that totally awesome Folkwear Pattern for a Big Sky Riding skirt that buttons open to be pants (complicated...not really recommended for beginners or people who don't have a lot of time to figure out what they really mean)

The aged Firs, the manservant who did not consent to the emancipation... the singularly phenomenal Kevin Kling ...an honor and a priviledge to work with this man. The hair and makeup for the show was done by alumni Jenny Kelly
The set was white carpet... the cherry trees were real trees (cut down on campus in the fall for stadium construction), painted white, with paper leaves. The student lighting designer did an outstanding job with this palette...
Karen Esbjornson as the impenetrably graceful Lyubov, pleading for mercy and understanding from Trofimov, the perpetual student (Dan Jackson... I shaved that baldspot on the back of his head) ...this ballgown is another design and pattern that I'm especially pleased with.


The first show of the season was An Experiment with an Air Pump, a play taking place in 1799 and 1999, with the same actors in both stories.




It's a great play for a liberal arts college... ethical questions about how far science can go and how to consider consequences, humor and wit, great language, and an allegory about Britain and industry. And, you know, challenges like "how to make a chimney smoke for exactly 20 seconds so it goes out on cue" (THANK you, helpful helpful playwright!)


I'll finish off with a Prospero and a Miranda rendering for The Tempest, our final show of the season, running the weekend of Mother's Day... thanks for looking, and for being patient with the long delay in posts... be in touch!

the library

the new central library in minneapolis rocks.
so yes, i'm back in the cities, trying to get organized to head up to l'homme dieu for GODSPELL on saturday, and trying to get things done for a curriculum/season meeting at gustavus adolphus tomorrow.
it's really good to be back in my neighborhood, i'm sad that i'll be moving out of it the end of august, but looking forward to a new environment where i can do good work at this new job. jacob's still looking for work up here, and i'm still looking for that said environment (apartment hunting can be such a pain), so we can both use your good thoughts about any of that....
not much else new to post. pray for peace, and work for it too

hailstorm

yesterday after work we had the most incredible weather i think i've ever seen.
the view from our balcony is of the mountains, i don't really know how many miles away... and i looked out to see that the eastern-most ones were gone, just enveloped in some kind of fog or something. you couldn't even see the streaks associated with a far off rainstorm.
fifteen minutes later, hail the size of golfballs started falling. then it wasn't so much falling as it was hurling horizontally at our balcony sliding glass door...and the wind was sucking the leaves upward. the lightening was like flashes, it was kind of like being inside a bag of microwave popcorn while it was popping. the water started to run down the hills so fast and rushing that it went up and over car wheels and completely swelled over the gutters. my ears popped from the pressure at one point. i read in the paper today that the temperature dropped to 39 degrees during the storm.
the whole thing lasted about half an hour, and it took several hours for the gutters in our townhouse complex to stop gushing water.
at 9pm we went up the hill to get ice cream, at this place called glacier that is just amazing. i had chocolate caliente, which had this slightly sweet chile smokey aftertaste, and a strawberry ice cream with balsamic vinegar in it that made the strawberry flavor so intense. as we walked up the hill, the sidewalks were covered in shredded leaves...the trees had lost a third of their leaves, and the smell of fresh cut green was incredibly strong.
the screen door on our balcony is torn, i think it's the only one of the pictures i took which came out at all.... we saved some hail in a container in our freezer...
here are some photos...

so this is out of focus, clearly (ha!), but what appears to be snow or blossoms, is actually the hail, and beyond that the gutters are flooding


from the front door of our apartment, as the intensity of the hurling hailstones had passed and we were all starting to peak out and figure out what had happened


the balcony across the courtyard from us (i'd say these are the noisemakers, but really let's not limit the rest of our neighbor's abilities to be pains in the ass)


looking down in the courtyard (the red party cup gives an excellent sense of scale, and is sooo telling of the things i hate about living in this complex!)


this is the table on our balcony, these are tiny bits of hail compared to what smacked the window and the screen so hard that it broke:

postcards from boulder

sunset from the balcony of our townhome!
the daylight ones are from a sunday afternoon drive...
i don't know why they're all out of order... peace