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Festival’s Added New Shows to the September Line Up

8/25/2015

September will be an exciting month at Festival Theatre. Starting the month A Streetcar Named Desire will run from Thursday, September 3rd through Saturday, September 6th. The following weekend John Koerner and Tony Glover, both famous in their own right, will be coming together at Festival Theatre on September 12th. Koerner is noted as an
early influence on Bob Dylan and is mentioned in Dylan’s autobiography Chronicles. Koerner later said about that time in his life, "We were all goofy, you know. We were thinkers and drinkers and artists and players, and Dylan was one of us. He was another guy". Tony Glover is returning to Festival for the 2nd time this year, he performed in May with Pop Wagner and Charlie Maguire. Glover taught harmonica to renowned musicians such as Mick Jagger. Formerly members of “Koerner, Ray, and Glover” the two have been playing together for over half a century. After losing their friend and fellow musician to lung cancer in 2002, the two still tour together in his honor. Don’t miss the
opportunity to see these two legends live!

On September 13th at 2:00 PM, Colleen Raye returns with her girls to perform Broadway’s Babes. In this latest creation, Colleen Raye, Debbie O'Keefe and Katie Gearty walk you through some of the all-time great songs of Broadway, including classics from My Fair Lady, Gypsy, Oliver and West Side Story as well as newer musicals, Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Wicked and Rent.

After a successful show last year, Mary Mack is returning to Festival’s stage with her husband Tim Harmston on Saturday, September 19th at 7:30 PM. Both equally funny, Mary Mack grew up near Webster, WI. She is married to fellow stand up comedian Tim Harmston, from Menomonie, WI. In 2011 he released his first album,” The Most Bees
Ever.” Mary will be releasing her third album, her first with Stand Up Records, this September.

And finally, Michael Johnson is returning to Festival after performing to a sold out audience in 2013. A masterful guitarist, Johnson is a songwriter who has had several Billboard-charting hits. Equally at home singing pop, country or classics from the American songbook, he remains one of the true authentic voices in contemporary music. His songs have been recorded by such artists as Alison Krauss, Suzy Bogguss, Chet Atkins and The Persuasions.

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Four Festival Actors Anchor "A Streetcar Named Desire"

8/25/2015

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Jaclyn Johnson as Blanche

St. Croix Festival Theatre continues its run of Tennesee William’s iconic play A Streetcar Named Desire on Thursday, August 20 with a matinee and evening performance, and six additional performances through September 6th. Williams’ play explores the characters of two sisters, Blanche DuBois and Stella Kowlaski, brought up in the privileged tradition of the Deep South and two men, Stella’s rough and virile husband, Stanley, and Stanley’s friend Harold Mitchell (Mitch) who is Blanche’s last chance at redemption from a life of rejection and loneliness.

"Tennessee Williams gives us four vivid and complicated characters, each trying so hard to find happiness", says Mark Baer, director of Streetcar, "It's been my goal to tell each of their stories with equal passion and compassion. Like a jazz quartet, when their stories are played together they call and answer, creating dissonance and harmony. We'll try to play it true for you." The production showcases the talents of four of Festival Theatre’s performers: Festival’s Artistic Director Jaclyn Johnson as Blanche, Josiah Laubenstein as Stanley, Rachel Kuhnle as Stella, and Steven Czajkowski as Mitch. Kimberly Braun will be playing the role of Stella in the September 3 through 6 productions.

Johnson’s portrayal of Blanche is an intimate look into the world of a woman whose life has unraveled through events largely beyond her control. The family home has been lost through a series of what she describes as the “epic fornications” of her male ancestors. Married at a young age to a talented and beautiful young man, her dreams are
shattered when she discovers his past. As the play opens, we find Blanche on her sister’s doorstep and as the action unfolds, we discover that while Blanche holds herself out as a proper and discreet woman, her history is to the contrary, she has lost her position as a teacher and is penniless.

Johnson’s Blanche carries the charm of the southern feminine ideal, but also the fire of revulsion that Blanche feels toward her sister Stella’s choice of her animalistic husband, Stanley. At the end of act one, Blanche describes Stanley: “He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!” It is this speech, overheard by Stanley, that pits Blanche and Stanley in a mortal struggle—she to survive in an increasingly hostile world and he to destroy her in order to preserve his marriage to Stella. Johnson’s performance digs deeply into her strong acting repertoire to deliver a heart breaking look at the unraveling of the human spirit—an unraveling that in some respects reflects the early life of Tennessee Williams himself and his attempts to fill the emotional emptiness in
his life with casual encounters.

Laubenstein, who has also appeared in previous Festival productions including this season’s Little Shop of Horrors, provides the ideal foil to Johnson in his portrayal of Stanley. Stanley is loud, profane, sexually confident, and violent. From his first entrance, when he throws a package of bloody meat to Stella, we see the primitive man worn proudly. Modeled after Williams’ abusive father, Stanley represents all that Blanche finds repulsive. When he overhears Blanche attempting to convince Stella to leave Stanley and return to the genteel life that was theirs before the loss of the family home, Blanche’s fate is foreshadowed. Stanley digs into Blanche’s past and reveals to Stella and his friend Mitch the truth about Blanche. As the play ends, he seals her fate, again calling upon the playwright’s own experience with his troubled sister, Rose. Laubenstein’s performance captures the essence of anger and earthiness that carries the tension required to drive Blanche’s downward spiral.

Another Festival veteran, Czajkowski provides a moving and nuanced portrayal of the sensitive young man Mitch—he is caring for his dying mother—who is Blanche’s last chance at a normal life. A friend of Stanley’s from the service, Mitch sees the woman that Blanche wants him to see and offers the possibility at the end of act two that they might make a life together. “You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be you and me, Blanche?” This hope of the two of them is destroyed when Stanley tells Mitch of Blanche’s sordid past. As the play reaches its conclusion, Mitch sees Stanley’s treachery and has an opportunity to save Blanche, but he turns his back; both his and Blanche’s chance for happiness flickers and dies.

Of the four main characters in Streetcar, Stella, played by Kuhnle, is perhaps the most mysterious. Raised in southern luxury, Stella nevertheless leaves well before the family home is lost to live in a squalid two room apartment with a man whom she describes to her sister as “a different species.” Even though physically abused, she loves Stanley. She confesses to being thrilled when on her wedding night he “snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing the light-bulbs with it.” When Blanche suggests a plan to get them both out of there, Stella admonishes Blanche to stop assuming that she is in something she wants to get out of. After Blanche’s climactic encounter with Stanley, Stella chooses Stanley over her sister saying that she couldn’t believe Blanche’s story about Stanley and go on living with him. She is complicit in Stanley’s plan to remove Blanche from their home. Kuhnle’s portrayal of Stella deftly navigates the emotional tightrope between her sisterly love for Stella and her ultimate choice of Stanley.

Other Festival actors appearing in Streetcar are Abi Leveille, Andrew Bradford Benson, David Holmes, Jerry Kurek, Sydney Paredes, Ed Moersfelder, Lis Athas, Elizabeth Albers and Megan Clark.

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“Little Shop of Horrors” and “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised]” Final Weekend at Festival Theatre

8/11/2015

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Since Festival Theatre’s production of Little Shop of Horrors opened in June, it has devoured theatre-goers with its dynamic music, tongue-in-cheek comedy, and sci-fi excitement. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised] has kept audiences rolling with laughter as three overachieving actors attempt to perform thirty-seven of Shakespeare’s plays in just ninety-seven minutes. The productions now move into their final weekend of performances. Little Shop of Horrors closes Sunday, August 16th and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised] closes Saturday, August 15th with a 2:00 PM performance.

While these shows are closing A Streetcar Named Desire will be returning to the stage on Thursday, August 20th and will continue until Labor Day Weekend.

Festival Theatre’s creative team of directors and designers puts a personal touch on each production, and the professional guest artists embrace every character with such certainty that patrons immediately relax into their seat to be transported somewhere else for a couple hours.

Corporate sponsors for the 2015 Theatre Series are Amery Regional Medical Center, Royal Credit Union, Burnett Medical Center, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, St. Croix Regional Medical Center and Thrivent Financial. Festival Theatre thanks these businesses for their support of local performing arts, along with supporting sponsorships from Endeavors Greenhouse and High Test Travel.

The final performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised] is at 2:00 PM on Saturday, August 15th. You have two chances to see the final show of Little Shop of Horrors on Saturday, August 15th at 7:30 PM and at 2:00 PM on Sunday, August 16th. Tickets are $13.50 for youth ages 5-25 and $26.00 for adults. Flex passes are available for deep discounts and can be used for the remainder of the 2015 Theatre Series, including A Streetcar Named Desire, Noises Off and A Christmas Carol.

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Festival’s Added New Shows to the September Line Up

Four Festival Actors Anchor "A Streetcar Named Desire"

“Little Shop of Horrors” and “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)[revised]” Final Weekend at Festival Theatre

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