- Commonweal Theatre Company
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Commonweal Theatre
The Commonweal Theatre Company is a professional theatre company in Lanesboro, Minnesota (pop. 788). Established in 1989 by Eric Bunge, Scott Olson and Scott Putman, the company's season runs April to December and comprises six plays chosen from among the world's finest classic, contemporary, and emerging playwrights. Due to the Scandinavian influence in southeast Minnesota, the Commonweal produces the works of Henrik Ibsen annually, and remains the only theatre company in North America with such a commitment.[1]
Contents
Company Structure
The Commonweal is an artist-run company, with Resident Company members who have come from all over the country to make their home in the Lanesboro area that fulfill the day-to-day artistic and operational needs of the company as artist/administrators. The company also employs Season Company members, college interns, and in 2008, introduced the Apprentice Company into their organizational structure.
History
The Commonweal Theatre was founded in 1989 by Eric Lorentz Bunge, Scott Olson, and Scott Putman at the request of the Lanesboro Art Council. The first season of the company was eleven weeks long and employed ten artists who presented Crimes of the Heart and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.[2]
In 1991, the company launched its student matinee program, and in 1992 began its high school conservatory program, a two-week, intensive immersion in theatre training for area high school students. In 1993, the company moved to a rotating repertory season schedule. By 1994 the production season extended to December.[3]
In 1995 the company acquired the Lanesboro Radio Company, initially an unaffiliated group of community volunteers who created and produced Over the Back Fence, a live one-hour radio variety program that plays weekly from Memorial Day to Labor Day. In 1996 the theatre undertook its first mainstage tour by bringing U.S.A. by John Dos Passos to Red Wing and Minneapolis. The company also began development of a script with playwright Robert Wolf based upon the true-life stories of farm families in the area over the past five decades, which led to the development of the New Play Series which commissions new work and has resulted in 11 world premieres on the Commonweal stage.[4]
In 1997, in association with Winona State University, the theatre added an Elderhostel program.
February 1998 marked the inauguration of the company’s Ibsen Festival, an annual production and affiliated events relevant to the works and world of Henrik Ibsen. This annual festival has become a signature event of each season, attracting Ibsen scholars and audiences from across the country.[5]
In 2008, the company added the first ever Apprentice Company, bringing five young professional theatre artists to the Lanesboro area to act, direct, and become immersed in the Commonweal's unique artist/administrator structure.
Currently, Hal Cropp serves as the company's Artistic Director and Eric Bunge is the Managing Director.
New Theatre
“Another star must be mentioned: The new Commonweal performance space. The trap doors, various stage entry points, and other technical facilities of the new building are put to often dramatic use.” Rochester Post Bulletin
The beautiful new Commonweal Theatre opened in July 2007. Located on Lanesboro’s historic main street, the theatre offers patrons a comfortable, intimate experience in a 200-seat house. The exterior façade recreates three charming Lanesboro shop fronts and the interior design, created by Lanesboro artist Karl Unnash, focuses on the natural beauty and history of the region with barn doors acting as bathroom stalls, stone walls mirroring the surrounding bluffs, concrete floors reflecting the building’s prior life as a cheese factory, and seats reclaimed from the original Guthrie Theater.
Ibsen Festival
12th Annual Ibsen Festival
April 17–19, 2009
Featuring Hedda Gabler, the festival's events will strive to put this complex masterpiece into perspective for our audience. Speakers include Ba Clemetsen of the National Theatre of Norway and Joan Templeton, president of the Ibsen Society of America and author of Ibsen's Women. Other events include a corset exhibit by artist Julie McLaughlin, piano concerto, film screenings, concerts and Scandinavian cultural presenters and folk art displays.The Commonweal is the only theatre in North America with an annual commitment to producing the works of Henrik Ibsen, the Father of Modern Drama. Since 1998, the company has opened each season with an Ibsen play and celebrate this tradition with the Ibsen Festival. Every other year, the company tours an Ibsen production throughout the region.[6]
The Commonweal Theatre Company has been awarded one of only four International Ibsen Scholarships for our commitment to the works of Henrik Ibsen. Artistic director Hal Cropp and Ibsen Festival Coordinator Adrienne Sweeney traveled to Norway as guests of the Norwegian government last fall to receive the award and participate in the bi-ennial Ibsen Festival and Conference. Scholarship monies (250.000NOK/approximately $39,000) will be used to support the Commonweal's Ibsen Festival and tour.
2009 season
- Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen
- The Odd Couple by Neil Simon
- The Rainmaker by Richard Nash
- November Nights A new play to be announced soon
- 1940s Radio Hour by Walton Jones
Season Archives
1989 Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley, A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare 1990 Greater Tuna by Joe Sears and Jaston Williams, Strange Snow by Stephen Metcalf, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown by Clark Gesner 1991 Seamarks by Gardner McKay, The Fantasticks by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, Taming of the Shrew by William Shespeare
1992 Little Shop of Horrors by Howard Ashman and Alan Menkin, Tally's Folley by Landford Wilson, Macbeth by William Shakespeare 1993 Tiny Types by Mel Marvin and Gary Pearle; Greater Tuna by Joe Sears and Jaston Williams; Love Letters by A.R. Gurney; The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams;
1994 Educating Rita by Willy Russell; The Miss Firecracker Contest by Beth Henley; Vandals, Preachers, and Teller of Tales by Harold N. Cropp; A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas; 1996 U.S.A. by Paul Shyre & John Dos Passos; Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Mitch Leigh,& Joseph Stern; Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni; The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare; A Country Christmas by Harold N. Cropp
1997' Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift; I Ought to be in Pictures by Neil Simon; Bullshot Crummond by Diz White et al.; Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare; A Tuna Christmas by Joe Sears & Jaston Williams
1998 Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen Heartland Portrait (world premiere) by Bob Wolf The Fantasticks by Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt Room Service by John Murray & Allen Boretz Our Town by Thornton Wilder The Second Shephard’s Play adapted by the Commonweal Theatre Company
1999 Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen The Voice of the Prairie by John Olive Groucho A Life in Revue by Arthur Marx and Robert Fisher Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw Star of England adapted from Shakespeare by Eric L. Bunge A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 2000 The Lady From the Sea by Henrik Ibsen A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing Most Valuable Player by Mary Hall Surface Bus Stop by William Inge The Lion in Winter by James Goldman Giving Star by the Commonweal Theatre Company
2001 Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen Art by Yasmina Reza Quilters by Molly Newman & Barbara Damashek Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare A Moon for the Misbegotton by Eugene O’Neill A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
2002 A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel Emperor of the Moon Hay Fever by Noel Coward Dracula by Steven Deitz 1940’s Radio Hour by Walton Jones 2003 Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen Beautiful Again by Melanie Marnich Zombies from the Beyond by James Valcq Other People’s Money by Jerry Sterner A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 2004 Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen Marguerite Bonet by Val Smith Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield Sanders Family Christmas by Connie Ray and Alan Bailey 2005 Wild Duck by Henrik Ibsen Lonely Planet by Steven Dietz Scapin by Molière Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Scott Dixon
2006 When We Dead Awaken by Henrik Ibsen Acclimate by Tory Stewart Candida by George Bernard Shaw To Fool the Eye by Jeffrey Hatcher Measure for Measure by Shakespeare A Christmas Carol by the Commonweal Theatre Company
2007 Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley Mystery of Irma Vep by Charles Ludlum Wait Until Dark by Frederick Knott Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekov Inspecting Carol by Daniel Sullivan and the Seattle Repertory Theatre 2008 Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen Harvey by Mary Chase Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Mitch Leigh and Joseph Stein Ice Maidens by Stan Peal A Christmas Carol by the Commonweal Theatre Company, Michael Bigelow Dixon and Janet Allard
2009 Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen The Odd Couple by Neil Simon The Rainmaker by Richard Nash November Nights – World Premiere The 1940s Radio Hour by Walton Jones
References
- ^ Whisner, Amanda (2007). Impossible Dreams: A Commonweal Commemorative Book.
- ^ Commonweal Website, History. Accessed 9.24.08
- ^ Commonweal Website, History. Accessed 9.24.08
- ^ Commonweal Website, History. Accessed 9.24.08
- ^ Commonweal Website, History. Accessed 9.24.08
- ^ Commonweal Theatre Website, Ibsen. Accessed 9.24.08
External links
Categories:- Theatre companies in Minnesota
- Visitor attractions in Fillmore County, Minnesota
- Buildings and structures in Fillmore County, Minnesota
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