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Busy month helped stave off blues
Published 12:43pm Monday, April 4, 2011The Ides of March have come and gone. Soon it’s on to “April Showers bringing May Flowers.” We can only hope that spring is on its way.
Don’t know about you, but March has seemed like an eternity to me. Lots of distractions have helped —especially in the Theater World.
This weekend is no different. We have the good fortune of having two amazing Theater Productions in Fergus Falls this Weekend.
The musical “Grease” continues at the college with sold out shows and new shows being added. Call them for tickets soon, or you may miss out. (218-736-1600) It’s a very colorful and lively production.
On the flip side, here at A Center for the Arts we’re featuring the work of an incredibly talented playwright Henrik Ibsen.
Ibsen’s plays weigh in on the side of seriousness. This weekend’s production of “An Enemy of the People,” is no different.
“An Enemy of the People is the story of a doctor in a small tourist town who discovers the waters of the health springs, which have made the town famous, are dangerously polluted.
But when no one wants to hear the truth the doctors finds himself standing alone against his friends, neighbors and even his own family in his crusade to save the town from itself.
This is the third or fourth year that we have worked with Commonweal Theatre as they tour the Ibsen Plays across the midwest. The company specializes in the work of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen.
Every year they host an Annual Ibsen Festival and ever other year they tour the production.
We are pleased to be a recipient of their hard work and their extremely professional productions. This tour is made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board through the Minnesota Cultural Heritage Fund. This is a thoughtful production worthy of all of our attention.
We were so delighted by last weekend’s MACT Festival. We were so proud of our Fergus Falls folks who performed — Barb Gutzmer’s class and their performance followed by “Comic Book Artist” and our “ever evolving” community theater program.
It was great to have all of the other short plays here done by other community theaters around the region.
It’s amazing to see what’s possible and what’s happening in other places.
While we probably won’t be chosen for the MACT Fest next year, we are already making plans for a “community theater invitational” here around the same time of year.
Thanks to all who participated and performed. Hope to see many of you back at the theater this weekend for the Ibsen play or for the play at the college.
There is so much to be learned from watching and listening to others.
Also this weekend at A Center for the Arts, Barbershoppers on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (another Legacy Amendment project) on Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are still available for both, but going fast.
For tickets to A Center for the Arts programs please contact the Box Office at 218-998-ARTS (2787).
Farewell to March, bring on the springtime, the rain, and the warm weather – but not too quickly – don’t want anyone flooded out this year.
Rebecca Petersen is the director of A Center for the Arts in downtown Fergus Falls.
