Guthrie Theater

Here's a recap of Guthrie news from the past week:

Stage spotlights: Super Monkey
Star Tribune
Despite our technological prowess, our facility with language and our great intelligence, are humans apes at heart? English-born director and physical-theater expert Jon Ferguson seems to think so. In his new, collaboratively created piece, "Super Monkey," which previews Thursday and opens Saturday at the Guthrie, he explores two things that members of simian societies obsess over: status and access to resources.

Guthrie's Super Monkey Begins
Playbill
The production was collaboratively created by Jon Ferguson and an ensemble of performers: Jason Ballweber, Julia Fairbanks, Tyson Forbes, Sophie Gori, Rebecca Hurd, Emily King, Elise Langer, Megan Odell, Sara Richardson, Anthony Sarnicki, Paul Sommers and Dario Tangleson. Also directed by Ferguson, Super Monkey will officially open Sept. 19. The Guthrie describes the new work as such: "Super Monkey tells the story of a doorman and the inhabitants that populate his building. His only wish is to make everyone who passes through the front door happy, if only for one moment. But in the constant stream of residents, workers, children and bypassers, no one connects with one another.

The Guthrie Presents Super Monkey
Broadway World
The Guthrie will present the world premiere production of Super Monkey by award-winning theater-maker Jon Ferguson, September 17 - October 4 in the Dowling Studio. Ferguson's latest production, Super Monkey, is a the impressive story of an elite group of individuals that inhabit a modern urban condominium and the people that serve them. A universal story of poisonous status obsession, miscommunication and fear of the unknown, Super Monkey barrels out of control to inter-personal catastrophe and the fall of a society.

Super Monkey
City Pages
Jon Ferguson Theater's latest offering arrives with no small amount of anticipation for those of us who have a taste for Ferguson's restless, sometimes chilling, intuitive, and brutally moving pieces. It's up to the Guthrie's black box this time out, for a story about an elite group of people living in an urban condominium-and the folks who serve them. The themes are status obsession, connection (or lack of it), and the raw primal stuff of fear. Ferguson's work almost always returns to the conundrums of community and individuality, hovering around questions of identity and what makes for a fully realized life in our times.

The Importance of Being (gaily) Earnest
Pioneer Press
We admit that we've never heard of Theatre Arlo, but we also admit that we are tickled by a release we received recently from the Bryant-Lake Bowl touting the company's upcoming production of "The Importance of Being Earnest." We know, gentle readers, we know. A certain, larger, Big Blue House of a theater is also doing the Oscar Wilde classic. But perhaps not in exactly the same way. Allow us to quote Theatre Arlo's press materials: Oscar Wilde's trivial comedy for serious people-remixed for Theatre Arlo. You know the story. Now know the story as it was meant to be told:  Really, really, extremely gay.

Super Monkey
3-Minute Egg
Jon Ferguson is an English-born playwright who wowed Fringe Festival audiences with his debut here, 2005's Please Don't Blow Up Mr. Boban with Live Action Set. A wife, baby and several plays later, Ferguson gets his first show at the Guthrie this weekend, when his Super Monkey premieres in the Dowling Studio. 3-Minute Egg went to a rehearsal and spoke with Ferguson about his process. Performances run through October 4.

10 shows to help you get with the program
Pioneer Press
You want a taste of pop culture from the 1970s? Musicals contemporary and classic? The latest Pulitzer Prize winner and work by revered playwrights from across the pond? Laughs? Drama? The fall theater season in the Twin Cities is, as ever, packed, and the possibilities are just about endless. Here's a sampling of what's coming up: FAITH HEALER Sally Wingert and Raye Birk are two of the bravest actors at the Guthrie Theater. When director Joe Dowling decided to celebrate the 80th birthday of fellow Irishman Brian Friel by staging this three-character drama, he also decided to direct the play - and cast himself in the title role. Yowzers! Guthrie veterans Wingert and Birk will find themselves in the odd position of being, for a time, peers with their boss, a guy who, for all his accomplishments at the G, has considerably less performance time under his belt than his stage mates

Bringing Ella and Patsy to life on stage
MPR
It's been a summer of celebrating iconic American singers on Twin Cities stages. At the Chanhassan Dinner Theater, "Always, Patsy Cline," the story of the country songstress, has been on stage since April. Meanwhile, "Ella," a musical about the life of jazz great Ella Fitzgerald, is enjoying an extended run at the Guthrie Theater.

Whether you're a devotee of the American songbook or hang out in karaoke bars, there are few voices in popular music more recognizable than Patsy Cline or Ella Fitzgerald. But the artists who are bringing these giants to life on stage by no means consider themselves impersonators.

Fall Arts Preview
Star Tribune
"Faith Healer" Here's a rare chance for theatergoers. Joe Dowling will climb on stage in this piece by Brian Friel. The Guthrie director will join Sally Wingert and Raye Birk in Friel's play about a faith healer, his wife and his talent manager. They each relate their version of events in a story that ends badly. In his younger days, Dowling acted and he has never been shy about his fondness for Friel, a fellow countryman. Dowling also directs the staging, with an assist from Ben McGovern.

Guthrie's Earnest with Thorson begins limited run
Playbill
The Guthrie's production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest begins performances at the Minnesota venue Sept. 12. Canadian-born actress Linda Thorson (Tara King in the British television show "The Avengers") heads the cast as Lady Bracknell with 2007 University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program graduate John Skelley as Algernon Moncrieff and 2005 Juilliard graduate Nick Mennell as Jack Worthing. The company also features Heidi Armbruster as Gwendolen Fairfax, Erin Krakow as Cecily Cardew, Richard S. Iglewski as Rev. Canon Frederick Chasuble, Suzanne Warmanen as Miss Laetitia Prism and Kris L. Nelson as Lane/Merriman.