Plays – Valerie's Voice

“The Sherlock Carol”

Charles Dicken’s “The Christmas Carol”, is one of my favorite stories. Over the years I have gone to many different live performances, watched a video annually, and collected books with this title. A fun fact: ““The Christmas Carol” has never been out of print since its first publication in 1843.”

“The Christmas Carol” is truly a transformation story. Sometimes I need a reminder to be of good cheer and be generous with my time and money.

The program for “The Sherlock Carol”, where I used the quotes for this blog.

I have seen the traditional play many times. I have seen the play which incorporates the gospel message in the production “The Gospel According to Scrooge” (although the original already has a good news message). And now I’ve seen the play with twists and turns in “The Sherlock Carol”, a melding of two Christmas stories…”The Christmas Carol” written by Charles Dickens and “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s billed as a “fun holiday mystery” as the play blends aspects of both stories together in surprising ways. “A merry & mysterious mash-up” for sure! The writer was so creative and clever to combine these two stories. It is well written.

A very busy stage. Different stage settings were made by adjusting a table and shifting the lights.

Commonweal Theatre is in the small town of Lanesoboro, Minnesota. The theatre is starting its 37^th year of providing the community with amazing productions on stage. And they are all professional actors (this is not community theatre…although I think community theatre is wonderful too!)

“The Sherlock Carol’s” main characters are, of course, Mr. Scrooge and Sherlock Holmes. The remaining four actors (total of six actors in the play) are acting out the remaining 22 characters in the show! And they do an excellent job accomplishing that feat. It is witty, and funny, and very entertaining.

The stage of Commonweal Theatre, with patrons filling up the seats.

Theatre capacity was filled on this third performance, with many more performances scheduled through December. The stage was full of props, yet it jumps from different locations by “shifting the lights and adjusting a single piece of furniture”. Another feat accomplished well.

Although Lanesboro is a rather long drive from Northfield, stopping for breakfast on the way down and for a lite supper on the way home and seeing an excellent play in-between, made for a delightful day.

It’s “elementary (my dear Watson)” to highly recommend this uplifting production of “The Sherlock Carol”.

“God Bless us everyone.”

Queen Esther

“For such a time as this” is, to me, the mantra of the book of Esther, in the Bible. The phrase means we are in this moment, at this time, for a reason…for such a time as this. I have stated this phrase several times over the years, in different situations.

I was excited to have the opportunity to go see the play Queen Esther at the magnificent Sight & Sound Theater, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

In front of the Sight & Sound Theatre in Pennsylvania,.

This theater performs Biblical plays in an amazing venue using extensive set designs and costumes, and professional actors/actresses, with wonderful music and singing. We always plan to attend a production at this 2,000 seat theater when we visit Pennsylvania. They opened another theatre in Branson, Missouri in 2008, and we have seen a few productions there also.

The theater was started by Glen Esheleman, a former member of the church where Gary grew up in Lancaster County. He initially started out by showing nature photographs set to beautiful music in a surround-sound setting. I remember going to one of these first productions called, The Living Waters, back in the 70’s. The theater is still in the family, and has grown into the successful and grand venue it is today.

Although Glen has retired, his family is still involved in the theater.

We enjoyed the tale of Queen Esther, along with our brother and sister-in law, and our friends from New Hampshire. It lived up to the theater’s reputation…a grand production of one story from the Bible. Afterwards, we went out for dinner at a small Amish-run diner for a delicious meal. It was a delightful afternoon/evening.

Nature, A Walking Play

We like to go to the theater. I’ve always enjoyed seeing plays. In high school – a very long time ago – I help with play productions, behind the scenes. We are delighted to have some great community theaters in Northfield and in towns surrounding us.

The other weekend we went to a very unusual play. It was held outdoors, in the Carleton Arb, and you walked from set to set.

The play was called “Nature”. It was the story of the unusual friendship between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and the many twists and turns their relationship took. Emerson and Thoreau were both writers, and promoters of the importance of our natural environment, and of connecting with nature in order to survive well.

Nature was touring across the country and it happened to be in Ely, MN last summer when my husband was in the BWCA. The group of guys he went up north with took time out for some “culture” and they went to see this play. Gary learned it was going to be in Northfield and thought I would enjoy seeing it, so we got tickets.

There were four different sets and we walked to six different scenes and the play lasted two hours. Gary suggested we bring our camp chairs and that was a good idea. The evening was cold and very windy but the play went on.

It is a clever idea… a play about nature, acted outdoors… in nature. Another unique fact is the great, great grandson of Waldo Emerson was an actor. His character was, of course, Waldo.

The tour has ended for now but it may come back again. They told us this was their 9^thseason. The program states that the touring group is “Collaborating with parks, arboretums, universities and communities across the county in this creative movement to reconnect with the natural world.” I think that is a great goal.

The walking play, Nature, is unique, memorable and fun.

London is…secretive.

Before we left Minnesota we decided on what play we would like to see while we were in London.

A promo for Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” hanging in tube station.

We chose an Agatha Christie murder mystery, The Mousetrap. playing at St. Martin’s Theatre. It happens to be the longest running play in London…It’s first performance was in 1952!

We enjoyed the play and didn’t know “who done it” until the end. I was so worried I would overhear someone talking about the ending… and I didn’t want to know! But I never heard any clues… and we were surprised when the murderer was revealed. I like surprises.

At the end of the play, as the performers were taking their bows, the culprit stepped forward and said now we were all partners in crime…and he asked us not to disclose the secret of “who done it” to anyone, so as to preserve the suspense of the play.

On a street corner in London is this memorial to Agatha Christie, an English author who wrote over 80 mysteries.

This request must work…it’s been playing for 67 years, and we didn’t know “who done it” until the end of the production.

Sight & Sound Theatres

I was very excited to see the production of Moses at the Sight & Sound Theatre in Branson, Missouri where we were vacationing last week. Having seen previous shows at Sight & Sound we knew we were in for a very special evening. It was a wonderful production telling the biblical story of Moses.

That is what the Sight & Sound Theatres do…bring Bible stories to life on stage – using amazing set designs, props, costumes, actors and actresses, live animals and music. The huge stage, and aisles, are filled with creativity on all levels leaving the audience in awe and wondering how they do it!

From the Moses program; “Staging such a huge story drove our creative production team to new levels of innovation…”

“Digital tools streamlined our process, but we also spent countless hours handcrafting every element…50 set pieces, 12 carts, 9 miles of fabric…”

“Each member of our team embraced this venture one task at a time – brick by brick- until the extraordinary setting of the Exodus came to life in Lancaster County, PA, in 2014. And now, after shipping the show across the county on 48 tractor-trailer trucks…(Moses is) here in Branson!”

A fun fact about Sight & Sound for us is that my husband, while growing up in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, went to church with the founder of Sight and Sound, Glenn Eshelman. Gary knew his family well and remembers going to his studio with his family for portraits long before the first slide show began in 1976. I remember going to Pennsylvania in the early years of our marriage and seeing the slide show set to music entitled A Land Of Our Own, not knowing then it was the beginning of a great success story with two live- production theaters today. They are celebrating their 40th anniversary: 1976 ~ 2016.

My husband and I have seen nearly all the plays, mostly in the Lancaster County, Pennsylvania theater.

Moses did not disappoint. It is an epic story and it came to life at the Sight and Sound Theatre in Branson, Missouri and is worth seeing.

Click here to view their website.