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All the River's a Stage
Peter Rothstein has tackled his share of difficult tasks as a director. But this summer, he’ll be asked to do it on water. Rothstein will guide a group of University of Minnesota theater and BFA acting students through a 10-week run of Triumph of Love on the Minnesota Centennial Showboat. “The unique venue itself was a huge draw for me. I’ve never worked on a showboat before,” Rothstein says.
Photo: Peter Rothstein
Rothstein might not have worked on a boat before, but he has excelled at theater’s highest levels. A founder and artistic director of Theater Latté Da in Minneapolis, Rothstein is among the most respected names in Twin Cities theater. The Star Tribune named him one of Minnesota’s artists of the year in 2007, and City Pages named him best director in 2006. This spring he directed M. Butterfly at the Guthrie Theater and has been a guiding force behind other Guthrie Productions and at the Children’s Theatre Company. When Shelly Wagner-Henry, then managing director for University Theater and Dance and the Minnesota Centennial Showboat, asked him to direct the Showboat’s summer offering he couldn’t resist. “I love working with young actors who are passionate and hungry,” he says. “I immediately said yes.”
Rothstein chose Triumph of Love as the Showboat’s 52nd summertime production. The play is a comedy about a princess trying to win the love of Agis, a scholar who mistrusts and loathes women. The plot gets interesting when the only way the princess can get close to the object of her affection is to disguise herself as a man. The production, based on the 17th-century play by Pierre de Marivaux, contains elements of broad physical humor drawn from the Italian commedia dell’arte tradition, as well as the sophisticated language found in French drama. Rothstein also added vaudeville-style musical numbers that are the Showboat’s signature element. “The play is a really interesting hybrid of dramatic forms,” says Rothstein. “There are a lot of ways to address the varying ideas this play has about love—from the heart, from the head, and from the groin.”
The Showboat is an intimate, 225-seat theater located in a paddle wheeler docked off Harriet Island on St. Paul’s riverfront. While the small theater poses some logistical challenges—for instance, there isn’t enough space to wire actors to fly—the space also offers creative opportunities. Set designers, who created a French manicured garden on stage, used the Showboat’s permanent architectural elements as inspiration for their design.
For students, the play provides a glimpse of life as a professional actor. Unlike most University productions, which run two or three weeks, Triumph of Love will have eight performances a week throughout the summer. “One of the unique challenges of being a professional actor is how you keep a performance immediate, surprising, and alive after not just eight performances, but a hundred,” says Rothstein. “How do you sustain performances over the long run?” Indeed, nearly everyone involved in the production will get a taste of what theater is like beyond campus. With the exception of Rothstein and the play’s musical director, Denise Prosek, everyone in the production is a student, from the costume, lighting, and sound designers to the house management and ushers.
But for Rothstein, the joy in the production isn’t just about giving students an opportunity to perform at a higher level—it’s about creating the perfect warm-weather event. “It’s a funny, light-hearted play by a playwright who is just now seeing a resurgence,” he says. “It’s a great summer affair.”
—Erin Peterson