Theaters take center stage with summer performances

Theaters take center stage this summer across South Dakota

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many productions to go dark, but South Dakota theaters are working to bring the arts back to center stage. Those seeking summertime entertainment will find a variety of exceptional live theater performances only a day trip away. Here are what two long-standing South Dakota community theaters and one regional professional theater have planned for summer 2021.

Aberdeen Community Theatre to perform eight shows

Aberdeen Community Theatre (ACT) had big plans for its 40th anniversary until the pandemic flipped its season lineup off like a light switch. In response, ACT offered online events this past year and a live virtual radio adaption of “A Christmas Carol.” James Walker, artistic and managing director, said ACT hopes to produce a live mainstage production by the end of this summer.

“We are going to make sure that we are able to get back on our feet and build back to where we were,” Walker said.

The 2020 cast members of Aberdeen’s Storybook Land Theatre.

Storybook Land Theatre, a partnership between ACT and Aberdeen Parks, Recreation and Forestry, will perform outdoors at Wylie Park this summer. Brian Schultz, ACT youth education director, said the cast consists of five to seven paid actors who are joined by area youth for two camps for elementary and middle schoolers. They will perform eight free shows in eight weeks for families and young audiences Tuesdays at 10 am CDT and Wednesdays and Fridays at 7 pm CDT. Visit aberdeencommunitytheatre.com for more information.

Black Hills Playhouse honors its storied past

A 2017 Black Hills Playhouse productions of "Grease" with art design by Victor Shonk

Black Hills Playhouse (BHP) was selling tickets for its 75th anniversary when the regional professional theater had to cancel its entire season last year. BHP decided to produce its 2021 summer season in a different way with a nod to its past.

From 1947 to 1950, BHP performed in a tent called the Frontier Theatre. To ensure the safety of its artists and patrons, BHP created a new outdoor performing arts space that will debut this summer. The New Frontier Theatre has mask-required seating socially distanced from the stage, plus a mask-optional section. Dan Workman, BHP’s artistic director, chose this summer’s shows specifically to be performed outside, said Executive Director Linda Anderson.

“The shows will be comic and light with energetic music and dance. We think people are going to be really hungry for this kind of entertainment,” Anderson said. “It is going to be fun for people to see theater outside under the stars in a beautiful location.”

Among the summer highlights will be “The Marvelous Wonderettes” June 18-July 4; “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” July 9-25, and “Altar Boyz” July 30-August 15. Shows are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays at 2 pm MDT and Wednesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm MDT.

For more information, visit blackhillsplayhouse.com.

Live theater returns with Pierre Players production

Pierre Players Community Theatre (PPCT) was in the middle of a spectacular season run when the pandemic forced the community theater to delay one production by three months and cancel its summer musical last year. But PPCT rose to the challenge and decided to reopen its doors late last summer despite possibly losing money, said Business Manager Michele Beeler.

“We figured out how to make social distancing work in our small theater, required masks at all performances, purchased hand sanitizer stands for around the theater and sanitized our seats,” Beeler said. “We strongly felt it was important to provide our community with some much-needed entertainment, even if it meant playing to smaller audiences.”

A scene from “Native Gardens,” a past Pierre Players production. Photo by Campea Photography.

This summer, PPCT will produce the musical it canceled last summer, “Man of La Mancha,” July 16-18 and July 22-25, followed by a Little Players Children’s Theatre’s performance of “Charlotte’s Web.”

For show times, ticket prices and more information, go to pierreplayers.com.

Penn retrospective at theDahl

Works from private collections show artist’s range

"Grass Dancer" by Robert Penn

Wokiksuye: A Remembrance of Robert Penn, on display through August 21 at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City, brings together a rare collection of the late artist’s work, including some pieces not previously shown.

Wokiksuye is a translation from the Lakota language which signifies “a remembrance.” Most of the artwork in this show is from the collections of Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center in Chamberlain and Cathy and Larry Piersol from Vermillion, SD.

Penn (Sicangu Lakota/Omaha), who passed away in 1999, was a protégé of and a work study assistant to the late Oscar Howe. Penn explored and mastered every style of art making that he pursued, moving effortlessly from large oil paintings to intimate watercolor pieces. It didn’t matter if he was working on a portrait study in acrylics or a landscape painting, Penn was equally adept at any media and style he chose to pursue, and this was one of the things that set him apart from other artists. He painted “the truth” as he found it in the world, and he attributed his creative talent to Wakan Tanka—the Great Spirit. Penn has long been viewed as one of South Dakota’s greatest contemporary artists.

For more information about the Dahl Arts Center, visit thedahl.org.