Fargo Monthly December 2016

Page 67

Photo by Robbie Kjos

Photo by Nate Gilbraith

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MCT started in 1946 and, as I've read the history, there really wasn't theatre in FargoMoorhead at that time. The colleges didn't have it, the high schools didn't have it. It was a group of people who really wanted to bring theatre to the community. So they joined together and created this nonprofit, way back then," said Breikjern. Nestled in the trees of the Downtown Fargo park, The Stage at Island Park was a place for the volunteer performers to call their own, no longer having to shuffle their performances between a variety of places in the community. "It wasn't until around the 1960s that they decided, 'Now we need a home.' They worked with the Fargo Park District and were able to get this space. One gentleman on the board owned a construction company so he actually had his workers and other union workers come here and help build, free of charge. It was really put together by the community, a big community collaboration," said Breikjern. Making Magic FMCT's first show of this year's 70th season was the Tony Award-winning origin story called "Peter and the Star Catcher." Directed by Shannon Hill, the performance brought the magic of Neverland to life in the lesser known tale of Peter Pan, Wendy and the Lost Boys. FMCT's most recent show to be performed on The Stage at Island Park was a play inspired by famous novel,

"The Shining." Adapted by Jason Levering and Aaron Sailors, the historic version captured audiences with intrigue and horror and engaged author Stephen King himself. "We wanted to do 'Misery' originally but it was on Broadway so it wasn't available to us. Our artistic director at that time sent an email to Stephen King. Within 20 minutes, he responded along with his agent and said, 'Can we help these people out?'" said Breikjern. Arguably his first big hit, "The Shining" was originally written by King in play format but was converted to a novel, stylized for the movie starring Jack Nicholson and finally reworked back to a play. "In Omaha, they had just completed a first-time-ever play version of 'The Shining' as a fundraiser to save an old theatre, and then we were able to get it from that point. So you may never see it again. It depends on what the company and Stephen King wants to do with it moving forward," said Breikjern.

A Winter Wonderland Harnessing the soul of the holiday season, FMCT's next production will be Irving Berlin's "White Christmas The Musical." Following the journey of two famous producers who fall in love with a sister act and come together to save a Vermont Inn, this family Christmas classic directed by Daniel Damico will surely warm the hearts of every audience member. Q: What should the audience expect? A: "If people are familiar with the movie, it pretty closely follows that. When you're going to do a production like this, you have to contact the theatrical rental agent. It took us awhile to be able to get this. They put very close restrictions on how you do your logo, design, everything. So they're very strict with it, in fact, after we got permission to do it, just a month or two later, they took it off the market so no one else could get it." Q: Do you have any idea what the set or costumes will look like? 65


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Fargo Monthly December 2016 by Spotlight Media - Issuu