Nature

An actor friend recommended that we go see Nature, a play that is debuting at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Because Ginny and I both love nature and want our kids to love it too, we thought it would be a good idea to make the play a family outing. Ginny and the kids picked me and my bike up from work, and we headed to the Arboretum.

The play is a fictionalized re-enactment of the historically significant and tempestuous friendship of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Both actors, along with the supporting cast and ensemble, do a beautiful job of taking the audience back into time to experience the lives and ideas of these men. Much of the script is borrowed from the men's writings. The costumes are simple replicas of period clothing, and the music hearkens back to the traditional folk and sight music popular in New England during the early nineteenth century.

Nature is dubbed by its creators, Tyson Forbes and Sam Elmore of TigerLion Arts (Emerson and Thoreau, respectively), as a 'walking play'. As far as I know, the concept is unique to this play. The stage is a section of the arboretum itself. Scene changes are not accomplished by stagehands moving set pieces; rather the ensemble beckons the audience to arise and follow to the next scene. Both because ofthe scene and the setting among the prairie grasses, trees, and flowers of the arboretum, this works remarkably well. Furthermore, the timeless natural scenery recreates the perios feeling far moer effectively than any artificial set could hope to.

The play is winding down its maiden run, but I hope the company has the opportunity resurrect here and in other natural settings. If the play comes to a field near you, I would highly recommend that you learn from this chautauqua.

Image property of TigerLion Arts