@dramatistsguild @laurieflanigan

Dramatists Guild member Alan Berks and his wife, director Leah Cooper, know a thing or two about community. In fact, over the last decade, they have served as architects of our Minnesota theatre community through Leah’s work as past Executive Director of the Minnesota Fringe Festival and as the first Executive Director of the Minnesota Theater Alliance, and through their website, Minnesota Playlist, the online trade publication for our performing arts community, which has both reflected on and helped shape our community since its inception over eight years ago. (Check it out: minnesotaplaylist.com)

Leah has recently left the MTA to focus on a new community-driven company, Wonderlust Productions, with her playwright husband and collaborator, Alan, who at the time of this writing has two productions playing at two different theatres in St. Paul, four blocks apart: Complicated Fun: the Minneapolis Music Scene at the History Theatre, a mixtape love letter to the Minneapolis music scene in the ‘80s, and an adaptation of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, a faithful-yet-unfaithful adaptation of the original, in which Alan followed Pirandello’s basic movements while mashing in a 21st century concoction that riffs on the branding and messaging of reality TV, a Wonderlust co-pro with Park Square Theatre.

When I asked Leah and Alan to reflect on how their shared commitment to community building intersects with their lives as theater artists, Leah explained that their curiosity drives their work no matter what they are doing. As community organizer and arts administrator, she reflected on the fact that she has had the opportunity to learn from the theatre community and in turn share what she learned with the community at large, the same process she and Alan use when creating a community-based theatre piece through Wonderlust, where they utilize story circles to gather stories, discover commonalities, and shape a narrative. In Leah’s words, “Traditional theatre tells a story and hopes to find a community. The community-driven model starts with a community and discovers their stories. Our whole endeavor is driven by curiosity about how real people in our community are living and finding meaning in their lives, and we are driven by a belief that being in that mode of discovery helps us make more exciting and transformative art.”

Wonderlust’s work includes an ongoing project, The Adoption Play, and the recent Veteran’s Project, a piece developed using the story-circle creation process, and performed by veterans for an audience which included many vets. In talking about how this work reflects back once again to our broader community, Alan shared how the inclusion of veterans onstage and in the audience changed the nature of how the play was understood by the entire audience, whether or not they themselves were veterans. Alan noted a conversation with a fellow theatre artist about the roots of Greek drama, when citizen-soldiers served in the Greek chorus, reflecting the war stories on stage for an audience of citizen-veterans, all former military conscripts themselves. While this experience is nothing new, understanding these roots underscores the hunger for audiences to see their life experiences onstage in present time. As Alan says, “As they did with ancient drama, we are trying to tell the story of the people in our community—to work through the challenges and success and dreams of our communal experience.” A rich and rewarding endeavor, indeed.

The story-circle process serves more than just the creation process for Wonderlust’s original work. Alan utilized the process in the writing of his recent Six Characters adaptation, through workshops with St. Thomas University students in nine classes across five disciplines, using improv and story circles around topics in the play, informing his work as playwright and inviting collaboration with the community in the process.

Alan is also a founding member of the Workhaus Collective, which recently disbanded after ten years and twenty-five productions, crossing the finish line with DG member playwright Carson Kreitzer’s Lasso of Truth, a co-pro with Walking Shadow Theatre. The members of Workhaus, which also includes DG member Christina Ham, went out on a high note. Collective members past and present are busy with productions around the country, and in some cases, careers in TV writing in LA. Time marches on. Congrats to Workhaus on your many achievements, but most of all, for demonstrating how supporting and championing fellow playwrights makes all boats rise.

And last but not least—congratulations to the latest Jerome Fellows at the Playwrights’ Center: Katie Bender, Emily Feldman, and DG members Jessica Huang and Kristin Idaszak.

lflaniganhegge@dramatistsguild.com

Alan Berks’ adaptation of Six Characters in Search of an Author co-produced by Wonderlust and Park Square Theatre. Photo by Aaron Fenster

From the Veterans Play Project. Photo by Rich Ryan