by Jerry Mevissen
You’re
standing on stage behind the curtain. Chairs creak as the audience takes their
seats. Cast members walk trancelike, back and forth, honing opening lines. Your
throat is dry; your palms are wet. You smell rouge on your cheeks, powder on
your nose. You hold a cup and saucer for your opening scene, and the cup
clatters.Lights dim. Music fades. Curtains open. You speak through the light of the stage into the darkness of the theater. Your voice sounds confident. Your next line gets a chuckle. The third gets a laugh. It works. You’ve found your stride.
Welcome to the world of community theater, and welcome to the newest venue in the LakesAlive region, the Long Lake Theater in Hubbard. Why Hubbard? It’s geographically centered in the culturally active Detroit Lakes-Brainerd-Bemidji triangle, and it’s another spice in the rack of local tourist attractions.
The theater began life as a Baptist church in 1902 in the townsite of Brighton on the south shore of Long Lake, four miles out of Park Rapids. (Competition between Park Rapids and Brighton for a railroad prompted Brighton city fathers to rename their city Hubbard, to gain favor with then-Governor Lucius F. Hubbard.) The Minnesota Baptist State Convention sold the church to the Christian and Missionary Alliance in 1916, where services continued until closing in 2000.
Bruce Bolton, a Park Rapids educator, bought the vacant building.
“I had an idea of owning a theater,” Bolton says. “Our family attends the Methodist church in Hubbard. I saw the former Alliance church boarded up and liked the location on the curve at the south end of town.”
Bolton contacted Roger Folkestad, a 20-year summer member of the religious community and its then-current owner, and consummated the sale in January 2001.
Bolton advertised for tenants with artistic vision. He imagined a summer stock, high quality theater in an intimate setting. Many artists responded, but only one proposed a theater. Mark Colbenson, disenchanted with corporate life and ready for change in his personal life, had a vision of being artistic director of a small community playhouse after serving as managing director of the Rochester Civic Theater.
Bolton and Colbenson met, the chemistry was right, and a theater was born. Bolton named his building Long Lake Theater to fit its location. Colbenson named his company Lone Wolf Players — a reference to his own personality as well as northwoods imagery.
Bolton and Colbenson built a stage in the altar area, converted a Bible study room into a greenroom, removed a suspended ceiling to improve acoustics and reshaped the vestibule into a ticket booth and lobby.
The audience, however, still sits on original oak pews.
The premier performance was “A Night at the Theater” in the summer of 2002. Bolton interspersed a solo performance of “An Evening With Mark Twain.”
Momentum was building. Colbenson announced an ambitious season for the balance of the year: “Steel Magnolias” in July-August; “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” in September; and “A Christmas Carol” for the holidays.
Meanwhile, the lives of Bruce Bolton and wife Shannon were to take another turn.
“I had two goals then,” says Bolton. “One was to build a theater. The other, to travel abroad. Four months after I bought the church, Shannon and I were offered teaching and public relation positions in Zurich.” When Bolton finished his Mark Twain monologue, and wife Shannon finished her run as daughter Shelby in “Steel Magnolias,” the Boltons flew to Switzerland.
Colbenson was left with artistic direction and theater management.
Mary Harrison, seasoned actor, Sebeka hobby farmer and Wadena County Commissioner, is at home in front of the stage or behind. She played Abby Brewster in the Wadena Madhatters’ production of “Arsenic and Old Lace,” and, for the Long Lake Theater, she played Ouiser in “Steel Magnolias” and four different characters in “A Christmas Carol.” She also designed scenery for “Sea Marks.”
“There’s camaraderie in theater,” says Harrison. “You and your fellow actors step into a make-believe world where you know the outcome. In the process, you bond. There can be squabbles, but, by and large, the company comes together. It’s a rush.”
And, it’s a circus at times. Harrison recalls trying to keep a straight face while playing opposite Jerry Fuller as Cratchit in “A Christmas Carol.” His line, “Her Christmas pudding is the greatest triumph since our marriage,” comes out “the greatest triumph since our …, since our ..., since I was struck by matrimony.” Harrison envisions a bolt of lightning.
Fuller, Park Rapids pawnbroker by day and occasional actor by night, agrees with Harrison’s view of community theater.
“Theater brings a disparate group of people together,” he says. “It’s fun meeting new folks, and fun working with young folks.” He cites the precocious Kay Rossbach as Tiny Tim, who knew her lines the first week of rehearsal and the entire script by the second week.
Fuller chuckles when he recalls mispronouncing his name, Cratchit, and infecting the entire cast with the malapropism, Crotchit. “It was a 50-year hiatus between high school class plays and the Hubbard Community Theater,” Fuller says. “I underestimated the intensity of rehearsals and the emphasis on exact delivery of my lines.” Still, he’d do it again.
Lynne Presson, Huntersville wife, mother and student, sat in the Long Lake theater audience for “Steel Magnolias” and found herself energized enough to volunteer for behind-the-scenes work. Instead, she landed the role of Pauline in Neil Simon’s comedy “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.” Presson admits to intimidation after being absent from the stage since high school. “I’m not sure which is the most nerve-wracking,” Presson says, “learning lines or being on stage in front of all those people.”
For the last production, “Sea Marks,” Presson was stage manager. She located props, changed scenes, cued music and sound effects, and in the process gained an appreciation for the art of directing. “The actor acts, but the director directs how it’s acted, the tone of the scene, the feelings of the character.”
Presson recalls a scene in “Prisoner” where three sisters drink coffee, eat cookies, and chat, simultaneously.
“Impossible at first,” says Presson. “My hands were shaking so badly, I couldn’t hold the cup, much less eat the cookie and speak my lines. But with each performance, we grew more comfortable.” Presson did a memorable sidelong, over-the-glasses look in that scene. She credits her performance to Colbenson’s direction — using facial expression and body language to enhance dialogue.
Colbenson planned an even more ambitious program for the second season, 2003. “Barefoot in the Park,” another Neil Simon comedy, was followed by a one-woman show, “Pass My Imperfections Lightly By,” with Harrison as Mary Todd Lincoln. “On Golden Pond” opens in late June, followed by “The Diary of Adam and Eve” and “Clarence Darrow,” a one-man show with Mark Colbenson. “A Christmas Carol” makes a reprise in December, this time with a cast of young people.
Bolton is gratified with the first season of the Long Lake Theater and plans to be involved with it this summer. He says he feels it is “community theater” in the sense that actors surface from Park Rapids, Nevis, Huntersville, Sebeka and Menahga. Audiences surface from those cities and more.
“We had several sold-out performances for “Steel Magnolias” and “A Christmas Carol,” says Bolton, crediting Colbenson for the success.
Any problem playing in a church? Any ghosts of early pastor John S. Turnbull lurking in the sacristy? Any awkwardness of recreating a house of worship into a house of comedy and tragedy?
None, say Bolton, Colbenson and the actors.
Maybe not for them, but there is a problem for the congregation/audience. Sitting on pews is still sitting on pews.
Some advice to playgoers: Get there early and get a seat with pillows.
For more information, check out www.longlaketheater.net