A lovely summer evening at State Fair with Eden Prairie Players

A lesser member of the Rogers & Hammerstein collection, State Fair was a pleasant surprise when I first got to know it. It's the story of the Frakes, an Iowa farming family who have big dreams for their trip to the state fair. The parents, Abel and Melissa, hope to win blue ribbons, son Wayne hopes to prove himself at a carnival game, and daughter Margy is trying to figure out whether she should marry her long-time boyfriend. Both Wayne and Margy find romance on the fairway, but what happens when the fair ends? The script, though a little dated, is charming. R&H put together the music for this version in a hodge-podge of original works and songs taken from other projects (like Pipe Dream, whose Wikipedia page is a weird and interesting read)--but some of these songs quickly became favorites of mine. Recently I attended the Eden Prairie Players production of State Fair. For the unfamiliar (as I was), they perform in an outdoor auditorium in Staring Lake Park, relying on sunlight rather than stage lighting--which I didn't even notice until I wondered why Act I went straight into Act II! It's a sensible decision for an outdoor theater to just plan to end before sunset. The auditorium is a nice space on a hill with a lovely view of the park, and it's such a great summer experience to sit in a lawn chair and enjoy outdoor theater. And the show was free! Of course, there are some quirks to performing in a park. The weather can cause cancelations or affect the sound, children at the nearby playground could be distracting, and so forth. Parking can be incredibly frustrating, as it was on the night I went. The park itself has very little parking space, and while overflow parking is recommended, on this night the overflow area was packed due to a soccer tournament. I was able to find parking in another area of the park but it meant a long walk to the amphitheater and, I’m afraid, missing the first scene. I’ll be sure next time to leave a lot of extra time to get to my seat! The set, conceived by Stephen Houtz and designed by Tim Anderson (a distinction I can’t recall seeing before in a program), was very clever. A set of colorful platforms topped by a representative Ferris wheel was used throughout the fair, and could be extended to create multiple levels or pushed in to become one “tent.” I was delighted to see the Ferris wheel packed up as the fair ended; for such a large piece it folded up neatly and underscored the scene as one of the storylines seemed to be coming to a close. The scenery was generally sparse and went for evocative over realistic. One effect of this is that the cast was rarely sitting down. It may be odd to say, but I appreciated this as a directing choice because it’s sometimes just too easy of a decision to have an actor sit down. It’s more challenging to have an engaging scene without chairs or benches to move around. Steve Ramirez directed this production and did some things that other directors would shy away from, like letting extended silence drag out in a scene to build comic tension and having characters speak while facing away from the audience (because it made sense for the staging). For community theater companies that do musicals, there can be a lot of pressure to stick to things that are comfortable for the audience, but it’s nice to have directors take some risks. Adam Harfield and Cindy Soeldner played Abel and Melissa, the Frake parents. The two had a few charming duets, and Harfield was also part of a barbershop quartet of farmers who were delightfully goofy as they sang about their pigs (Jon Dittman, Ben Moews, and Steve Fusselman played the other farmers; I don't know who sang what but the tenor came across especially well). Harfield had a great rural accent--not too heavy--and was one of the people who most impressed me in this show. Kale Winship as Wayne Frake did very well with a role that can be tough because he is such a young character (around 22) and ends up with some of the most old-fashioned-sounding music in the show (“That’s For Me,” in particular). Winship handled it ably. Jillian Sjoquist played Margy Frake and displayed a lovely singing voice and quite a bit of dancing. The only thing that gave me pause was that Sjoquist seemed so young--although of course that’s how the character is written!--and I started to think at the end that maybe Margy shouldn’t marry a man she’s known for three days... I wasn’t thinking of that, though, when Margy and love interest Pat Gilbert (AJ Lennartson) performed “Isn’t It Kinda Fun,” a catchy song that showed off the singing and dancing abilties of both the actors. There was a choreography moment I was especially fond of, in which Sjoquist and Lennartson danced on the edge of the stage, one up and one down, changing places as they moved across the stage. Also, I am a sucker for a call-and-response dance duet and so was very pleased to see that in this dance. Stephanie Wipf played Emily Arden, a singer at the fair and Wayne’s love interest. Wipf’s Arden had a bit of that 1940s mid-Atlantic sound, which gave her a nice contrast from the “locals” at the fair. Winship and Wipf worked well together and their climactic scene was very engaging. The choreography (by Brianna Belland) seemed well-researched; it all felt like moves that the characters themselves would have learned. At times I wished for a little more Broadway, and I would have liked to see more ambitious choreography with the featured dancers, but I respect the choices Belland made, especially in her use of the crowd (as in “Ioway,” which featured a friendly dance-off between different groups). The orchestra sounded a little uneven throughout the show and I realized it’s because music director Melissa Warhol was playing the piano and conducting at the same time! So sometimes only half the piano part was happening. Because the piano was amped there was a big difference in fullness of sound when it dropped out. At the same time I cannot help but be impressed by how skilled Warhol must be to do both things at once. There were many lovely moments from the ensemble, who filled out the other fairgoers, workers, and so forth. Samantha Chamberlin as Charlie, photographer to Pat Gilbert’s reporter, had a lot of attitude and really turned up the dramatic tension in her final scene. Samantha Spalding and Laura Wittig played sultry dancers who give Pat a hard time for falling in love; both had plenty of sass and Spalding had a great vocal affectation that unfortunately didn’t always get picked up well by the microphones. Sasha Warbritton played the overindulging Judge Heppenstahl and her dancing made me laugh out loud. Holleigh Stockton as Violet nailed her scenes as a little girl who gets a crush on Wayne. Costumes, by Meghan Kent, were great. There was a very nice visual distinction between the farmers and the more “city” folk. Emily Arden and her backup singers/dancers also had a great look. Charlie’s green overalls, though, were my favorite. They were a perfect 1940s look and such a good choice for the character. I wish I had a pair of my own! If this show weren’t free (though they do take donations), I would still recommend it. Outdoor theater is a great way to spend a summer evening, and a show like State Fair is perfect for it: charming, fun, with silly moments and enough drama to make it interesting but still plenty of happy endings. The Eden Prairie Players put on a great show and I look forward to seeing what their next summer show is.