'Big River' sets adventures of Huck Finn to music at Springer

Jens Rasmussen as the Duke in Big River

Springer Opera House Artistic Director Paul Pierce is well aware of the controversy around Mark Twain’s classic tales of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. And so are cast members of the musical “Big River” which is based on Twain’s book “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The production comes to the Springer stage tonight.

Much of the controversy surrounds the use of derogatory and offensive terms used to refer to Jim, the slave that Huck befriends. Jim is a runaway slave who joins Huck on his adventures.

“You have to remember this is not Mark Twain talking,” Pierce said about the language.

“This is Huckleberry Finn. Twain takes an ignorant child and plops him on a raft with a runaway slave.”

Jens Rasmussen, who plays several roles in the musical, admits some of the language is “a little rough.” But he hopes the audience takes the derogatory terms in the context in which they were written.

And 20 years ago, when Pierce was entering his first full season at the Springer, “Big River” was the season opener. Pierce had already faced controversy when he consolidated various boards of directors and hired professional actors.

When the late Madison Rivers Jackson, who was hired to play the role of Jim, arrived in Columbus, he was met with picketers in front of the theater.

Eventually, the protesters came around, many of them reappearing on the Springer stage. Pierce became a fixture in Columbus theater. And Jackson went from being a pariah to a well-loved regular on the stage before his death in 1996.

It’s different this time

Pierce is 20 years older, and he’s viewing the work differently now than he did that first year.

“It’s almost like I’m looking at it for the first time,” he said.

“Jens and I have been reading ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ during rehearsal. Some of the stuff we’re struck with is how faithful it is to the book. And how Roger Miller’s music amplifies the script.

“I’m in awe of the script. Day after day, I see multiple layers,” Pierce said. “That’s what I don’t remember. I see it very differently this time. What’s become clear to me is how enduring this literature is.”

In the end, Pierce says “Big River” is a boy’s adventure.

He’s also struck by how “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” has become an allegory for America, including the “horror of our history and all of the wonder and the beauty of our history.”

The audience will learn about the Civil War, the relationship between a young boy and girl, a slave and a boy, water and land, right and wrong, light and dark and society vs. individualism.

A new Jim ... and Huck

Keith Patrick McCoy, originally from Portsmouth, Va., met with Pierce and associate artistic director Ron Anderson at a national theater audition in Memphis.

He’s done the role of Jim twice before. In fact, he loves the part so much that he actually seeks out the role.

“I always approach it differently,” McCoy said.

The first time, in 2003, he played Jim as a victim. In 2007, he played him as a rebel. This time, he blends the two approaches.

And he says there’s always a different director and a different Huck.

He really likes the chemistry between his character and Mike Morin’s Huck.

Morin, from Marietta, graduated last year from Shorter College in Rome. He met the Springer staff at the Southeastern Theater Conference auditions in Charlotte last year.

It was his first big audition and it was the final one of the day.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better ending,” he said.

“I saw three Hucks that day,” Pierce said. “It was clear Mike was Huck.”

The Duke and the King

One of the characters Rasmussen plays is the Duke, a conman.

“It’s great fun,” he said. “The Duke and the King (played by Brian Pecci) are the most fascinating characters. It’s so interesting that you never find out about their pasts. You only know what Huck knows.”

But he said what people do know is that Missouri was part of the Western Territories and a lot of people moved west to reinvent themselves.

“It’s a great American story,” he said.

Rasmussen slyly said many people may recognize the Duke and the King from the movie, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”

“These guys are the original dirty rotten scoundrels.”

By Sandra Okamoto - sokamoto@ledger-enquirer.com --

'Hamlet' comes to Springer stage for first time since 1876

Jens Rasmussen in Hamlet

Almost every high school student in the United States has to read “Hamlet.”

As these students grow up, many resist going to see Shakespearean plays.

“A lot of people will say, ‘Shakespeare is not my favorite.’ But I ask, ‘Have you seen it?’ ” said Chris Graham, who plays the title role of Hamlet in the latest Springer Opera House production.

“Shakespeare has to be seen, not just read to truly understand the plays. I hope this will attract people to see a Shakespearean play.”

John Ammerman, is a theater professor at Emory University and is an associate artist at the Georgia Shakespeare Festival. He’s done “Hamlet” twice at Georgia Shakespeare Festival, where he played Hamlet and the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Now, he’s directing the play.

“This is a fabulous cast,” Ammerman said. “Everybody has their own personal strengths. It’s truly an ensemble group.”

Ammerman set the play in the Victorian era of the 1890s, rather than the Elizabethan. There’s no one wearing tights, he said with a laugh.

“Paul (Pierce, the Springer’s artistic director) and Ron (Anderson, the Springer’s associate artistic director) wanted to do something different,” Ammerman said. “I think the Victorian era really complemented the sense of repression in the play and how etiquette made people function under their public facades.”

The costumes are form-fitting, which also makes the characters stand up straight.

The cast had two weeks to get ready for opening the show tonight. “This cast hit the floor running,” Ammerman said. He’s had to drive back and forth from Atlanta to oversee rehearsals.

Playing Hamlet

Graham, a transplant from Atlanta, did back-to-back Springer shows, “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” and “The Glass Menagerie,” in 2001-02.

It’s been even longer for Bruce Evers. Evers last was at the Springer 15 years ago in “Inherit the Wind.” Before that, he was in “A Doll’s House.”

Since he was last here in Columbus, Evers has done “Hamlet” twice with the Georgia Shakespeare Festival in Atlanta. It’s the first time he’s had a large role. He’s playing Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, who killed Hamlet’s father, then married his mother.

For Graham, now married with two children and a demanding job at Aflac, the timing hasn’t been right to get back on stage. But for “Hamlet,” he’s taking vacation days for rehearsals and the daytime performances for school groups.

“This is the greatest play ever written,” Graham said. “I didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to play this role.”

Graham is thrilled to play Hamlet for the first time on the Springer stage since Edwin Booth played the role in 1876.

“It’s quite a legacy to be part of,” agreed Jens Rasmussen, who is playing Laertes. Laertes is the brother of Ophelia, whom Hamlet loves.

“I just want to be somewhere between Burt Reynolds and Oscar Wilde,” referring to the stars whose names are on a plaque outside the Springer, Graham joked.

Rebecca McGraw, who plays Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, is also happy to be acting in “Hamlet.”

“This is a life-long dream come true,” she said.

The new kid

Cynthia D. Barker is new to the Springer. Last summer, she received her master’s degree from the Hilberry Classical Repertory Co. in Detroit. In September, she packed her belongings and moved to Atlanta, where she’s found a welcoming theater community. She moved to Atlanta on a Tuesday and went to audition for “Hamlet” on Saturday. A few weeks later, she got the job, playing Ophelia.

“This is a like an actor’s spa,” she said of the accommodations at the Springer. She can get out of bed, get dressed, go down one floor to rehearse and then hit the ground floor to the theater. “This is an actor’s dream,” she said.

Unlike some actors who do not watch movie versions of the plays they’re in, Barker rented every movie version she could find.

Barker likes the 1996 Kenneth Branaugh version the best, featuring a very young Kate Winslet as Ophelia.

And there’s sword-fighting

Jason Armit is the fight choreographer, returning to Columbus after having choreographed the fights in “Romeo and Juliet.” The big fight is between Hamlet and Laertes and Pierce jokes that there are body parts all over stage.

Armit, though, makes sure that the actors are safe. It helps, he said that both men are athletic.

“Some people (like Graham and Rasmussen), I can choreograph in a day and a half,” Armit said. “They retain all the steps. With two other people, it may have taken more time.”

Rasmussen loves the fight scene.

“And I get in a sword fight,” he said. “It’s the best final scenes ever.”

BY SANDRA OKAMOTO

from an original article appearing in the Ledger-Inquirer

Backstage Feature on Jens Rasmussen

Role: Petruchio

Project: 'The Taming of the Shrew' at the Virginia Shakespeare Festival

Jens Rasmussen won the role of the egotistical, mercurial Petruchio in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew -- running June 25-July 6 as part of the Virginia Shakespeare Festival at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg -- without ever auditioning in person. It wasn't the first time he'd gotten a part sight unseen. The Wisconsin-born actor has had success by submitting video auditions and reels when he can't be physically present at the casting call.

Being out of town is common for the New York City-based Rasmussen, who has a good deal of experience in regional theatre. Among other projects up and down the Eastern seaboard, he's done plays at the Springer Opera House in Georgia, Mill Mountain Theatre in Virginia, and the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. He never got a degree in acting or theatre, deciding after high school and a short, unsatisfying stint in the theatre department at the University of Wisconsin that he'd get more experience and challenges out of internships and apprenticeships at professional theatres. "I've sought out learning in various places," he says. "The most important thing was I just auditioned a lot...and then through people I met, I just started getting involved."

When Rasmussen found the BackStage.com casting notice for The Taming of the Shrew, he was performing in To Kill a Mockingbird at the Springer Opera House, but he was undaunted that the auditions were being held in New York and Washington, D.C. He had a strong film reel and had been cast as Father Flynn in a production of Doubt, also at the Springer Opera House, after recording his audition, posting it on YouTube, and sending the casting director a link. There aren't any special tricks to video auditioning, Rasmussen says. He uses a simple webcam attached to his Mac to record his monologues.

Rasmussen's video audition reminded The Taming of the Shrew's director, Christopher Owens, that he'd seen the actor audition twice before, for Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet in 2007 and for Orsino in Twelfth Night the year before that. Rasmussen wasn't cast in either role, but his diligence made an impression. "It wasn't his video audition that totally prompted his casting," says Owens. "His video audition reminded me of him. His two other auditions...impressed me a great deal, kept him in my mind -- his persistence and not being discouraged."

Rather than getting burned out from all his travel and time away from home, Rasmussen says his experience in diverse venues has only increased his passion for and dedication to the process of putting on a play. "Being in the rehearsal room collaborating with other artists is almost as gratifying as sharing that with the audience and taking them on that journey, being a storyteller," he says. "It's been creatively fulfilling. When I have something better in New York, then I'll stay there. But I'd rather be out of town doing what I love than sitting in New York waiting for the phone to ring."

By Anna Bengel for BackStage.com

Play Wrestles with Doubt, as many have thru the Centuries

Jens Rasmussen in Doubt

Have you ever been so certain about something that you can't make room for questions? If you consider another viewpoint, does that make your original thought erroneous?

Or, perhaps, can both beliefs co-exist?

This is what happens in "Doubt," a play staged in Foley Hall at the Springer Opera House. One minute, you think you get what's going on, then further actions make you question. "Doubt" ends tonight.

The play was written in 2004 by John Patrick Shanley, who wrote the script for the 1987 movie "Moonstruck."

"Doubt" was awarded the Tony Award as well as the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.

The drama is set in 1964. It's about a priest named Father Flynn, who is accused of abusing a boy, the first black student in a Catholic school. Father Flynn, played by Jens Rasmussen of New York, is accused of wrongdoing by a nun, Sister James, played by Megan Channell. She reports Father Flynn to the principal, Sister Aloysius (played by Marianne Fraulo).

"Doubt" is directed by John Ammerman, who returns to the Springer Opera House, where he played the title character in "Macbeth" in 2003 and his original play, "Booth, Brother Booth" in 2004.

Alice Budge, a community volunteer, saw the play last weekend.

She said it ranks among the best Springer productions she's seen.

"I think it was powerful, not only because of the performances but because the angle of vision keeps changing," said Budge, who is on the Springer board.

As audience members begin to doubt and question the actions of the characters, so too they wrestle with the place doubt has in faith.

"I think by the end, you have doubts in terms of the participants, but you also have a sense that the person who's most strident is also full of doubt," Budge said.

Churches through the centuries have had a mixed relationship with doubt, as a theological construct, and also contain people of great faith -- including the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta -- who wrote and spoke about their doubts. In the case of Mother Teresa, though, most of the revelations about her internal struggles came out after her death. Mother Teresa told a priest in 1979: "Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear."

Other famous doubters include St. John of the Cross in the 16th century, and more recently C.S. Lewis, the Christian apologist.

In Latin, doubt means "to waver or vibrate." It originally meant to waver between two options with uncertainty.

St. John of the Cross (1542-91) was jailed by the Church in Toledo in 1577 for his refusal to relocate after his superior's orders and allegedly because of his attempts to reform life within his order, the Carmelites. He received public lashings before the community at least weekly, and was kept isolated in a tiny cell barely large enough for his body. He managed to escape nine months later.

In prison, St. John of the Cross wrote most of his famous poem "Spiritual Canticle." His experience with suffering and doubt is reflected in all of his later writings.

The apostle St. Thomas, sometimes called the patron saint of doubters, is famous from scripture for his role in questioning. In one example, in the conversation at the Last Supper, Thomas said: "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" St. Thomas is especially remembered for his incredulity when the other apostles announced Christ's Resurrection to him: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."

"Doubt is expected," said the Rev. Tom Weise of St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Phenix City. "Everybody has some amount of doubt.

"The Church teaches that everyone can be saved, but almost every one of them has a dark night of the soul. The very tradition started with Christ on the cross: 'Father, why have you abandoned me?' Abandonment has to be the epitome of suffering and doubt."

Lord Alfred Tennyson's poem, "In Memoriam," indicates his wrestlings with suffering and depression: "There lies more faith in honest doubt," Tennyson wrote, "than in half the creeds."

Os Guinness, the British thinker and writer, once said: "The shame is not that people have doubts, but that they are ashamed of them."

Only natural

Jens Rasumussen is the star of "Doubt" at the Springer. Rasmussen will speak at the adult Sunday school forum at 9:15 a.m. Sunday at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 2100 Hilton Ave. Assistant director Kim Hickman will accompany him.

Raised in the Catholic Church and a Catholic school student for 12 years, Rasmussen said doubting one's faith or doctrine was not exactly encouraged in his upbringing.

"It was about moral absolutes and definitely I was in a black and white world," Rasmussen said this week. "But there was one caveat: My mom told me to listen to my still, small voice, and I was given permission to trust my own intuition. She taught me that intuition was the voice of God. In that way, I was able to question doctrine."

Rasmussen has not formally been connected to the Church since high school yet considered becoming a monk at one time. He said he's not connected to organized religion these days, preferring the word spirituality, in large part because of what harm religion has caused through the centuries.

"Doubt" allows audience members to participate in a "talk-back" after each show. Rasmussen said the most heated discussions so far have come between people or groups of people who see things differently than others in the audience.

Yet the play has taught him that doubt is a natural part of life, and part of a life of faith.

"Blind faith is no faith... . A message of the play is that doubt should not be scary, that it's OK to be unsure."

BY ALLISON KENNEDY

from an original article appearing in the Ledger-Inquirer

To Kill A Mockingbird Opens

Jens Rasmussen in To Kill a Mockingbird

For the first time, the Springer Opera House will presents the stage version of "To Kill a Mockingbird." Directed by Springer associate artistic director and director of the Springer Theater Academy Ron Anderson, it opens tonight.

"It was the right time to do it," Anderson said. "There are still pockets of prejudice. We need to stop and remind ourselves of that.

"This is the story of a man and his children, raising them during the turmoil of racial strife in the 1930s."

"This is such an American story," said Jens Rasmussen, who plays Bob Ewell, Mayella's father. Mayella is the young woman who accused Tom of raping her. The themes of the novel is such that it's good to remember, he said. There's the good vs. evil, social inequality, racism and bravery to stand up to community perspectives.

Anderson said the cast is rarely without a copy of the book. Many of the actors have also marked their scripts with notes.

"At every rehearsal, some one will pull out the book and ask a question," Anderson said.

"The richness of the book is layered into the sparseness of the script."

Because Brian Mani, who plays Finch, has made copious notes, Rasmussen laughs when he thought Mani was a genius.

Mani is an actor Anderson worked with when he was in Milwaukee. He's seen the play once and saw the movie years ago, Mani said.

"I knew a lot of actors in Milwaukee," Anderson said. "Brian was the first actor I thought of and it worked out."

There are many touching scenes, Mani said. "It's just a good story."

Springer favorite Raymond Campbell plays Judge Taylor. As a Columbus court reporter, Campbell has been essential to the court scenes, said Anderson.

"I gave them some of my knowledge," Campbell said modestly.

"No, all the courtroom stuff is from Raymond," Rasmussen said.

"This is such a good ensemble cast," Campbell said. "We're almost ready to produce a show. The cast all relate to each other."

Amy Bishop is another long-time Springer actor and musician. Bishop, the Academy's education coordinator, has been on the stage or in the orchestra pit for more than 65 musicals.

"This is the first straight play I've been in," she said. "It takes us to a time that none of us experienced. It reminded me of real family values and relationships. It's very special and I'm honored to be part of it."

Going from "A Christmas Carol," the holiday favorite, to a serious drama like "To Kill a Mockingbird" sounds tough, but Rasmussen said it's not.

"It's a pleasure," he said. "Variety is the spice of life for an actor."

From this show, he goes into rehearsal for "Doubt," and then will be in "Carousel."

Caroline Garcia is playing Mayella, alternating performances with Kara Ann Felton. Felton is a Columbus High School senior while Garcia is a Columbus State University freshman.

It's Caroline Garcia second time in "To Kill a Mockingbird." In 2002, when she was 12, played Scout in The Human Experience Theatre's production.

The Springer's Scout is Blake Blackmon, a 14-year-old eighth grader at St. Anne School, who says she's learned a lot, "and so does Scout."



BY SANDRA OKAMOTO

Walking, slowly, toward the peace

You might have missed them if you were running late on your way to the American Dance Festival on Monday night. The hard rain had come by then, washing out the list of words chalked in meridians radiating out from the traffic circle in front of Duke University's Bryan Center: forgiveness, empathy, elevate, respond....

An hour earlier, the people who had written the words had scattered, from Duke Chapel to Science Drive. They were walking, deliberately, one step every five seconds or so, converging from all angles on the trees at the circle's center. They were ADF dancers, taking part in a form of political protest and movement called "slow walk."

Though they were in different dress, many in white, all had one clothing choice in common: a pale blue sash, with words or symbols each had written or drawn to express a deeply felt wish.

Conscientious, compassionate action, one sash read. The Hindu Aum was on another. A third read, Walk toward a new beginning: Vote.

On a fourth, Justice was written on one end of the fabric. On the opposite end was Just Us.

As they moved silently down the paths, you could sense the space, the people in, it calming down as well. A few pedestrians asked questions. Most just watched--and walked slower, more carefully, through the space themselves.

Apparently, peace is contagious.

That's the real reason for a slow walk in the first place. "It is an example," said organizer Jens Rasmussen. "It's an example of being the change we want to see in the world, to quote Gandhi. I'm angry and outraged, but this is a way of channeling that energy that's more constructive than a lot of demonstrations I've been a part of. It builds us up and empowers us, instead of tearing us down."

"I loved seeing people moving faster than me," said Marcela Giesche, a dancer from Ohio State University. "I loved seeing nature move faster than me. The wind blowing my hair was like a thousand times faster than my walk."

"The time just sort of melted away," observed dancer Alice White from Berkeley, Calif. "It didn't feel like an hour at all."

A young man wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt with "1984" printed on the front held his sash in his fingers, almost like a rosary. Slowly he walked forward, eyes closed, head bowed.

Then the clouds opened at 7:45. A clap of thunder brought waves of water down upon the walkers.

No one accelerated. All moved quietly toward their goal.

After a moment, a young man in an NYPD T-shirt strode back out into the deluge. When he reached one of the walkers, he opened a yellow umbrella and escorted her slowly down the ramp, holding it carefully over her head.

After a moment, he handed her the umbrella and ran back under the Bryan Center awning.

A moment later he ran back into the rain--and handed another umbrella to another walker.

Then he did it again. And again.

By the time we spoke to dancer Joshua Christensen, he had reallocated at least six umbrellas from concert-goers to the dancers in the rain, walking slowly toward peace.

After hanging their sashes in the trees, the protesters stood, holding one another; silent, smiling, peaceful, in the rain. One portrait of what peace looks like after you've walked a while to get there.