On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco
Presented by Zealots and Mystics
Written by Anton Chekhov
Directed by David Lind
Chekhov originally wrote On The Harmful Effects of Tobacco in 1886 and during the next six years, he re-wrote it half a dozen times. The monologue ranges from comic to tragic as Ivan Ivanovitch Nyukhin delivers a lecture on the harmfulness of tobacco at the request, in a manner of speaking, of his wife.
David Lind is a local actor, director and playwright. Locally, he has worked with Mixed Blood Theater, Teatro del Pueblo, nimbus theatre, Theatre Unbound, Startinggate Productions, Theatre in the Round Players, Theatre Limina, Commedia Beauregard, and the Phipps Center for the Arts. David trained at Rutgers University and the Michael Chekhov Acting Studio in New York City. He is also the owner of TC Theatre and Film, one of the leading theatre industry websites in the Twin Cities. David is the Artistic Director of Zealots & Mystics.
A Water Bird Talk
Presented by Nautilus Music-Theater
by Dominick Argento
Featuring tenor Gary Briggle
and pianists Sonja Thompson and Tom Linker
Directed by Ben Krywosz
First presented in 1977 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and later in 1981 by the Minnesota Opera Company, A WATER BIRD TALK is set at a podium at a provincial club meeting in Maryland in the late 19th century. A gentleman lecturer addresses a ladies’ club on the subject of water birds. His descriptions of the birds’ peculiar habits come to act as metaphors for his own horribly henpecked life. Parallels are drawn between the gentleman’s life and the birds he discusses, and the lecturer illustrates his talk with images derived from J.J. Audubon’s The Birds of America. The libretto is by the composer, and is adapted from Chekhov’s On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco. Dominick Argento is considered to be America’s leading composer of lyric opera. Based here in the Twin Cities, he has written thirteen operas. His music displays a natural dramatic impulse; he has said “I think that music... began as an emotional language. For me, all music begins where speech stops.”
Nautilus is pleased to present this amusing yet moving portrait, brought to life by tenor Gary Briggle and stage director Ben Krywosz, with musical support provided by Sonja Thompson and Tom Linker. Nautilus works year-round with writers, composers, performers, and directors to make new operas and other kinds of music-theater, and to explore existing work in innovative ways Our full productions of such works as CAROUSEL, MAN OF LA MANCHA, SONGS FROM AN UNMADE BED, MEDITATIONS ON ARION, THE LAST FIVE YEARS, and the Ivey Award-winning I AM ANNE FRANK have been enthusiastically received by critics and audiences alike.
Tenor GARY BRIGGLE is a versatile singer-actor,
director and educator with over 30 years experience in the full range of
music-theater genres. Upon graduation from St. Olaf College, he began his
professional career under the mentorship of H. Wesley Balk and the Minnesota
Opera Company. After a decade of performing with the Opera company’s
resident ensemble, he began working with such regional companies as Skylight
Opera Theater, Virginia Opera, and Seaside Music Theater. Gary served as
artistic director of Lyric Opera Cleveland (1995-98), where he was also
principal tenor for twelve years. Locally, he has performed with Nautilus
Music-Theater, The Ordway Center, Frank Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune,
Skylark Opera, VocalEssence, The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Walker Art Center,
Minnesota Dance Theater, The Prairie Home Companion, The Singer’s Voice, and
The Playwright’s Lab. He has been a member of the resident acting companies of
The Children’s Theater Company and School (under the visionary guidance of John
Clark Donahue), and The Arizona Theatre Company. Gary is also a stage director,
working frequently with Sacramento Opera and Dayton Opera. Upcoming engagements
include The Artist Series of Sarasota, directing THE THREEPENNY OPERA at
Macalester College, and performing as The Stage Manager in Rorem’s OUR TOWN
with Skylark Opera. His one-man tribute to Noel Coward, A TALENT TO AMUSE, is
in demand at cabaret venues across the country.
Music director and pianist SONJA THOMPSON is active as a performer, educator and coach. A graduate of The Juilliard School, she has appeared locally and nationally in a wide variety of performance settings. Thompson resides in Minneapolis where she is Assistant Professor of Music at Augsburg College, Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota, and Assistant Music Director at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. Thompson’s recent Music-Theater credits include THE THREE PENNY OPERA at Augsburg College, Bolcom’s DYNAMITE TONITE and excerpts from Britten’s DEATH IN VENICE for Nautilus Music-Theater, Sondheim’s INTO THE WOODS with the New Plymouth Players, GREEN EGGS & HAM with soprano Maria Jette, THE BELLE OF AMHERST with actress Barbara Kingsley, and MEFISTOFELES and MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES at Theatre de la Jeune Lune. Recent performances include “East Meets West” - a program of European and Asian composers - with soprano Margaret Houlton, flutist Barbara Leibundguth and cellist Sachiya Isomura, a two piano recital in Plattsburgh, New York, featuring Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Gershwin’s American in Paris, and Latin American chamber music with the Bakken Ensemble in St. Paul.
Stage Director BEN KRYWOSZ serves as Artistic Director of Nautilus Music-Theater, directing such world-premiere productions as I AM ANNE FRANK, HEARTS ON FIRE, Without Colors, and the revised version of SNOW LEOPARD, as well as new productions of GOBLIN MARKET, THE LAST FIVE YEARS, MAN OF LA MANCHA, and most recently CAROUSEL. In the Minnesota Fringe Festival, he directed the Nautilus productions of SONGS FROM AN UNMADE BED, MEDITATIONS ON ARION, JOHN AND JEN, and FROM THE DIARY OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. He also produces the company’s ROUGH CUTS program, a monthly works-in-progress series. He has also directed productions for such companies as The Minnesota Opera, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, California Coast Opera, Midwest Opera Theater, West Bay Opera, New Dramatists in New York, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Lake George Opera Festival’s Apprentice Program, and Opera Roanoke. From 1984 to 1987, Krywosz was Project Director for Opera America’s OPERA FOR THE 80s AND BEYOND program, where he concentrated on introducing the professional opera field to the work of innovative music-theater artists.
