Angels in America: Part One

Millennium Approaches

directed by

David Wiles

Presented February 19, 20 at 8 pm and 21 at 2 pm

February 26, 27 at 8 pm

For play and audition information, go to the What's New page!

PLAYERS PERFORMANCE RESERVATIONS -
To reserve seats for an upcoming play, please call 507-222-4471. Leave your name, the date and time of the play, and the number of seats that you would like to reserve. Productions are general admission and free of charge.

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Spring Production Auditions Jan. 29 7 p.m. Arena Theater

Show overview and character sketches

Materials provided at the auditions. Copies of the script are on closed reserve at the library

Independent People is a multi-faceted staged adaptation of the Icelandic novel of the same name by Noble prize-winning author Halldor Laxness. Set during the first twenty years of the twentieth century, the story follows a peasant family's struggle to attain independence in a world that is dead set against it. Within an array of colorfully down-trodden Icelandic folk, we meet a son, Nonni, and join in his return journey to Iceland to finally "see" the father(Bjartur of Summerhouses) he couldn't comprehend as a boy, and to understand the connection he and his father share to the girl he always called sister (Asta Solillja).

Independent People Character Description:

Bjartur Jonsson of Summerhouses [Byar-tur (not B’yartur, or ‘Jartur.) All “J”’s in proper names are soft “Y” sounds.(Yonsson). When combined as Bj the two are sounded together. Think of Björk. The “T” can go slightly soft, but should not turn into Bjardur]

He is a small tenant farmer, or crofter, in his mid-thirties at the beginning of the play and in his early fifties by the end. As the play starts he has just bought his croft and a number of sheep from the Bailiff of Rauthsmyri, for whom he has worked for eighteen years as their shepherd (a job of some degree of responsibility), since being fostered by the family at the age of fourteen. He begins his new life with a small flock and has named his land Summerhouses. Bjartur is known for being skilled with sheep and for the crafting of clever, if overly technical verse.

Rosa: Bjartur’s first wife and has worked many years as a house servant at Rauthsmyri. She is in her early twenties. When she enters the story she is secretly pregnant by Ingolfur, and in love with him.

Asta Sollilja [Asta as in Pasta. Sol-lil-ya. Her name means “beloved lily of the sun.”]

She is the first child of Summerhouses and the only child of Rosa, this distinguishes her from the other children who are Bjartur’s by Finna. She has inherited very deeply Bjartur’s love of poetry.

Finna: Finna is Bjartur’s second wife and the daughter of Hallbera. She is in her early twenties when she marries Bjartur. She has three surviving children, Helgi, Gvendur and Nonni, and has had many miscarriages and stillbirths. She usually spends half the year in bed sick, pregnant or recovering from her pregnancies.

Hallbera: Hallbera is in her sixties when her daughter, Finna marries Bjartur. At the start of the play she is the recent widow of Ragnar of Urtharsel, (a crofter and social equal to Bjartur). She is very Christian and has a thorough, if confused, memory of all the traditional hymns and psalms. Upon widowhood their croft failed and she and Finna went “on the parish” or became wards of the state, provided for by the parish church,. She is very present throughout, even in scenes when she says nothing.

Nonni: Nonni is the youngest son of Summerhouses, the family dreamer. As narrator, he tells the story of his family and his native country from the perspective of a man the age of the actor playing him. He recollects the story from the distance of another continent, but it is always present to him: it is the one song that he has to sing, and defines who he is. When he enters the story he is a little boy of six or seven.

Gvendur [Gven-dur, (not G’vendur, the Gv sounded as one, similar to Bjartur]

He is the middle son of Summerhouses and the most like Bjartur in physical stamina and attachment to the land, though he is milder in nature. But unlike Bjartur he is completely lacking in any sense of the poetic. Though he doesn’t say much early on he is always in Bjartur’s footsteps when work is being done, so much so that to him life is about always doing something. When he enters the story he is nine or ten

Helgi: The oldest son of Summerhouses. He is a dark and broody child prone to philosophy. Helgi and Nonni are connected by a deep understanding that can be shared only by opposites. He enters the story at the age of ten or eleven.

The Madam of Myri: The matriarch of the Rauthsmyri clan. She is the daughter of a well off merchant family from the town of Vik. She is cultured (probably educated in the capital Reykjavik if not on the continent, in Denmark). She is an Icelandic nationalist and preaches the wonders of nature and the peasant, without ever really needing to experience either, but she is genuine in her beliefs. She is a large woman, especially in comparison with the extremely lean peasants around her.

Ingolfur Arnarson Jonsson is the son of the Madam, and was named after the first settler of Iceland, Ingolfur Arnarson (hence his two patronyms). He was raised with Bjartur but is a bit younger. He, unlike Bjartur, is well educated and has traveled to the continent. He is a mixture political shrewdness and his mother’s idealism. He represents Iceland’s new Co-operative Societies movement, a socialist middle-ground between the old, repressive Danish merchant monopoly and the Communist revolutionaries. He is elected Prime minister of Iceland by the end of the play.

The Teacher: A relatively well educated, if lecherous dreamer. He has been in prison and has wife and family that he has abandoned in Reykjavik. He is consumptive, has a drug addiction and is probably dying. He has taken Bjartur’s offer to teach the children as an opportunity to escape his troubles and to start his life over.

The Crofters Einar, Olafur and Thorir. They are all struggling, independent small farmers, mates of Bjartur’s (to call them friends is further than any of them would go). There is a sort of perpetual, eternal conversation they always fall into, involving sheep and the weather. They are other Bjarturs, on other crofts, all Independent Men.

Gunnvor –The valley of Summerhouses is said to be haunted. A long time ago, one of the earliest inhabitants, a woman named Gunnvor farmed in the valley with her husband. She became homicidal, killed her husband and children and waylaid passing travelers. As the legend goes she drank her victim’s blood and was in league with the devil. Eventually she was dragged off and hung before the church at Rauthsmyri. Gunnvor was buried in the cairn (a pile of stones that serves as a landmark to travelers and also as a grave) the overlooks the Summerhouse valley. But she rest uneasily and are said to still walk the land, destroying the settlements there, generation after generation. Gunnvor’s story is represented through projection.

Semaphore Spring Dance Concert

May 28 and 29

8:00 p.m.
Arena Theater
No reservations are needed to attend the dance concerts!