SHINE A LIGHT: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA TOY THEATRE STUDENTS
Virtual Program

Matthew Gawryk

Matthew is new to the Twin Cities area. A Chicago transplant, he has been working as a lighting and scenic designer for almost 25 years. His work in Chicago was seen to the north at Metropolis Performing Arts Center, down the shore to Lookingglass Theater, inland to Red Orchid Theater Co., and southside at the University of Chicago, where he taught theater design. He has worked at dozens of other places in between. He is finishing his time at the University of Minnesota pursuing an MFA, and adjusting to pandemic life with a baby and a four-year-old. His atlases are made of recipes, and he does his best work in the kitchen.

ABOUT Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, Adapted by Matthew Gawryk

This project began with a space in mind. I wanted to explore different ways a show could fit inside of an Altoids tin. They have a pleasing geometry, an efficient compactness, and a seemingly endless variety of uses. I think every piece of theater is site-specific. This is why remounts can often feel strange. The slightest change of audience capacity, sightlines, or wingspace can disrupt the balance of something that was created in another space. The details of those shared traits exist in relationships which add up to something unique. 

Cities, too, exist within a tension of uniqueness and ubiquity. What’s the name of that Midwest city, the one with the thriving theater scene, a football team that just can’t seem to get there, and great food; you know the one, with the vaguely Native American name?  Anyway, Italo Calvino wrote a book, Invisible Cities, which he called a long, last love poem to the city. And while the poem does spin words into images of a city's architecture, or design, or the unique wonders one might see, the heart of it is concerned with the intangible ley lines that bind the city's inhabitants to itself. In this respect, all cities are the same. 

I chose some of those invisible cities to fit into these little metal boxes. They are described by an imaginary Marco Polo to an imaginary Kublai Khan, as the Great Khan attempts to understand and know the extent of his empire. They exist only as words to Kublai, who cannot find them pictured in his atlases. So I’m trying to create a new atlas from this book.

To listen along with the piece, wait until the the piece shows it’s “3-2-1-Go” countdown, and hit play when the countdown ends. This performance is about 10 minutes in length.

Download your own Waiting for Godot Kit here.

Xinyi Shen

Xinyi, an international senior student in the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, double majoring in Psychology B A and Theatre Arts. She was born and raised in a fascinating city Suzhou, China and went to college alone in the US in 2018. In the area of Theatre, she focuses on Scenic Design for theatrical productions. She aims to reflect her cultural background and knowledge of Psychology in her design. 

ABOUT GIRL

The very start of this project is based on the Shakespear’s seven stage of life monologue. During the exploring phase, my intuition directed me to make something my own from my unique experiences. In my home country China, gender bias begins at the moment a child was born in some conventional families. It is heartbreaking that the girls are not only discriminated against by other people in the society, but their own families. For them, their stages of life would be stuck in the place where they were born. Although the situation has improved from generation to generation, there are still a large number of people who are suffering from preferring boys to girls. In China, revealing the sex of an unborn child is illegal because of this. Women were forced to give birth to as many babies as possible until there is a son. The purpose of this project is to alarm people how painful the mothers and children are in those families and to encourage the girls to walk out the shadows and embrace themselves. In my story, maternal love and self-esteem set the girl free from the awful situation. Love yourself!

Ani Mosity

Ani is a costume designer and technician. They finished their undergraduate studies at Arizona State University outside of Phoenix, and promptly moved to Minnesota, presumably for the extreme climate contrast. They're very passionate about historical underwear, laundry, and the artistic value of popular art.

ABOUT Un-Fun Facts

Un-Fun Facts is a show about dementia and grief. Aging can change people, and eventually it takes them away, yet it still seems mysterious and surprising to many people when their loved ones age and die. As the youngest member of my family, I never really knew some of my family members in the same way other family remembered them. By the time I was around, they had changed. My paternal grandfather was the focus of many fun family stories before I was born, but I hardly recognized the man I knew in those stories.

The autobiographical turn of the show is factual. My grandmother was attacked in the middle of the night by another patient staying at the same care facility. The rest of the show is pure speculation, but I have found it helpful to think about how other people might experience the same events.

As someone who grew up being told about stranger danger and to be wary of strangers, finding out that most violent crimes are committed by people close to the victim, friends or family, was shocking. Yet it was also reassuring; danger was not lurking in the unknown and around every corner. To then experience one of the rare instances of stranger violence in my family struck me as ironic. The death of my grandmother was not unexpected (she was 85 years old, she'd had many strokes, she'd had several cardiac events) but the method of her death certainly was. It was an unlikely event and that has made it more difficult to process.

Kimberly Lawler

Kimberly L. Lawler has been a Minnesota artist for 35 years. After receiving  a BFA in Painting from Minnesota State University in 1987, she primarily worked as a free-lance scenic artist for  theater, film and commercial industries as well as fine art painting. Over the years she has designed for educational theater and video. She is also specializes in backdrop and mural restoration. Clients include City of Winona and Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center’s scenic collections, Mill City Museum, N’Parallel , Apropos Painting Studio, City of Long Prairie Iwo Jima War Memorial, and Prince. She is a Warrant Officer 3 in the US Army Reserve and is currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Art in Scene Design at the University of Minnesota. 

About Mayday 2020

The limitlessness of the tiny venue of toy theater is a new and excitingly creative world for me. 

This piece, “Mayday 2020”, is my first public presentation. It is an examination of an event that occurred in front of my house. It is what I consider to be the day Black Lives Matter came to my front door. 

Elliot Allen

Elliot was born and raised in Minnesota. He is currently a sophomore at the University of Minnesota where he is majoring in Theatre Arts. His dream is to be a director and a playwright.

ABOUT Where the Wild Things Are, Adapted by Elliot Allen

Like many kids, my mom read to me almost every night as a kid. Some of my favorite memories came from storytime. One of my favorite books was Where The Wild Things Are. I have always had a love for the creepy things. Snakes, bugs, ghosts, and especially monsters. So Where The Wild Things are was the perfect book for me. I was in love with the illustration, the story, everything. Through this show I wanted to recreate the experience of listening to my mom read and imagining the book coming to life. I was a very imaginative kid and when I listened to the story and looked at all the pictures I saw the story come to life, almost like a little play. Through this show I wanted to recreate that experience of listening to my mom read and seeing that little play come to life.

Alexa Lewis 

Alexa is a senior at the University of Minnesota, graduating with a Theatre Arts degree with minors in Political Science and Visual Art. She needs a JOB soon! So if anyone wants to hire her after watching this, that would be so great. She enjoys stand up comedy, longboarding, and making crafty things.

ABOUT The Story of Passover 

The Passover Story is similar to the story told around Seder meals and at synagogues all across the world during this holiday. Although this one has significantly more swearing than the one I remember hearing as a kid, the main parts are the same. After the Pharaoh has a vision that a child of Jewish descent will one day bring his downfall, he decrees that all male children born to Jewish families will be killed. Moses’ family, in an effort to save him, sends him down the river in a basket. Eventually he is found by the Pharaoh’s daughter who takes him in as her own. 

Cut to two decades later and Moses is talked to by God through their form as a burning bush. God gives Moses the job of freeing the enslaved Jewish people. Moses takes this message to Pharaoh to no avail. For the next ten days there are terrible plagues brought upon the people of Egypt, eventually leading to the death of the first born. This is the plague that makes the Pharaoh change his mind for a little bit. The Jewish people are chased out of Egypt and Moses parts the Red Sea so the Jewish people can run through and escape. 

This abridged version is inspired by my mother who used to come into my school during Jewish holidays and educate the kids about Judaism. Looking back, she did this so my siblings and I wouldn’t get bullied because we were the only Jewish family in our small, rural town.  I’m very grateful for my typical Jewish mother. If you’ve ever seen the Goldbergs, Bev really captures the essence of my mother. It’s because of her that I even know this story at all.