As we approached the Guthrie theater I was impressed by the buildings exterior. Surrounded by turn of the century or older buildings made from bricks and mortar, the Guthrie stands like a monolithic transplant from a future civilization. Its smooth, colorful walls beckoned me to approach it, to touch it, and to see just what was inside of this out of place structure. It's strange to think of it now, but even though the building seems out of place with its surroundings, at the same time it's right at home in its environment. I can't tell exactly what color the building really is. At some angles it looks blue, others it looks black. If you look at it in just the right way, with just the right amount of light, it turns to a plum shade of purple. The two massive vertical signs that flash the current goings on in the theater in multi-colored LED lights jutting out from the top of the building look like offset smoke stacks at a glance. Overall, its a beautifully designed building and it is apparent that a lot of thought went into it.
Once inside, it looks just as modern as it does from the outside, but without trying to look intentionally futuristic. There's a gift shop right by the entrance, but it isn't huge and touristy. The small shop led me to believe that the purpose of the place, the reason it was there and what you could take away from it, wasn't something tangible. The experience of the building itself, along with the experiences you would be taking away from it by attending one of the performances here was the true "gift", and far more enduring and valuable than any branded trinket you could pick up from a shop. I don't need a branded coffee mug to tell myself and others "I was here."
I explored the building by starting with the "endless bridge", a walkway that simply comes out from the building and returns at another level. At the "end" of the endless bridge, there is a patio area that overlooks the river. It was a nice day, so we spent a few minutes outside and snapped some pictures.
When we went back inside we went the "up" direction on the walkway and ended up by the cafe. Its a fairly large cafe/restaurant with ample seating. I can imagine that on an evening when an extremely popular performance is going on here, the place is a beehive of activity. We continued our journey and looked at some of the other aspects of this floor before we made our way to the elevator.
When the door opened on the ninth floor I was blinded by the yellow light that bathed the entire room. The light is colored by the yellow windows on the floor and it makes the surrounding landscape look very different, almost what one might imagine looking out over the landscape of Mars would look like. There was a young couple up there with a photographer setting up to take pictures of them, apparently attempting to capture some important moment together to preserve it forever. I stayed on the floor a short time, just long enough to see the river overlook and the view of the I35 overpass. On my way out, I saw through squinted eyes (it was very bright in here) a sign for a performance titled small eyes, which I found somewhat ironic.
It was time for the show, so we took our seats in the theater. After a slight bit of confusion involving duplicate tickets and some seat shuffling, we settled in and the lights dimmed.
The performance was fantastic. I didn't care for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom when I read it, but I rarely care for reading plays. To me, a play isn't meant to be read, it's meant to be performed and perform it they did! The cast was perfect, and most of the characters appeared exactly as I had imagined them when I read the story. The only exceptions were the characters of Levee and Slow Drag, whom I imagined as smaller and more wiry and bigger and slower respectively. The performance brought the characters to life and reinforced my original assessment of the play as a modern interpretation of a Greek tragedy. The character of Levee was played brilliantly by James T. Alfred, a career actor who has honed his craft at places such as Harvard and the Moscow Art Theatre School. He brought his character to life and by the end of the play it was impossible to determine whether he was the villain or the victim in the story.
If I were to have planned the outing myself I wouldn't have chosen this particular play. I think I would've missed out on a fantastic performance, although after touring the Guthrie and looking into the other productions I think its safe to say that all of the performers here are of the highest quality and level of skill.
Overall, it was a great experience for me and one that I'll always remember. Maybe I'll attend another performance here, maybe not. But I have gained a new-found respect for the arts in Minneapolis, and I think that was the point of this class anyways.
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