Jesus offers rough ride

Pillsbury House Theatre opens 2003-04 with a show that can be expected to draw healthy crowds. We seldom get downright grim fare in Twin Cities theater, so the change of pace likely will arch an eyebrow or two, provoking enough thought to have audiences wagging their tongues among family, friends and neighbors.

Stephen Adly Guirgis' Off-Broadway hit "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train," set in a New York City jail, looks to be about as stark a theater-going experience as you're apt to come by for quite some time. Even the perennially jaded New York Times lauds it as "...fire-breathing...[a] probing, intense portrait of lives behind bars ... whenever it appears that [the story] is settling into familiar territory, it slides right beneath expectations into another, fresher direction. It has the courage of its intellectual restlessness ...[the script] has been written in flame."

From NYC's LAByrinth Theater the play went on to win the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival and ran on London's West End where it received an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play. It's also been produced in Finland, Washington D.C. and at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. New productions are slated for Europe and South America.

The play is set on Manhattan's infamous Riker's Island prison where first time offender and recent arrival Angel Cruz awaits trial for shooting the religious cult leader who kidnapped his best friend. One cell away sits serial murderer Lucius Jenkins who awaits a death sentence and has recently found God. When the cult leader dies, Angel's idealistic public defender encourages him to lie on the witness stand, resulting in a decision that will change the course of his trial and, accordingly, his life. Two men with nothing in common are forced to navigate a tissue-thin line between redemption and the point of no return. It promises to be a no-holds-barred examination of faith, morality and salvation amid profoundly desperate circumstance.

Director Stephen DiMenna, based in New York City, most recently worked in Minneapolis at Eye of the Storm. He's done Off-Broadway at MCC Theatre where he was artist-in-residence and established a name for himself. As for what prompted him to do "Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train," he says, "I'm always drawn to plays that are about the underdog." Understandable. Not only was he born to an Italian immigrant family, his grandfather was a union-card-carrying factory laborer. "So, I like plays where the little guy has something to say." He adds, "Incarceration is sort of a theme in my work ... the voices of incarcerated people. On top of that, it's a beautifully written play."

For several years, DiMenna has returned to Minneapolis to direct a theater workshop with residents of the Hennepin County Home School, which performs at Pillsbury House Theatre. Currently, he's working with commercial producer Beth Smith developing two Broadway musicals, Brad Fraser's "Outrageous" and a new work by Ben Folds and Neil LaBute.

Pillsbury House Theatre principal artistic director Faye M. Price, serving as dramaturg for the production, states flat out, "I love this play! I read reviews and thought it sounded interesting. 'It was from a rough and tumble world with realistic dialogue, yadda yadda.' I finally got my hands on the script and, indeed, it was all true."

New York actor Vaneik Echeverria is Angel opposite Minneapolis and St. Paul luminary James A. Williams as Lucius. Also appearing are Laura Esping, Emil Herrera and John Olive.

Stephen Adly Guirgis' "Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train," directed by Stephen DiMenna at Pillsbury House Theatre, runs Oct. 10 - Nov. 8. Wed. through Sat., 7:30 p.m. $15 (Wednesdays @ The House—pay what you can, Wed. Oct. 29 & Nov. 5) 3501 Chicago Ave. S., Mpls. 612-825-0459.

Contrary to my September review of "Honk! The Ugly Duckling Musical,” stating that Children's Theatre Company artistic director Peter Brosius has "discontinued the pay-what-you-can shows [which bring] the excitement and education of first-rate commercial theater [to those] for whom theater is an unthinkable luxury," CTC, in fact, continues its commitment to the enormously popular program. This marks the sixth season that the program has made high quality, professional theater available to thousands of Minnesota families for whom ticket prices have previously been a barrier. PWYC tickets have been set aside for one performance of each mainstage production. Patrons fork over what they can afford. Suggested minimum $1. I goofed. Sorry.

A partnership between Hennepin County, Pillsbury House Theatre and Stephen DiMenna produces Hennepin County Home School Theatre Workshop, which allows incarcerated adolescent males to redefine their identity as artists so that when they're released, they are less likely to offend. DiMenna, an accomplished stage director, states, "We help these disenfranchised young men find a new voice through the theater." Operating in its eleventh year, the workshop that is funded by Target Stores, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and Hennepin County, brought teens together with DiMenna, recreational therapist Thelma Fricke and actors James A. Williams and Vaniek Echiveria to create a play and see it acted out on the professional stage. The end product, “Shining Light in the Shadows,” was showcased Sept. 16 at County Home School (Minnetonka) and on Sept. 17 at PHT for an audience of judges, cops, prosecuting attorneys and social workers, as well as the public, free of charge. The workshop, called Transformation Through Drama, uses theater to teach incarcerated youth new ways of expressing themselves and to help them face transition back into the community.

Faye Price of Pillsbury House Theatre comments, "It's a great project. [PHT] hopefully will continue to form a relationship with Hennepin County so we can do some other work with the boys and, maybe, the girls out there, so they don't have to wait for Steve to bring his program in."