Posts Tagged arts

Beware: Bradley the Green!

As you probably know by now, there are pirates running amok at Park Square, but who is leading this band of motley marauders? Who, oh who, is their fearful leader?

When I sally forth to seek my prey
I help myself in a royal way.
I sink a few more ships, it’s true,
Than a well-bred monarch ought to do…

For I am a Pirate King!
And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King!

And playing our incorrigible PK is Bradley Greenwald, or if you were to meet him on the high seas, Bradley the Green!

A well-known face around town, Greenwald has been performing in the Twin Cities for the past 25 years, starting when he landed a touring gig with the Minnesota Opera while in college. While in the midst of majoring in German, he fell into voice lessons and quite literally find his voice. He took time off of school for that tour and never went back.

Fast forward to today and he’s one of the most hard working actors and singers in the community with a mountain of credits at theatres such as Theatre da la Jeune Lune, the Guthrie, 10,000 Things Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Jungle Theater, and A Prairie Home Companion. Greenwald doesn’t discriminate either when it comes to choosing projects. In a 2015 interview with the Pioneer Press he said,

If it’s honest and honestly written, I love it… Whether it’s a 1918 novelty song, ‘Impossible Dream’ or Act II from the finale of ‘Figaro.’

Photo by Ann Marsden

No wonder he’s so popular to work with! No wonder, too, that he’s even got his own fan club on Facebook. (Upon further investigation it’s called “The Association of Bradley Greenwald Lovers”. It’s an open group as well. Nice.)

What does Bradley the Green have to say about all this attention? Again in the aforementioned interview, ““a little oodgy”. It’s that sly sense of humor, combined with his voice, that he is able to wield so effectively and highlighting that effectiveness is his treasure chest of accolades that includes a McKnight Fellowship for Theater Artists and a 2006 Ivey Award for the one-man drama, I Am My Own Wife at the Jungle Theater.

The Major General (Christina Baldwin) with the Pirate King (Bradley Greenwald). (Photo by Petronella J. Ytsma)

With all of that, Park Square is happy to share him with audiences in one of the most famous operettas of all time, The Pirates of Penzance, where  those comic skills and sublime voice will be on full display as the lovable and goofy, Pirate King.

 

 

Oh, better far to live and die
Under the brave black flag I fly,
Than play a sanctimonious part,
With a pirate head and a pirate heart…

But I’ll be true to the song I sing,
And live and die a Pirate King!

Tickets and information here. 

 

The Stage Manager Chronicles: Lyndsey Harter

Ringing in the New Year on the Proscenium stage at Park Square will be Flower Drum Song, a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical with a book by David Henry Hwang. The play is a co-production with Mu Performing Arts. As noted in the previous Chronicle, it is being stage managed by Jamie J. Kranz, and assisting her in that role is Assistant Stage Manager, Lyndsey R. Harter.

Harter has been with Park Square since the fall of 2014, although it was just this past one when she was able to join Actors’ Equity, the professional union for American actors and stage managers in the theatre. This distinction is something an aspiring individual must work for and Harter was able to helm her first play with such a distinction at Park Square with The House on Mango Street. This was after a summer stage managing plays at the Great River Shakespeare Festival with oft PST director, Doug Scholz-Carlson.

Lyndsey R. Harter.

Lyndsey R. Harter.

 

In fact, Harter frequently collaborates elsewhere and will follow Flower Drum Song with another play from Mu Performing Arts in the spring at the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio. She and Randy Reyes have previously worked together at Park Square on Murder for Two.

So how did Harter find herself in this position? Raised in Grand Forks, North Dakota, she moved to St. Paul in order to study costume design at Hamline University. Despite notable achievements, including two awards with the Kennedy Center American Collegiate Theater Festival, she began to gravitate toward stage management and the unique challenges it afforded. It was during her junior year the stage manager of one of the school’s plays had too many conflicts and needed a new person. Employing her excellent organizational skills and affable attitude, Harter was well poised to jump in. She immediately fell in love with seeing how “all the pieces fit together and how one change affects five others.”

Harter grew up in a military family and while real-world duties of actors and soldiers couldn’t be more different, they both share a sense of extreme discipline and teamwork. These attributes have no doubt been an aid to her career. Whenever she is not behind the tech table she loves to stay physically active and finds exercise to be a great way to find “balance and mental space.” Oh, and peanut butter M&Ms are also a little pleasure of hers.

Who knew all of that was going on behind the scenes at Park Square? When you see Flower Drum Song, don’t hesitate to thank the crew and if you want to bring some of those M&Ms, it wouldn’t go unnoticed. Come see it on the Proscenium Stage at Park Square, running January 20 – February 19.

In the control room at the Great River Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Megan Winter.

In the control room at the Great River Shakespeare Festival. Photo by Megan Winter.

Tickets

The box office is currently closed. Please email tickets@parksquaretheatre.org with any questions.

Stay in Touch!

Get the latest updates and offers from Park Square Theatre.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

    Park Square on Instagram  See Park Square Videos on Vimeo