Arts Activities Support

Many of our small theater peers have performed at the Guthrie Theater and ultimately have been unsatisfied with the artistic product of their work, because they felt inclined to overproduce their material so it "rose to Guthrie standards." Four Humors’ biggest takeaway was collaboratively create a piece, retain its artistic identity, and not to feel pressured to match the aesthetics of our venue. Four Humors had three artistic goals for this production of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha: to create an adaptation of this renowned piece of literature in an honest way that highlights its positive outlook and unique style of humor, which piques audience interest in revisiting the original text; to increase the participating students’ sense of empathy towards people that they may write off as “crazy” or different through a close analysis of the text and creation of a physical character for the stage; and to create a show that demonstrates that small theater does not mean amateur, it means small budget. Artistic Director Jason Ballweber believes that the company created an adaptation that was true and honest to the source material. Numerous audience members and survey respondents also commented both on the faithfulness of the production to the source material and about wanting revisit and more closely explore the novel. By the end of the student workshops the students had a much easier time understanding Don Quixote’s world. Also, all participants had the opportunity to perform and by playing the character Don Quixote, he became less of a feeble-minded fool and more of a misguided dreamer. The workshops with the students was the biggest success of this project. Because of the additional workshops the company had additional time to work with the material, which helped the piece tremendously. Four Humors’ biggest strength is the relationship to the performers. By letting all the actors collaborate in the creation of the piece, a more fully realized story is ultimately told through many voices. Finally, the audiences at the Guthrie were wowed by the creative presentation. Through the work with video projection, Four Humors was able to show an audience modern theater techniques, while staying true to actor-driven theater through the use of imaginative puppeteering. The one drawback was the limited amount of time to rehearse with the technology in the performance space. Similar to our artistic success, Four Humors met its audience goals with this production of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. By offering two student workshops with the University of Minnesota and Augsburg College, the company was able to work with and perform for an engaged student community. Based off audience surveys, 15% of our audience was under the age 24. Those figures do not include a special student matinee that was performed at the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio, the first student matinee that has been performed by a guest company in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie Theater. Four Humors was also able to engage with our audiences through 3 post-play discussions were held for the audiences, 2 for the general public and one specifically for the student matinee. We also employed our board members to greet and welcome guests in the lobby before and after every performance. In addition to strong student participation, Four Humors was also able to perform for a completely new audience. According to audience surveys, over 70% of our audiences had not seen a Four Humors performance before. Over 1,700 audience members attended Don Quixote and we performed to multiple sold-out crowds in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie Theater.