MSUM’s summer theater company Straw Hat Players is ready to celebrate its 60th anniversary in “Grand” fashion
The summer lineup opens May 30 with a musical revue of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
By John Lamb
May 30, 2023
MOORHEAD — Minnesota State University Moorhead has officially ended its theater program but the show will go on for the school’s longtime summer stock theater, Straw Hat Players.
The troupe opens its 60th season this week, running out three shows in three weeks before celebrating the company’s legacy later in June.
“Sixty years of storytelling is a good thing,” says Craig Ellingson, an actor/director and professor of theatre arts at MSUM. “Regardless of where we find ourselves as far as theater in 2023, we need to celebrate the contributions of theater in Fargo-Moorhead.”
Ellingson directs all three Straw Hat productions this season and also stars in the finale, “The Prom.”
Things kick off from Tuesday, May 30 to Thursday June 1 with “A Grand Night of Singing.” The musical revue pays tribute to the great songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The show features the duo’s best-known works from “Carousel,” “Oklahoma!” “South Pacific,” “Cinderella,” “The Sound of Music” and more.
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The production of “The Prom” features Straw Hat collaborating with two other local theatrical troupes, ActUp and Wheel House.
ActUp’s young actors and its mission of producing works with social justice themes was a natural fit. Wheel House, of which Ellingson is a member, will help provide the adult roles in the play, with Ellingson playing Barry, one of the narcissistic Broadway actors who bonds with one of the lesbian students.
“It provides something entertaining with social justice and we’re seeing our contemporary world reflected and performed onstage,” Ellingson says about “The Prom”. “Unfortunately in 2023 it’s still relevant and timely as we’re seeing a fight for rights in LGBTQ community.”
Ellingson, who is gay, is reaching out to the Fargo-Moorhead Pride Collective to see if there is interest in some kind of collaboration. He is also considering a talk-back event after one of “The Prom” performances.
Ellingson wants to bring in high school-aged looking dancers to cut a rug at the end of “The Prom”.
“I want so many people they have people dancing in the aisles. I’d love to do that,” he says, adding that it’s harder to bring in younger audiences.