Glass Menagerie Comes Down as Fully Committed Goes Up

The Glass Menagerie closed on Sunday with a post-show party in the basement green room. The next day the set started to come down. The nature of theater is ephemeris personified: a world is created, lives for a brief time and then all vestiges of it suddenly disappear. Like love letters in the sand: written in the afternoon with a stick and by evening completely washed away by the tide.

On Monday, Casey Stangl arrived from Los Angeles to begin rehearsals with Nathan Keepers rollicking performance in Fully Committed, which opens Friday, November 5 (get your tickets NOW). It’s always so much fun to see her. We are old theater buddies, Casey and I. As many of you may remember, she was the artistic director of her own theater here, Eye of the Storm Theatre. Casey now lives in Los Angeles with her husband John, directing plays and staging operas around the country.

So, yesterday Nathan read the play for the staff (a Jungle rehearsal period always begins with a read through of the play for the staff). Nathan is truly hilarious in this piece. Truly better than ever. It is amazing how new it all seems, how fresh and delightful! Casey and Nathan are now rehearsing at Old Arizona Studios (if you have never visited Old Arizona go on over – there is a charming little restaurant on the first floor and a groovy theater next to it. Go to Old Arizona.com for directions and info, and tell them Bain sent you!)

Today the stage is completely clear and Wu Chen, our amazing lead builder, and his crew are beginning to put up the Fully Committed set – a room in a funky basement, with a circular stair to the restaurant floor above. Incidentally, the play is actually based on the real life story of a young actor in New York who worked as a reservationist (in the basement!) of a high-end NYC restaurant, which, it turned out, was the same restaurant that J.P. had worked in when he was a young chef in training (you remember the now-gone J.P. Restaurant that was across the alley from the Jungle? That J.P.! Serendipity was never so serendipitous!).

Get your tickets NOW for what will surely be the funniest holiday show in town! Laughter and Joy—that’s a Jungle holiday!

Ilona Lazar Memorial and Other Jungle News

So much going on in Jungle Land! We are working on the development of plans for a mural on the back exterior wall of the theater that will be lit and seen from the parking lot. We are early in the process so no design ideas yet, although south-of-the-border flowers definitely come to mind (orchids, plumeria, hibiscus). AND we are planning a facelift for the front of the Jungle with colored lights and banners that will light up the night.



Ilona Lazar



Excitement on the avenue is also ramping up with the promise of The Uptown Bar moving into the movie theater across Lyndale! And Heidi’s restaurant (which, south on Bryant, burned down a few months ago) is moving into Vera’s just down the way on Lyndale. All fun stuff. 

We mourn the passing of Ilona Lazar (the comptroller for the Children’s Theatre Company in the old days when John Donahue was the Artistic Director; her husband Bela was the comptroller for the Guthrie for many years). The Jungle is hosting an evening in celebration of her life on Monday, October 11, at 7 p.m. All are welcome. There will be food and drink, speeches, a slide/video show, camaraderie, spirit and fun in honor of this great lady. Also, you may want to tune your radio to MPR this afternoon as the broadcast is being sponsored, in part, in memory of Ilona. The approximate times that message will be read are:

The News (91.1 FM):  1:19pm and 3:48pm

The Classical Music Station (99.5 FM):  3:04pm, 5:04pm, 6:58pm

That’s it for today. Come see Wendy as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie. She delivers the performance of a lifetime, the show is beautifully mounted with stunning lighting by Jungle resident lighting designer Barry Browning and a beautiful soundscape designed by Sean Healey.  Just call Ryan or Cody or Eric at the Box Office and they will get you set you up with tickets! It plays nightly except Monday AND only two more weeks to go!  When you see Wendy at the Wedge don’t say, “Oh it’s over?  I’m sooo sorry I missed it!”  BE there! Till next time: Live bright, hope high and plan to VOTE!  See you at the JUNGLE!