The star of "Our House" has zero acting experience and is, frankly, kind of a stiff — but is almost guaranteed to dazzle theatergoers anyway.
Probably the first Twin Cities theater star that is also on the National Register of Historic Places, the Minnesota State Capitol takes the title role in the production premiering Friday. In fact, co-creator and director Leah Cooper says a key worry is that the set — i.e., the just restored seat of Minnesota government — could upstage the performance.
"It has made our set designer's job really easy. It's such a gorgeous backdrop that making something inspiring there is much easier," says Cooper of the play, which moves the audience around the Capitol, in part to get to some settings that are less distracting than the spectacular rotunda.
"Our House" uses words and music to try to capture how the laws that affect Minnesotans are created — and how Minnesotans affect those laws. (The show's songs include a salute to lobbyists.)
"A lot of people thought it was about 'Look how great the Capitol is. Look how great Minnesota is,' but it's more about the complex truth of the building. We touch on Minnesota exceptionalism, but we also talk about the things that are a problem here," says Cooper.
She and husband/co-creator Alan Berks were inspired by a Knight Foundation Arts Challenge, which handed out $7.8 million last year to create art in four cities, including St. Paul. Their play (full title: "Our House: The Capitol Play Project") received $35,000 in seed money.
"Three years ago, when they announced the arts challenge, they said they were looking for things that were uniquely St. Paul-based and we thought, 'This is a community-driven art project that is about as St. Paul as it could be,' " says Cooper.
The Knight Foundation agreed.
"St. Paul is such a literature city, a city that has a high rate of civic engagement," says Virginia Rogers, vice president of arts for Knight. "People — from an outsider's point of view, at least — care about their community and what's going on it, so it really intrigued us to do a play that looked at whether art can demystify the process of government."
Zeroing in through 'circles'
As with previous works they've done — "In My Heart: The Adoption Play Project" and "Veterans Play Project" — Berks and Cooper gathered information in "story circles" where they spoke with more than 100 stakeholders: activists, tour guides, lobbyists and at least one political giant.
"The first story circle I went to was at the Rondo library in 2016 and I walked in and it was Leah and another actor and me," recalls Michael Quadrozzi, an aide to state Sen. Jim Carlson, D-Eagan. "Then, another gentleman walked in, an older guy, and I realized he was Roger Moe. Former Senate majority leader of 22 years Roger Moe!
"So, it's this junior staffer — me — and one of the most influential political leaders of the last 20-something years."
Cooper says, "He was about as star-struck as a person could be. And Roger was just as interested to hear what Michael had to say."
That phase of the project was about information-gathering, with no guarantee that anyone would appear in the finished play, which mixes seasoned performers Adam Whisner and Ginger Commodore with acting newbies from the Capitol. But Quadrozzi works both sides of the aisle — he has had jobs at the Capitol for seven years while also acting at Paul Bunyan Playhouse and Theatre in the Round Players — and was ultimately cast in the play as a lobbyist.
"I was like, 'Are they even going to be able to find anyone who works in politics who will talk to them? Are they going to use names?' " he says. "The thing that made me immediately comfortable was that Leah said it will be an original story that tries to talk about the kinds of work people do at the Capitol but that will not be about anyone in particular."
Anonymity was promised to story-circle participants (sorry to out you, Roger Moe) and they were told that even if they were cast in "Our House," they should not expect to play themselves. In fact, that's a major component of Cooper's and Berks' work.
"There's this interesting thing that happens when you ask someone to bear witness to the experience of another person," says Cooper. "I think it creates a kind of sacred experience."
A mystery in their midst
The play, which runs the next two weekends, incorporates the experiences of many fictitious Capitol denizens who are united by a central mystery: Everyone believes the newly elected governor's chief of staff is in their midst, but no one knows who it is.
"Pretty early on, we said, 'Let's not make a play about how a bill becomes a law. There's a pretty great cartoon on that already.' And we didn't want to make a play about partisan bickering or how a campaign is run — also well-trod territory. But as you walk around the offices at the Capitol, you wonder, 'Who's in this big building and what are they actually doing?' " says Cooper.
Conflicts, which is to say drama, quickly emerged in the story circles: Some people think of the Capitol as an accessible place while others (including the character played by Commodore in "Our House") have never felt welcome there. Two people working on the same piece of legislation can have opposing views about it. And, while some Capitolistas are cynics, many are fueled by idealism.
True to the complex piece, Cooper comes away from the experience with conflicting feelings about Minnesota government.
"I don't think I knew how many people work in government because they really believe they can make the world a better place. But what makes me less optimistic is that they're all humans, and government is just plain hard — harder than making theater, for sure. So, when I see how basically, humanly flawed this whole process is, it can be overwhelming," says Cooper.
The yearslong process of putting together a play from scratch also can overwhelm.
"It's the funnest thing I can think of doing. We get to go into places and ask people questions about why they do what they do. And they actually tell us!" says Cooper, but there's a but: "All of our community cast members, after we do a show, will say, 'If I had known what I was getting myself into, I'm not sure I would have said yes, but I'm glad I had this experience.' "
So are Cooper and Berks.
"We get to make something that hopefully delights people and creates more understanding of the world we live in," says Berks.
And they get to do it in the heart of the state.
Says Cooper, "The power and history that building represents? Every time we go there and perform, I feel like I'm 10 years old and I'm getting away with something."
