A new theater company will debut this week in Fargo.
Curbside Theatre Workshop will present its inaugural production, "Jack and Jill," Thursday through Saturday in the Avalon Events Center.
The play is about two people "who meet each other, get married, get divorced and have kind of a messy relationship," says Annie Jacobsen, one of the company's three founders.
Jacobsen says the play "is very good. It's heavily based on the acting," rather than its sets or production. "We're very low-budget."
The play was written by Jane Martin. Jacobsen says Martin is believed to actually be a man who uses a feminine pen-name. "The suspicion is that Jane Martin is a male who doesn't want to be critiqued as a male writing about women's issues."
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The new acting company was formed in April and is the brainchild of three Concordia students: Jacobsen, who graduated in May, Ted Hansen, who graduated in 2001, and Matt Goinz, a former student there.
Jacobsen, originally from Tower, Minn., and Hansen, originally from Dillon, Mont., both were theater majors at Concordia. Goinz, originally from Bemidji, Minn., studied theater and music.
"Ted and I had kind of been talking about starting a theater," Jacobsen says. "It's kind of our long-term goal. Ted was talking with Matt one day and they decided we should just do it now."
That means operating on a very short shoestring. "Whatever we have money for," she says. "We're getting a lot of help from Concordia. Basically, we're trying to spend as little money as we can and put on as nice a production as we can."
Depending on how this week's production goes, the company may put on another play in the fall, she said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Tom Pantera at (701) 241-5541
If you go
What: "Jack and Jill" by Jane Martin, performed by Curbside Theatre Workshop
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When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Avalon Events Center, 613 1st Ave. N., Fargo
Tickets: $7 general admission, $5 for students and seniors; tickets available at the door
Information: Call Ted Hansen at (218) 287-0795
