DULUTH — "Pride and Prejudice," the first show under the new banner of Zeitgeist Theater is set to open on the Teatro stage on Valentine's Day.
While theater has been part of Zeitgeist Arts since it opened, this will be the first full season of shows since the pandemic and under the new umbrella of Zeitgeist Theater.
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“This is our first year back to doing a full season of mainstage shows at Zeitgeist," said Mary Fox, artistic director for Zeitgeist Theater. "In honor of the love we have for our community and its local artists, it was a no-brainer to open the season with a classic love story, but re-imagined in our space."
Fox said that the Renegade Duluth, formerly Renegade Theater Co., will continue to perform long-form, sketch and improv comedy, while Zeitgeist Theater will focus on different forms of theater productions.
"People expect a certain style of theater here with Renegade and they're still going to have that," Fox said. "We're going to be focusing on projects that our local artists have a passion for and that our community wants to see."
Fox said the decision to rebrand to Zeitgeist Theater also made a lot of sense internally at Zeitgeist Arts because it goes along with the mission of the organization and makes it easier to explain when applying for grants and outside funding.
Fox said choosing "Pride and Prejudice" for the theater's first show was an easy choice as director Justin Peck's passion for the new adaptation written by Kate Hamill, was evident.
"The show has this wild, insane energy and I think we wanted to start off the season with a bang," Fox said. "And Justin has this fire in him for this show. He's been a phenomenal arts advocate in the community and he just knows what he's doing. So the pieces just all fit together."
Peck first showed the adaptation in the Twin Cities before the pandemic and said it was the show's humor that first drew him in.
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"There's something about it being a farce, but also keeping true to the emotional moments of the story that just really appealed to me," Peck said. "It's very irreverent and fast-paced yet potent. Fans of the original story will get what they want from it, as we still see Lizzy and Darcy making all the mistakes we want them to make and come together. But it's a lot of the other stuff that has been made farcical."
Alyson Enderle said she wasn't intimidated in stepping into the role of Elizabeth Bennet. She read the book for the first time at 12 years old and has acted in a Kate Hamill adaptation of Jane Austen previously, but also she said she was ready to find her own Lizzy.
"I know some people are really attached to different versions of Lizzy, but my job isn't to imitate them. My job is to read what's on the page and play it the way I see it," Enderle said. "And the best way I know how to do that is to act through my own point of view."
The show has a small cast of eight with only Enderle's Lizzy and Zachary Stofer's Mr. Darcy being the only actors who aren't playing two or three roles. One actress, Jess Hughes, plays characters at very opposite ends of the spectrum of propriety, that of Lady Catherine deBurgh and youngest sister Lydia Bennet. She said it's been fun to find their commonalities and differences.
"Lady Catherine has the desire to always be the center of attention when she's in a room and for everyone to be servile and obey her," Hughes said. "Lydia is more low-class and naive. But both have a tendency to speak their mind, both want to win in this battle of marriage and relationships."
Before she was cast in the role, Hughes said that Lydia always annoyed her when she read the novel.
"But it's really fun to play her and be forced to justify everything she does. I think she's really trying to save her family in her way," Hughes said. "No one else is married yet and I think she believes that what she does is a good thing and that she's won the game."
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Another actor playing wildly different characters is Phil Hoelscher as he takes on the roles of the secondary male lead, Mr. Bingley, and the second youngest Bennet sister, Mary.
Mary in this show is an amalgamation of both Kitty and Mary from the original novel. Hoelscher also said he plays her as "almost like a goth girl, with dark, brooding energy."
"It's really fun to change back and forth from Bingley, who's almost like a golden retriever, to Mary who is so closed off," Hoelscher said.
The show opens Valentine's Day and runs from Feb. 14-18 and 22-24 on the Zeitgeist Teatro Stage. For tickets, go to zeitgeistarts.com.
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