Founded by four Minnesota natives, Santa Fe’s newest theater company—The Coop Theatre—will hit the stage running in mid-May with an ambitious and controversial play, David Mamet’s Oleanna (1992). Promising high-quality productions of entertaining and challenging plays, co-founder Jeremy Hance voices the overarching goals of Coop Theatre: “…all of us agree on the kind of company we hope to create. We all love good theatre that is demanding and powerful. We hope our company will be relevant and inclusive. We want to get all kinds of interested people involved” (Tiffany Roufs, Coop Theatre Press Release, April 2008).
Coop Theatre’s take on Mamet is designed to challenge both its actors and its audiences.
Oleanna is a polemic against knee-jerk militant feminism, the tyranny of political correctness, and the abdication by today’s universities of their mandate to pursue the truth wherever it leads. In addition, David Mamet has other more personal concerns. He is continuing his career-long investigation into the disintegration of the patriarchal world and the subsequent failure of men to adapt to this new reality.
Language and its limitations are at the core of Oleanna. Mamet wrote his play on sexual harassment soon after the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill confrontations during the judge’s confirmation hearing for a slot on the United States Supreme Court. In his play, Professor John and failing student Carol don’t communicate; they clash swords. Words are ironically useless in this inarticulate world. As a result, reason fails miserably in the face of the evasions, hostilities, and concealments revealed in spite of the obfuscations of the flood of words. John and Carol are unable to connect with one another because they are both performing roles neither wishes to play. John is not the sensitive, caring academic, nor is Carol the cowed, naïve student. Their clashes make for a volatile and dangerous mix.
Director Nick Lostetter believes that Oleanna is the perfect opening act for Coop Theatre: “The play raises a lot of relevant issues without easy answers. It’s a very intense show as well; the characters leap from the page” (Coop Press Release).
In a follow-up interview with Nick and fellow co-founder Jeremy Hands at Java Joe’s on April 29, 2008, I discovered the roots of Coop Theatre. The four co-founders are actually two married couples who are graduates of the University of Minnesota and who lived “in the same house that had a rounded roof and was so very small. We called it either the Hobbit hole or the coop. When we decided to start a theatre—a life-long dream for all of us—we were looking for a general enough, somewhat unpretentious name.”
In answer to “Why Santa Fe?,” Nick and Jeremy stated “that we wanted to try something different in some place new. We had good friends living in Santa Fe and we loved the openness. We knew Santa Fe was a great art town, but we felt there was niche to be filled in theatre.”
In starting Coop Theatre, the co-founders decided to start with a small production in an attempt “to do a show that would prove ourselves.” After seriously considering Nelson’s 9/11 play, The Guys, the company decided to produce Mamet’s Oleanna because of its small cast and few technical and space demands.
Nick Lostetter finds Mamet “challenging and thought provoking” for both audience and cast: “(The language) is hard for the actors with the many ellipses and overlapping dialogue. Neither character can complete a sentence or a thought.” Moreover, “The script is so thick and full of meaningful dialogue. There is rarely a throw-away line.” Asked how rehearsals are going, Nick responded as follows: “We have open discussions of every line. This slows rehearsals but makes for, I hope, a rich, textured performance.”
In speaking of the goals of Coop Theatre, Jeremy Hands posited, “We will engage the audience on key issues of the day and strip the artifice from the production. We are striving for a minimalist theatre that focuses on writing, acting, and directing.” Both co-founders want a production that “has the audience coming out of the play discussing the questions raised.”
Performances of Coop Theatre’s Oleanna will take place from May 15-17 at 7:30 P.M. at Wise Fool Studios (2778 Agua Fria Street, Unit D, Santa Fe).
For further information, contact the company at thecooptheatre@gmail.com.
