#iveyawards

The world has a funny way of bringing back “once in a lifetime experiences”. That’s what’s happening to Kathleen Spehar. Spehar, former Managing Director of the History Theater in Minneapolis and current Director of O’Shaughnessy Auditorium in St. Paul, as she prepares to fly out to Philly to production manage The Daily Show for her second National Party Convention.

Nine years ago, Spehar, four months into her appointment as Managing Director of the History Theater, heard word that The Daily Show was looking at the History Theater as a possible venue to broadcast from while it covered the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Spehar admitted being uncertain that the Daily Show would choose the History Theater, thinking they would go to a bigger venue.

Her uncertainty was unfounded.

The next eight months went by in a blur of planning and meeting people and more planning and meeting even more people. Before she knew it, The Daily Show was on her stage, giving her an intimate look at the “behind the camera magic” that goes into one of the nation’s favorite television programs. One especially intriguing experience was the variety of pre-show rituals that occupied the cast and crew during the precious moments before taping the show. The cameraman was strumming a guitar, the makeup artist was drawing, all members of the close-knit team Spehar described as, “creative, passionate, focused and appreciative” engaged in an artistic pursuit unrelated to the work they were about to undertake.

Then the audience was filed in and the cameras began to roll. This was a huge departure from live theater for Spehar, who was used to the steady pace of rehearsal marching towards performance (though it may seem less a steady march and more  a wild gallop as opening night approaches). In television, Spehar explains, it all happens in production. As the Production Manager, she was tasked with deciding when to push the team forward, when to stop them, which ideas to lean in on and which to push through, and most impressively, to anticipate all of these before the creative team had thought of them. “You have to be open to anything”, she told me, “You have to respect and live in that space”. It is incredibly difficult, to be the time-table-personified in a place where, while live theatre would have been working with a frozen script for six weeks, performers were getting pages of the script passed to them as they were walking up to the cameras.

Spehar rose to all of these challenges magnificently. She likens herself to a juggler tasked with keeping all of the balls in the air and anticipating which ones were going to fall as well as catching them before they hit the ground.

When asked what her favorite “magic behind the camera” moment was, Spehar didn’t hesitate in responding. It was the moment Jon Stewart (Host) and Jill Katz (Executive Producer) took in their out-of-state, incredibly busy schedules to meet with a group of Minnesotan students, including several of Spehar’s students from the University of Minnesota. It was a “magical moment of one on one”, said Spehar.

It is one of Spehar’s students, Eileen May that has brought her tenure with the Daily Show full circle. May called Spehar up a few months ago and told her that she was production managing in the Annenberg Center which is soon to play host to The Daily Show for the upcoming Democratic National Convention, in the same way the History Theater hosted in 2008. In a matter of days, Spehar was hired as the assistant production manager to work with May in the Annenberg Center. In 2008, Spehar served the Production Manager, making the choices on how to schedule the day and stick to it. Now she’ll be implementing the decisions made by both Eileen May and Jill Katz. Whether it’s by supporting Executive Producer Jill Katz or event managing the audience, Spehar is sure to once again have her hands full. However, she thinks there will be some time to participate in the convention. Following this to the obvious conclusion, I asked my final question, “if you bumped into Hillary Clinton and could ask her anything, what would it be?”. Spehar took a few moments organizing her thoughts before she said, “I would ask how she’s going to change the tone of this country, how she’s going to unify the United States. I would also ask her how can she use the arts to impact the country in this way”. Spehar also says that she would urge Clinton to “dedicate her presidency” to the arts and using creativity to unify America.

We at the Iveys wish her all the best and can’t wait to hear more from her in the coming weeks!

Happy Monday Afternoon!

Welcome to our weekly posts concerning which performances are opening this week and which will be ending. Check in every Monday to see the latest and greates of shows that you will not want to miss out on! 

As always, check out our the Ivey Awards’ Facebook page and Twitter feed for more information and discussions on all things Twin Cities theater.

Opening Shows: 

HIR - Mixed Blood - February 27-March 22 - Mixed Blood Theatre 

Romeo and Juliet - Park Square Theatre - February 27-March 8 - Park Square Theatre 

Girls Only - Hennepin Theatre Trust - February 27-April 19 - Hennepin Thetre Trust 

Closing Shows: 

The Coward - Red Eye Theater - February 6-February 28 - Walking Shadow Company  

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark - Penumbra Theatre - February 5-March 1 - Penumbra 

Also, head over to our new Ivey Awards calendar on the MinnPost homepage! Use it as a tool to  to find performance dates and times for productions by any one of the Twin Cities’ 78 professional theater companies!

Happy Monday! 

Welcome to our weekly posts concerning which performances are opening this week and which will be ending. Come back every Monday for the latest update on shows around the Twin Cities that can’t be missed!

As always, check out our the Ivey Awards’ Facebook page and Twitter feed for more information and discussions on all things Twin Cities theater.

Opening:

Defying Gravity - January 17 - produced by Swandive Theatre @ The Southern Theater

The Color Purple - January 16 - Park Square Theatre

La Cage - January 16 - produced by Bloomington Civic Theatre @ Schneider Theater

Outside Mullingar - January 16 - Old Log Theatre

Snowflake - January 13 - Children's Theatre Co.

Closing:

None that we can see! Check back next week for updates!