‘The Legend Hiawatha’ auditions planned

The College of Menominee Nation’s theater program invites members of the public to audition for cast and crew roles in this summer’s traditional Menominee Pageant. CMN faculty member Ryan Winn will direct for the fourth consecutive year, with Melinda Cook returning as stage manager. Winn continues to honor a promise made to Menominee elders by staging this traditional theater in the Woodland Bowl in Keshena.

The college, the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Menominee Powwow Committee are fiscal sponsors of the event, with additional support from the Kohler Foundation and the Green Bay Packers Foundation.

This 2019 production will be “The Legend Hiawatha,” which was adapted from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem. The adaptation by Joe Keshena was last produced by James Frechette in 1958, with James Frechette Jr. directing. The play tells the tragic love story of the namesake Ojibwe warrior and his Dakota lover, Minnehaha, in fixed verse. The poem was well-known to the mid-century “tin can tourists” who flocked to the Keshena Fair to witness Menominee theater. The 2019 staging promises to capture the ambiance of that bygone era.

Auditions will be held at 6 p.m. June 11 in room 126 of Shirley Daly Hall on the college’s Keshena campus, N172 State Highway 47/55. Rehearsals will be Tuesday nights throughout June and July, with a full production at sunset July 31.

For information, call Winn at 715-799-6226, ext. 3070, or email rwinn@menominee.edu.