OnStage: Conjure a horse, but don't use one

Theater directors often joke that you don't want to bring a dog or small children on stage.

Well, you think it's tough getting a dog on stage? Try a horse. Not since Mr. Ed climbed onto a surfboard has a director faced such a challenge as Joel Sass does in "Mary's Wedding," which opens tonight at the Jungle Theater. The horse plays a central role in the play by Canadian writer Stephen Massicotte, and, given the reality that the Jungle was not going to bring a live animal on stage, Sass went metaphorical.

"He sent me an e-mail asking if I knew of anybody who would be interested in trying to choreograph scenes with a horse -- without a horse," said Carl Flink, dance program director at the University of Minnesota and artistic director of Black Label Movement.

Flink suggested himself. Sass, in perfect Midwestern manner, replied that he was hoping Flink would be the one to say yes, but he was afraid to ask Flink directly. How does anyone get business done in this town?

Previous productions of "Mary's Wedding" used a carved wooden horse -- a static stab at realism that didn't appeal to either man. Instead, they chose movement itself to represent the freedom, flying and liberation imagined in Massicotte's horse. This put the responsibility on actors Alayne Hopkins and Sam Bardwell to transport the action.

"You never know when you're entering a scene with actors, how much physical training they've had and how much risk you can take," Flink said. "It was clear to me that I had people I could take risks with."

Massicotte's play focuses on a young woman about to be married. She and a young man play out scenes that range from dreamscapes to World War I, to barns, farms and horse riding. It's lyrical in construction, allowing for a stage vocabulary that leans toward elements of dance theater. It demands the engagement of more faculties -- movement, speaking, emotional honesty, even breathing -- and becomes a visceral, kinesthetic experience for actor and audience.

And that is where Flink came in.

Extending themselves

"The essential feature is that you're using the body as the primary locus of dramatic intention, rather than relying solely on the text," Flink said. "You're embodying that text so that there's no question the actor is carrying the weight of the story."

For everyone, it's something different. Hopkins and Bardwell are finding muscles they didn't know existed. And Flink, too, with Black Label Movement and in teaching at the "U," has primarily focused in his career on concert dance. Theater opens a new level of exploration for him.

"This is a relatively new direction for me in my choreography," he said. "We're looking at the set like a jungle gym, with that sense of travel by going up and over and around objects. The movement is a designed response to the space the actors are in. Alayne and Sam are falling, diving and taking real physical risks. That's surprising for people who have not trained themselves."

It all goes back to Sass' choice to step away from the horse. He could, after all, have gone the "Equus" route and somehow represented the animal with an actor.

"We'll see if it's successful," Flink said. "But it's allowed us to focus on these two wonderfully etched characters and not the scenic trick of a horse."

Mr. Ed wouldn't like to hear that kind of talk.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299