Acting Monstrously
A bar. A used book shop. A grocery store. A Lutheran church. Not much in common at first glance, but in terms of the local performing arts scene, they happen to have a uniting thread—they’ve all served as unlikely venues for a certain Sioux Falls theatre company.
It all started with a post-grad lamentation—that the Sioux Falls community lacked a place for challenging plays to be performed outside of the collegiate setting. And through the combined efforts of then-local theatre artists Debbi Jones, Matthew Stoffel and Jonathan Fondell, Monstrous Little Theatre Company (MLTC) was born over some beers and the creation of a company mission.
“To produce professional, contemporary drama that explores societal issues and human nature.”
That was early 2016—flash forward four years, and MLTC has nearly 20 productions and staged readings under its belt; a team of three owners in Jones, Anna Thvedt and Jeff Larsen; and a vision for the future that involves starting many more conversations in the community.
“We’re so mission-focused on creating art that tells important stories,” Jones said. “Our trajectory is always to make the next show better than the last. We want to do shows that ask important questions and that explore deeper facets of human nature.”
And that focus has driven MLTC to make use of community partnerships that perhaps seem a bit unusual at first—but the art of pop-up theatre in non-traditional spaces is all a part of MLTC’s inherent charm, according to Jones.
“We loved the idea of doing shows in unique, kind of off-the-beaten-path venues,” she said. “Art begets art. If we challenge the idea that theatre has to be in a specific kind of venue, then we’re encouraging the community to create more art and want more art and see theatre in a new way.”
The company’s first production four years ago was Late, A Cowboy Song by playwright Sarah Ruhl. And this particular performance brought MLTC cast and crew to Monk’s House of Ale Repute.
“We just thought it was a beautiful, contemporary, challenging piece, the likes of which we hadn’t seen yet outside of the universities,” Jones said. And the team got all-hands-on-deck with the situation, calling on Stoffel to perform and set-design, Jones to perform and costume and Fondell to direct and tech-direct.
“The reaction was super amazing,” Jones said. “We had no idea what it would be like and if people would show up, and they did—we filled the venue.”
Some of the highlights of the ensuing four years of productions included Missing Bolts Productions’ After Orlando, performed at The Bakery January 2017; Daisy Foote’s Bhutan, performed at Keller’s Green Grocery in August 2017; and Sarah Treem’s The How & The Why, performed just last fall at Full Circle Book Co-Op.
“It just added to that ‘do art where you are’ idea,” Jones said of Bhutan’s setting. “People were just so shocked—a play in a grocery store. The staff worked really hard with us to make it a great venue.”
When it comes to envisioning a future for MLTC, Jones was quick to hearken back to the original intent of the company.
“We’d love to continue to collaborate with other companies and with other kinds of artists,” she said. “We want to essentially make Sioux Falls a place people want to live in and stay in because of the theatre scene. We want to contribute to that.”
And this future includes hunting for more opportunities to lift up local dramatic talent, both performers and playwrights.
“We recognize how incredibly blessed we’ve been to have been supported by our community. The theatre community here is so collaborative. We’re just so grateful to be a small part of the great creativity and amazing theatre companies that call Sioux Falls home.”