Staging a Comeback
Year two of our Sioux Falls Stage Awards panel brought on not only four new voices to the conversation, but also a whole lot of pandemic-adjacent obstacles for local creators. We sat down with our four newest panelists to assess the past 12 months in the arts, including the surprises, the “wow” moments and what’s next as we return to the stage in 2021.
Pictured: Rose Ann Hofland, director of communication and community engagement for Levitt Sioux Falls (Credit: Peter Chapman)
What makes Sioux Falls an excellent place to create?
Marisa Moser: I think adaptation. We’ve really seen that in the past year, just with how hard the pandemic has hit performers and artists of all kinds. Especially live performers because of the nature of the medium. There’s no way to do it without having that live audience. It’s so difficult to lose that human contact element. We’ve seen the community adapt through that, whether that’s with distance performances, livestream performances, radio shows—it’s really cool to see all the different creative ways people have been able to continue art safely.
Dave Holly: One word—collaboration. You talk to anybody in this community, no matter what group they happen to be in, and you don’t hear the word “competition.” You hear “collaboration,” and you see it. Go down to R Wine Bar on a Thursday night, and you’re going to see somebody’s trio. You go the following Thursday, and it’s another trio, and guess what—one or two of the players were in all of them! Everybody just loves to get together—whether it’s visual arts, spoken word, the theatre or music—it’s everybody helping everybody else out.
Rachel Winters: If you’re not finding things to do on the weekend, you have your eyes closed! There’s always something to do. You can kind of experience everything in one weekend—you can go through an art gallery and go see comedy and then go watch a concert somewhere.
Rose Ann Hofland: Growth was the first thought that I had—our community is growing, and there are more people moving into Sioux Falls. There are more people staying, making this their home and doing creative things. I believe Sioux Falls is really sort of hanging its hat as a community now as being an arts-based place. I’m not sure that that was the conversation 10-20 years ago. But today, when our city leadership comes and shows people Sioux Falls to try to sell them that this is a space to establish your business, to move—they are truly highlighting the arts and the culture that is happening, specifically in our downtown. That’s been an incubator for all of these arts organizations to continue to kind of push their boundaries—to try new and interesting work.
What are your pandemic-era performing arts highlights, locally?
MM: The Good Night Garden Parties. Moving outdoors sounds like an easy answer, but if you’ve ever been part of a production, you know that’s not easy at all, from traffic to people shouting as they walk by to seating… it’s so cool that we were able to have outdoor performance spaces. It was a way to handle those safety and distancing factors, while also taking advantage of a new space. It’s that merger of adaptation and creativity where one serves the other. Art gets better when you face restrictions.
Pictured: Rachel Winters, photographer in residence for several local theatre and arts organizations (Credit: Peter Chapman)
RH: One that really impressed me this year was the Park & Art project (from Headlights Theater). That was very interesting, because it felt like I was in a bigger community when I attended it. There was this secretive nature to it, where you had to be in the know in order to get the email to show up. It was safe, it was done outdoors, there were unique collaborations happening between different art forms—ballet and rock groups and musical theatre and dance. It was wonderful—a really neat way to bring people together safely. And the audience was a different one than what I see at traditional arts events—they were younger.
RW: I also enjoyed a lot of the virtual stuff that happened. Instead of getting dressed up and going out, we ordered in food and sat on the couch and had a little date night. That was something that alleviated some pressure as a viewer.
MM: It also adds an accessibility factor.
RW: Right—and if you missed something—you’d be able to pull up something from Good Night or the (South Dakota) Symphony. Or you could listen to Midtown (Coffee Radio Hour) while washing dishes and think, “What a fun way to wash the dishes!”
[Laughter]
DH: I think the group I’d like to single out were the directors. Having to deal with blocking issues and the way that they used a stage I thought was just phenomenal. I saw it first with (Good Night’s) A Technicolor Cabaret and then at (Sioux Empire Community Theatre’s) The Odd Couple, noticing how everything had to be done. The masks, the face guards—I just kept thinking every time I was seeing a show, “Wow—kudos to the director, because this took work.”
MM: Things like using microphones with masks and making everyone feel safe onstage—figuring out how to deal with all of that is such a heavy burden when directing is already such a heavy burden to begin with.
RH: And shout-out to our tech teams—all of the people who helped figure out how to “go digital.” That’s not a simple task, and many of our arts organizations had maybe dipped a toe into it, but had not fully dove in until they were forced to in this time. Whether they were directors, tech directors or people behind the scenes who edited together the programming. In many cases, it was people whose job maybe started as something else and had to evolve in the past year—a real testing of that creative capacity.
What did you observe as inspiring in arts education this past year?
DH: Sioux Falls Jazz & Blues had to switch gears heavily from their (Jazz Diversity Project) they’d been providing the previous few years. They got together with Phil Baker and started doing pop-up performances. It again goes back to the innovation—I’m saddened that we probably missed out on a lots of arts education this past year, but I know that It’s going to come back in a greater way.
MM: In looking at the collegiate theatre scene, I think it’s been really commendable to see artists continuing theatre—and on top of that, they’re students. They’re only just learning how to direct, write, produce—this is a learning process that normally would be facilitated from the comfort of familiar circumstances and they’ve had to be creative in a much more demanding situation. I think it’s commendable that there was any collegiate theatre! Anyone who was part of that, hats off to them. It’s incredible to see adults do it, and it’s even more wildly incredible to see students do it.
RW: These kids are going in, intending to go to college to become a better performer, and, particularly at the beginning of the school year, it becomes about setting up your camera, your lights—no one’s at your house helping you with how to do all of this. So you’re having to dip your toes into the tech world, and maybe you hadn’t before. And maybe some unknown skill will get pulled out of these students in the end, too. As a parent, I’m glad that arts education programs didn’t completely come to a halt—that there were people with their thinking caps on to figure out how to make this work. Because for so many kids, this is all they have. That’s where their heart is.
RH: Our performing arts teachers were heroes this year. The fact that they were able to be resilient through everything was very impressive. It’s so important to the kids who are a part of that.
Pictured: Dave Holly, host of The Dave Holly Hour and The Midtown Coffee Radio Hour (Credit: Peter Chapman)
What was your biggest “wow” moment in performing arts this past season?
DH: Debbi Jones in A Technicolor Cabaret. I’ve always liked watching her on stage, but there were so many different things she did in that, I kept thinking to myself, “She always sells every single nuance of every line and movement.” There’s no phoning it in with her.
RW: (University of Sioux Falls’) The Shakers of Mount Lebanon Will Hold a Peace Conference This Month—I went into watching that thinking, “It’s collegiate, it’s virtual… we’ll see how this goes.” And I LOVED it. I don’t know what it was about it—the fact that it was multi-camera or what—but I was intrigued the entire time. It never lost my attention.
RH: I was probably most wowed by the variety of technical innovation that happened. It was neat to be able to look at things from the puppet show that JAS Quintet created with their album; to how Good Night transitioned these variety shows that were half comedy, half music and pulled all of that together; to SECT’s radio plays—I loved seeing how people did a whole new thing in this time and did it well.
MM: SECT’s Alfred—a locally written radio play by Mo Hurley—it was very cool to get to see people that you know in a certain performing light and getting to see them get creative in other ways and with other mediums in the pandemic. There are so many wonderful storytellers in this town—having more avenues for original work in Sioux Falls is very promising.
RW: And I wonder if the pandemic will have helped to spark anyone who maybe didn’t have the time before. Maybe this past year gave them the break they needed to be able to continue or finish something or start something new.
Pictured: Marisa Moser, local performer with Sioux Empire Community Theatre (Credit: Peter Chapman)
What are your observations on the comedy scene this past year?
DH: The standup scene did pretty well—they thrived. It didn’t hurt when Boss’ Comedy Club went out to the hotel and had a ballroom space, making social distancing more of a breeze. But still, even when they had good audiences there, they were still streaming. A lot of those shows were sold out online, which is fantastic. And the female standup scene has grown by leaps and bounds this year. Jamie Tharney and others are traveling for gigs out of state, too! And the drive-in comedy event they did—what fun!
RW: I hope that that sticks—that was a blast, sitting in the car, eating pizza, listening to comedy. That was my jam!
RH: It was scrappy—someone brought in a trailer and a mic. There were people from all over the region that came to participate in it. It was just fun.
DH: I actually just kind of liked the old-fashioned feel of being at a drive-in, too.
What are your hopes for performing arts moving forward?
DH: I hope not only that people go back to what they loved, but maybe, because of virtual shows, they also start going to things that aren’t necessarily in their niche.
MM: Out of the past year, there’s a certain spirit of adventure and experimentation that’s been happening, and that is so exciting to both see and be a part of. Feeling comfortable experimenting is going to make the whole arts scene feel more comfortable letting loose, getting rid of boxes, trying new venues and mediums—I think I’m really excited to see where that gets taken next.
RH: It’s that accessibility piece that I’m excited about. Thinking about our art being in nontraditional spaces and places, where maybe people are but we haven’t been before. That was something that happened out of necessity this past year, and I’d love to see that continue. Also this question of how we live in both the digital world and the live performance world—is there a way we can manage that so that we can reach new audiences? I hope that people bring an appreciation again for the live event this year and come out in droves to support our performers. We’ve all been craving social connection, and I hope that they find that through the arts.
RW: I’m excited to stumble upon something that’s wonderful. Being able to come downtown without a plan. And that more things happen outside—we only have a few short months where we can enjoy the weather, so let’s do it.