This summer, the Black Hills Playhouse steps into its 80th season with eyes firmly fixed on a celebration 250 years in the making. As the United States marks the Semiquincentennial — the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence — Theatre 605 is proud to join communities across the nation in honoring the stories, struggles, and spirit that have shaped this country. 250 Years and Counting features 4 transformational plays showcasing just how unique, challenging, and hopeful the story of America is.
Behind every great season is a team of visionary directors who bring it all to life, and Season 80 is no exception. We’re thrilled to introduce the talented artists who will guide each production from the page to the stage. We asked our Season 80 Directors a few questions to get to know them better.
Scroll down to meet the Directors of Season 80!
Dr. Raimondo Genna | The Complete History of America (abridged)
Can you share a little about your background?
I have been a practicing theatre director for over 35 years, and I received my BA and MA at San Diego State (the other SDSU). I earned my PhD from the University of California, San Diego. My dissertation, Empty Sky: 9/11 and Performing Regenerative Violence, examines theatrical, cinematic, and mediatized representations of 9/11 and its aftermath. I have been working at the University of South Dakota’s Theatre Department since 2010 and became chair in 2014.
Have you worked with the Black Hills Playhouse before this season?
This is my third season directing at the BHP.
What has your experience been like working with the Black Hills Playhouse? Are there any especially unique aspects of working at a historic summer stock theatre?
It has been a wonderful experience working at the BHP. Working with all of these creative folks in the beautiful Hills has been amazing. It is always a challenge to put up a show in such a short amount of time, and I have been thrilled by the quality of work that the BHP has produced.
What do you love about theatre?
It’s liveness, its immediacy, and the potential of something going wrong. It’s like being a trapeze artist without the height and net.
What are you most looking forward to about directing this show?
Seeing what all the other creative and technical folks bring to the process!
Dan Workman | 1776
Can you share a little about your background?
I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. I earned a B.F.A. in Theatre Performance from Tarkio College in Tarkio, MO. My first summer at the BHP was in 1990. I met my wife Debra there in the summer of ’92. We have three children. I earned my M.F.A. in Theatre Directing at the University of South Dakota. I am the Chair of the Theatre Department at Augustana University, where I have been teaching theatre for 18 years.
Have you worked with the Black Hills Playhouse before this season?
This is my 31st summer as part of the Playhouse – 31 of the last 37 summers I have spent working at the Black Hills Playhouse. This is my 16th summer as Artistic Director. I have performed in over 50 productions and directed about a dozen.
What has your experience been like working with the Black Hills Playhouse? Are there any especially unique aspects of working at a historic summer stock theatre?
This is a beautiful location, and this theatre has a long and storied history. There have been many challenges and changes, but every summer there is a magic that happens.
What do you love about theatre?
I love seeing the world through the eyes of the characters.
What are you most looking forward to about directing this show?
I want to celebrate the 250 years since the Declaration of Independence.
Megan Gerlach | Come From Away
Can you share a little about your background?
I have been very lucky to be able to evolve professionally in my craft over the years. I have a background in dance and theatre, with time spent in Minneapolis and New York City as a performer in a few professional dance companies as well as regional and touring shows. As a performer, I was often promoted to dance captain. A dance captain helps keep an eye on the show during its run and is in charge of rehearsals for put-ins, as well as any changes needed while in different theaters across the country (on tour).
Doing this work was the first chance I had to be more involved professionally on the creative side of the table, with a specific eye on how to help keep the show intact without the creative team present. I was promoted to an Associate Choreographer role, re-staging works and sending them out on tour. From there, I was hired as a choreographer by a few directors that I had worked with in my career. In New York City, along with choreography and direction work for the stage and special events, I have performed with sketch groups and improv teams as well as written and produced my own show, which explored all aspects of my background as a dancer, actor, singer, writer, and comedian.
Have you worked with the Black Hills Playhouse before this season?
I am celebrating my 10th season at the Playhouse this summer!
What has your experience been like working with the Black Hills Playhouse? Are there any especially unique aspects of working at a historic summer stock theatre?
I’m always delighted by my fellow artists in camp both on and offstage! My first season, there was one TV in another dorm that played movies if you had one. Otherwise, the best thing to do during downtime (other than post-dinner volleyball) was hang out and make each other laugh. We’d gather on chairs and talk, or take walks, look at the stars, smell the trees. Making theatre while being out here is so ridiculously special, because you’re really together together in a remote location. It’s a retreat I have always loved.
What do you love about theatre?
The collaborative engagement of it all. I love seeing individual talents making the story richer and more dynamic. I love watching everyone grow into the show as a group, once they are all in the room together and bouncing energies and ideas off each other. The cathartic feeling of sitting in the audience laughing and crying together.
What are you most looking forward to about directing this show?
Piecing everything together. This show is fast and furious and comes at you from so many perspectives. The democratic presentation from the narrators in this show is so unique in musical theatre. It is a showcase of E pluribus unum, and I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate 250 years of that motto.
Jayna Gearhart Fitzsimmons | What the Constitution Means to Me
Can you share a little about your background?
I am a lifelong theatre lover, and from a young age, I dreamed of making theatre my life’s work. And now, I’ve been a theatre artist and educator for half my life! I grew up in rural Northwest Iowa where theatre experiences were few and far between, but my family supported my love of the arts and sought out opportunities for me to see and participate in theatre from a young age.
I earned a BA in theatre arts from Southwest Minnesota State University, and went on to earn my MA in theatre (with emphasis areas in acting, directing, theatre history, and early modern drama) and PhD in English literature (with concentrations in drama and theatre for social change) from the University of South Dakota.
I’ve taught at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, SD, since 2010, where I direct productions and teach coursework in acting, directing, theatre history, new play development, improv, theatre for social change, and a study abroad course that explores performance in Central Europe. I also work with Spotlight Theatre Company, a youth theatre company in Sioux Falls, as a director for their Plays for Living and youth Shakespeare programs.
Since 2011, I have been the producing artistic director of an original practice Shakespeare company, Bare Bodkins Theatre Company, that stages free, accessible Shakespeare in the park every summer in Sioux Falls. (I’ll close our production of Julius Caesar just before heading out to the BHP this summer!)
Have you worked with the Black Hills Playhouse before this season?
This is my first season at the Black Hills Playhouse, and I’m so excited to work with a theater organization I’ve long admired!
What has your experience been like working with the Black Hills Playhouse? Are there any especially unique aspects of working at a historic summer stock theatre?
While I won’t arrive at the BHP until later this summer, it has been wonderful to get to know and collaborate with the artistic staff and production team members remotely. What a welcoming and passionate group of artists! This play means a lot to me, and I’ve really loved thinking, talking, and dreaming about it with such a creative, generous team. On a personal note, it’s especially meaningful to work with one of my first (and dearest!) Augustana students, Christina Olson, who is the costume designer for this show. It has been a joyful reunion, and it is always a gift when students become friends and colleagues!
What do you love about theatre?
I love how theatre connects us, both to our own humanity and to each other. It’s a collaborative art, so we are always part of a community. I love the presence that theatre requires of us as artists and audience members. And I love how theatre gives us a place to explore the big ideas and questions that arise in life.
What are you most looking forward to about directing this show?
This is a show I’ve been hoping to direct since reading it for the first time years ago. (One of my doctoral dissertation chapters focused on this play, so it is very near and dear to me!) So, just having the chance to work on this production is hugely exciting. But, more specifically, I am really looking forward to working with the actors and designers to bring this brilliant, funny, complex story to life on stage in this moment in time. And, because this show breaks some of the boundaries we’re used to experiencing when we go to the theatre, I’m so eager to see the conversation that it sparks with BHP audiences!