Theater is an activity many go to for an escape from everyday life, but it can get expensive at times, especially with the big name theaters. On Stage is an organization that is creating a community dialogue around live theater and is the outreach for smaller theaters that do not have the resources to do it themselves. Minneapolis has a ton of smaller venues that many may not be known of because of their lack of outreach, which many bigger venues have.

On Stage was created by Lucas Erickson, who is now the Project Manager. On Stage brings local actors to college communities to help with in-class learning and to help make local theater relevant to a younger, non-traditional audience. On Stage covers discussions over relevant social, political and cultural topics that revolve around the Twin Cities, including gender and racial violence and inequity, LGBTQ+ discrimination, environmental science and many more.

“So this program I started, where we go into colleges, classes and talk about plays happening around town that you guys might not have heard about. We don’t really like to go into a lot of theater classes. We go to a lot of sociology, communication and culinary classes,” Erickson said.

Doing this helps spread the word about these smaller plays rather than going into theater classes where many are there because of their love of theater. Their mission is to reach students in other classes where they may pique their interest by playing off the class they are in with the play.

On Oct. 17 and Oct. 21, On Stage came to Hamline to talk about “Lizzie: The Rock Musical” in Caity Curry’s classes, CJFS 1400: Diversity Issues in Criminal Justice and CJFS 3750: Theories of Criminal Behavior. This experience helps students who cannot afford to go to the show or do not know about theater, still feel immersed, and get to know a little about what it all is.

“Lizzie: The Rock Musical” is about Lizzie Borden and her life before and after the murder of her parents. It goes through the theory that she may have been queer and how people view her after the murders, all sung through rock songs. It plays off how we will never know if Lizzie truly murdered her father and stepmother and what could have led her to kill them if she were found guilty.

Erickson brought in three special people who have helped in the musical so far: Maria Asp, Ninchai Nok-Chiclana and Patrick Bailey.

Maria Asp works at Speak Out Collective, where they use storytelling and storymaking to help spark curiosity around theater in children and communities.

“The thing that’s so cool about this is that there has been a lot of research about the aging audiences of theater. And it’s such a live, incredible art form, so Lucas’ organization does such a great job of helping us see that theater is for everyone,” Asp said.

During their visits, Asp was the main person facilitating discussion, making us question and reimagine the narrative given to us from the musical. Some questions that were asked to facilitate discussion: “What is a legend or tale you know/remember as a child and who told it to you?” “Are you obsessed with True Crime?” “Who is the strongest woman in your life and why?”

These questions help introduce the concept behind the musical. One prompt in particular talked about rhymes, specifically the Lizzie Borden nursery rhyme many may know:

“Lizzie Borden took an axe / She gave her mother forty whacks / When she saw what she had done / She gave her father forty one.”

Asp uses this nursery rhyme to help show how history can be culturally altered and turned into memes, or nursery rhymes that many may not know where they heard it from, but they somehow recognize.

“So we have jeans, memes and momatics and they travel. We all know these memes and we’re not really sure [where they come from]. They’re just cultural memes that go around,” Asp said.

Patrick Bailey, dialect coach for the musical, and Ninchai Nok-Chiclana, in charge of lighting, both also assisted with the participation of activities in the classes. They helped add drama and explained why they are in the theater and their other ventures outside of this musical.

Bailey has a show called “The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” about how the people hold the power or choice that can resist the abuse of power. It is being held at a small theater called Frank Theater in Minneapolis, where there is an under 30 night on Nov. 7 that students are invited to. For $10 tickets, use promo code HOTDOG.

Nok-Chiclana is also in a show called “Once on this Island” playing at Bloomington Center for Performing Arts in Bloomington, where they play the character, God of Death. They also vogue and were at the Burgundy Ball hosted at Hamline last month.

Students participated in games to be able to make these points stronger. One game was where you had to shake hands with everyone in the room, with the possibility of shaking the “killer’s” hand. If the killer chose to kill, the participant would fall on the floor dramatically to show that they were dead. The point of the game was to guess who the murderer was and see if we would have been able to decide if Lizzie Borden truly killed her parents.

Another activity they did was give the students a slip of paper with lyrics from the musical. Each line was given to two students who then had to find their match. After that, they had to find the group with the lyrics that could possibly line up with their own. Once they had the two lines matched up, they had to interpret, from the context that they had, what was going on and how Lizzie may be feeling in these lyrics.

These exercises helped students understand the concept of the play from a true crime viewpoint. They had to try to figure out who the killer was and try to understand what Lizzie may have been feeling before and after the murders of her parents.

“Even if they [students] can’t see it, we will have fun and talk about the plays in a variety of different ways,” Erickson said

On Stage has introduced over 10,000 students to new theater and new theater venues, with over 23% actually going out and purchasing a ticket for the screenplay they were introduced to.

If you are interested in true crime, rock music or just love theater, “Lizzie: The Rock Musical” is right up your alley. The musical is being held at Open Eye theater in downtown Minneapolis from Oct. 9 to Nov. 8. If you are interested in seeing it make sure to buy tickets as soon as they are selling out fast. Tickets are $15 with promo code FALLRIVER.

Organizations like On Stage help introduce theater to those who may not know where to look and help smaller venues by bringing in a bigger audience. If you are interested in either two of the screenplays listed, please go and support them. It may be one of the best experiences you will ever have.