It had been ages since I'd actually seen any live theater---over six months by my reckoning. I was wondering when I might get around to actually seeing anything on the stage again, probably, I figured at some time during this big loop around the country I've been making.
As it turns out, it was here in this little town of Bemidji in northern Minnesota that I was finally motivated to buy a ticket. Last night I'd been here a couple days, resting after after a successful wilderness trip to the far North Woods, which itself followed the whole Maryland funtime, the New York/New Jersey adventure, the mad dash across the country in extreme heat, and the wedding in Omaha, etc.
Bemidji is a charming little college town beside this wonderful lake that sits near the headwaters of the Mississippi River, which trickles in and out of the lake at either end. The state park that has been my home for the last couple days sits astride the north end. It's the kind of place I could stay for weeks, especially given this nice little coffee shop from which I can work, and where I can plug in my electronic devices (big revelation: Caribou Coffee is as good as Starbucks as a work place).
After putting in a day's remote work, I went into downtown yesterday afternoon to finally do laundry after the wilderness trip. While my clothes were going through the cycles, I wandered around the small grid nearby and saw a classic movie theater (the Chief Theatre) that turned out to be a converted playhouse, home to the Paul Bunyan Playhouse, which bills itself as "one of the oldest stock theater companies in the upper Midwest."
When I see something like this, I usually make a dare to myself: if there is something showing that evening, I will go. Turns out that last night was opening night for their production of The Dixie Swim Club, about the ongoing reunion of a women's college swim team.
It was about four o'clock when I encountered the theater. The showing was an eight. That gave me plenty of time to finish my laundry, return to my campsite, build and campfire, and to cook and eat the filet mignon that I had just bought at the local Wal-Mart (the filet mignon cooked very well on the skillet).
I got back to downtown all showered and in clean clothes just before showtime and bought a ticket in the back row. The theater itself was rather quaint and antique with huge decorative statues of Chief Bemidji flanking the back of the auditorium.
The auditorium was about two-thirds full and production itself was well done and fairly well acted. I wasn't too impressed by the play itself, which seems a rather trite rehash of Sex and the City-esque female empowermentfest set in the North Carolina Outer Banks. Often during the production, I would do my trick of closing my eyes and imagine the script being typed out onto the page as I hear the dialog. The number of cliches was amazing. Not much to be impressed by. The whole message was basically: "you go girl! break free! you're never to old! do your own thing! celebrate yourself while you do it!" Yawn.
Nevertheless I was well pleased by the experience of attending. It was worth the twenty-two bucks, which is only three dollars less than the per-night cost of my camp site.
After the production I walked down in the dark to the edge of Lake Bemidji and watched the waves ripple in the night. It was a beautiful end to my restful stay here. I was more than reluctant to pack up my tent this morning (I was able to use my REI Kingdom 6 for the first time since Virginia---my portable hut, as I call it).
Bemidji feels like a little paradise. I could almost live here. But the road calls. I have only a few miles to go to reach the source of the Father of Waters. Then it's onward to the west, to pick up another state on my list of states visited (the 49th, as it happens).
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