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Emily Gunyou Halaas

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Trying

Trying Graphic
Trying Graphic

Graphic c/o Park Square Theatre

Trying | Media List


Statement

Trying

Area Premiere
by Joanna McClelland Glass
directed by Warren Bowles
starring Richard Ooms (Democracy, 2007)
September 14 - October 7, 2007

In this affectionate comedy, a bittersweet friendship emerges between two strangers, at two dramatically different places in their lives. Judge Francis Biddle is turning 82 and fresh-faced Sarah Schorr, the latest in a string of secretaries, is hired to help with his memoirs. This rich story of life's most inevitable adventure, growing old, is inspired by the playwright's own experience with the real Judge Biddle, FDR's Attorney General and the Chief Justice of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.

Reviews

"Emily Gunyou Halaas plays Sarah with a flat affect -- resisting that excruciati! ng tende ncy of some actors to give their feminist characters a chirpy feistiness. The deeper dignity she finds accents the poignancy when Richard Ooms' Biddle bites into her. I have secretly cheered in similar situations as the spunky twit is dressed down, but here my heart broke for this decent woman.
...
So tight is the intellectual dance between Ooms and Halaas that small emotional moments surprise us with their exquisite power.
...
This is just a lovely staging, confident in what it has to say: We are all flawed humans, and we need each other."

- Graydon Royce, Star Tribune


"Emily Gunyou Halaas gets a less-flashy role as the long-suffering Sarah. By ceding the spotlight to Ooms with her restrained and disciplined work, she creates her own gentle glow of limelight.
...
Emotions like frustration and impatience and forbearance are difficult to play on stage, but Halaas finds a way. Her carefully gauged performance is both maternal (she ever-watchful, ready to spring to her frail boss's aid) and hints at a daughter's eagerness to please.
...
With the leaves just beginning to turn on the trees, this chronicle of a man in the late autumn of his life feels like a warm, comfortable sweater of a play. Pull it on, and brave the coming chill."

- Dominic P. Papatola, Pioneer Press