HEART OF STEELE

Make no mistake: You’re going to laugh a lot during Little Theatre of Owatonna’s (LTO) season opening production.

As I’ve described elsewhere in this edition of Steele County Times, the musical comedy “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” centers around Monty Navarro and his desperate attempts to take his place among British royalty–by any means necessary. The actors, director, and crew working hard on the show will make sure you have a good time.

We’re fortunate to have LTO, a group that carefully selects each season’s production. It’s clear the actors, directors, and crews care deeply about each show.

But having a local theater group–a good local theatre group–brings more to the community that just entertainment.

Theatre opens doors to new ideas and new ways to look at the world. Fictional characters allow us to see things in a different way, expose us to points of view we might not have considered.

As I learned last week, listening to other people’s stories is critical to being a welcoming community. It develops empathy, a space where we can connect with those who come from different places and have different experiences than our own.

I believe that also works with fictional characters. How many times have you felt changed by a book or movie or music?

LTO will offer some thought-provoking shows this season. George Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man” reflects on romanticizing war and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” removes the masks in one couple’s troubled marriage.

But even the funny shows like “Gentleman’s Guide” can move your thoughts in unexpected directions.

I hope you’ll take in a Little Theatre of Owatonna show this season, if for no other reason than a great group of people will be playing their hearts out for you.