Ariel Pinkerton sat down to talk with Executive Producer Jim Pounds about Fortune’s Fool Theatre’s production of “Bull in a China Shop,” which opens September 12.
Pinkerton is an actress, lighting designer, and producer who also serves as the co-artistic director of Fortune’s Fool Theatre. In “Bull in a China Shop,” she stars as Mary Woolley’s partner, Jeannette Marks. Article continues below.
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Based on a true story
Bryna Turner wrote the play, basing it on letters that Mount Holyoke College President Mary Woolley wrote to her life partner, Jeanette Marks. Mount Holyoke was a regional seminary college and “Bull in a China Shop” charts Woolley’s and Marks’ relationship from 1899 to 1937.
“It [was] pretty much a school for wives at that time,” Pinkerton said. “You could major in horses, like the combing of and the decoration thereof.”
The college curriculum included learning domestic skills and to attend church daily.
But Woolley changed all of that.
“Over the 40 years that she is president, [Mount Holyoke] turns into one of — and it still is to this day — the premier schools for science and humanities,” Pinkerton said. “It’s amazing.”
Woolley’s partner, Jeanette Marks, served on the faculty of the college and ultimately stayed at the college longer than Woolley.
History repeating itself
Pinkerton said that today’s political climate mirrors the fight for women’s education at Mount Holyoke — even though it was a century ago.
“We think this is very long ago. 120 years isn’t that far, and we got to a certain place and then things began to backslide,” Pinkerton said. “We were probably better off in some ways in the ’70s and ’80s than we are now, and we can’t rest on the rights that we think we will always have because they’re getting taken away every day.”
The play also covers women’s right to vote. This comes at a time when Christian Nationalists in the United States advocate for a “one household” voting rule, in which the head of household (i.e. the husband) is the only person able to vote.
“Bull in a China Shop” navigates the tension between the suffragettes who worked within the system and those outside it.
“Give me the vote now or I’m going to cut you,” Pinkerton said, describing those demanding change from outside the halls of power.
Onstage, this tension divides Woolley and Marks. The former grows accustomed to her presidential authority, the latter advocating without it.
“I’m the radical”
Pinkerton received the script from her friend Katie Starks who felt “Bull in a China Shop” would be too radical for the state she works in, Iowa. Starks said Pinkerton should play Woolley.
But Pinkerton’s father, co-founder of Fortune’s Fool Theatre, suggested Victoria Payan for the diplomatic Woolley and his daughter for the revolutionary Marks.
“I am the radical, for sure,” Pinkerton said.
She said that Marks owes nobody anything, while Woolley has to report to the college’s board and its donors.
“[Marks] very much wants to erase the line between students and teachers,” Pinkerton said. “She gets in a lot of trouble for sitting outside with her class and sharing her cigarettes with everybody, reading them Orlando and talking about gender. I mean, she is five steps ahead of a lot of women of this generation.”
The Playwright’s Instructions
Turner was clear that she wanted to surface queer life, and she also wrote one specific requirement to anyone wanting to produce the play: the five-woman cast cannot have any cis white men.
“So you could do this with an all transgender cast; you could do this with an all African American cast; however you wanted to do it, as long as it didn’t have any cis white men in it,” Pinkerton said.
“As she puts it, a queering of history, looking at past events through a contemporary gaze,” Pinkerton said. “There’s a lot of contemporary language. There’s contemporary ethnic casting. It very much helps us in a modern age look at life back then in a language and way that we can interpret it.”
A First-Time Collaboration That Clicked
Shannon Custer directs “Bull in a China Shop,” a first-time collaboration with Fortune’s Fool Theatre. She also serves as sound designer.
“She’s one of the most passionate people I’ve ever met,” Pinkerton said. “So everything is met with a resounding yes or no, and there’s never any question as to if you’re on the right track with her.”
Since the cast had just three weeks to rehearse, Custer came ready with a strong vision for each scene of the play that gave the actors the opportunity to explore their characters as much as possible.
The Play is Free to All, Thanks to a Grant
Tickets to the show are free as Fortune’s Fool Theatre received a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council to produce it.
“It covers everything including ticket sales. So the show is free to audiences to just come,” Pinkerton said. “You can make a reservation if you want. You can just show up if you want to.”
Pinkerton said that Fortune’s Fool Theatre recognized that the cost of living is high right now and they didn’t want any economic barriers for the audience to attend.
“It came down to this is a hard time, this is a sad time, this is a financial crisis. We want to give some joy,” Pinkerton said.
“It almost makes me think back to the time when movies were created,” she said. “They were created during the Depression so that people had a way to go and just not live their own lives for a little while.”
The Hive Collaborative
“Bull in a China Shop” performs at the St. Paul Hamline Midway theatre space The Hive Collaborative. According to Pinkerton, venue owners Eric Morris and Laura Rudolph Morris are hands-on. They help store sets, run the lighting board, handle ticket sales, and assist with promotion. Their goal, Pinkerton said, is, “creating a whole community.”
“Bull in a China Shop” opens Saturday, Sept. 12. It runs through Sept. 27. Tickets are free. You can make a reservation online at https://fortunesfooltheatre.org/what-were-doing.
Walk-ups are also welcome.
