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Thursday, October 2, 2008
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Stengel's career is still hot Brainerd native, who left town to warm up, returns for benefit concert Entertainment Editor His is a classic tale of "local boy done good," but Shawn Stengel didn't leave Brainerd because he had something to prove. He just found Minnesota a bit chilly.
"I basically moved to Los Angeles to get warmer," Stengel said in a recent phone interview from Chicago, where he now lives. "I had no plan. I wasn't particularly trying to be in show business. I was just trying to warm up."
The musical theater veteran will present "Try(ing) to Remember: An Afternoon of Hazy Memories, Music and More" at Sunday's annual Crossing Arts Alliance benefit. Last year's benefit featured opera singer Peggy Kriha Dye giving a classy recital, but Stengel's show will be a zany hodgepodge.
The 1977 Brainerd High School graduate said, "My attempt for this concert is to tie into the homecoming theme. I'm taking my experience growing up in Brainerd and mixing it with my professional shows. So I'll be singing songs from shows I've performed in or directed around the country, and interspersing that with funny stories."
The 49-year-old is proud to be from Brainerd, even though his high school didn't (and still doesn't) offer musical theater. Stengel acted in plays, played trumpet in the band and sang in the choir. He and his friends named the Windfall Choir (it had been called the Pacemakers, which "sounded like an implant in your chest," Stengel said). The current edition of Windfall will join Stengel for part of the Sunday show.
Summer was Stengel's season to combine his music and acting skills. Brainerd Community College (now Central Lakes College) offered a summer musical (it still does), and Stengel jumped at that opportunity.
Shawn Stengel
Musical theater performer
What's on your iPod right now? A Shostakovich symphony, Ella Fitzgerald, Patsy Cline, Stephen Sondheim, Los Lonely Boys, Black Eyed Peas, and a lot of music by his friends.
Favorite TV shows: "Rome" and "Six Feet Under."
Last good book you read: "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.
Hobbies: Photography.
If you go
Who: Shawn Stengel.
What: "Try(ing) to Remember: An Afternoon of Hazy Memories, Music and More."
When: 3 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Franklin Arts Center Theatre, 1001 Kingwood St., Brainerd.
Tickets: $30 (public), $25 (students, seniors and Crossing Arts Alliance members).
Phone: 833-0416.
Web site: www.crossingarts.org.
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"They had a great summer theater program, and while I was in college (at the University of Minnesota) I still came home at least two different summers. I did 'The Music Man,' and that's really what got me going in musical theater, although I'd always liked shows before then.
"The gist of my tale is I had a lot of opportunities in a smallish community like Brainerd. I did things that set me up for a professional career in the arts. I know there's lots of things going on around Brainerd, but it often gets swallowed up by the fishing and hunting crowd. When the (Crossing) asked, I was like, 'Sign me up.' I'm all for promoting the arts."
Stengel claims his move to the West Coast wasn't calculated to get into show business.
"I briefly was a substitute teacher in St. Paul, but boy, that is not me," Stengel said. "Especially high school band student teaching. It's worse than baby-sitting. I worked at the Hotel St. Paul in 1982. The funny thing is every artist has been a waiter sometime, and I did that for two years. Then one December day it was 30 below."
In 1984, he followed fellow BHS graduate Joe Brutsman - who has worked regularly in movies and TV - to Los Angeles. Sufficiently unfrozen, Stengel worked at the Hotel Bel Air for a couple years, where he experienced brushes with fame that he'll recount at Sunday's show.
Then an "impossible to cast" musical came along, and Stengel saw a doorway to an industry where it can seem impossible to find a job.
"A friend of mine made me go audition for 'Pump Boys and Dinettes,'" Stengel said of the show where he played trumpet on stage and in character. "I went in and they liked me. It was clear as day. I thought, 'My life will shift right here.' I went in three days later and they hired me to be the understudy right before Christmas."
Stengel followed "Pump Boys and Dinettes" to the Windy City, which became his permanent address. He was a self-described "road rat" through the 1990s, filling whatever post was needed on touring productions.
"Eventually, I got hooked up with several Broadway tours, starting with 'Peter Pan' with Cathy Rigby back in 1990 or '91. I've been to all 50 states, and performed in probably 40 of them. So that's not only fun, it's a pretty lucrative, steady job. My band director in high school used to (warn against being a) 'jack of all trades, master of none.' I found the opposite to be true in my career. I'm sometimes an actor, a director, a trumpet player - whatever it takes. I haven't been a waiter since the Bel Air."
Recently, Stengel has focused on Chicago musicals. He is the associate conductor and keyboard player for the 17-piece orchestra in "Wicked," which will conclude a four-year Windy City run early next year.
"It's changed the economics of Chicago theater, it's been such a huge hit here," Stengel said. "Producers see Chicago can support a hit show, so we're hoping for a lot more of this type of work."
Stengel said his career is largely about being "in the right place at the right time." Now, he's in the right place, and he's pleased with how the times are changing.
"Most of us in the community are happy to be in Chicago," Stengel said. "We're not looking to go to New York. We find this affordable and comfortable."
JOHN HANSEN, entertainment editor, may be reached at john.hansen@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5863.
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