FVCC Theatre stages verse-play by Lowell Jaeger

Flathead Valley Community College’s Theatre Department presents an original verse-play by Montana Poet Laureate Lowell Jaeger at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 6-8 in the campus theater.

“Someday I’d Write This Down” is Jaeger’s first play and represents his attempt to make poetry more accessible to a variety of learning styles.

“In my travels as Montana Poet Laureate, I found myself longing for modes of conveying poems to an audience other than the standard poet-at-the-podium reading,” Jaeger said. “People who gravitate toward poetry are, by nature, lovers of language. They are comfortable sitting still and letting language move their imaginations. These people are auditory learners. Other people need visuals, props and characters on the stage ‘acting’ the poems.”

The play is about growing up in a small Midwestern town during the Cold War of the 1950s and ’60s. The main character is an aging man who is remembering and reflecting on the events of his life over six decades. Each scene traces an aspect of this man’s cognitive and spiritual progression toward understanding himself, his family and the general human condition. Jaeger describes the play as both humorous and serious.

FVCC alumnus and practicing playwright Joshua Kelly is the director. He is a Ph.D. student in interdisciplinary theater studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also teaches.

Jaeger, a Wisconsin native, has had a highly decorated career, winning a number of awards, including the Governor’s Humanities Award in 2010. He has earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Montana Arts Council, and is a past recipient of the Grolier Poetry Peace Prize. Jaeger has authored seven collections of poems and is the founding editor of Many Voices Press.

Being poet laureate comes with significant latitude and few defined responsibilities. The poet’s obligation, according to the Montana Arts Council, is “advancing and supporting the poetic arts ... reaching out to and beyond the art and literary communities in Montana to promote the appreciation of poetry as an ancient and ongoing form of expression.”

Tickets are $5 for community members and $2 for students and can be purchased online at www.fvcc.edu, in the FVCC Bookstore or at the door any night of the show.