News

The Spring 2026 Advanced Acting for the Lyric Stage course, under the direction of Associate Professor of Practice in Music Dale Kruse and assisted by Visiting Instructor of Music Shari Speer, is nearing the premiere of The Odyssey! The Musical! — a new work by Department Chair of Music Louis Epstein and Carleton College’s Chair of Philosophy Daniel Groll. 

This production marks the largest cast of any lyric theater production at St. Olaf College. It is also the first large-scale narrative work by the Northfield-based writing duo Epstein and Groll, who are best known as Louis & Dan and the Invisible Band. Performances will take place April 28-30 at 8 p.m. in Urness Recital Hall.

Epstein and Groll are widely known for their children’s music, including albums such as The Greats, Smörgåsbord, Let’s Imagine, and Louis & Dan and the Invisible Band. The pair initially set out to create a kids’ story album centered around the well-known epic poem The Odyssey but soon realized that the project was evolving into something more ambitious.

“It originally started as a story album—music and then a narrative linking the songs,” Groll recalled. “It basically morphed from there when we realized we were writing dialogue, and we needed multiple characters. This wasn’t going to be something that we could do, just the two of us.”

Throughout the writing process, the duo continually built on and refined each other’s ideas.  

“We’re constantly generating material—lyrics, music, plot ideas—then the other person reacts to and shapes it, taking it further,” Epstein says. “We’re really good at iterating. No matter what we come up with first, we keep playing with it, because we have confidence in each other and that it’s only gonna get better the more we work on it—it liberates us to try anything, even if we are pretty sure it’s not the right thing. It always gets us to the next idea.”

The production is staged through the Advanced Acting for the Lyric Stage course, co-taught by Kruse and Speer. Rather than traditional evening rehearsals, the rehearsal time is built into the class time itself. Students meet twice a week for 90 minutes at a time to develop techniques in acting and singing while preparing the annual production.

“It’s an amazing class because of the depth of the things that they’re learning,” Kruse explains. “They’re not just learning a show—they’re not just learning their lines, the music, and the choreography—they’re also learning something about how their instrument works and how they function as expressive storytellers. We aim for students to come away with new skills and increased confidence through theatrical exercises and vocal training specific to musical theater.”

Students are involved in all aspects of the production, including set-building and costume design.

“We assign tasks off in the wings when they’re not on stage,” Speer says. “They’ve done a lot of what I call ‘craft projects’—painting, cutting, stitching, measuring. Instead of me figuring out how to incorporate a piece for a costume, I have them do it.They often have better ideas than I do, which is fun.”

Housing the production within a course creates a uniquely immersive learning experience for Oles.

“It’s so unique to have a classroom situation that lifts a performance off the page,” Speer says. “We get to talk about every aspect of the performance in a teaching context, and you leave class and rehearsals feeling like you’ve really accomplished something.”

Typically, the course enrolls 27-32 students. This year, the class is made up of 50 students, making for a production of unprecedented magnitude in St. Olaf’s lyric theater history. The expanded cast also creates a dynamic learning environment.

“We have every level, first year through seniors,” Kruse notes. “We have every level of ability, with some students who have never sung in a production before and some who have been in numerous things. They learn a great deal about their craft by watching and working with their peers.” 

As a student whose experience is centered around choral singing, Norah Purcell ‘28—a music education major who plays Hermes—finds the course to be a great place to develop expressivity.

“I’m mostly a vocalist—I’ve not done a lot of acting before, so I’ve been learning a lot about acting in general through this experience,” Purcell says.“It has been really cool to be pushed in that way, and get into the expressive aspect of performing where it’s not just the music, it’s the storytelling on your face and in your body. It’s been really great to be able to lean on people, including people who are younger than me who have that theater background.”

Maisy Scheuneman ‘27, a music education major who plays a lead role, Penelope, has found that the opportunity to observe the teaching process is valuable on its own.

“It’s been really interesting just to observe [Kruse] and [Speer’s] process, especially with such a large group,” she says. “It’s really valuable for students, but particularly the music ed students in the course, because so much of our education is focused around more classical approaches. The experience of being in a contemporary musical theater production is different from talking about it in a class. It’s valuable for the students who are going into education to experience actually being in a show, to witness the teaching in action.”

Alden Wright ‘26, an English and mathematics major who plays Odysseus, sees the production as a reflection of St. Olaf’s liberal arts tradition. 

“I’m like the poster child for not needing to be a music major to be involved in musical things on campus,” he says. “I’ve been in Ole Choir for three years and not been a music major. Being able to participate in a musical like this—without having to major in music or any related field—is what a liberal arts education is for.”

A defining aspect of this year’s lyric theater production is that it is a premiere—a valuable opportunity for all involved, including the writers.

“We were lucky enough to have colleagues who were willing to take it on—it’s a risky thing to do a new work,” Epstein notes. “But this is what higher education is for: experimentation, development, trying new things. This is a place to have novel experiences – that’s how we know the system is working.”

For Kruse, the experience of premiering a work presented an exciting space for learning.

“When [Epstein] came to me a couple of years ago and said that he and [Groll] were writing this piece and he would really love it if Lyric Theater would premiere it, I was 100% in,” he recalls. “I used to run a program at the Minnesota Opera called Project Opera, and I did two world premieres with them, so I love working with composers. Creating something new is so exciting—I wanted students here to be able to have that opportunity, to be a part of the creation of something new that will have a life beyond them.”

Performing in a premiere provides the cast with the opportunity to truly build a character for themselves, without the influence of traditional or famous character portrayals. 

“They are the first group of people to lift this off the page and to make it live, which is a really big deal,” Speer says. “We have resisted giving the singers the demo recordings, because we want them to look at the page and go, ‘how does this work in my voice?’ ‘How can I bring this character to life with this music?’”

For Wright, that challenge is part of the reward.

“One of the things that makes it incredibly difficult is that nobody else has done this before, and there’s no recordings to watch,” Wright explains. “We don’t know how it’s ‘supposed’ to look. We have to make it all up as we go, but at the same time, that is what’s really cool about it: we get to be the first people to interpret the play, which is probably an opportunity I’ll likely never have again in my life.”

Seeing their writing take the stage at full scale is deeply meaningful for Groll.

“Having a piece of music move from your mind and into the world as a performance is super exciting, and that gets more exciting in proportion to the scope of the performance,” he reflects. “For me, it’s invigorating to think of a song and pick up a guitar, then hear myself play and sing it. When there’s 50 people involved and costumes and lights and a pit, that’s unbelievably electrifying.”

As opening night approaches, students are eager to see the full production come together. 

“I’m most excited to see the finished result because there’s a lot of separation in rehearsal—I don’t know half of what Alden is working on right now because it’s two almost completely different storylines,” Scheuneman says. “I think it’ll be really exciting to see everything put together, because there’s so much that I don’t even know about or haven’t even heard—but I know it will be wonderful.”

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Louis Epstein is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

This activity is also made possible through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council in cooperation with a private foundation.