‘Elegies’ introduces new Riverbend Theatre Collective

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By David Burke | Friday, May 9, 2008 5:11 PM CDT | () comments

With knowledge of her hometown area and know-how from a stint in a larger market, Allison Collins-Ellfine moved back to the Quad-Cities in July knowing exactly what she wanted to do:

Start her own theater company.

“For years, I’ve always wanted to have my own company and do theater that isn’t offered a lot here — smaller, contemporary musicals,” the Moline native said.

So, she formed Riverbend Theatre Collective, which will produce its first musical, the song cycle “Elegies,” beginning next weekend at the Village Theatre in the Village of East Davenport. Riverbend shares space there, the former Turner Hall, with four other theater companies.

Collins-Ellfine said she got energized from the years she lived in Cincinnati while her husband Rob, a Morrison, Ill., native, was studying for his doctorate in music at the University of Cincinnati.

She got in on the ground floor of a new theater company there, both performing and behind the scenes. She followed the company’s artistic director and executive producer, learning as much as she could from them.

“I was a giant sponge and sucked up everything I could possibly suck up,” she said.

When her husband was hired by Augustana College as an assistant professor of piano last summer, she began implementing the idea of a new theater company.

“I knew everything I needed to know, I just needed to get back here and set everything in motion,” she said.

She wanted to concentrate on newer works — specifically, musicals less than 15 years old. A three-show season has been drawn up, with Collins-Ellfine directing all three.

She selected William Finn’s “Elegies” as the first show, opening next weekend.

Finn is known best for the musicals “Falsettos,” “March of the Falsettos” and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

“Elegies” is a song cycle, with no spoken dialogue in the 75-minute production.

“It’s five singers and a piano,” Collins-Ellfine said. “You won’t be bombarded by a humongous (orchestra) pit.”

An elegy is a hymn of praise to someone who has died.

“Each song is kind of its own character, its own story about someone Bill (Finn) had lost to cancer or AIDS or any number of illnesses out there,” Collins-Ellfine said.

Despite that template, she said it is not an entirely somber production.

“It’s hysterically funny and upbeat and quirky and weird,” she said. “But, yes, there are some sentimental moments in it.”

“Elegies” is being co-produced with AIDS Project Quad-Cities.

Finn wrote the musical in 2000 and 2001, she said, but he changed much of it after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

“Obviously, it hit him and a lot of other people that he knew,” she said, referring to the terrorist attacks on America that day.

Collins-Ellfine said “Elegies” showcases the musical talent of its cast, many of whom are already regulars in the newer Quad-City theater companies.

“It’s deceptively easy,” she said. “The tunes are very melodic and easy to sing, but you ask any of my singers — it’s definitely not. There are some really, really tight harmonies. Sometimes we have to stand across the room from each other because one cluster is on top of each other.”

A smaller-scale musical will differentiate Riverbend from entities such as the Quad-City Music Guild as well as Augustana College and St. Ambrose University productions.

“We would have loved to put on a huge (musical) with an enormous pit, but those things cost a lot of money, and we didn’t have much to start out, obviously,” she said.

Riverbend is one of several newer theater companies in the Quad-Cities, but she said all can survive and thrive together.

“We’ve got lots and lots of great theater companies, and I think the more of us that there are, the better it is for all of us,” she added. “To have all these artistic ideas and theater gives us more to see.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.

IF YOU GO

What: “Elegies” by Riverbend Theatre Collective

When: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, May 16-17; and Thursday-Saturday, May 22-24; and 3 p.m. Sunday, May 18

Where: Village Theatre (the former Turner Hall), 2113 E. 11th St., Village of East Davenport

How much: $10

Information: (309) 757-1387 or RiverbendTheatreCollective.com on the Web

Also: Scheduled later in the season are “Kimberly Akimbo,” June 20-28; and “As Bees in Honey Drown,” July 18-26