New drama instructor bringing “Fools” here in April

Carl Lindberg is the new drama instructor at DMACC.

Lindberg grew up in Northern California and has spent the last seven years in Chicago acting. In Chicago he spent a lot of time acting on stage in pretty big regional theaters including the Looking Glass theater, About Face theater, Remy Bumppo, Old Park festival theater, Windy City Playhouse, and several other professional theaters. Lindberg has also done a couple of commercials both national and local.

“I think the most recent national commercial I did was a Kmart Halloween commercial which I am maybe not all that recognizable. My father-in-law saw it and laughed out loud and didn’t realize it was me before he knew that I had filmed it. I’ve done a couple of short films as well.”

Lindberg is also directing the play this spring.

“After a roughly one year hiatus we are producing again…” Lindberg said. “The play is called “Fools” by Neil Simon it’s one of his lesser-known comedies. Performance dates are April 7, 8, 14, and 15 in the black box theater in Building 5.”

Lindberg described the play as a comedy about a small village in Ukraine in the late 1800s. Due to a 200-year curse, everyone is cursed to be stupid. A young teacher is hired by a family to teach their 19-year-old daughter who has just learned how to sit down. Soon the young teacher learns that if he cannot help her learn within 24 hours, he will be cursed as well. As Lindberg put it, “Comedy ensues.”

“I’m very excited. So there was some general concern from the crew that hired me. When we were bringing theater back we were really unsure how many people would audition. We discussed when looking at potential plays to produce one of the things we discussed was cast size. There was a general consensus that I probably needed to keep it very small.”

However, according to Lindberg they generated much more interest than that and had a total of 19 people auditioned and many others volunteered to help with stage managing, sets, costumes, painting, and countless other positions.

“I’m incredibly encouraged by all of the support I’ve seen so far and very specifically I was very encouraged by everyone who auditioned.”

Not only is Lindberg excited about the play but he also has a lot of short-term and long-term goals.

“The potential for theater here at DMACC is endless.”

Lindberg also says that he hopes to interview for the opportunity of a full time position, however there is no guarantee of that. Most of all Lindberg wants to help create more opportunities for the students in theater and arts programs and would love to have multiple plays a semester, possibly in different venues.

“I’m hoping to find a way to generate scholarships for students who participate in rehearsal and performance so that we can recruit students that can be dedicated to theater and film training.”

Lindberg has both a positive and negative view on Branstad’s budget cuts.

“Obviously a government that puts more constraints on education is a government that, in my opinion, is not helping its citizens to be the best and the brightest on a world stage, so that makes me fearful.”

Despite some fears, Lindberg does keep an optimistic view on the situation as a whole:

“I do see incredible potential here at DMACC for theater in particular. Theater as of right now is not using much if any budget really at all. I have a lot of ideas as to how to really dramatically improve enrollment is theater courses so I believe at DMACC there is a lot of potential for growth in enrollment.”