A very human “Nature”

Nature” A walking play. The mythic telling of Emerson and Thoreau’s mutual love affair with the natural world.
When: Aug. 19 – Sept. 5; Thursday/Friday 6 p.m., Sat./Sun. 3 and 6 p.m.
Where: Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska, MN
Starring: Tyson Forbes, with Markell Kiefer and Sam Elmore. Music by Dick Hensold
Price: Free with admission to the Arboretum

Being the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, co-godfather of the Green Revolutio n, certainly has its perks. Not only do you have an ever-flowing fountain of party introductions, but you are the recipient of some of the hardiest, most American genes conceivable. The vast majority of us do not have said genes. But Tyson Forbes , executive artistic producer of TigerLion arts, does, and he’s chosen to do something a little different with them.
Instead of wearing a hat that says, “I am the worthy descendant of RWE” (which I think is what most of us would do), Forbes is choosing to honor his great, great, great grandfather with a play about his life, and he’s setting it not in the storied fields of New England , but in our own lake-scattered slab o’ land.
“We’re taking the audience through an experience of how we personally connect to nature,” he said. “Because I think that’s a lot of what Emerson and [Henry David] Thoreau were about: what’s your personal connection to nature? There’s a lot of just our passion for nature in the show.”
Forbes, who plays the part of his eminent granddad, said the point of the play was to not only channel nature through the literary giants, but also to dispel certain myths surrounding the two men. He said Emerson and Thoreau were not so much these proverbial Batman and Robin of literature so much as they were flesh-and-blood, truly compassionate human beings.
“I think the general stereotype is that Thoreau was this wild man who lived in the woods, undisciplined. And Emerson is more of the tamed mind, man of the world, and they’re always grouped together.”
Set in the rugged (albeit designed) wilderness of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum , Forbes said that the natural atmosphere takes on more of a role in the play than just a pretty milieu.
“We really see it as the third character is nature, so we’re trying to play with that character as much as possible … And there’s so much to play with,” Forbes said.
With the format being a “walking play” — wherein the audience follows the actors to several destinations in the story — the play is able to reflect the sojourn-filled lives of its subjects. The idea is the players are part tour guide, part actor.
“The story we’ve chosen has a sense of journey in it,” creative producer/director Markell Kiefer said. “So as the audience is moving, the story is also moving.”
Kiefer said the format is conducive to the viewing pleasures of all ages, particularly the young rapscallions pounding sugar snacks in the crowd and getting all fidgety.
“Part of it is about bringing people outdoors and getting them connected to nature, and part of it is about getting them engaged with each other,” Kiefer said. “There’s something about groups of people moving and walking in the same direction that makes them happy.”
But beyond making people happy, “Nature” is supposed to make people think. And the words of Emerson and Thoreau, and their indissoluble bond with the natural world resonate stronger than ever in our obligatorily environmental culture.
“If you go back to their readings, they are so relevant today. It’s just screaming out. They must have had some incredible foresight, because their world was pretty together, but they clearly saw where this trend was going,” Forbes said. “ … I think they’d be pretty shocked if they saw how far it had gone.”