By FRED KRONER
Maggie Kinnamon is a dance teacher who will soon get to practice that role.
The Mahomet resident won’t be teaching, but will be portraying a dancer on stage.
Kinnamon was cast in the lead role (Amina) in Dance Nation, which will start its eight-night run at Urbana’s Station Theatre on Thursday (May 8).
She is a natural for the part. Kinnamon started dancing as a 5-year-old and entered the University of Illinois in the fall of 1987 as a dance major.
Ironically, she didn’t originally audition for the role in which she was cast.
As Kinnamon was reading for another part (Ashlee), director Christiana Harkulich stopped her.
“There are two roles that have specific dancer qualities,” Harkulich said. “There weren’t a lot who came out for that role (Amina).
“Maggie was in one of the last groups to audition and I had her read that (Amina) part. She has the look and the dance background and knocked it out of the part. She was something else. Maggie is phenomenal.”
The cast of Dance Nation consists of nine adults who are playing the role of 11- to 13-year-olds in a dance troupe.
The character Amina, Harkulich said, is a teen-ager “who is 13 and is a perfectionist who has technique but thinks everyone is mad at her all of the time.”
Kinnamon is no stranger to being in the limelight. She held the lead roles in local performances of Evita (Eva Peron), Cabaret (Sally Bowles) and Steel Magnolias (M’Lynn Eatenton).
She feels different about her role as Amina.
“This (production) is more of an ensemble,” Kinnamon said.
The cast began rehearsals on March 10 and spends about 15 hours a week, covering five days, in official preparation.
Kinnamon devotes extra time.
“I have recorded videos to watch myself and look back more objectively,” she said. “To look at yourself helps.”
Her effort shows, according to Harkulich.
“Maggie is an incredibly dedicated actor,” Harkulich said. “She comes so prepared. She brings such professionalism to the process.”
The Dance Nation cast consists of people whose actual ages range from their 20s to the 50s.
“It’s a challenge to try and get into a 13-year-old ‘body,’” said Kinnamon, who has spent most of her 33 years in the Urbana school district teaching dance and drama at Leal School. “At this age, they are not grounded like an adult.
“They are more wiggly, more bouncy and have a more childlike way of moving. I really like the challenge.”
Though Dance Nation consists of serious subject matter, such as following your dreams and finding your soul, Kinnamon calls it a show of “suspended disbelief because the roles are played by adults and there’s not a high level of dancing going on.”
Added Harkulich: “It’s a memory play because they are playing 13-year-olds. One of the lovely things is we revisit the past of our own lives.
“It’s fun to think who we were at 13 and remembering what life was like.”
Regardless of acting experience for cast members, another daunting challenge is to navigate in the tight confines of the Station Theatre, located on North Broadway Avenue, in Urbana.
The tiny building on the west side of the street has a limited capacity, usually accommodating between 65 to 70 audience members.
Harkulich is directing her fourth show at the Station Theatre since 2022 and said the upcoming seating arrangement will feature the third different configuration.
Kinnamon appeared in her first show at the Station Theatre in 1993 (Tony ‘n’ Tina’s Wedding) and has also had acting opportunities at Parkland College and the Virginia Theatre.
“It’s a challenge space-wise, but (the Station Theatre) is my favorite venue,” Kinnamon said. “I love the small intimate setting.”
A Geneseo native, Kinnamon – who is making her return to the Station Theatre after a more than two-decade hiatus since her last appearance – has fond memories of the Urbana building.
She met her future husband (Lou, a Champaign native) at the Station Theatre in the 1997 production of Ruthless.
“He played my mother,” Maggie Kinnamon said. “It was written in the script that that role should be played by a man.
“He did a great job even though he is 6-foot-2 and wears a size 13 shoe. It was a very funny show.”
Maggie Kinnamon’s last acting appearance at the Station Theatre was the 2001 production of A Little Night Music. Her husband was also part of the cast.
“I became pregnant with our oldest (Kyle) at that time,” she said, “so neither of us did a show again for a very long time.”
While raising a troupe of three children (also including Kade and Kara), she was not far removed from the acting and performance scene.
“All three of them were theatre kids growing up, so the apples did not fall far from the trees,” Maggie Kinnamon said. “I choreographed a lot of shows they were in.”
Kinnamon is one of three Mahomet residents involved in the production of Dance Nation.
The lone male dancer in the performance is Henry Collins, an English teacher at Decatur’s MacArthur High School.
One of Harkulich’s two assistant directors is Becca Strom, an M-S graduate who works at the Mahomet Public Library.
Collins, who has directed the fall play and technical-directed the spring musicals at M-S the last two years, was recruited for his role by Harkulich, who asked him to audition.
“It was important to cast men in this show so that we never feel worried about the girls,” Harkulich said. “I was looking for welcoming masculine energy.
“He is a jokester, very funny and another teacher. He knows what middle-schoolers are like.”
Collins, a New Jersey native, had worked with Harkulich previously. This script was one that he found appealing.
“It’s an interesting way to approach an important time in a person’s life,” Collins said. “Adults playing 13-year-olds. Bigger decisions are being made than we realize at that time.”
Collins said his background helped him relate to the part for which he was cast, Luke.
“When I was young, I took dance lessons for a year and was the only guy in my class,” he said.
Collins and Kinnamon did not know each other until both were attending a recent performance of Assassins at the Station Theatre.
“Collins was accompanied by his son, Huck, a 2024 M-S graduate. They wound up being seated near Kinnamon.
As Collins prepared to make introductions, his son said, “we know each other.”
Maggie Kinnamon had choreographed shows Huck Collins was in at M-S as a sophomore and as a junior.
Henry Collins has not only acted, but also done set design at the Station Theatre.
“There are pros and cons (to each role),” he said. “It’s a way to go and relax and enjoy rather than getting things built and painted.”
He is experienced enough on stage to effectively combat the nerves.
“I’m a little nervous at auditions,” Collins said, “but there’s added excitement when you’re in front of the audience for the first time.”
He is ready to step on stage.
“The show is coming along nicely,” he said. “I’m excited to get it across the finish line.”
Like Collins, Strom has served in different capacities.
She is involved in her fourth production at the Station Theatre in the past year. She worked in costume designing, as an assistant stage manager, as an actor and now as the co-assistant director.
“I enjoy the technical side and like theatre in all of its different forms,” Strom said. “I’m grateful we have this in the community.”
She is embracing her current role.
“I’ve always wanted to direct,” Strom said. “I’m taking this as a learning experience, taking notes, watching how she runs rehearsals and manages the cast.
“I’m soaking it all in.”
Strom sat in on the auditions. Though Harkulich made the ultimate selections, Strom said, “We had conversations as a production team. It was nice to have a little voice.”
Her opinion of the cast?
“It’s an incredible cast,” Strom said. “I’m 100 percent behind all of the decisions. They are all perfect in their roles.”
Strom won’t have much of a break when Dance Nation concludes on May 18.
She has been cast as ‘Diana’ in an upcoming production of “Somewhere, A Primer for the End of Days,” which she said is a part drama and part comedy.
She will play a familiar role when it hits the stage from July 31-Aug. 10.
“I’m a librarian, which isn’t a stretch for me,” Strom said.
Harkulich, who is finishing her fifth year as a theatre instructor at Eastern Illinois University, said Strom fits right in with the Dance Nation cast.
“Becca brings such levity to the room,” Harkulich said, “and helps make the rehearsal room what it is.
“She is smart and brilliant, and I am delighted to work with her. I wanted her energy in the room.”
Joining Strom as a co-director is Marshawn Bingham.
The performances of Dance Nation are scheduled for May 8, May 9, May 10, May 11, May 15, May 16, May 17 and May 18. All shows except the ones on Sunday will start at 7:30 p.m. The Sunday shows will begin at 2 p.m.
Most tickets are priced at $17 for general admission and $13 for senior citizens and students.
Other actors beside Kinnamon and Collins are: Ari Warner (Zuzu), Kortney Wilcher (Ashlee), Erin Roux (Maeve), Janhavi Kolhe (Connie), Katelynn Domonkos (Sofia), Syed Faizman Ahab (Dance Teacher Pat) and Sara Benson (Vanessa and Moms).
The cast brings an assortment of experience, Harkulich said, ranging from “people who have danced before to people who have not danced before.”
Kinnamon said it’s an impressive assembly.
“The actors are so solid,” she said. “I’ve been in many, many, many plays and this is the most prepared I’ve felt about any cast.
“We’ve talked about how lucky we all feel, not only about the talent level, but the people are stellar people and are awesome to be around.
“There’s nothing difficult, no squabbles.”
Kinnamon’s understudy is Carissa Yau.
The Station Theatre will soon conclude its 52nd year of operation and is accepting applications until May 15th for the director position for the upcoming year.
Dance Nation was a 2019 finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in drama.
Kinnamon emphasized that audience discretion is encouraged for those who are thinking about attending.
“There is some raw talk, and it’s not considered appropriate for under high school age,” she said. “There is some content that is out there.”
Kinnamon will be featured in the final scene in an ending monologue.
As show time approaches, she said, “I expect a healthy level of excited nerves. I’ll feel butterflies moments before as we’re waiting backstage.”
