The Guthrie Theater's "The Stuff of Dreams" was performed for the very first time Tuesday morning at Riverland Community College.

And area high school students were the first to view it.

More than 100 students from Pacelli High School, Queen of Angels, Lyle, Grand Meadow, LeRoy-Ostrander, Austin High School, St. Charles, Glenville-Emmons School and Nora Springs Rock Falls School in Iowa, were the audience of the Guthrie on Tour production that began in Austin and will continue its tour until May.

The play was performed for the general public at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Riverland. The theater group now moves on to 35 more communities in 10 states.

During Theater Day at Riverland, students got a first look at the play, were shown what goes on behind the scenes and were able to speak with the actors, director and Guthrie employees.

The actors and director, in turn, learned from the student's observations and questions about the play.

"They reacted to it really well," said Ann Kim, who plays Antigone in the play. "It's good to get feedback when it's a new show. The reaction to the show helps us immensely."

"The Stuff of Dreams" features five characters from well-known plays throughout history -- "Antigone," "Death of a Salesman," "A Doll's House," "Cyrano de Bergerac," and "Hamlet" -- and pits them against one another to see who is the most play-worthy of them all.

After the performance, the students learned what goes on behind the scenes of the "Stuff of Dreams" and were able to ask questions about theater careers.

Then the students broke into groups of about 20 and each actor held an hour-long workshop about acting.

For the students in Kim's workshop, a word's intention was the focus.

Kim wrote a short dialogue on the blackboard, a dialogue that might seem dull: "Hi. Hi. How are you? Fine. Fine? Yes. Hmmm. What did you do last night? Nothing. Nothing? OK."

Kim told them the intention of those words is what makes them interesting. The circumstances before and after that conversation weigh heavily on it, she said.

"If I'm talking to my mother, it's different from talking to my best friend or to a small child," Kim said.

She then paired the students off and asked them to come up with a background of their characters.

Jenna Billings, a student at Nora Springs Rock Falls School and Tom Reburn, a student at LeRoy-Ostrander School, decided they would play a boyfriend and girlfriend. The girlfriend would be mad about something, but the boyfriend wouldn't know she was mad, Reburn proposed.

"Oh that's something I can do," Billings said, smiling.

When Billings and Reburn took their act to the front of the room, the students figured out she was mad at him. Kim then asked them to instead act as if Reburn was going to break up with Billings, but she didn't know it.

The students had to improvise quickly.

"Each little word is so crucial," Kim said.

After the workshops, the students flocked to buses to take them back home. Students commented they enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at the production and the tips from the actors.

"It was cool," said Luke Johnson, a 10th-grader at Triton School in Dodge Center, who performs in school plays.

Laura Christensen, a 10th-grader at Pacelli High School, said the workshop helped her feel more comfortable in front of an audience.

"The play was really good. It was fun to see how they put it together," Christensen said.

Pacelli social studies teacher Jarred Petersen brought Pacelli and Queen of Angels students who are performing in the spring play to Theater Day. He thinks the Guthrie provides a good service to the students and said he learns from it as well.

"I think it's a great day for the students to learn a little more about acting," Petersen said.

Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at :mailto:cari.quam@austindailyherald.com