LITTLE KNOWN FACT: MOST LUMBER BARONS
SPENT YEARS PERFECTING THEIR “HAUTY
FIREPLACE MANTLE LEAN.” An original musical
mystery, The Lumber Baron, will be staged at
The State Theatre.

Mother and son duo Karen and David Hurd are at it again, bringing local history to the stage in their original musical mystery The Lumber Baron.

Set in late 1800s Eau Claire, The Lumber Baron tells the tale of a prominent lumber baron in a time when lumber was the driving industry in the Chippewa Valley. The title character – Daren Cunningham, a wealthy philanthropist and purposefully single man – runs the most prosperous lumber mill in the area. He keeps all of his wealth hidden away, a fact that has become the subject of much intrigue among his fellow lumber barons. The story unfolds as it is discovered through talk among the barons that while business is doing as well as it ever has, all of the lumber mills are losing money.

Among the barons is Suzanne Jameson, a widow who has taken over her husband’s mill. She is desperate to save her failing business and asks Daren to help. Despite his reluctance, he teaches her all of his business tricks and along the way discovers where all the lumber money has gone. Violence, intrigue, and unexpected romance all play a vital role in this historical mystery’s exhilarating conclusion. Starring Ben John as Cunningham and Bethany Ida as Jameson, The Lumber Baron comprises a predominantly local cast and crew.

The play was written by Karen Hurd, a nutritionist, author, director, and playwright from Fall Creek. She has written many other historical musicals about Fall Creek and the Chippewa Valley, including last January’s The Threshing. She is joined by her son, Eau Clairian David Hurd, who recently graduated from UWEC with a degree in piano performance. David composes the melodies to accompany his mother’s lyrics. The two also collaborated on The Threshing as well as many of Karen’s other original productions as a part of Scene and Hurd Productions/Community Arts, an organization that helps both create and advertise their musical works.

All orchestration was done by Dr. Ethan Wickman, a professor of music at UW-Eau Claire and conducting is in the able hands of Ivar Lunde, director of the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra. (Both Lunde and Wickman contributed to The Threshing as well).

Also playing a major part in the production is set designer Matt Rightmire. Matt is the Theatre Scene Shop Supervisor at UWEC and helps design and build sets for the Chippewa Valley Theatre Guild.

Compared to Hurd’s other original musicals, which are based on actual people in the Chippewa Valley’s history, The Lumber Baron’s plot and characters are purely fictional. Hurd wanted to write a mystery that would thrill and entertain audiences and leave them sitting on the edge of their seats. When she was unable to uncover a mystery on which to base the plot, she deviated from her usual research of the Chippewa Valley’s past and created an original enigma that will prove challenging for any audience to crack. Despite this fictional aspect, the setting is true to 1890 Eau Claire, making the show as historically intriguing as any of Karen’s other musicals.

In only two months, Hurd has managed to put together the entire show -- from casting to rehearsing. She has also been heavily promoting the show throughout the area by means of radio commercials, a website (thelumberbaron.org), and billboards. Anyone who saw The Threshing can expect the same high-caliber Broadway-style performance from The Lumber Baron. With talented leads and chorus members, a few of whom have returned from The Threshing’s cast, The Lumber Baron is a “premiere you won’t want to miss!”