Hannah Bakke, who graduated from Concordia in 2017, performs a selection from her musical “The Garden” during a cabaret performance in New York City.

“You can make a career of whatever brings you joy. You’ll be okay.” – Hannah Bakke

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

When Hannah Bakke enrolled at Concordia College 10 years ago, she planned to pursue two goals: To sing in the choir; and to spend her life as an elementary teacher. She’d imagined that future since kindergarten.
But something didn’t feel right. She did join the choir, true; but the education part of her double major didn’t feel, she says, “quite exactly the right fit.”
She loved her second major, philosophy, but couldn’t see a solely philosophical future. Instead, she turned to her professors for advice. “One encouraged me to study something fun,” Hannah remembers. “She told me, ‘You can make a career of whatever brings you joy. You’ll be okay.’”
She took that advice and shifted toward theater, graduating in 2017. This week, that professor’s advice seems even wiser, as Hannah’s first musical, “The Garden,” premiers on the Cargill Stage at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. The curtain goes up at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, and at 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10.
Hannah not only wrote the script and all the songs. She has directed the CTC’s intensive four-week Triple Threat program for high school actors considering careers in theater. “We’ve workshopped it,” she explains, noting that she considers neither her script nor its music entirely finished. Along the way, she and the cast of 20 have discussed and adapted the plot and its parts and even composed an additional, brand-new number.
There’s a touch of Concordia in the script. Based on the Bible story of Adam and Eve, the contemporary plot centers, as expected, around the famed couple, who perform in a bluegrass band at a dive bar called The Garden. The third member of their trio is Lucy – short for Lucifer. Hannah describes the plot as following Eve’s journey, with themes of creation and perfectionism. “She rids herself of the idea that all must be perfect,” as the playwright describes it. “There can be joy in what is messy and imperfect.”
Her music, she says, is very different from the glossy Broadway sound. “I grew up with Peter, Paul and Mary, the Indigo Girls, Nickel Creek …” she muses. “Folk music has a community feeling to it. It’s not specific and polished. Folk music tells stories with grit and weakness. That’s its value.”
“The Garden” is not yet ready to publish for other companies to perform. “We’ve been making changes throughout the rehearsal process. It’s quite different now than it was on July 8, when we conducted auditions. But it has the same heart. After it closes, I’ll make more changes and continue to develop it.”
In the years since graduation, Hannah has worked in a variety of settings. She toured the Southwest for a year with the Missoula Children’s Theater production of “Peter and Wendy,” playing Captain Hook’s bungling second-in-command Smee. Later in Minneapolis, she was a barista by day and teaching artist by night while auditioning for other roles. She also played with Danville, her family’s folk band, along with her aunt, uncle, cousin and sister.
“I got some great acting gigs, and was starting to get bigger roles,” she says. “Then 2020 came around.”
While at home during the COVID pandemic, she began thinking of her early dream to be a “singer, author and teacher.” “I’d sung. I’d taught. Should I try writing now?” she wondered. That notion turned into the earliest songs and draft of “The Garden,” cooked up from what she calls “cosmic breadcrumbs.”
In the meantime, she joined the Children’s Theatre Company as a teaching artist. That’s how her first musical reached the stage:When she performed one of its numbers in the CTC’s annual cabaret-style gathering, education director Ann Joseph-Douglas suggested in for the summer Triple Threat Intensive.
When the curtain falls on this week’s performances, Hannah will return to New York City, where she and her husband moved a few months ago. There, she has already showcased “The Garden” in the Art of the Box Theatrics. She is currently raising money to record a concept album based on the show.
For more information on her work and the progress of “The Garden,” she suggests following @TheGardenMusical on Instagram or hannahbakke on Facebook.