Sally Wingert is ready to act alone – again.

The Twin Cities actor takes the stage this weekend in Lisa Kron’s one-woman show, “2.5 Minute Ride” at the Minnesota Jewish Theater Company.

“They [one-actor shows] are K2 for actors -- and all actors are mad climbers,” says show director Beth Cleary, who is also the chair of the theater and dance department at Macalester College.  “They love challenge, they love their highly developed imaginations and vocal instruments and physical capacities to be useful, in service of a great story, a complex character, the human condition no less.”

For Cleary, this is the second time she’s directed a show for MJTC – she directed David Gow’s “Cherry Docs” last season. Wingert is no stranger to MJTC either, winning an Ivey award for her work as Peggy Guggenheim in “Woman Before a Glass.”

In Kron’s play, the character describes her life and her family. As the play progresses, she moves deeper into the life of her father – who escaped from Germany in the 1930s – and a visit to Auschwitz.

The roller-coaster metaphor that runs through the work is apt. “Lisa's script is close to the bone -- the bone of the truth of Auschwitz, and the funny bone,” Cleary says.  “And as for balance -- there's no balance on a roller coaster ride, you just hold on and surrender to the big thrill.”

This mixing of the funny and the tragic drew both Cleary and Wingert into the work. The way it is put together “feels so natural,” Wingert says. “It’s not all one way or the other, but embraces all parts of the story.”

“Lisa Kron is a really great writer, with a great sense of theater,” Cleary adds. “Lisa's "ride" resists moral wrap-ups.  The greatness of her writing is in ambiguity, humor and detail.

Bringing this to life is the actor, of course.
 
“Sally Wingert has so much ability as an actor, that my job as a director was just to research details, and make sure there was enough oxygen for the climb -- and climb with her,” Cleary says.

While Wingert has studied the themes in the play – including the Holocaust – in the past, she was aided in her preparations by a “dramaturgical packet” that Cleary put together that delved into the different places and themes of the show.

Wingert is becoming a pro at one-actor shows. Her last production, “Happy Days” at the Guthrie Theater, was nearly all her character, and she has done past solo productions as well. “I think this is my favorite,” she says about “2.5 Minute Ride.”

And in the end, audiences will be engaged by one of the area’s best actors bringing an intriguing show to the stage.
 
“Sally Wingert's inhabitation of Lisa is thorough and beautiful,” Cleary says. “For starters, audiences will witness that, skillful work.  And then they can remember the details of the play, which link to details, forgotten or momentous, in their own lives.  Stories awaken and feed people.”

“2.5 Minute Ride” runs Saturday through May 10 at the Hillcrest Center Theater, 1978 Ford Parkway, St. Paul. Tickets are $16 to $25. For more information, call 651-647-4315 or visit online.