If downtown buildings could speak to one another, what tales would they tell? What would the Mississippi River write in a poem? What are the life stories of those strangers sitting on that bench across Mears Park?

Questions like these animate Hidden Herald, a new project from Wonderlust Productions, a theater storytelling organization in Frogtown.

Wonderlust Productions co-directors Alan Berks, left, and Leah Cooper are hoping people will look down at their feet so they can see the theater companies Hidden Herald QR stickers around St. Paul. Photographed on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. The local theater company has created 31 short audio plays that can be access by scanning QR codes on large stickers scattered about St. Paul. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

At 31 locations around downtown, a QR code links to a short audio play that takes place in and around the spot you’re standing. The plays all begin with a short intro from Herald, the project’s pigeon mascot, and each only has a runtime between 90 seconds and about six minutes.

“In a sense, you’re eavesdropping on people and places you might see if you were walking around downtown,” said Alan Berks, co-founder of Wonderlust Productions and co-director of the Hidden Herald project. “And ideally, hearing stories that are connected to these people and places will make you see where you’re standing differently.”

Among the plays that comprise Hidden Herald, one introduces us to a trio of immigrant kids at Candyland on Wabasha Street. In another, we meet a squirrel who is plotting a takeover of the city — as soon as it outruns the dog chasing it. Walk across downtown, and we reconnect years later with one of the immigrant children, now being naturalized as a U.S. citizen in a ceremony at Landmark Center.

Outside City Hall, we meet a statue on a journey of self-discovery. There’s a sea shanty about downtown’s underground sewer system, a ghost story at Mears Park, an omniscient Lowertown mural.

“It’s like fictional augmented reality,” Cooper said. “With our audio play and your imagination, you’ll see another layer of possible reality in the spot you’re standing.”

Wonderlust Productions co-directors Alan Berks, left, and Leah Cooper next to one of their Hidden Herald QR stickers near St. Paul’S Union Station on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. The local theater company has created 31 short audio plays called the Hidden Herald that can be listened to by scanning QR codes on large stickers scattered about St. Paul. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Explore the Hidden Herald

There are four ways to interact with Hidden Herald.

First, you can simply stumble upon QR codes on the ground while walking around downtown. Second, you can pay what you can to receive a digital listing of each play’s location. Third, for $25, you can buy a map designed by illustrator Jeff Nelson that includes synopses of each play and lays out walking tours to follow. Fourth, you can explore from home online, regardless of where you live or what accessibility accommodations you need.

The print maps are available for purchase on Wonderlust’s website and can then be picked up in person at Lost Fox or MetroNOME Brewery in Lowertown. (Those are just pickup locations; payment for maps is not accepted in person.)

Berks and Cooper are also hosting a series of events to coincide with Hidden Herald’s opening weekend. Starting at 5 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at MetroNOME, or at 2 p.m Sunday, July 28, at Lost Fox, you can buy discounted print maps and head out for a scavenger hunt to various audio play locations. Completed hunts earn prizes, and playwrights and actors will be there to mingle, too.

Reimagining real life

Wonderlust Productions co-directors Alan Berks, left, and Leah Cooper stand next to one of their Hidden Herald QR stickers near the St. Paul Farmers Market on Wednesday, July 24, 2024. The local theater company has created 31 short audio plays that can be access by scanning QR codes on large stickers scattered about St. Paul. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Hidden Herald, to be clear, is not a historical walking tour of downtown. The stories are creative fiction; there are “no bootlegging gangsters or famous old white dudes,” Cooper joked.

But like all of Wonderlust Productions’ projects, the stories in the series grew out of people’s real life experiences, shared and reimagined to help spark social conversation and change.

Berks and Cooper hold semi-regular “story circles” focused on particular topics — adoption, incarceration, caregiving — where people linked to those communities share their stories and perspectives. Formerly incarcerated people talk to Department of Corrections workers; social workers talk to prison administrators.

Playwrights and other theater-makers then transform these stories into a stage production, which is cast with a mix of professional actors and community members who can reenact different roles in their own stories.

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These stories take on other creative forms, too. Along with a traditional stage production, the adoption project turned into a graphic novel. A project on state governance and activism became a limited-run podcast series in 2023 called “Our House.”

And over the past year, stories from downtown business owners, employees, students, residents, and visitors — infused with a healthy dose of forward-thinking imagination — turned into this inaugural season of Hidden Herald. Wonderlust has already secured funding for a second season of the production, set to debut next summer with a full slate of new stories.

Just by walking around downtown, Cooper said, it’s clear that the area is in the midst of a major transformation.

During the pandemic, as we sat inside with a picture in our minds of what the world outside looked like, that world changed right under our noses, she said.

This can spark some discomfort — and it also means we have an opportunity to rethink our city in big ways, she and Berks said.

“Transitions are fascinating; there’s so much possibility,” Cooper said. “We want to make plays that give people a chance to stand somewhere they thought they knew, and use their imagination to look at what’s possible.”

If You Go

What: Launch events for Hidden Herald, a series of downtown audio plays

When and where: 5 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at MetroNOME (385 Broadway St.) or at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 28, at Lost Fox (213 E. 4th St.)

Activities include: Scavenger hunts around downtown inspired by stories in the Hidden Herald series, prizes and a chance to meet playwrights and actors

Cost: Maps with walking tours of the whole series are discounted for $15 at the launch events; regularly $25

More info: wlproductions.org/hidden-herald/

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Today is Friday, July 27, the 209th day of 2024. There are 157 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On July 27, 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed at Panmunjom, ending three years of fighting on the Korean peninsula that killed an estimated 4 million people.

Also on this date:

In 1789, President George Washington signed a measure establishing the Department of Foreign Affairs, forerunner of the Department of State.

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Today in History: July 26, Americans with Disabilities Act signed into law

Today in History: July 25, Tuskegee Syphilis Study exposed

Today in History: July 24, Apollo 11 returns home from the moon

Today in History: July 23, the 1967 Detroit riot begins

Today in History: July 22, First solo around-the-world flight

In 1866, Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe.

In 1909, during the first official test of the U.S. Army’s first airplane, Orville Wright flew himself and a passenger, Lt. Frank Lahm, above Fort Myer, Virginia, for one hour and 12 minutes.

In 1940, Billboard magazine published its first “music popularity chart” listing best-selling retail records. In first place was “I’ll Never Smile Again” recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, with featured vocalist Frank Sinatra.

In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to adopt the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, charging he had personally engaged in a course of conduct designed to obstruct justice in the Watergate case.

In 1980, on day 267 of the Iranian hostage crisis, the deposed Shah of Iran died at a military hospital outside Cairo, Egypt, at age 60.

In 1981, 6-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted from a department store in Hollywood, Fla., and was later murdered (Adam’s father, John Walsh, subsequently became a victim’s rights activist and, in 1988, launched and hosted the television show “America’s Most Wanted”).

In 1996, terror struck the Atlanta Olympics as a pipe bomb exploded at Centennial Olympic Park, directly killing one person and injuring 111. (Anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph later pleaded guilty to the bombing, exonerating security guard Richard Jewell, who had been wrongly suspected.)

In 2012, Britain opened its Olympic Games in a celebration of Old England and new, even cheekily featuring a stunt double for Queen Elizabeth II parachuting with James Bond into Olympic Stadium.

In 2013, security forces and armed men clashed with supporters of Egypt’s ousted president, Mohammed Morsi, killing at least 80 people.

In 2015, the Boy Scouts of America ended its blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion for religious reasons.

In 2018, the White House announced that North Korea had returned the remains of what were believed to be U.S. servicemen killed during the Korean War, with a U.S. military plane making a rare trip into North Korea to retrieve 55 cases of remains.

In 2020, the world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine study began with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers helping to test shots created by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc.

In 2021, American gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of the gymnastics team competition at the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her mental well-being, saying she realized following a shaky vault that she wasn’t in the right headspace to compete.

Today’s Birthdays:

Singer-songwriter Bobbie Gentry is 82.
Actor-director Betty Thomas is 77.
Olympic gold medal figure skater Peggy Fleming is 76.
Singer Maureen McGovern is 75.
Comedian-actor-writer Carol Leifer is 68.
Comedian Bill Engvall is 67.
Actor-martial artist Donnie Yen is 61.
Jazz singer Karrin Allyson is 61.
Rock musician Juliana Hatfield is 57.
Actor Julian McMahon is 56.
Former professional wrestler Triple H is 55.
Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (NIH’-koh-lye KAH’-stur WAHL’-dah) is 54.
Comedian Maya Rudolph is 52.
Rock musician Abe Cunningham (Deftones) is 51.
Singer-songwriter Pete Yorn is 50.
Former MLB All-Star Alex Rodriguez is 49.
Actor Jonathan Rhys (rees) Meyers is 47.
Actor/comedian Heidi Gardner (TV: “Saturday Night Live”) is 41.
Actor Taylor Schilling is 40.
MLB All-Star pitcher Max Scherzer is 40.
Golfer Jordan Spieth is 31.

Minnesota United started Leagues Cup in a similar vein to how they paused MLS play last week — without several key players available.

For the Loons, it got worse in the 65th minute Friday when Hassani Dotson was sent off with a red card.

The 10-men Loons on held for 87 minutes, thanks in large part to goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair, but Seattle forward Jordan Morris and Paul Rothrock scored late to give the Sounders a 2-0 win in the Leagues Cup West Group 6 group play at Lumen Field on Friday.

MNUFC will play Mexican club Necaxa at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Allianz Field. Necaxa and Seattle will Aug. 4 in Washington. The top two teams advance to the knockout stages in the second week of August.

Despite St. Clair’s nine saves, including a denial of Albert Rusnak on a penalty kick in stoppage time, the Loons have lost all 10 matches in Seattle since 2017,

MNUFC started a back line with three inexperienced players, including rookie Hugo Bacharach getting his first start since April, converted central midfielder Carlos Harvey and MNUFC2 attacker Loic Mesanvi. Morris Duggan, another MLS rookie, replaced Bacharach at halftime.

That was a challenge against an experienced front line from Seattle, which included Jordan Morris, Albert Rusnak and Pedro de la Vega.

Both teams had scoring chances in the first half, with Dayne St. Clair stepping up to make four saves, while Minnesota’s attacks broke down before reaching a shot on target.

The Loons best chance came from the head of Bongi Hlongwane in the 25th minute. Off a cross from Joseph Rosales, Hlongwane’s header went off the bar.

Briefly

The Loons on Friday were nearing the finalization of two summer transfer window additions: forward Kervin Yeboah and defender Jefferson Diaz, a source told Pioneer Press. … Mesanvi, who was called up on short-term loan from MNUFC2, received his first start with the first team on Friday. The Lakeville South graduate hasn’t played for first team since March. … MNUFC came into Leagues Cup with an overall ranking of 32nd out of 47 clubs in the field. Seattle is 13th, Necaxa 44th. … Dotson’s red card came from a hard tackle of Seattle striker Raul Ruidiaz, who limped off the field four minutes later, while Dotson also will be suspended for Tuesday’s match in St. Paul. … MNUFC played without Robin Lod, Sang Bin Jeong, Michael Boxall, Wil Trapp and DJ Taylor.