Presented by Playable Artworks

• Drama
• Experimental

Erin Olson is a fourth generation medium, a person who talks to spirits. Unfortunately, her recent death has hindered her ability to work. Now she needs an assistant, a conduit to the living world. You're invited to interview for this position. Come along and try your hand at contacting the spirit realm, but know that whether or not the spirits can be put to rest is up to you. This audio-driven, site-specific adventure for a single audience member takes you around the West Bank neighborhood, and is powered by an interactive app.

Second Skin makes you the protagonist in an interactive horror adventure. Wear comfy shoes, bring your cell phone, and dress for the weather, because your journey will take you away from the safety of the Southern Theater. Ticket holders will also have access to extra pre-show materials set in the world of the play, which can offer a different perspective on the story.

You must book your ticket in advance for this experience. No tickets will be available at the door. Answers to FAQs can be found here.

Accessibility: the route of Second Skin involves ascending a flight of steps. If you need step-free or wheelchair accessible access, we have an alternate route available for performances before 4pm on Saturday, or e-mail info@playableartworks.org to make other arrangements. Other accessibility requests can be addressed to the same email.

Second Skin is intended to be experienced solo. If you have concerns about exploring the West Bank on your own, we invite you to purchase a Buddy System pass. This will admit you and a friend to the show. Note that one person will be driving the experience, and the other will be listening in, kind of like a ghost following you around. If you want to experience the show alone, select a "Solo" $20 ticket. E-mail info@playableartworks.org with questions.

​Performances take place frequently throughout the Festival. A full schedule is available here.

Read more

Presented by Stages Theatre Company

• Kids

FISH IN A TREE

OCTOBER 5 – 28, 2018

GREAT MINDS DON’T ALWAYS THINK ALIKE
WORLD PREMIERE

AGES 7 and Up

FISH IN A TREE By Lynda Mullaly Hunt. Published by Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group LLC.

“Everybody is a genius . But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein.”  Sixth-grader, Ally, has been clever in covering up her inability to read. She feels her problem is hopeless because how can you cure dumb? Her newest teacher, Mr. Daniels, however, sees the bright and creative kid she hides and helps Ally see that her dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. This emotionally-charged and uplifting story highlights that everyone is more than a label and great minds don’t always think alike. Our world premiere adaptation is brought to life in our JC Studio this fall.

CAST

In alphabetical order: Halima Bigirindavyi (Shay), Dominic Dunn (Albert), Gretchen Emo (Mom), Amy Horn (Ming Bao), Reilly McGannon (Jessica), Alison Mitchell (Ali), Matt Ouren (Mr Daniels), Natalie Richardson-Wymore (Miranda), Spencer Snyder (Max), Jonah Stelljes (Oliver), Jack Sullivan (Travis), Tiahna Wolfe-Shields (Keisha), and Victoria Zamorano (Maya)

CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM

Artistic Director: Sandy Boren-Barrett
Director: Matt Sciple
Stage Manager: Kenji Shoemaker
Production Manager: Melanie Salmon-Peterson
Props Designer: Kim Ford
Lighting Designer: Grant E. Merges
Sound Designer: Peter Morrow
Technical Director: Alan Pagel
Costume & Make Up Designer: Stacey Palmer
Set Designer: Erica Zaffarano

Read more

Presented by Guthrie Theater

• Drama

Adapted by Minnesota playwright Barbara Field from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (celebrating its 200th anniversary this year), this captivating retelling of the classic tale imagines a meeting between a dying Frankenstein and his creation in the Arctic Circle. As Frankenstein prepares to right his greatest wrong by confronting the Creature, scenes from their past are replayed and the line between good and evil is debated, revealing a powerful and agonizing question that interrogates the ethical limits of science and human imagination.

Read more

Presented by Stages Theatre Company

• Kids

FISH IN A TREE

OCTOBER 5 – 28, 2018

GREAT MINDS DON’T ALWAYS THINK ALIKE
WORLD PREMIERE

AGES 7 and Up

FISH IN A TREE By Lynda Mullaly Hunt. Published by Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Group LLC.

“Everybody is a genius . But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” – Albert Einstein.”  Sixth-grader, Ally, has been clever in covering up her inability to read. She feels her problem is hopeless because how can you cure dumb? Her newest teacher, Mr. Daniels, however, sees the bright and creative kid she hides and helps Ally see that her dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of. This emotionally-charged and uplifting story highlights that everyone is more than a label and great minds don’t always think alike. Our world premiere adaptation is brought to life in our JC Studio this fall.

CAST

In alphabetical order: Halima Bigirindavyi (Shay), Dominic Dunn (Albert), Gretchen Emo (Mom), Amy Horn (Ming Bao), Reilly McGannon (Jessica), Alison Mitchell (Ali), Matt Ouren (Mr Daniels), Natalie Richardson-Wymore (Miranda), Spencer Snyder (Max), Jonah Stelljes (Oliver), Jack Sullivan (Travis), Tiahna Wolfe-Shields (Keisha), and Victoria Zamorano (Maya)

CREATIVE & PRODUCTION TEAM

Artistic Director: Sandy Boren-Barrett
Director: Matt Sciple
Stage Manager: Kenji Shoemaker
Production Manager: Melanie Salmon-Peterson
Props Designer: Kim Ford
Lighting Designer: Grant E. Merges
Sound Designer: Peter Morrow
Technical Director: Alan Pagel
Costume & Make Up Designer: Stacey Palmer
Set Designer: Erica Zaffarano

Read more

Presented by Sidekick Theatre

• Comedy
• Musical

BOOK, MUSIC, AND LYRICS BY MIKE CRAVER AND MARK HARDWICK

Set in the 1920s when radio ruled the airwaves and small stations thrived, Radio Gals is a charming musical about Hazel Hunt from Cedar Ridge, Arkansas, who broadcasts from her front parlor with her “all-girl” orchestra, “The Hazelnuts”, as radio WGAL. What comes over the local airwaves is an array of hilarious toe-tapping songs. However, Hazel’s broadcasts are not always so local due to her habit of impinging on other frequencies, like NBC’s, attracting the attention of a federal radio inspector who’s intent on shutting down WGAL. It turns out though, he has a fine tenor voice, plays a mean accordion and quickly becomes enchanted by the “Hazelnuts”

From the creators of Pump Boys and Dinettes. 

Read more

Presented by Lyric Arts Main Street Stage

• Drama

By Yasmina Reza
Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Scott Ford

In this hilarious dark comedy, a playground altercation between eleven-year old boys brings together two sets of parents for a meeting to resolve the matter. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses—and the rum flows—tensions emerge and the gloves come off, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.

Winner of the 2009 Tony Award for Best Play, God of Carnage dives into the deep end of parenthood, exploring the tense and volatile world we live in with cutting wit and poignant observations on the fragile nature of civility.

Read more

Presented by Park Square Theatre

• Drama

Susan B. Anthony, a famed suffragette, and Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became a renowned civil rights leader, were friends and allies–and sometimes, adversaries. This is the story of their enduring and tempestuous 45-year friendship, from the Civil War through the changing of the Constitution. They agitated the nation, they agitated each other and today, they challenge and inspire us.

Read more

Presented by Trademark Theater

• Drama

Chris and Julie are young, married, liberal, and struggling. After the bizarre disappearance of their dog Jack, their relationship fractures and sends them each on a crash course with strangers who hold vastly different worldviews. As they search for answers in a world divided by politics and unflinching beliefs, they start to wonder, “Is it ever possible to truly understand someone?”

Written by Tyler Mills
Directed by Tyler Michaels

Featuring Sasha Andreev and Adelin Phelps

SOMA STUDIOS - 79 13th Ave NE, Studio 212, Minneapolis, MN, 55413 

OCTOBER 3rd - October 28th

Read more

Presented by Guthrie Theater

• Drama

Adapted by Minnesota playwright Barbara Field from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (celebrating its 200th anniversary this year), this captivating retelling of the classic tale imagines a meeting between a dying Frankenstein and his creation in the Arctic Circle. As Frankenstein prepares to right his greatest wrong by confronting the Creature, scenes from their past are replayed and the line between good and evil is debated, revealing a powerful and agonizing question that interrogates the ethical limits of science and human imagination.

Read more

Presented by Freshwater Theatre

• Drama
• Comedy

Mary is hiding in the bathroom, but not from her blind date. Precocious teenager Lucy is pushing her best friend (and soon-to-be stepmother) Jane into the bathroom to have a heart-to-heart about Lucy's father. Lydia finds herself in the bathroom holding a drenched silk blouse, considering her options.

Join us for three one-act plays that invite audiences into the most public, yet intimate, of settings. Poignant and hilarious, Preferred by Discreet Women Everywhere takes place in a single evening in the posh restroom of an upscale Minneapolis bistro- a place where people celebrate life’s big moments, and encounter various crossroads in their lives - moments of celebration, distress, and transition. Sometimes, all three.

Read more

Presented by University of Minnesota Theatre Arts and Dance

• Drama

FML: how Carson McCullers saved my life
By Sarah Gubbins
Directed by Kym Longhi
Presented on the Larry Liu Stage in the Kilburn Theatre

Jo is in her junior year of high school in LaGrange, Illinois. She develops an ambiguous relationship with Emma, the new transfer student. She is assigned to read The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and immediately identifies with the main character as an outsider that is perpetually misunderstood. FML: how Carson McCullers saved my life is a story about the transformative power of literature to alter the way we view the larger world, finding a sense of belonging and being true to yourself even when others tell you not to. Minnesota Premiere.

Estimated Run Time: 90 Minutes
Tickets: $7 Students, $12 Faculty/Staff/Alumni, $17 Public

Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois.

Tickets and additional information at z.umn.edu/FML18

Read more

Presented by The Chameleon Theatre Circle

• Drama

“I must be crazy to be in a loony bin like this,” states Randall P. McMurphy in the captivating and controversial One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. To avoid a long prison sentence, McMurphy is able to get himself committed to a mental institution, but it’s far from the easy stint he had hoped. Under the sharp eye of Nurse Ratched, McMurphy struggles with the darkness within himself and the patients around him. Racism, sexism, and power will all collide in this contemporary classic.

 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Dale Wasserman runs October 19-November 11, 2018 at the Black Box Theatre at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. It is directed by Lauren Diesch.

Read more

Presented by Open Eye Figure Theatre

• Drama
• Comedy

Michael Sommers’ critically acclaimed puppet epic returns to the stage! Inspired by Sommers’ longtime obsession with Goethe’s dramatic poem about a man who sells his soul to the devil, A PRELUDE TO FAUST conjures a miniature surreal world of tormented souls, flying spirits and disembodied hands. With virtuosic puppetry and an original score by Michael Koerner performed with a live orchestra, this landmark production is not to be missed!

"Not only is it the sort of show one regrets ending, it's tempting to come back the next night and see what unlikely moments one missed the first time. Apparently the devil really is in the details." - Quinton Skinner, City Pages (2007)

"It appears to be a puppet show, but it's much more than that. It's a social comedy, a morality tale, with some surrealism in the shape of flying human hearts thrown in for good measure." - Euan Kerr, MPR (2007)

A PRELUDE TO FAUST was commissioned by the Walker Art Center in 1998 and was the first production in Open Eye’s historic theatre in 2007. FAUST was also performed at the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater in 2000. Open Eye co-founder Michael Sommers wrote the show after researching the Faust story in Germany and the Czech Republic.

Like any myth, meaning shifts over time, as it has in Sommers’ representation of the immortal tale since the last production more than a decade ago. With this latest production of A PRELUDE TO FAUST, Sommers explores more ecstatic violence and a more intensely heartbreaking love story.

Read more

Presented by Smartmouth Comedy

• Comedy

Our sell out hit "Who Killed Ariel?: A Princess Murder Mystery" is back for 4 weekends! It's Rapunzel’s bachelorette party, all her best gal pals are in attendance; Cinderella, Mulan, Tiana, and Belle. Everything is going fine until the unanimously disliked Ariel crashes the party and is stabbed to death with the very fork she gifted Rapunzel. A classic who-done-it with classic characters in a not-so-classic setting!

Written by Kelliann Kary & Audrey Callerstrom

Read more

Presented by Commonweal Theatre Company

• Drama

When the Lord of the Vampires departs Transylvania for the bustling life of Victorian London, a small circle of friends is the only line of defense against his hideous thirst. Will any of them live to see the light of day? Adapted from the Bram Stoker novel by Commonweal’s own master of horror, Scott Dixon, and directed by Twin Cities Ivey Award-winner Craig Johnson, Dracula: Prince of Blood takes a fresh look at the seductive fiend who has lurked in the shadows for more than a century.

Read more

Presented by Ten Thousand Things

• Comedy

Scapin

By Molière

October 11 – November 4

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm

Sundays at 4pm

$20 tickets Oct 11-14;  $30 for subsequent shows. Pay What You Can for all shows.

Guest directed by Randy Reyes

Featuring Sarah Agnew, Ricardo Beaird, Elise Langer, Kris Nelson, Kimberly Richardson and Karen Wiese-Thompson

A raucous comedy about love, revenge, family dynamics, deception and greed. Through a fast-paced delivery, questions of class divisions and entitlement are peeled in front of our eyes: Who has the upper hand in the end? Those with wit or those with money? Those who are generous or those who are greedy?

Read more

Presented by Segue Productions

• Drama

Segue Productions presents

Denial

by Peter Sagal

October 19-28, 2018

Facing federal prosecution, a Holocaust denier turns to a brilliant Jewish lawyer to represent him. She accepts the case and becomes embroiled in a wrenching moral struggle as she must resolve for herself the difference between what is legal and what is right.

"There is darkness in all of us. Something that hates, something that could cause people to hate us, maybe, if they knew about it."

"They had been waiting to hear this message all their lives, that they were not wrong, at long last, to wonder."

"These books of Mr. Cooper's are each arrows in a wounded heart."

"You told a story about me. So beautiful it was, even I wept."

Truth. Lies. Law. Hate. DENIAL.

Denial is presented by special arrangement with The Dramatic Publishing Company of Woodstock, Illinois.

Online ticket sales end 4 hours prior to each performance. Tickets are still available at the door!

Read more

Presented by Brave New Workshop

• Comedy
• Improv

With all the craziness going on in the world, wouldn’t you like a day off, too? Play hooky with us at our hilarious new sketch comedy revue, as we continue our 60th anniversary season with trademark BNW political satire!

After all - life moves pretty fast.

If you don't stop and laugh once in a while, you could miss it.

"Ferris Mueller's Day Off" features all-star performers Lauren Anderson, Denzel Belin, Ryan Nelson, Tom Reed, and Taj Ruler; with musical direction by Jon Pumper and technical direction by Matthew Vichlach. Directed by Caleb McEwen.

Read more

Presented by Chanhassen Dinner Theatres

• Musical

Nothing but blue skies ahead when Jim turns his new farmhouse into an entertainment venue and inn during the holidays. Together with the lovely schoolteacher Linda, they celebrate seven holidays with dazzling song-and-dance performances sure to warm your heart.

Read more