Ansa Akyea

The Guthrie Theater today announced the cast and creative team for Sweat, written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed by Tamilla Woodard. Sweat will play July 16 – August 21, 2022, on the McGuire Proscenium Stage.

MN Black Theatre Circle, in partnership with the Guthrie Theater, will present Blackness Is…, a theater-inspired arts festival to be streamed May 21–22 at 7:30 p.m. and May 23 at 7 p.m. CDT. Over the course of three days, the festival will offer a dynamic and diverse showcase of theater, music, dance, poetry and spoken word.

While the theater field remains uncertain yet cautiously optimistic that 2021 will see a return to in-person performances, there is no uncertainty around the systemic inequalities that have been exposed and amplified during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic 'business as usual' will not be enough when theaters open their doors again.

Colt Coeur's 4-show fall season continues on November 21st, with a livestream performance reuniting  the 2019 world premiere cast of Stacey Rose's award-winning America v. 2.1, directed by Logan Vaughn. The cast includes Ansa Akyea, Jordan Barrow, Kalyne Coleman, Peterson Townsend & Peggy Pharr Wilson. Choreography/movement is by Kevin Boseman, sound design by Luqman Brown, and Norman Anthony Small stage manages. 

Children's Theatre Company will present two digital productions this fall that were critically acclaimed from past seasons-Corduroy running October 12 through 24, 2020 and Last Stop on Market Street running November 9 through 21, 2020.

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan has adapted the drama, 'The Investigation: A Search for the Truth in Ten Acts' from former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report.  This edited 80-minute version focuses primarily on Mueller's findings around whether President Trump obstructed justice. Artistic Directors and theatrical talent from throughout the Twin Cities are donating their time and imagination to bring this report alive.  The event is free and open to all.  Come participate in the shaping of our country's future.

The Guthrie Theater presents the perennial holiday favorite A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, adapted by Crispin Whittell and directed by Lauren Keating. A Twin Cities holiday tradition for many, this season marks the Guthrie's 45th production, making it the longest run of A Christmas Carol in regional theater history. 

The Guthrie Theater presents the perennial holiday favorite A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens, adapted by Crispin Whittell and directed by Lauren Keating. A Twin Cities holiday tradition for many, this season marks the Guthrie's 45th production, making it the longest run of A Christmas Carol in regional theater history. 

Playwright Dominique Morisseau is a gifted rising voice in the theater, recognized with a 2018 Macarthur 'Genius' Grant. Her straight play PIPELINE centers contemporary lives we see on stage too rarely: an anguished black mother trying to keep her teenage son safe, and her financially successful ex-husband, estranged from both of them. Because Morisseau drops us into both public and private school dilemmas for people of color, we gain insight into the deep inequities in our educational systems in this country, though this never feels like an 'issue play' for two reasons: there is no grasping for simple resolutions and the characters are so thoroughly imagined.

The world premiere of America V. 2.1: The Sad Demise and Eventual Extinction of the American Negro is running now through June 30 at the Barrington Stage Company's St. Germain Stage.

This bold, brave, important, timely, and highly relevant story is a cautionary tale. In the spirit of Brave New World, 1984, and Fahrenheit 451 it is set in a dystopian society but as Playwright Stacey Rose, who was awarded the grand prize in BSC's Bonnie & Terry Burman New Play Award of 2019 for this piece, points out - in the 'not too distant future'. It has a lot to say.

BroadwayWorld has a first look at America v. 2.1 at Barrington Stage! Check out production photos!

Barrington Stage Company announced today casting for its 25th Anniversary season. Casting will include Elijah Alexander, Mara Davi, Carson Elrod, Joel de la Fuente, Mykal Kilgore, Alyse Alan Louis, Kate MacCluggage, Jeff McCarthy, Julia Murney, Jonathan Raviv, Debra Jo Rupp and more. Full casting for the 25th Anniversary season is below.

Recognizing auto design as a great American art form, the disappearance of car cruising as spectator sport, and the growth of autonomous vehicles, Mixed Blood presents AUTONOMY in which auto enthusiasts, theater aficionados, and climate change activists will be transformed. Intimate groups depart every ten minutes for two hours, winding through the snaking path of this environmental thriller, hearing the scenes through ear buds, and getting a tour through Detroit and Silicon Valley as they whiz through this car-based play which foreshadows the most seismic change in transportation history, that may just solve the global climate crisis.

Dancing and energizing music imbue life with joy in the Midwest premiere of Children's Theater Company's Last Stop on Market Street this September. Produced as a co-commission with Chicago Children's Theatre and based on the Newbery Award Winning book written by Matt de la Peña, Last Stop on Market Street charms and delights audiences. Directed by Henry Godinez, this exuberant production recreates the adventures a seven year old boy encounters when he visits his Nana for the weekend. Nana lives in a neighborhood teeming with a wide variety of personalities and new experiences CJ is unfamiliar with and often wary of--Including the reggae music and 'laying some sugar on his Nana,'which Nana then explains means to kiss her. 

The Old Globe, together with Children's Theatre Company (CTC), and in partnership with The Old Vic, today updated information for Dr. Seuss's The Lorax in its U.S. premiere. The production, based on the book The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, is adapted for the stage by David Greig (Artistic Director of Royal Lyceum Theatre Company; recent work: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Cover My Tracks) with music and lyrics written by Charlie Fink (front man/songwriter for the hit musical group Noah and the Whale, 2007-2015).

The McKnight Theater Artist Fellowships at the Playwrights' Center recognize Minnesota theater artists other than playwrights whose work demonstrates exceptional artistic merit. The fellowship provides a $25,000 award as well as access to $7,000 in development funds. Selection is based on a commitment to theater arts, evidence of professional achievement and a sustained level of excellence in the applicant's work.

Each year, the Playwrights' Center serves as an artistic home for nearly 40 fellows and Core Writers, in addition to supporting 2,000+ member playwrights across the globe and partnering with producing theaters to move work from page to stage. The Center today announced the 2018-19 Jerome Fellows Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Casey Llewellyn and Philana Imade Omorotionmwan; Many Voices Fellows Marvin Gonzalez De Leon and Haygen-Brice Walker; and Many Voices Mentee Antonio Duke.

Unless. What a powerful word. So many scary things might happen. Unless. Unless what, you ask? 'Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.' The best thing to happen lately in this dark and scary world is people caring a whole awful lot about things, and taking to the streets and the polls to make them better. That's the heart of Dr. Seuss's story THE LORAX, which specifically is talking about the environment, nature, the wilderness around us. The Old Vic Theatre in London has turned this beautiful story into a charming, playful, and poignantly relevant musical that is now receiving its US premiere at Minneapolis' Children's Theatre Company (in conjunction with San Diego's Old Globe Theatre, where it will play this summer). It gave me all the feels, and had me walking down the street on this first truly spring-like day in wonder. Such is the power of theater, of stories, of people who care a whole awful lot.

Children's Theatre Company (CTC) together with The Old Globe (San Diego) in partnership with The Old Vic (London) today announced details for the Minneapolis and San Diego productions of Dr. Seuss's The Lorax, based on the book The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. The musical is adapted for the stage by David Greig (Artistic Director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company; recent work: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Cover My Tracks) with music and lyrics written by Charlie Fink (Frontman/songwriter for the hit musical group, Noah and the Whale (2007-2015)). The musical will have its U.S. premiere at CTC followed by an immediate transfer to The Old Globe in San Diego. H. Adam Harris, combined with Meghan Kreidler and Rick Miller puppeteering, will play The Lorax. Joining them is Steven Epp as The Once-ler. Playing multiple roles in the ensemble are Ansa Akyea, Christopher Becknell, Stephanie Bertumen, Brian Bose, Ryan Colbert, Lynnea Doublette, Johannah "Joh" Easley, Rajane Katurah, Ryan Lear, Ryan Dean Maltz, Emily Michaels King and CTC Company Member Autumn Ness. See below for complete bio information.