Christina Baldwin News

To close the 2017 Season, the Jungle presents its first holiday show - Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley - by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, directed by Christina Baldwin. Opening on November 18, this enchanting romance reunites Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice characters at the Darcy home for the holidays.

"Refugia" is a Latin term meaning "an area where special circumstances have enabled survival after extinction in surrounding areas." The adventurous theater explorers of The Moving Company (themselves displaced from the renowned Theatre de la Jeune Lune, which closed in 2006) have devised multiple riffs on this idea and related themes, pushing the boundaries of narrative and perhaps, too, of the mainstage Guthrie audiences.

The 2016-17 Ruth Easton New Play Series at the Playwrights' Center continues March 6 and 7 at 7 p.m. with public readings of 'The Sea & The Stars' by Harrison David Rivers.

Core Writer Mat Smart lives in New York now, but spent a handful of years in Minnesota as a Jerome Fellow and a McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights' Center.

Sarah Ruhl's recent play puts a contemporary mother's dilemma at the center of the story. This is not the only radical thing about the show. It also includes depiction of a live birth on stage, carefully staged so as not to offend audience sensibilities. And it steps directly into the treacherous but vital terrain of cross-cultural connection, conflict, and appropriation.

The Jungle's 26th season concludes with the Midwest premiere of THE OLDEST BOY, an astonishing original tale by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl (In the Next Room, The Clean House). Directed by the Jungle's Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen, The Oldest Boy is on stage November 4 through December 18 at the Lyn-Lake neighborhood theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S. in Minneapolis. The lyrical drama with evocative puppetry and live musical elements is being brought to life through a partnership with the Tibetan community of Minneapolis-St. Paul. 

Park Square concludes its 2016-2017 season with the area premiere of Tim Firth's hilarious and heartfelt comedy Calendar Girls. Based on the hit 2003 film, the play explores loss, friendship, and baring it all as a group of women pose in the buff to benefit a local charity. The ensuing media firestorm puts the women's friendship to the test and reveals the love shared by an extraordinary group of women.

It may be spring (almost) outside, but inside Nautilus Music-Theater's tiny studio space in Lowertown St. Paul, it's most definitely September. The kind of September 'where grass is green and grain is yellow,' and 'no one weeps except the willow.' A lovely hopeful youthful September that slowly fades into a wiser, darker, and nostalgic December. While Nautilus is primarily dedicated to developing new works of music-theater, with their newest full production, they are presenting a new take on the longest running musical in the world. 56 years ago, THE FANTASTICKS was just the kind of piece that Nautilus would have developed, supported, and produced - an inventive piece of music-theater storytelling that pushes the envelope of what the genre can do. While that glow of newness and inventiveness has somewhat faded over the years, Nautilus is bringing it back in a new way with age-conscious and gender-conscious casting, and by presenting the piece as it originally was - in an intimate small-scale setting that allows the simple beauty and humor of the piece to shine. With limited seating and only 12 performances, make plans soon for this rare opportunity to see this classic musical performed by some of the Twin Cities best theater artists up close and personal.

Young love is a distant memory when Matt is 64 and Louisa is 72.

On Monday night I attended my 9th Ivey Awards. Yes, even before I started Cherry and Spoon in 2010 and started getting press tickets to the event in 2013, I was still a theater geek (read all the words I've written about the Iveys here). The Ivey Awards are my favorite theater night of the year, not so much for the awards themselves, but because it's a celebration of another year of amazing local theater that gathers all of my favorite theater artists in one room. Even though I've met many of them, I still get starstruck when I walk through the crowd and every other face I see is someone I've enjoyed watching on stage. I love to watch awards shows on TV so it's a thrill to get all glammed up and actually attend one in person. I even painted my toenails with a glittery green called 'One Short Day' - appropriate because of its musical theater geekiness and and because this event that I look forward to all year goes by in a whirlwind of people and honorees and loud music and conversations. And now it's over for another year, but more great theater is still to come which we will be celebrating next year!

The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance presents the new work Refugia, this weekend, February 12-15 at the B. Iden Payne Theatre. An original idea developed by the internationally renowned ensemble The Moving Company,Refugia is an investigation into the lives of those who find themselves at the crossroads of transition, navigating life's margins.

The University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance presents the new work Refugia, February 12-15 at the B. Iden Payne Theatre. An original idea developed by the internationally renowned ensemble The Moving Company,Refugia is an investigation into the lives of those who find themselves at the crossroads of transition, navigating life's margins.

The 10th Anniversary Ivey Awards announced today that Mu Performing Arts Artistic Director Randy Reyes will return as event co-host along with new co-host actor-singer Christina Baldwin, 'a staple in the Twin Cities theater community' (Minnesota Original).

For their annual summer festival, Skylark Opera is presenting the Leonard Bernstein classic operetta Candide and the musical revue Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill.

It's hard to believe with the weather we've had, but summer is just around the corner. And if you're a musical theater fan like I am, it's going to be a great one! Here are a few summer musicals I'm looking forward to this year.

Chanhassen Dinner Theatres will host VOICES FOR HOPE: A Musical Benefit for the Carl Lee Family on its Fireside Stage this evening, July 29th.

Chanhassen Dinner Theatres will host VOICES FOR HOPE: A Musical Benefit for the Carl Lee Family on its Fireside Stage on Monday evening, July 29th.

On Saturday night, BEHOLD: A Gala Performance, honoring 50 years of the Guthrie, took place on the theater's Wurtele Thrust Stage before a packed house. The performance featured a glittering array of contributors including actors and artists linked to all aspects of the Guthrie's past and its vision for the future. BEHOLD, the centerpiece of a weekend that captivated the Twin Cities and marked the long and vital relationship between the Guthrie and the community that it calls home, marked the half-century milestone for the flagship of the American regional theater movement that first opened its doors in 1963.

The Guthrie welcomes 17 accomplished local actors and vocalists who have all appeared on the Guthrie's stages during their careers to complete the artist line-up as the vocal ensemble for BEHOLD: A Gala Performance, honoring 50 years of the Guthrie, tonight, June 22, 2013. Accompanied by a 12-piece orchestra helmed by Musical Director Andrew Cooke, the ensemble will perform songs from some of the greatest musicals of all time, in unexpected ways.

The Guthrie today announced that 17 accomplished local actors and vocalists who have all appeared on the Guthrie's stages during their careers will complete the artist line-up as the vocal ensemble for BEHOLD: A Gala Performance, honoring 50 years of the Guthrie, on Saturday, June 22, 2013. Accompanied by a 12-piece orchestra helmed by Musical Director Andrew Cooke, the ensemble will perform songs from some of the greatest musicals of all time, in unexpected ways.