Christina Baldwin News

The Jungle Theater's 2018 summer show is a Jungle coup - the Twin Cities premiere of the rowdy, award-winning Broadway hit, HAND TO GOD, opening July 21. One of the most produced plays of 2016-17, Hand to God features a mild-mannered teen and his spectacularly foul-mouthed puppet in a fast-paced comedic exploration of the fragile nature of faith, morality and the ties that bind. Directed by Jungle Resident Director Christina Baldwin, the "darkly delightful" play (NY Times) runs through August 19 at the Lyn-Lake neighborhood theater, located at 2951 Lyndale Ave. S. in Minneapolis. 

Michelle Hensley, retiring Artistic Director and Founder of Ten Thousand Things, is a gift. A gift to theater, a gift to Minnesota, a gift to the world. She taught us a new way to do theater, a new way to experience theater, one that considers who the audience can and should be, which is everyone. Read her book ALL THE LIGHTS ON if you want to know more about it, or go see her beautiful swan song THE GOOD PERSON OF SZECHWAN, which is also the first play that TTT ever did nearly 30 years ago when Michelle started it in California. We've been lucky enough to have TTT as a vital part of the #TCTheater community for 25 years, a tradition that will continue after Michelle's retirement under the leadership of new Artistic Director Marcela Lorca. One can only hope that all of the artists and audience members she's worked with and influenced in those years will continue on this tradition of inclusive, accessible, imaginative theater that is unlike anything else.

'History is something that we can and should improve upon' sings the modern Major General in an added lyric in this cleverly refreshed production of the Gilbert & Sullivan classic. The laugh-out-loud show remains faithful to the original while integrating historical asides and contemporary political memes, all with a knowing wink at the audience, which had a roaring good time on opening night.

The 2017-18 Ruth Easton New Play Series at the Playwrights' Center continues March 5 and 6 with Core Writer Meg Miroshnik's new play 'Quiver.' The readings begin at 7 p.m. at the Playwrights' Center, located at 2301 E. Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis. They are free, but reservations are recommended and can be made at pwcenter.org.

Park Square continues its 43rd season on the Proscenium Stage with a new adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan's operatic romp The Pirates of Penzance. Inspired by a true story, director Doug Scholz-Carlson has reimagined the perennial favorite that puts the composer themselves smack in the middle of their own farce. The pair's lush score includes some of their most famous songs, including I am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General and Poor Wand'ring One. The production stars local favorites Bradley Greenwald* as the Pirate King and Christina Baldwin* as the Major General.

Writing a sequel to one of the most beloved novels in English literature is a daunting and risky task. Audiences have such attachment to the original, and it could go wrong in so many ways. But playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margo Melcon have gotten it so, so right in their theatrical sequel to Jane Austen's novel PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. In a sparkling new production at Jungle Theater, MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY is very reminiscent of Jane Austen, but also fresh and modern and new. It's a witty, smart, utterly charming new play that celebrates not just literal sisterhood, but women working together and supporting each other, both onstage and behind the scenes. I can think of nothing we need more at this moment in time.

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.

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).