Emily Gunyou Halaas News

Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak and Managing Director Michael Stotts announced today the creative team and cast for Caryl Churchill's provocative comedy Cloud 9, directed by Elizabeth Williamson. The show plays February 23 to March 19.

Two years ago I saw Philip Dawkins' one-act play FAILURE: A LOVE STORY at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and it was one of my favorite things I've ever seen at the Fringe. In fact I called it 'everything I want in theater,' a perfect blend of comedy and tragedy, with tons of heart. At the time I didn't know who Philip Dawkins was, but now I know he's a Chicago-based playwright who is a core writer with the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis. His name has come up again recently when his new play CHARM (also a mix of comedy and tragedy with heart) was produced at Mixed Blood earlier this year. And now comes LE SWITCH, developed at the Playwrights' Center and having a rolling world premiere this year, including at the Jungle Theater. I'm happy to report that like FAILURE, it gave me all of the feels. Like FAILURE, LE SWITCH is a funny and beautiful love story, but not just a romantic love story. It's also a love story between a brother and a sister who are each other's only family; a love story between childhood best friends who, despite their differences, still love and support each other unconditionally; a love story between the main character and a man who was more of a father to him than his biological father ever was or could be. It's a fantastic new play and I'm excited to see where it goes next.

? This summer, the Jungle Theater presents a witty, affectionate and timely comedy about what it means to be committed, alive and in love in the era of marriage equality. LE SWITCH, by "the richly talented Chicago writer" Philip Dawkins (Chicago Tribune), is on stage June 17-July 31 at the Lyn-Lake neighborhood theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave. S. in Minneapolis. The Playwrights' Center Artistic Director Jeremy Cohen makes his directorial debut at the Jungle with this production.

The History Theatre in St. Paul is committed to bringing new plays and musicals to the stage, usually inspired by true events in Minnesota history. Their yearly Raw Stages festival, a series of workshops and readings of new works, often results in full productions in the following season or two. But I often wonder, what happens next? After a new play or musical is developed, produced, and well-received, where does it go? In the case of 2001's WATERMELON HILL, it comes back again 15 years later. As much as I love seeing new works of theater on History Theatre's stage, I'm thrilled that they brought this wonderful old new work back to the stage, giving it a fresh new production. Inspired by historical events, WATERMELON HILL tells the stories of three young women in the mid '60s, pregnant and unmarried, sent in shame to St. Paul's Catholic Infant Home to wait out their pregnancies, deliver their babies, give them up for adoption, and then leave and never look back. Surprisingly light and funny for such a somber topic, the play brings light to the all too familiar tale of the challenges and lack of education and choices facing women in the past, and perhaps to a lesser extant, even today. Along with THE HOW AND THE WHY and NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN, it's another fantastic choice of theater to present during Women's History Month.

Inside Park Square Theatre on 7th Place in lovely downtown St. Paul, magic is happening. It's the magic of storytelling, something that has been happening for ages on this planet. Friends sitting around a campfire, telling stories of good and evil, trials, and friendship, with words, music, dance, puppets, tears, and laughter. This musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson story THE SNOW QUEEN is something truly unique and special. It's so charming, whimsical, funny, creative, and yes, magical. But with a creative team that includes Doug Scholz-Carlson (director), Denise Prosek (music director), and Jim Lichtsheidl (choreographer), I would expect nothing less. They have assembled a terrific eight-person cast of actor/singer/ musicians to bring this charming fairy tale to life in an innovative and inspired way.

Park Square continues its 41st season this month with the new musical spectacular THE SNOW QUEEN adapted and set to music by Michael Smith. Based on the beloved fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen that inspired the Disney movie Frozen, this new and innovative musical uses folk music to tell the age-old tale of the struggle between good and evil, and the girl who finds the strength to triumph. Doug Scholz-Carlson directs this regional premiere, and Denise Prosek serves as musical director. Jamie Kranz* is the stage manager. Talk Theatre called the new musical '... a smart, artful chamber folk opera. It will dazzle you.'

Park Square continues its 41st season this month with the new musical spectacular THE SNOW QUEEN adapted by Michael Peter Smith, Blair Thomas, and Frank Galati. Mr. Smith is also the composer.

The Twin Cities area is well known as a great theater town, so it is a fitting home to one of the nation's most celebrated new play festivals. The 32nd annual PlayLabs festival runs October 12-18 at the Playwrights' Center, a 44-year-old organization that is one of just a handful of play development centers in the country.   

One of the theatrical highlights of the summer, Skylark Opera's Annual Summer Festival, is upon us! As usual, the two shows playing in repertoire include one that's more of a traditional opera (but always in English) and one that skews a bit more towards musical theater: Puccini's LA RONDINE and the Sondheim musical revue PUTTING IT TOGETHER (put together by Sondheim himself). As someone who loves musical theater but doesn't venture into the world of opera very often, Skylark's Summer Festival offers a fun, easy, accessible way to enjoy to dip my toes into the opera scene and indulge my love of musical theater. Both shows are highly entertaining with excellent casts and orchestras. But the runs are short with just four performances of each show. So read on, take your pick, and get your tickets before this all-too-brief Summer Festival is gone like the all-too-brief Minnesota summer!

The 31st annual PlayLabs new play festival runs Monday, October 20 through Sunday, October 26 at the Playwrights' Center. Audiences are invited to readings of new plays by Playwrights' Center Core Writers, brought to life by top actors and incorporating design elements-elevating the staged reading to an intimate art form all its own.

In today's world, we've come to expect action, excitement and big emotion, or displays of it, and it's only getting worse in the age of 'reality TV.' What the public wants, they get. And lots of it. Reality today is oversized, over spent and over wrought.

The Guthrie Theater today announced complete casting for its production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. Guthrie Artistic DirectorJoe Dowling will helm Brian Friel's modern adaptation of the Chekhov classic. First produced at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in 1998, Friel's adaptation renders the language of the play into a modern idiom and offers humor and further developed characters' roles and relationships. Uncle Vanya-a play that has not been performed on the Guthrie stage in nearly 25 years-begins performances on September 14 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage.

The Guthrie Theater previously announced additional performances for its production of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and 2012 Tony Award winner Clybourne Park-a powerhouse contemporary satire about race and gentrification during the past half century in America written by Bruce Norris. The additional performances are today, July 28 at 1:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 4 at 1:00 p.m.

The Guthrie Theater today announced additional performances for its production of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and 2012 Tony Award winner Clybourne Park-a powerhouse contemporary satire about race and gentrification during the past half century in America written by Bruce Norris. The additional performances are Sunday, July 28 at 1:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 4 at 1:00 p.m. Penned in response to Lorraine Hansberry's classic A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne Park has sparked conversation and dialogue across America wherever it has played. Lisa Peterson(Guthrie: Major Barbara, Oedipus) directs this biting American story at the Guthrie after last year's lauded production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

The Guthrie Theater presents its production of 2011 Pulitzer Prize and 2012 Tony Award winner Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris, the biting, powerhouse contemporary satire about race and gentrification during the past half century in America. Written in response to Lorraine Hansberry's classic A Raisin in the Sun, Clybourne Park has sparked conversation and dialogue across America wherever it has played. Lisa Peterson (Guthrie: Major Barbara, Oedipus) returns to direct another great, biting American story at the Guthrie after last year's lauded production of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the production photos below.

Guthrie Theater's summer proscenium production shows how much has changed and how much as stayed the same in the 50 years between acts 1 and 2.

Tonight is opening night at the Guthrie for An Iliad, the single-actor storytelling adaptation of Homer's Greek classic about the siege of Troy, featuring Stephen Yoakam (more than 75 Guthrie productions including a lauded turn as Bertolt Brecht in 2012's Tales from Hollywood and as Creon in 2011's The Burial at Thebes) as The Poet and directed by Benjamin McGovern (The Edge of Our Bodies, Circle Mirror Transformation). An Iliad is written by Lisa Peterson (director of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Guthrie in 2012, as well as the upcoming production of Clybourne Parkopening in June) and Denis O'Hare from a translation of Homer by Robert Fagles.

Theater Latte Da opens its inaugural year of NEXT: New Musicals in the Making with When the Moon Hits Your Eye by Jon Marans.

Theater Latte Da opens its inaugural year of NEXT: New Musicals in the Making with When the Moon Hits Your Eye by Jon Marans.