Thomasina Petrus News

Dreaming of a white Christmas? You're getting that triple-fold this weekend as Minnesota gives us a white blanket and the Ordway's WHITE CHRISTMAS also brings some snow inside the theatre. You're also getting a new face on the Ordway stage as Jenny Piersol plays Judy Haynes in this holiday classic. Get to know Piersol in this edition of 6 Questions & a Plug.

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is excited to present its 2016 holiday show, Irving Berlin's White Christmas. The Ordway-produced musical will run Dec. 8-31 for a total of 30 performances.

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts is excited to present its 2016 holiday show, Irving Berlin's White Christmas. The Ordway-produced musical will run Dec. 8-31 for a total of 30 performances.

The Playwrights' Center's 45th anniversary season kicks off October 17 with PlayLabs, a week-long new play festival featuring Core Writers Christina Ham ('West of Central'), Susan Soon He Stanton ('we, the invisibles') and Ken Urban ('The Remains'). Tickets are free and can be reserved at pwcenter.org/playlabs.

Since its founding in 1971, the Playwrights' Center has been imagining theater forward. For decades it has been one of the nation's most important organizations for developing new plays and launching the careers of playwrights.

James Rocco and the Ordway's BROADWAY SONGBOOK delves into KANDER & EBB & ALL THAT JAZZ with a three-day run of this popular cabaret series that leaves you with knowledge, tapping toes and a smile on your face. Find out more about the production from Rocco himself and hurry for your tickets this weekend.

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts continues its Broadway Songbook series today, June 10 through June 12 with Kander & Ebb & All That Jazz. Tickets are $37 and can be purchased online at www.ordway.org, by phone at 651-224-4222 or in person at the Ordway ticket office.

The Playwrights' Center is pleased to announce the 2016-17 recipients of the McKnight Theater Artist Fellowships:

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts will continue its popular Broadway Songbook series June 10-12 with Kander & Ebb & All That Jazz.

I know next to nothing about jazz singer and Civil Rights activist Nina Simone. But I do know Regina Marie Williams, Aimee K. Bryant, Thomasina Petrus, and Traci Allen Shannon, the four women starring in the new play based on Nina's song 'Four Women.' So I knew I was in for a treat and an education with Park Square Theatre's world premiere of NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN. I was not wrong on either count. Proving once again that everything I know I learned from theater, I now have a greater understanding of the remarkable and talented woman that was Nina Simone, as well as the importance of her music and her voice in the Civil Rights movement. And watching these particular four women, some of the best voices and actors we have here in the Twin Cities, bring full and complicated life to the Peaches, Auntie, Saffronia, and Sweet Thing of Nina's song, is a treat of the highest order.

Watching the news can make one feel discouraged and hopeless about the state of the world, with increasing violence around the world and in our own neighborhoods. At Pillsbury House Theatre, they're trying to make some sense of it and provide a bit of hope by preaching THE GOSPEL OF LOVINGKINDESS, a new play by Marcus Gardley. It's beautifully and poetically written, full of life and humor that balances out the devastation and death of the situation. It's heavy, and not easy to watch at times, but so worthwhile and necessary. THE GOSPEL OF LOVINGKINDESS is one of those plays that is about so much more than theater.

Gary Hines, an accomplished talent who's best known for his 45-year career with The Sounds of Blackness, is music director for the acclaimed run of THE COLOR PURPLE at St. Paul's Park Square Theater. We got to know a little more about this production and Gary in this BWW Interview.

At first glance, the musicals THE COLOR PURPLE, CALVIN BERGER, and LA CAGE AUX FOLLES may not seem to have much in common. The settings couldn't be more different - the rural South in the early 20th century, a modern day high school, and a drag club in 1970s France. But since I happened to see them all on the same weekend, I couldn't help but draw parallels between them. All three musicals all speak to themes of beauty, identity, self-worth, and having the courage to be who you really are, despite what the world is telling you. In THE COLOR PURPLE, a young, poor, black woman is told that she's ugly and worthless, but after a lifelong journey she arrives at a place of strength and self-love. CALVIN BERGER sets the classic play Cyrano de Bergerac in a modern high school, where a young man feels that his large nose prevents him from getting what he wants in life and chooses to hide behind the handsome popular guy, both of whom eventually learn it's better to be loved for who you are. Finally, in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, a middle aged man who feels more comfortable dressed as a woman is asked by his own son to hide who he is, but confidently declares 'I am who I am!' Another thing these three musicals have in common is that they can all currently be seen on Twin Cities stages featuring talented local casts. Read on for more details on each, pick one that suits your fancy, and go see a local musical that just may inspire you to love you you really are!

Park Square Theatre will produce the musical The Color Purple featuring a cast of 20 actors, a live orchestra, and some of the finest talent in the Twin Cities on its Proscenium Stage January 16 - February 15, 2015.

With Sexy Laundry opening tonight, the entire cast roster for the theatre's biggest season is almost complete. Nearly 300 Minnesota artists - including actors, directors, designers and technical operators - will mount 18 productions on two stages. The season lineup confirms Park Square's commitment to the work of women writers like Amy Herzog, Michele Riml and Alice Walker. The casting emphasizes Park Square as a home for local artists of color, from returning favorites like James A. Williams, T. Mychael Rambo and Regina Williams to dozens of debuts like Dominique Wooten, Kurt Kwan and Sarah Ochs.

Harper Lee's Pulitzer-prize winning classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, returns to Park Square after sold-out performances in 2011. Set in a small town in Alabama in 1935, it is a story of one man's pursuit of justice in a climate of racial inequality. The novel's hero Atticus Finch serves as an iconic inspiration for tolerance and integrity; his eight-year-old daughter Scout remains among the most beloved young characters in literature with her pluck, smarts and willingness to understand the perspectives of others. Directed by David Mann, this large-scale staging of Christopher Sergel's adaptation includes a gospel chorus and an evocative set designed by Joel Sass. To Kill a Mockingbird is on stage for eight general audience performances April 4-14, 2013.

On the heels of successful presentations of Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the Guthrie Theater welcomes back the acclaimed Penumbra Theatre Company for The Amen Corner-an uplifting and masterful drama written by celebrated playwright and novelist James Baldwin and directed by Penumbra Founder and Artistic Director Lou Bellamy.

A young couple juggles competing family expectations during the holidays, literally shopping ‘til they drop. When they finally stop for a cup of hot chocolate, they discover the 'secret recipe' that weaves the diverse threads of their lives into new traditions, and reminds us that love and family are at the heart of the holidays. Director/playwright Austene Van and actor/singer Thomasina Petrus last collaborated on Park Square's stage in Gee's Bend (October 2010). Together, they have conceived a contemporary new holiday story filled with music-Hot Chocolate -on stage for 11 performances at Park Square Theatre. Petrus, well known to Park Square audiences for her performances in Constant Star and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, is joined by Julius Collins III, making his Park Square debut.

History Theatre invites patrons and community members to be an important part of the script development process by attending a staged reading of Nellie by Kim Hines on Sunday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. Award-winning playwright Kim Hines brings to life the story of Nellie Stone Johnson, an extraordinary Minnesotan who broke gender and color barriers as a civil rights and union activist.

History Theatre invites patrons and community members to be an important part of the script development process by attending a staged reading of Nellie by Kim Hines on Sunday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. Award-winning playwright Kim Hines brings to life the story of Nellie Stone Johnson, an extraordinary Minnesotan who broke gender and color barriers as a civil rights and union activist.