Photo courtesy of Dan Norman (Children’s Theatre)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid hits the Children’s Theatre this season.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid hits the Children’s Theatre this season.
It’s been a year and a half since Twin Cities stages held full-scale productions. And while some theaters found success staging outdoor or virtual shows—the Guthrie’s virtual stream of A Christmas Carol reached some 200,000 audience members across the globe—there’s nothing like a real live production on a real live stage with real live audience members.
And this fall, it’s finally time to return to the (indoor) stage. Some theaters, like the Orpheum, will start their seasons in September (the Broadway rendition of Frozen comes to the Cities this week, after a few concerts and comedy shows hit the stage earlier in the month), but others are moving forward with a little more caution, waiting until October or November to fill their seats.
“Our focus was to come back robustly so patrons could see shows at the scale and level we’ve done in the past,” says Joseph Haj, the Guthrie Theater’s artistic director, about the theater’s late-September opening.
Nearly every theater in town has spent the last few months updating HVAC systems, installing touchless restroom fixtures, planning digital ticket entry services, and finding other ways to keep theatergoers as safe and healthy as possible when they return. At press time, most planned to open at full capacity and follow CDC and local guidelines for masks.
“We need to be able to open at full capacity in order for the theaters to be financially viable,” says Hennepin Theatre Trust’s director of booking, Lisa Krohn. “Depending on the show, opening at 75 percent might be our break-even point, so we’d have to sell out every time.”
Christine Sagstetter, interim president and CEO of the Ordway, agrees. “Live theater, for the most part, doesn’t work economically socially distanced,” she says, noting that the theater will attempt to put space between patrons in some smaller shows in September but will ideally be back to full capacity in October. “No ticketing system, no algorithm, was made up for social distancing.”
The Children’s Theatre Company faces one additional challenge: Some of its youngest patrons are still not eligible for COVID vaccines.
“Until there’s a vaccine for kids under 12, we’ll be requiring masks,” says CTC’s managing director, Kimberly Motes. “We want audiences to feel safe and comfortable, so masks are part of the equation right now.”
CTC plans to open at full capacity—but not until November, to both give the possibility of a vaccine a little more time (this summer, Pfizer and Moderna expanded trials to kids 5–11) and ensure its company, too, can stage a full-scale performance. The theater will open its season with Annie—which was originally scheduled to run in April 2020. But now it means something more than the staff and cast could have dreamed a year and a half ago.
“Opening night will be incredibly emotional,” Motes says. “The sun will have come out tomorrow, and we’ll all be back together. That will really resonate with people.”
Many local theaters planned their 2021–22 seasons around themes of empathy and resilience, without ignoring the Twin Cities’ cultural and racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
“A lot has changed in the last year and a half,” says Andrew Leshovsky, Theater Latté Da’s marketing director. “Theaters have been looked at as a leader when it comes to diversity and social justice because we have an important place in our culture as storytellers. We’ve thought a lot about our place to reflect different voices on our stage, and that’s reflected in the season.”
Theater Latté Da’s season includes La Bohème, which was set to be performed through spring 2020. But it will also premiere Jelly’s Last Jam, a show about jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton, with an all-Black cast. The season concludes with Twelve Angry Men.
Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus
Heidi Schreck (left) and featuring actor Cassie Beck (right)
What the Constitution Means to Me, written by playwright Heidi Schreck (left) and featuring actor Cassie Beck (right), comes to the Guthrie this fall.
The Jungle Theater, meanwhile, reopens in mid-October with Every Brilliant Thing. “It’s a play that celebrates life and underscores the importance of human connection,” says marketing manager Carly Caputa.
And the Guthrie also took the Cities’ current climate into account when planning the season. “We always try to program with an eye toward where we are,” Haj says. “A play may make sense in a particular moment but might not in another.”
Accordingly, Haj and team chose The Tempest as this season’s Shakespeare production. “With themes of reconciliation, forgiveness—it felt right,” he says. “Plus, we’ll have A Raisin in the Sun, about what happens to a dream deferred. This past year has been nothing but a dream deferred. And What the Constitution Means to Me couldn’t be more current. It’s so funny, so smart, so beautiful—it’s a great way to come back.”
Even the Children’s Theatre will use its platform to talk to kids about what’s going on in the world. This year, the company will stage Something Happened in Our Town, a story based on a children’s book in which a Black man is killed by a police officer.
“Kids are asking questions, and parents are trying to process, and theater can help illuminate those true stories,” Motes says. “What I love is the car ride home—those really rich conversations kids have with their families.”
North Minneapolis’s Capri Theater returns after a two-and-a-half-year remodel with an eye on where we are now and where we go from here. After a grand opening celebration on October 3, it’ll host concerts, open mic nights, films, and plays—many of which will feature artists from the neighborhood.
“Art holds such a valuable place in our lives, and I want the Capri to be a component of that for north Minneapolis and the Twin Cities,” says the Capri’s director, James Scott, about the theater’s timely reemergence. “People are really ready to get back to the theaters.”
Overwhelmingly, theater staffers say they know their patrons are looking forward to returning to their seats. “It’s hard for me to even believe this, but sales are just as vibrant as they were two years ago,” the Orpheum’s Krohn says. “For Broadway alone, we’re already at our second-best season for subscribers ever. The only one that beat it was the Hamilton year. To have the next-best now, with all the uncertainty—it’s amazing.”
Krohn notes that the Orpheum revived most of that Broadway lineup from 2020: think Frozen, Oklahoma!, Anastasia, Jersey Boys, Moulin Rouge!, and yes, Hamilton, to name a few.
“We have some great shows, and we know the shows very much drive the sales we get, but I hope people have a trust with us that we’ll provide them with a very safe, exciting experience,” she says. “I’m excited to help people get back to a normal life.”
All show dates and logistics were accurate and updated as of press time. For current details, please check theaters’ websites.
