A handful of shows this year were eerily relevant and spoke directly to our world today. Pangea World Theater produced Eugene Ionesco's ever-relevant play Rhinoceros, at a time when "people are turning into rhinoceroses, falling in line, and trampling over the things we hold most dear." Theatre Novi Most's sobering production of Sickle, about the forced starvation of the Ukrainian people by the Soviet Union in the 1930s had striking parallels to today's overseas wars. Six Points Theater's terrifying production of The Last Yiddish Speaker, a dystopian look at what our world could look like if the January 6 insurrection had succeeded, felt like an urgent warning call. New theater company Three Saints' production of One in the Chamber about the tragic aftereffects of gun violence came in a year when we saw too much of it right here in Minnesota. Finally, Frank Theater's fall production of a newish translation of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, originally written in 1941 about the rise of the Nazis, felt pulled from the headlines. Thanks to these companies and more for not shying away from the difficult issues of the day, and instead using art to call attention to them and start conversations which will hopefully lead to action.
Here are a few of my favorite plays, musicals, and new works from 2025, in alphabetical order (click on the show title to read the full review):
PLAYS
- In addition to terrifying us with The Last Yiddish Speaker as mentioned above, Six Points Theater also made us laugh with An Act of God, in which God possessed the body of Sally Wingert to share the new Ten Commandments. A smart and irreverent play, and "a hilarious comedy with substance, that'll make you laugh and nod your head in agreement and maybe gasp a time or two." Honorable mention to The Messenger, the moving true story of a Holocaust survivor who faced anti-Semitism as a teacher in California when she told her story to her students, completing Six Points' strong three-show year.
- 2025 was the year that I completed by Chekhov rotation; I have now seen all four of his major plays, adding two this year. More on #3 a bit later, but the final entry was the Jungle Theater / Moving Company co-pro of The Cherry Orchard this fall. The more I see of Chekhov, the more I love his work, because "Chekhov so beautifully depicts the joys and the sorrows of being human in a changing and challenging world." This Cherry Orchard had all of MoCo's gorgeous dreamy aesthetic, a lovely design utilizing projections well in the Jungle's intimate space, and a fantastic cast of seven actors, several of them playing multiple characters, fully inhabiting this relevant story of class, economic struggles, and family.
- I love a good sad play, and Dark & Stormy's Come Back, Little Sheba was so good and so sad. Taking a break from their usual dark comedy tone, William Inge's (whom I like to call the Midwestern Tennessee Williams) Little Sheba is a dark drama about the limitations of women's choices, in the past and in the present. Artistic Director Sara Marsh embodied this in a heartbreaking performance as long-suffering housewife Lola, trying to put on a brave and cheery face over deep despair. Peter Christian Hansen's performance as a recovering and relapsing alcoholic was devastating, accompanied by strong performances from the supporting cast, and a neat and detailed design that placed us squarely in this quietly tragic Midwestern farmhouse.
- If you missed Full Circle Theater Company's short run of Martyna Majok's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Cost of Living, I understand, but I'm sorry for you. Like all of Majok's work (this is not her only appearance on this list), this play tackles very real and relevant issues in a very human, relatable, and sometimes funny way. In this play she tells two parallel stories of a disabled person and their caregiver - an estranged married couple, one half of which was injured in an accident, and a grad student with cerebral palsy who hires a new caregiver with a story of her own. Both stories were messy and awkward and funny and real, beautifully told by a great cast in the intimate space of 825 Arts, and came together in a surprising and satisfying way, without a neat conclusion.
- In my day job, I work in clinical trials, so Jungle Theater's production of The Effect, a smart, thoughtful, relevant play about a trial of a new anti-depressant drug in healthy volunteers, was fascinating to me: "the play asks thorny and relevant questions about the ethics of clinical research, for-profit pharmaceutical companies, and the health care industry in general. It also explores the very stuff that makes us human, our feelings and emotions, and if that resides in our brain, or in our heart, or in situations or the substances we're taking." With a fantastic four-person cast and excellent coldly clinical design, this was the year's highlight at the Uptown theater.
- I'm not sure I laughed harder at the theater this year than at Park Square Theatre's production of It's Only a Play, which opened their 50th season. This Terrance McNally play feels like it was written just for theater nerds like me, with too many theater and pop culture references to count. Featuring an absolute dream team of a cast (Jim Lichtsheidl, Sally Wingert, and more) and a stunning design of a swanky bedroom in a NYC townhouse, the play "hilariously makes fun of theater and everyone and everything surrounding it, but in the end it's a real love letter to theater that would have brought tears to my eyes in the way it speaks to what theater means to us, if I weren't laughing so much." Honorable mention to Park Square's two-years-delayed regional premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning family dramedy Between Riverside and Crazy. Fifty looks good on you, Park Square (can't wait for A Chorus Line in the spring)!
- Friends and multi-talented #TCTheater artists Serena Brook and Shinah Hey got the idea to do Mindy Kaling's pre-Office play Matt & Ben when working at the Chanhassen last year, and this summer they did it, in collaboration with The Hive. It's "a hilarious buddy comedy about the creative process, celebrity, show business, and friendship," and these two were a joy to watch. Honorable mention to another Hive collaboration, the last play I saw in 2025 - Kim Kivens in a hysterical and moving solo performance as a grown-up Cindy Lou Who in Who's Holiday.
- I've been waiting for someone to complete Dominique Morisseau's trilogy known as The Detroit Project, and Penumbra Theatre finally did with their lovely and haunting production of Paradise Blue, ten years after their production of Detroit '67 (we saw the third play, Skeleton Crew, at Yellow Tree and the Guthrie). Set in the Paradise Valley neighborhood of Detroit, a center of blues and jazz, that was destroyed to make way for a freeway, Paradise Blue told the tragic story of one family and one blues club and a changing way of life, with a fantastic cast and a gorgeous and effective design representing the 1940s blues club scene.
- Helping to make Kate Hamill one of America's most produced playwrights, Theatre in the Round brought us a perfectly delightful production of her Pride and Prejudice adaptation. Jane Austen's most beloved novel gets the comedy treatment here, and director Penelope Parsons-Lord and this large and winning cast "strikes just the perfect balance between comedy, modernity, and the traditional story we all love," utilizing movement and music.
- I'm always thrilled to see my second** favorite math play Proof, and Gremlin Theatre's production was "practically perfect in every way - an excellent cast, clear direction, and spot-on design." A breakout performance by Maggie Cramer as the troubled mathematician's smart and troubled daughter was at the center of this relatable family dramedy. Honorable mention to Gremlin's two-person play-with-music Souvenir, with the best intentionally bad singing I've ever heard.
- I fell in love with the two-hander Red, and the paintings by its subject Mark Rothko, when Park Square produced the regional premiere in 2012. I had to wait 13 years*** to see it again, and Lakeshore Players Theatre's production did not disappoint. In fact, it was "a fantastic production with wonderful performances [scenic designer Justin Hooper stepping out from backstage and newcomer Brian McMahon] and gorgeously, messily detailed designed observed up close in the intimate space of Lakeshore's black box theater."
- The other Martyna Majok play on my favorites list is Sanctuary City, about two teenagers who immigrated to this country as children with their parents, and now are facing the challenges that come along with it. We were lucky enough to get two productions of this brilliantly written play, one by Frank Theatre and one by Theatre in the Round. I'm not going to compare the two because they're different theaters with different resources and different audiences, but both were well worth seeing and very moving, and it was really interesting to see two different interpretations of this challenging play within a few months. And no one could have predicted just how relevant this immigrant story would be in 2025 (or maybe they could).
- Lyric Arts, the little theater out in the 'burbs, isn't afraid to challenge its audiences, as evidenced by their fall production of the theatrical experiement known as White Rabbit Red Rabbit. This play written by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, often in the first person, is meant to be performed by a different actor every night, with no director, no design, and no rehearsal, in fact the actor is reading the script cold. Lyric Arts lined up a who's who of talent for the three-week run, and I was lucky enough to see it twice (although I could have watched it every night), with #TCTheater favorites Tyler Michaels King and Lauren Anderson, who both brought something unique to the experience. It was funny, awkward, surprising, profound, moving, and unforgettable. Lyric's strong year also including the funny and relatable play Significant Other that made me laugh and cry, and a lovely production of the classic play The Rainmaker (maybe they'll do the musical adaptation 110 Degrees in the Shade next season!).
- I've been a Guthrie Theater season subscriber for over 20 years, and it just keeps getting better. Every one of the nine plays and musicals (including my 20th year seeing A Christmas Carol) that I saw on the Guthrie's three stages in 2025 was incredibly well chosen, well done, thoughtful, relevant, and full captivating. More on the stunning summer musical Cabaret and the ingenious new play-with-music The Ruins in the following sections, but if I have to pick a favorite amongst the six other plays I saw at the Guthrie, I'd have to say the dance-infused play Somewhere, but probably only because it's the one I saw most recently. This newish play shows us another side of one of my favorite musicals, West Side Story, through the life of one family with big dreams who were evicted from their home to make way for the building of Lincoln Center. It's filled with "juicy family drama, flawed characters doing their best for love of the family, trauma and devastation mixed with humor and hope, and gorgeous dancing," and it's still playing through February 1! I also really loved the tender-hearted story of friendship Primary Trust, the relevant and gripping new translation of A Doll’s House, the celebration of the wealthy Black community of 1960s Montgomery The Nacirema Society, the fun and twisty classic murder mystery The Mousetrap, and the perfect Shakespearean romcom A Midsummer Night's Dream, overflowing with joy and music.
- On a really tough day this summer, I took solace in Theater Mu's production of Stop Kiss, about resilient love in the face of hate and violence. It's a beautifully written play by Asian American playwright Diana Son that's "as funny and sweet as it is tragic and heart-breaking," and this production featured a fantastic Asian American cast. This is the kind of play we need to combat the fear and darkness in the world, and it was so beautifully done. On the same theme, I also loved Mu's world premiere play Maybe You Could Love Me, about the love between two young Muslim girls.
- My yearly favorites list is never complete without Ten Thousand Things, which had another strong three-show year under new Artistic Director Caitlin Lowans, who made their directing debut with the company in the "effervescent romcom" Two Gents this fall. But I fell hard for their winter show, the fairy tale gem of a play This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing, another play about three very different sisters with very different reactions to a tragedy, that felt like it was written for this company and this fantastic five-person cast, performing up close and personal. It was "funny and sweet and heart-warming and joyful, in a way that only TTT shows can be." (More on their spring musical in the next section.)
- I celebrated 15 years of being a theater blogger this year; to say I've seen a lot of theater is an understatement. But I love that after all these years, I can still see something unlike anything I've ever seen before. Such was Theatre Pro Rata's simultaneous productions of Chekhov's Three Sisters and Aaron Postner's companion play No Sisters, an ambitious and impressive feat of storytelling, flawlessly accomplished by the two directors, 14 actors, creative team, and run crew. While Chekhov's family dramedy about the lives, loves, and travails of three sisters (and one brother) in early 20th Century Russia played out on the main stage of The Crane Theater, another play was happening in the lobby to another audience, featuring the same characters when they were off-stage in the main play. But in a meta winking we-know-we're-in-a-play sort of way. To get the full experience required two visits to the Crane, but it was well worth it, as each play informed the other and added up to a whole greater than the sum of its parts.
MUSICALS
- What to do with an odd Sondheim musical that flopped on Broadway and is difficult to stage, yet still contains some great music and relevant themes? Stage it as a concert, which is exactly what Minneapolis Musical Theatre and director Max Wojtanowicz did with Anyone Can Whistle. The 12-person ensemble gave full performances standing behind music stands, accompanied by an onstage four-piece band, giving me new appreciation for this Sondheim show I didn't know much about. More of this please.
- Lakeshore Players Theatre wisely tapped (pun intended) Kyle Weiler to direct and choreograph the rarely done Cole Porter musical Anything Goes this spring, and it proved to be a good choice. Featuring a star turn by Hope Nordquist and one thrilling dance number after another, it was a "fun escapist show full of clever and witty songs, madcap humor, and fabulous dancing."
- Lyric Arts has done a bunch of regional premiere musicals out in Anoka, and this year they brought us the fantastical story of Big Fish, grounded in a relatable relationship between a father and a son. It featured a talented cast led by powerhouse singer/actors Ben Bakken and Kate Beahen and fun fantastical design. Honorable mention for a "a joyously fun and heart-warming" production of the classic The Music Man, the super fun celebration of sisterhood Sister Act.
- The Guthrie's choice for summer musical this year (originally chosen for a 2020 production that never happened) could not have been more timely and relevant - the Kander and Ebb masterpiece Cabaret. Director Joseph Haj expertly navigated the tricky tone that alternates between "outrageously fun and horrifyingly serious," the terrifically talented cast was led by NYC-based Jo Lampert putting a whole new spin on the Emcee, the onstage band was indeed beautiful, and the design was smart, effective, and ominous. The stunning ending really drove home the reality of the horror that can result from unchecked power and menace, right under our noses.
- On a lighter note, Children's Theatre Company's regional premiere of the hit Disney movie musical turned stage musical Frozen could melt the most frozen of hearts. With a huge and talented and mostly local cast (and wonderful performances by NYC-based Gillian Jackson Han and local Julia Ennen as the leading sisters), gorgeous Scandinavian design, puppet characters that were a true marvel, fun and inventive choreography, and an eight-piece pit orchestra playing this familiar score, it was a joy to behold.
- This year Theater Latte Da did their 100th show as they entered their 28th season, the memory-filled and tears-inducing cabaret called Journey On. It was another strong year for this company that does theater musically, in which they hosted NYC-based artist Milo Cramer's Obie-winning solo show School Pictures, did a gorgeous rendition of the rarely done and controversial Sondheim musical Passion, and stripped down the beloved classic My Fair Lady to a cast of just 11 accompanied by two pianos. But my favorite Latte Da show this year was their regional premiere of Fun Home that I've been waiting for them to do for years. It was worth the wait because, as I wrote, "the smartly and succinctly written 90-minute musical is perfectly cast, perfectly staged, and perfectly designed, for an emotionally satisfying and epic journey through one person's story of coming of age, coming out, and coming to terms with her parents' flaws and humanity."
- By far the biggest loss in the #TCTheater community this year was the sudden and unexpected death of Chanhassen Dinner Theatre's longtime Artistic Director and co-owner Michael Brindisi, just days before the opening of Grease in February. This loss gave extra poignancy to the show that Michael loved so much, that meant so much to him throughout his career. Grease is a really fun and mostly light-hearted show, but also deals with some deeper issues, and at its heart is a nostalgic look at friendship and togetherness. For eight months, this all-star cast was "giving their whole hearts, souls, gorgeous voices, comedic chops, and hand-jiving bodies to this show to make their leader proud, and I know he is." A fitting end to a career and a legacy that will live on.
- Perhaps the loudest musical I saw this year was Lizzie: The Rock Musical, both literally and figuratively. Ear plugs were available at the door because this show rocked the intimate space at Open Eye Theatre, and the characters screamed their emotions about the challenges of being a woman in the late 19th Century, and now. A strong four-person cast showed us a different side of accused ax murderer Lizzie Borden that was "a mix of camp, glam rock, dark comedy, and deep emotions," styled as a rock concert.
- 2025 was the year that Theatre Elision, known for their small cast one act rarely done musicals, took a big swing with the epic Dave Malloy Tony-winning musical Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, and knocked it out of the park. I still love their productions of rare little gems (like this year's two-person concert style musical Hundred Days), but it was a thrill to watch them do something big - an immersive large cast sung-through musical based on a segment of the novel War and Peace. Big cast, big themes, big emotions, big songs, big success. If you didn't get to see this sold out show and are feeling FOMO, you won't have to suffer for long; they're remounting it in the spring of 2027.
- I've never seen Kander and Ebb's 1993 Tony-winner Kiss of the Spider Woman, which means there have been no #TCTheater productions of it in 15 years or more. Until this year, that is, when Teatro del Pueblo brought us a beautiful production staged in the gorgeous Southern Theater. Whether or not it was timed to coincide with the new movie adaptation (which I haven't seen), "this story of two men imprisoned by a fascist regime, one of them escaping into the fantasy world of his beloved movies, couldn't come at a better time." It was great to finally experience this Kander and Ebb score and the inspiring story of a community working together for a better tomorrow.
- 2010 was the year that I started this blog, the year that I fell in love with the musical Violet (through Theater Latte Da's production), and the year that I saw my first Ten Thousand Things show. And now finally 15 years later, one of my favorite theater companies did one of my favorite musicals in their signature bare-bones stripped-down straight-to-the-heart style. Seeing this story of a young woman going on a journey to heal her wounds, up close and personal with no artifice, was everything I wanted it to be. Annika Isbell led the talented cast with such a pure and heartfelt performance as the title character, leaving not a dry eye in the house.
- It was a fantastic year at Artistry out in Bloomington, from the orchestra- and dance-heavy staged concert version of Sweet Charity, to the joyful tropical Once on this Island, to the tap-tastic classic Singin' in the Rain, and the return of programming to their intimate black box theater with the charming two-hander play Love and Baseball and the sweet and nostalgic holiday sounds of Plaid Tidings. But my favorite was Waitress, a musical that I love and have been waiting for a regional production of for years. Starring Erin Capello (who just gets better with every show she does, see also Passion) leading a ridiculously talented cast, with an onstage band, dreamy movement, and super cute diner design, this is absolutely my favorite production of this funny, tragic, and bittersweet musical about love, friendship, and finding your own strength.
NEW WORK
- The Moving Company's new piece at low tide was "both hopeful and despairing, heavy and light as air." As per usual with MoCo, it was the kind of thing that was difficult to describe in words, but so moving and emotionally evocative to experience.
- When I first saw Endometriosis: The Musical at the 2022 Minnesota Fringe Festival, I knew it was destined to be more. Thankfully, Theatre in the Round agreed with me, and worked with creators Maria Bartholdi and Kristin Stowell to develop it into a full-length musical, which they produced this year. A musical about women's reproductive health, and our flawed health care system in general, is exactly what we needed in 2025, approaching these topics with zany humor and grounded humanity. A fantastic cast led by Abby Holstrom as our protagonist, whimsical design (tampons hanging from the ceiling! a cartoon uterus!), and an unflinching look at what ails us, made this a musical that educates, entertains, and inspires.
- Pillsbury House + Theatre brought us not one but two really lovely new plays this year. Sharifa Yazmin's Close to Home was a beautiful story of a chosen family, and told the kind of stories about immigrants and queer people that we need right now. And I really loved Nubia Monk's two-hander modern romcom A Lesson in Love, featuring charming and natural performances by Dana Lee Thompson and Darrick Mosley in the story of star-crossed lovers that "may make you forget about all of the hate and fear that pervades our world, and remember what is possible with love."
- In #TCTheater artist Elena Glass' first solo show Loudly, Clearly, Beautifully at The Hive Collaborative, she talked about her relationship with her dad, who died from complications of MS during the pandemic, with honesty, heart, and humor. She also mixed in stories of her life as a performer, including her years spent studying and performing in NYC. Part memoir, part storytelling, part cabaret show, with universal themes of "grief, loss, family, love, growing up, and moving on," it was a prime example of an artist turning pain into art.
- Black Label Movement and Sod House Theater (two companies I was familiar with but had never seen full productions by) combined their skills to create a thrilling music/dance/theater piece called The Mother, based on an early 20th Century Russian novel about a revolutionary mother. A fierce and fearless performance by Annie Enneking (frequent fight director and leader of the band Annie and the Bang Bang), a lovely and talented ensemble of dancers and singers and actors, and immersive staging at St. Paul's Sokol Hall, a center for Czech and Slovak culture, made it an unforgettable experience.
- Shortly before seeing Cabaret this summer, I saw local playwright Kirby Taylor's new one-act play Pink Triangle at The Pheonix Theater, which brought extra poignancy to its stunning ending. A gripping two-hander about a father and son in a concentration camp, the son wearing a pink triangle to signify he's imprisoned for the crime of being gay, this new play (which had a remount in the fall) was another timely and relevant play about the dangers of authoritarianism, otherism, and fear.
- This may not be a "new" show so much as an updated one, but Transatlantic Love Affair's reworking of their hit 2011 Fringe show, which was expanded into a 2013 Illusion Theater production, was as uniquely special as any of their work over the last decade or so. A very loose retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, Red Resurrected became Red and the Mother Wild, with additional themes and expanded characters. A seven-person cast told this beautifully haunting story of an orphan girl who grows up fast, using no props or set pieces, only their voices, bodies, and souls in a magical physical theater performance.
- After nearly six years, programming returned to the Guthrie's third performance space - the 9th floor Dowling Studio (named after longtime Artistic Director Joe Dowling, who returns to direct Macbeth this month). And I cannot think of anything better to reopen this space than George Abud's (from the original cast of The Band's Visit, and whose bio I quoted in my review) play-with-music The Ruins, which I called "nothing short of exquisite," noting that it "could not exist anywhere else in the building." In this two-hander, George (playing the traditional Middle Eastern stringed instrument the oud) and cellist Sydney Sheperd trade songs, notes, quotes, and deep discussion as two people facing their imminent mortality. It was profound, funny, moving, and thoroughly engaging.
- I can't talk about new works without mentioning History Theatre, who almost exclusively commissions, develops, and produces new works, most of them with a local historical bent. This year they brought us Secret Warriors, the gripping true story of Japanese Americans who served as translators, interpreters, and interrogators for the US Army during WWII, and Rollicking, the super fun and fantastical look at the history of the Winter Carnival and the first Black municipal architect in the US. But the highlight of their year was a show I loved so much I saw it twice - Whoa, Nellie! This true story of the "cowboy detective" Nellie King, set in a vaudeville show and featuring a star turn by Em Adam Rosenberg, was "a wild ride of a show that gallops through history and multiple states as it explores very 21st Century themes of gender identity, sexism, racism, corrupt journalism, drug addiction, and celebrity culture." And in a fun parallel, one of the stars of this show, real life Black Vaudevillian Bert Williams, got his very own show this fall, Illusion Theater's production of Carlyle Brown's new play-with-music Nobody, No Time.
THEATER TRAVEL
- On my annual visit to Broadway this spring, I saw the truly special and original musical Maybe Happy Ending, which would go on to win the Tony for Best Musical; Idina Menzel and friends climbing trees in the new original musical Redwood; the Broadway premiere of the gorgeous and rarely done Adam Guettel musical Floyd Collins;**** the super fun new reimagining of my favorite Gilbert and Sullivan work as Pirates! The Penzance Musical; and Sarah Snook's (Succession's Shiv) astounding solo performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray. I'm already planning my next visit in the spring (first on the list: Ragtime).
- I made two separate trips to Duluth in 2025, first to see another gorgeous and rarely done Adam Guettel musical The Light in the Piazza by Duluth Playhouse at the historic NorShor Theatre in March, starring #TCTheater favorite Kersten Rodau who was perfection in the role of the mother, with a fantastic mostly Duluth-based cast. And in August I saw my favorite musical RENT, for the 19th time, the most intimate and immersive production of it I've ever seen, in a scrappy and heartfelt performance by Zeitgeist Theater. The next time you go to Duluth, don't forget to check out what's going on at the Playhouse and Zeitgeist. (Urinetown for my birthday?! OK!)
- My 7th visit to Great River Shakespeare Festival in lovely riverside Winona was a great one. In their final season performing in the theater on Winona State's campus (they've moved into the Historic Masonic Temple a few blocks away, where they will perform this summer), they brought us a new take on the classic Romeo and Juliet, with director H. Adam Harris reimagining the story as a memory play from the point of view of Juliet's nurse, and the super fun '80s-set slapstick Comedy of Errors. With community programs and events, GRSF is a must-do for Minnesota theater fans.
- I crossed the border into Wisconsin a few times in 2025, including my first visit to St. Croix Festival Theatre in St. Croix Falls, just across the river from Taylors Falls, where I saw Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson, Apt 2B, the Kate Hamill reimagining of a Sherlock Holmes mystery with a female Holmes and Watson, and the lovely rarely done musical Ordinary Days. And I made my 3rd visit to the magical theater oasis in the middle of the Wisconsin woods known as American Players Theatre with my friends from Minnesota Theater Love and Ernest Goes to the Theatre. We saw six shows in three days, four of them in the most beautiful outdoor amphitheater, from classics to new plays. Featuring an incredibly talented company of actors, each performing in multiple shows (including some familiar faces from #TCTheater), top directors and designers from around the country, gorgeous costumes and sets that takes into account the beautiful outdoor setting and the repertory nature, and a darling small town setting, APT is the best theater vacay in the Midwest, that I plan to take every year.
In other #TCTheater news, The Playwrights' Center moved into a brand new home this year, a gorgeous space in St. Paul just off University and Randolf. I attended a reading in this fall's Playlabs festival, and was reminded just how much I love seeing new work at PWC and being a part of the new play development process. I plan to return for the Ruth Easton New Play Series, which continues the second Monday and Tuesday of the month February through May. The new space was specifically designed to help them support thousands of playwrights every year in every step of development, and is a welcoming place to attend a free reading, with top #TCTheater actors, and be among the first audiences to see a new play.
Follow Twin Cities Theater Bloggers on Facebook for the imminent announcement of the nominees for the 11th annual TCTB Awards! There you'll also find links to my fellow theater bloggers, who make doing this so much more fun. And be sure to watch/like/follow/subscribe to The Stages of MN's YouTube show for interviews, reviews, and occasional appearances by yours truly.
Thank you, dear reader, for bearing with my long and wordy summary of #TCTheater in 2025 (if you're still with me, I owe you a coffee). For me, this is about more than just lists and numbers, it's about the experience, themes, and connections. And 2025 truly was one of the best years of theater that I've experienced, in contrast to one of the most difficult years in our country and larger world that I've experienced. All I know to do is to continue to lift up the theaters and artists that lift up the communities that are currently at risk, telling the untold stories and sharing the unheard voices. My wish for 2026 is from the Maya Angelou poem featured in Theater Latte Da's original piece Christmas at the Local:
We, Angels and Mortals, Believers and Non-Believers,Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselvesAnd we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.Peace, My Brother.Peace, My Sister.Peace, My Soul.
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| @cherryandspoon |
Footnotes:
*After 38 years of immersive comedy murder mystery dinner theater entertainment, The Mystery Cafe is currently in their final season, with three shows currently playing in rep at two locations through mid February. Click here for details and tickets.
**My favorite math play is Tom Stoppard's rarely produced Arcadia (thanks for asking), which I'm hoping some #TCTheater company will do next season, along with any and all of his other plays, in light of his recent passing.
***I won't have to wait much longer for the next production of Red; Gremlin just announced they're doing it this February.
****It's well past time for another #TCTheater production of Floyd Collins. The last one was 20 years ago - my first Theater Latte Da show!
