2026 Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona

Last weekend I went on my favorite Minnesota theater vacay - Great River Shakespeare Festival in lovely riverside Winona! But my 8th visit to Minnesota's only Shakespeare festival is even more exciting this year. It's the first time I've attended opening weekend, and it's not just any opening weekend, it's the opening of their new space in the historic Masonic Temple, known as The ARC. After a couple of decades of performing in Winona State University's theater, they now have their own space with everything and everyone under one roof - office space, design and costume shop, rehearsal space, and the theater itself. My fellow Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (Minnesota Theater Love and The Stages of Minnesota) and I were thrilled to celebrate this milestone with them, and of course enjoy some great Shakespeare that is, as always at GRSF, clear, accessible, playful, inventive, and engaging. The festival continues through July 27, with performances Wednesdays through Sundays, typically with two shows on Fridays and Saturdays, so it's possible to drive down for the day (a lovely two-hour drive along the river) and see both shows. Or stay one night, or two, or extend your stay to enjoy the many recreational offerings in Winona (a fantastic art museum, incredible hiking in the river bluffs, great restaurants, cute shops). My favorite place to stay is Carriage House B&B, just down the street from The ARC and within walking distance of downtown. Or if you're looking for a luxury boutique hotel experience, check out the brand new Hotel 44 North right on the river. GRSF is a special place, and this is an exciting time for them as they embark on a new chapter in a new home that they can tailor to meet the needs of the company and the community, which includes both local residents and everyone who attends a show or event at GRSF.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Modern Rep

I can't remember when I've had so much fun experiencing Shakespeare. #TCTheater artist Grant Sorenson's new company Modern Rep bills the experience thusly: "Shakespeare's most overdone comedy gets a radical new production that explodes Original Practice all-male casting into something messy, sexy, and very gay. Performed by six dynamic actors, this Midsummer Night's Dream embraces the dark, twisted, and unsettling aspects of Shakespeare's original text, served up in a flamboyant and unexpectedly queer way." Mission accomplished! When you think about it, Midsummer features fairies, ample romantic banter including double entendres, a character named Bottom, an ass, and lots of talk about a hole. It was just begging to be turned into a gay fantasia! And this production delivers in the most clever and joyful way. It's definitely the sexiest Shakespeare I've ever seen, and the gayest Shakespeare I've ever seen, in the best possible way. It's a joyful celebration to begin Pride month that flies in the face of anyone who dares to say that queer people don't deserve all of the fullness and legality of life as a citizen of this country, as a resident of this planet. And as a piece of theater, this Midsummer is so modern and forward-thinking. I don't worry about the state of theater as long as there are artists making inventive, outside-the-box, wholly engaging theater in sweaty little loading docks in the North Loop (continuing through June 20).

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Guthrie Theater

A Midsummer Night's Dream is probably my favorite Shakespeare play. Partly because it's also probably the one I've seen the most on stage (this is my 10th time seeing it, and my 7th time writing about it in my almost 15 years as a Twin Cities Theater Blogger), but also because it's really the perfect rom com, with a little bit of everything. In his final season as the Guthrie's Artistic Director, Joe Dowling staged a memorable in-the-round production in 2015, and now current Artistic Director Joseph Haj is bringing us his version of this classic. I was lucky enough to attend the first meet-and-greet with the cast and creative team back in early January, when Joe talked about what the show means to him. He staged it at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in March 2020, and we know how that story goes - the show only had a few performances before being cancelled due to the pandemic. So this is a re-do of sorts, even bringing a few cast and creatives back. But this is a fresh, new Midsummer, bringing a bright warm glow to the Guthrie stage now when we need in most in this bleak, dark Midwinter. It's a delightful production full of heart, humor, and hope, and more music than any previous Midsummer I've seen. Whether you've never seen Midsummer before (where have you been?) or you've seen it a dozen times, here are ten reasons to see the Guthrie's new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2023: "Breakneck Midsummer Night’s Dream"

Day: 9

Show: 31

Title: Breakneck Midsummer Night’s Dream

Category: CLOWNING / COMEDY / PHYSICAL THEATER / STORYTELLING / HISTORICAL CONTENT / LITERARY ADAPTATION / SHAKESPEARIAN ELEMENTS

By: Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre

Created by: Timothy Mooney

Location: Rarig Thrust

Summary: Just what it sounds like - 6 actors perform Shakespeare's most popular comedy in an hour or less.

Highlights: I've seen traveling Fringe artist Timothy Mooney a couple of times before, and typically he performs an entire Shakespeare play in an hour playing all of the characters himself. This time he's brought in 5 additional actors (Schmoo Cutlip, Cindy Sherden, and local artists Alison Anderson, Peter Buckholtz, and J Merrill Motz) to help with the feat of portraying some 20 characters in this normally 2-3 hour story. As usual, Timothy's adaptation gets right to the heart of the story, includes all of the well-known lines (e.g., "Lord ,what fools these mortals be"), and leaves me wondering what was cut out because the story seems so complete and thoroughly, if quickly, told (and makes me think Shakespeare should always be an hour long). The playful and energetic cast is all dressed in black (except for Cindy as Puck who missed the memo, and instead wears a cute Tinkerbell costume as the impish Puck), and dons a vest or crown or epaulettes to signify a character change. At times they're changing characters within a scene, quickly stepping behind one of the half dozen or so trees that make up the forest. Part of the fun is watching them scurry from one character to the next. If you need a traditional but quick Shakespeare fix at the Fringe, there's no better place to get it than Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Classical Actors Ensemble at Newell Park

"The course of true love never did run smooth." "Lord, what fools these mortals be." How often have these words been spoken over the last 400 years, in how many places around the world? Through war, famine, genocide, and plagues, humans have continued to gather together and say these familiar words, and others like them. To share stories, songs, laughter, and tears. There were times in the last 16 months when it felt like we'd never get back to telling stories again. But theater, and the human spirit, is stronger than that. Classical Actors Ensemble has performed Shakespeare in local parks every summer (except 2020) since 2014, but this year feels special, as they welcome us to "a return of live theater." And what better way to return than with A Midsummer Night's Dream (which they also performed five years ago), a celebration of love and the magic of theater. Experience it yourself at a Twin Cities park* near you through July 18 (click here for schedule and free registration).

Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona

Last weekend I took a road trip to Winona with my fellow Twin Cities Theater Bloggers, Laura from Twin Cities Stages and Julie and Carol from Minnesota Theater Love. It was my first visit to the Great River Shakespeare Festival, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary season this year. I had a great experience, and it will definitely not be my last trip to Winona. Not only is the theater entertaining, engaging, relevant, and well done, but the festival is well organized and provides many other opportunities for entertainment and engagement throughout the charming river town of Winona. A theater festival is a pretty unique experience in the state of Minnesota, one I didn't even realize I was missing. GRSF runs through August 5 so there's still time for a road trip theater vacation this summer. What's better than that?!

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Classical Actors Ensemble in Como Park

Summer. That time of the year when Minnesota's two best attributes collide - the great outdoors, and theater. And what better play to experience on a beautiful Minnesota midsummer night than Shakespeare's most beloved romantic comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream? For their annual free summer Shakespeare in the park, Classical Actors Ensemble has made this perfectly obvious choice and delivered a charming and playful rendition of this tale of fairies and fools in love. They perform every weekend through mid-July either at Lake of the Isles or various Metro area parks (I caught up with them in Como Park), so be sure to add this to your summer to-do list (see my full summer theater must-see list here). This is how Shakespeare was meant to be seen - playful, immediate, approachable, and accessible to all.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Guthrie Theatre

Yesterday I sat on the famous thrust stage of the Guthrie Theater and watched a bunch of soldiers, lovers, and fairies dance, sing, fly, converse, love, hate, and generally cavort around in a bare circular space. Or was it all a dream? Such is the Guthrie's latest production of perhaps Shakespeare's best loved romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream, that after three hours of spellbinding theater, you're not quite sure if what you saw just happened, or perhaps, as Puck suggests in his epilogue, it was all just a dream. Artistic Director Joe Dowling has returned to an old favorite in his final season at the Guthrie, assembling a gorgeous and talented cast of local favorites with a few national talents thrown in. It's no wonder that he returned to this show (a version of which was last seen in 2008); this Midsummer is a dream of a production, with plenty of spectacle in the form of dancing, flying, singing fairies, humor in the form of typical Shakesperean hijinks, and heart in this sweet romance that ends with a neat happily ever after. Everything about it is truly a delight.

The plot of Midsummer is familiar to most theater-goers, being a frequently produced play. Lysander loves Hermia and she him, but her father Theseus, duke of Athens, has betrothed her to Demetrius, who also loves her although she does not return his love. Lysander and Hermia vow to run away together, and Helena, whose love for Demetrius has recently been rejected, tells him so that he will follow, and she in turn follows him. As we know, strange things can happen when you go into the woods, especially in this case as the young lovers encounter a group of mischievous fairies, who delight in nothing more than creating havoc among humans (if you've ever found an object in a different location than you left it, that might be fairies at work). Through a series of mix-ups, both Demetrius and Lysander are bewitched into believing they love Helena, who, like a nerdy teenager tired of being the butt of jokes, does not believe them. Hermia is confused, devastated, and then furious at this turn of events, and the mayhem continues until the fairies decide to set things right again. Another subplot follows a troupe of actors rehearsing for a play, suffering from the most horrible and hilarious actorly cliches, which allows for some delightful poking fun at oneself. Oh, and one of them is turned into an ass and is wooed by the queen of the fairies. It's a whole lot of silliness that allows for some wonderful encounters, fights, conversations, and dances among the large cast of characters.

Puck and the flying fairies (photo by Dan Norman)

And what a cast it is. It's so lovely to see so many familiar and beloved faces on one stage, while discovering a few new favorites who are thrown into the mix to keep things fresh. First among the many delights is the fairy King's attendant who is responsible for causing much of the mayhem. Tyler Michaels brings his unique physical consciousness to the role of Puck, creating a character that's not quite human, almost reptilian, with a bit of Gollum thrown in. Tyler seems unbound by the laws of gravity that inhibit us mere mortals, as he bounds around the stage with deep knee bends, head cocked to one side as he gleefully watches the mischief he has created, thoroughly enjoying "what fools these mortals be." He's like a mischievous loyal pet of Oberon's, who is given a long leash but sometimes needs to be pulled back when he goes too far, not for malicious reasons, but just to see what will happen. (And there's even an inside joke for those of us who saw and loved Tyler in My Fair Lady last summer.)

the Actors (Jay Albright, Peter Thomson, Andrew Weems,
Kris L. Nelson, Angela Timberman, and Michael Fell,
photo by Dan Norman)

As the first fairy, Nike Kadri is making her Guthrie debut after making an impression on stages around town. She looks and sounds fantastic, singing a few songs and leading the fairies in their dance (although not a musical, there are a handful of original songs by Keith Thomas, with some brilliant choreography by co-director David Bolger). Christina Acosta Robinson (who returns to the Guthrie after participating in the Guthrie Experience a few years ago) is absolutely regal as both Titania and Hippolyta, fairy and human royalty, and Nicholas Carrière (a Guthrie newcomer) effortlessly transitions from the stern and slightly square Duke Theseus to the powerful and cool Oberon.

the Lovers (Emily Kitchens, Casey Hoekstra, Zach Keenan,
and Eleonore Dendy, photo by Dan Norman)

The troupe of actors is comprised of a bunch of local comic geniuses (including the always hilarious Jay Albright and Angela Timberman), with East Coast actor Andrew Weems (also seen at the Guthrie as Uncle Vanya) as the buffoonish and blustering Bottom, delivering the most ridiculously drawn-out comic death scene I've ever seen. In fact, the entire play-within-a-play is hysterical as performed by the "Community Theater of Athens." The four lovers could not be more charming (or look better in underwear) than local actors Eleonore Dendy, Casey Hoekstra, and Zach Keenan, along with Twin Cities newcomer Emily Kitchens as the eager and slightly awkward Helena.

For this production, the Guthrie has added a half dozen rows of bleacher seating around the back of the thrust stage, creating an in-the-round effect, almost like you're at the circus. If you're lucky enough to snag one of these seats (available online or call the box office for details), you're led down a stairway and into a secret hallway through the bowels* of the Guthrie, and suddenly you arrive on the stage. There are plenty of ushers and signs along the way so that you don't "accidentally" wander off into a restricted area. It's a great place from which to watch the show, although some of the effects of the video projections at the back of the stage are lost because you have to tear your eyes away from the stage (a difficult task) to look behind you at the screen. One of the reasons it's so difficult to turn away from the stage is Fabio Toblini's gorgeously rich costumes, from Hippolyta's elegant gowns, to the lovers' modern clothing, to the actors' silly get-ups, to the fairies' barely there tribal pieces.

It may be dreary bitter midwinter here in Minnesota, but it feels like warm and colorful midsummer on the Guthrie's thrust stage. The magical, mystical, mischievous dream continues through the end of March. It's not a short play (clocking in at about three hours including intermission), but it's chock full of delights for the eyes, ears, mind, and heart.


*If you want to see more of the bowels of the Guthrie, take a backstage tour, offered most weekends.


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the wackiest of Shakespeare's romantic comedies. It's the one where lovers chase each other through a forest, a group of actors rehearse and perform a preposterous play, and a woman falls in love with an ass (a literal not figurative ass, the latter is nothing unusual). This makes it a great choice for the superb theater company Ten Thousand Things to bring to their typical venues of prisons, homeless shelters, community centers, and other places and people usually lacking in the joy that theater can bring. TTT's version features an ethnically diverse cast and a few gender changes (Lysander is played by a woman and referred to as she), as well as men playing female characters and women playing male characters. None of this interferes with the story (all you see are eight wonderful actors playing many different characters), and perhaps makes it so that everyone finds someone or something to relate to. I always love seeing Ten Thousand Things shows to witness the true craft of theater without any distractions that a big fancy production can bring. In a fully lit room, the actors look you in the eye and simply say and feel and live the words of the play. It's theater at it's most basic and true.

Highlights of the show include:

• Karen Wiese-Thompson as a very funny and earthy Puck. She shares a wonderful rapport with... 
• Sun Mee Chomet, who digs into the role of Oberon, King of the goblins, with glee and a lusty laugh.
• Elise Langer's hilarious transformation into the aforementioned ass, with the stomping of feet, an overbite, and subtle horse sounds in her speaking.
• The marvelous Gavin Lawrence as the distinguished duke and the lovestruck Titania.
• The delightful and surprisingly moving love story between the four lovers - Anna Sundberg's serious and devoted Lysander, Brittany Bradford as a radiant Hermia, Kurt Kwan's persistent Demetrius, and Mo Perry's hurt and disbelieving Helena. These four also have fun turns as the hapless actors rehearsing and badly performing the silly play-within-a-play.
• Peter Vitale's playful cacophony of sound coming from the corner of the room that never distracts from, but always adds to, the story.
• Fun, simple, and effective costumes by Sonya Berlovitz. Actors start out wearing pajamas, then don robes (color-coded to help remember which couples go together), with dark and fantastical coats and headpieces as goblins in the forest.
• Little ad-libs or side comments that perhaps aren't in the script, but make the story feel more current and relatable.
• During some scene transitions, actors slowly don a new costume, as if sleepwalking and waking up in a new life.

A Midsummer Night's Dream continues at Open Book through November 3. You can never go wrong with a TTT show, and this is a fun new take on a classic.