"Mothership" at Penumbra Theatre

All I knew about Penumbra's world premiere new play Mothership before seeing it was that it was some kind of future dystopia story. I was prepared for something dark and depressing (maybe I've seen too much of The Walking Dead universe), but it wasn't that at all. From the beginning, there is comedy and lightness in the script and in the performances. And yes, it deals with dark themes, but with a hopeful and even joyful resolution, when a group of strangers come together to save Blackness, creativity, and the world. In these days when it seems like there's nothing but grim news and serious concerns about the future on all fronts, it's a refreshing reimagining of that story - in which the worst happens, but humanity prevails. Take a ride on the Mothership at Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood now through October 4.

Playlabs 2025 at the Playwrights' Center

Every fall, The Playwrights' Center hosts Playlabs, a festival of new plays with free readings over two weeks. Of course, this is in addition to the work that they do year-round supporting thousand of playwrights in various ways. I attended Playlabs every year from 2016 to 2019, as well as many other readings. But for whatever reason, I'd only been back to that beloved old church in South Minneapolis once since the pandemic. This summer, they moved into their brand new home at University and Raymond in St. Paul, with more space to support playwrights, and now they're hosting their first Playlabs in this gorgeous new space. I attended just one of the readings of the festival, but it made me realize how much I've missed The Playwrights' Center. We are so lucky to have this treasure in our community, and are invited to be part of the process of developing new plays, which we need so much right now! Because a play isn't a play without an audience, when playwrights get to see and hear how audiences react to their work. Now that I've been back, I vow to become a PWC regular again! Their monthly Ruth Easton New Play Series begins in December and continues through the spring, but for right how, you can attend readings and other events in this celebration of new plays through November 1, and/or watch any of the plays virtually after the festival's conclusion.

"Maybe You Could Love Me" by Theater Mu at Mixed Blood Theatre

The world premiere new play Maybe You Could Love Me by L.A.-based Muslim playwright Samah Meghjee is a gem of a two-hander. The story of two Muslim girls growing up in Florida, in love but unable to be together because of the expectations of their culture, is sweet, funny, sad, and lovely. And Theater Mu has cast the perfect two actors to bring these two endearing characters and their precious relationship to life. It's playing for two more weekends only at Mixed Blood Theatre, highly recommended if you're looking for adventurous, new, original theater.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2023: "Baldwin's Last Fire"

Day: 5

Show: 20

Title: Baldwin's Last Fire

Category: MYSTERY

By: Black Lives Black Words International Project

Written by: Reginald Edmund

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: Historical fiction about acclaimed American author James Baldwin solving a mystery of missing children in France.

Highlights: James Baldwin solving a crime? Why not, it's Fringe! The play is cleverly written (by Reginald Edmund), weaving in the themes of Baldwin's writing as well as some of his words. We open in a garden in Paris, with James Baldwin (played by veteran theater and film actor Harry Waters Jr.) writing and narrating the story. His caregiver Park (Jake Quatt), who shares the narration duties, attempts to get him out into the city, where an African woman approaches him for help finding her missing child, one of many. Even Baldwin recognizes the ridiculousness of an American writer trying to solve a crime in France, until Park convinces him he could use his notoriety and influence to help. So begins our adventure, with the ensemble (Jacob Hellman, Matt Saxe, and Ashe Jaafaru) playing multiple characters. The creative storytelling includes a large rectangular cube made of what looks like metal pipes, but must be something much lighter, as the cast moves the structure around to represent a car, a door, a window, and any number of other ideas, draped with large pieces of colored fabric. It's a compelling story, well told, and a fun imagining of another kind of life for a well known historical figure.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Weathering" at Penumbra Theatre

Prolific #TCTheater playwright Harrison David Rivers has written another beautiful and relevant story about humans. Weathering was commissioned by Penumbra as a response to the growing awareness of racial disparities in maternal health. A quick google search reveals staggering statistics around the racial disparity in infant and maternal mortality in this country - two and three times higher for Black mothers compared to White mothers. Weathering puts a human face on those statistics and lets us experience the tragedy of one family, as well as the healing that can happen within a community.

"The Convert" by Frank Theatre at Gremlin Theatre

Two years ago, the Guthrie premiered a new play Familiar by Danai Gurira. You may know her from a little movie called Black Panther or the obscure TV show The Walking Dead, but before her success on the big and small screen she started her career in theater, including at St. Paul's Macalester College. Now Frank Theatre is bringing us the regional premiere of her 2012 play The Convert, having previously produced Eclipsed in 2010 (which went on to become Danai's first show on Broadway). While Familiar is a dramedy about a Zimbabwean-Minnesotan family (based on her own), The Convert is a much more serious look at the history of Zimbabwe, in particular the colonialism and missionary work in which the English tried to subdue, subjugate, and convert the native Shona people. In particular it tells the story of one young woman who seems to happily convert to Roman Catholicism, but feels conflict at leaving the ways of her people behind. It's an intense play that humanizes the people on all sides of this conflict, as always thoroughly and thoughtfully realized by director Wendy Knox, the strong seven-person cast, and the creative team.

"School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play" at the Jungle Theater

On the heels of the remount of the 2018 hit The Wolves, Jungle Theater brings us another smart, funny, touching, nuanced portrayal of teenage girls in the new play School Girls; or, the African Mean Girls Play by Ghanaian-American playwright Jocelyn Bioh. But this time instead of American soccer players, the girls are students at a prestigious boarding school in Ghana. Although their lives growing up in West Africa are likely very different from most of you reading this blog, their emotions, struggles, triumphs, and dreams are the same. In a very fast 70 minutes, we get a glimpse into these girls' lives as they deal with family pressure, poverty, bullying, competition, colorism, and problematic standards of beauty. Like in The Wolves, they're all fully formed complex humans that I'd like to spend more time with.

"for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf" at Penumbra Theatre

Penumbra Theatre's new production of for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf is my first experience with this acclaimed piece of theater, and now I see what all the fuss is about. I've heard the name of course, but didn't really know what it was about. Turns out it's about so much, and told in a uniquely moving way that's basically a series of poems with accompanying music and movement. I usually have a hard time connecting to poetry, but there's something about the beauty and raw truth of Ntozake Shange's words, and the gorgeous performances by this ten-person all women of color cast, that moved me to tears. I don't have adequate words to describe why, but do yourself a favor and go see it.

"Measure for Measure" by Theatre Unbound at Gremlin Theater

Theatre Unbound, aka The Women's Theatre, is tackling one of Shakespeare's "problem plays," so called because it falls in between the categories of comedy (in which everyone ends up happily married) and tragedy (in which everyone ends up dead, or almost everyone). They specifically chose this play for this moment because, as director Kate Powers notes in the playbill, "Measure for Measure is a potent reminder that #metoo is a centuries' old problem, that men extracting or pressuring women for sex as a transactional exchange has long been among us. Shakespeare is exploring corruption of authority, the intersection, or bypass of, justice with mercy, and sexual misdeeds that continue to infect our society and oppress those who are not invited to share in governance." Their production is powerful and well-acted, if a bit long. I wish they would have trimmed it a bit to better hone in on the important issues, but that may just be due to my growing intolerance for sitting for three hours (Angels in America notwithstanding). Still, it's a timely production of a 400-year-old play that's surprisingly relevant.

"Redemption" by nimbus theater at the Crane Theater

nimbus theatre's latest original work, Redemption, deals with the tricky issue of reentry into civilian life after time spent in prison. Playwright Josh Cragun and director Mitchell Frazier researched the topic extensively and talked with people affected by the issue. The result is a thoughtful look at the lives of two recently released prisoners and how their release affects their family and their victims (sometime one in the same). We're facing so many problems in this country right now that our flawed prison system (nimbus quotes a few statistics in their program, including "the US holds only 4.4% of the world's population, but we have 22% of the world's prisoners" and "we incarcerate at a higher rate than any other country in the world") seems to have taken a back burner. Not at nimbus, where Redemption doesn't offer any answers, but rather calls for compassion and understanding on all sides.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Ferguson, USA"

Day: 8

Show: 35

Title: Ferguson, USA

Category: Drama

By: Random Walk Theatre Company

Written by: Maxwell Collyard

Location: U of M Rarig Center Arena

Summary: An intensely powerful play about the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by a white cop in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.

Highlights: Maxwell Collyard has written a powerful and thought-provoking play, weaving together scenes of the shooting and its aftermath with spoken word poetry, tied together with the recitation of what everyone agrees on: "who, what, when, where." The harder one to grasp is "why." The strong four-person cast (Andrew Erskine Wheeler, Ashe Jaafaru, Brid Henry, and Talief Bennet) plays multiple people involved, including a brother and sister who knew Michael, the cop who shot him, and FBI agents who may or may not be trying to get to the truth. I ended up seeing this show because the one I intended to see was sold out, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to witness this well-executed piece that tackles some important and difficult questions, without ever preaching to the audience or providing pat answers.

Fringe Festival: "Pecan Brown and the Seven ...'s"

Day: 7

Show: 24

Title: Pecan Brown and the Seven ...'s

Category: Something different

By: Under the Skin Theater Company

Created by: Kloie Rush-Spratt and BriAnna McCurry

Location: Music Box Theatre

Summary: A screenwriter is given the opportunity to rewrite a film adaptation of Snow White, and decides to cast a woman of color as the lead, specifically the color of Pecan Brown, but is thwarted by racism in Hollywood.

Highlights: The under-representation of minorities in Hollywood is definitely an idea worth exploring and bringing attention to. Unfortunately the execution is a little lacking. The show brings up some great points (especially the scene where everyone explains why they're not racist), and the leads are appealing (particularly Ashe Jaafaru as the screenwriter and Chava Gabriella as her star), but the whole thing feels a bit clunky. And I'm not sure why Thor is there, but as played by Collin Knopp-Schwyn with great dedication to the camp of it, he's the most entertaining part of the show. And that's a problem. But the creators have some great ideas; I'd like to see them explored and polished a bit more.