"Moonwatchers" at Open Eye Theatre

If you miss Minnesota Fringe Festival, go see Moonwatchers at Open Eye Theatre. It premiered at the 2022 Festival but I completely missed it. It's a very Fringey show, meaning creative, inventive, and less than an hour long. Continuing the year of the U of M/Guthrie BFA kids (I call them kids because I also received a degree from the U - in the last century), two graduates of that program prove its continued worth in our community and beyond. Nigel Berkeley and Corey Farrell have created something so unique, so downright silly, and so udderly delightful (pun intended). There are only four performances left; I recommend going if you need a little break from life to just smile and laugh and be transported into another world for a little while.

"My Antonia" at Illusion Theater

I missed Illusion Theater's original 2010 Ivey-winning production of their adaption of Willa Cather's 1918 pioneer novel My Ántonia, written by Allison Moore with original music by Roberta Carlson. But I've seen it every chance I could since, including my third time this weekend, as it returns home after a tour through Nebraska. Willa Cather is an important writer in American literature (see the notes in the program for more on that), and this is a beautifully sparse adaptation of her most beloved novel. The 90-minute runtime, a small ensemble of six actors playing all of the characters, and minimal set design really allow the beautifully descriptive language of the novel to come through as the main storyteller. Descriptive both of place (the Nebraska prairie) and of the emotions of the people who lived there. It's really a perfect adaptation, in that it captures the wistful and nostalgic tone of the novel as Willa describes the people and place she loved so much. If you've never seen it, do yourself a favor and get to Illusion Theater's 8th floor space in the Hennepin Center for the Arts (attached to the Cowles Center) in downtown Minneapolis before this run closes on March 24.