"The Adventures of a Traveling Meskwaki" by Full Circle Theater at Park Square Theatre's Andy Boss Stage

Full Circle Theater doesn't exclusively do new work, but they do a lot of new work, supporting local playwrights. Their latest is #TCTheater artist Oogie_Push's lovely new autobiographical play The Adventures of a Traveling Meskwaki. In it, she and four other actors play herself as she tells the story of her life, from childhood to the present, all connected by the theme of water. Less a straight-forward narrative story and more a collection of interrelated stories, experiences, and revelations, it feels like an epic journey that comes full circle (pardon the pun) from past to present, from water to water, to finding self and home. It's heart-warming, inspiring, and thought-provoking, as it deals with themes of grief, environmental disaster, and this country's horrific treatment of indigenous people. But the overall feeling is one of hope, community, and connection, and it might make you regard water a little differently. Join the adventure in Park Square's intimate basement thrust stage, Wednesdays through Sundays until November 24.

"They Wear Teal Ribbons Around Their Tongues" by Full Circle Theater Company at Gremlin Theatre

In the new play They Wear Teal Ribbons Around Their Tongues by #TCTheater artist Siddeeqah Shabazz, a family therapy session turns into a '90s sitcom. But the cheesy laughs soon give way to some heavy drama, as painful secrets are revealed. Produced by Full Circle Theater Company, the play walks the fine line between comedy and drama, as does the talented cast. Come for the funny and comforting sitcom tropes, stay for the emotional truth of this dysfunctional but loving family. They Wear Teal Ribbons Around Their Tongues continues this weekend and next at Gremlin Theatre.

"Anon(ymous)" by Full Circle Theater at Park Square Theatre

A play that was commissioned by and premiered at Children's Theatre Company in the early aughts is receiving a lyrical and haunting new production by Full Circle Theater at Park Square Theatre, a building that has been largely empty this year as Park Square works through some financial difficulties. But Anon(ymous) brings life and theater back into the space. Playwright Naomi Iizuka uses inspiration from The Odyssey to tell the story of a refugee, which is incredibly relevant right now with the growing numbers of people fleeing their homes due to war and violence. We follow one such person, an unnamed young man from an unnamed country, on his long journey home, in a story both grounded in reality and fantastical. 

"Antigonick" by Full Circle Theater Company at Mixed Blood Theatre

Full Circle Theater often produces new work, but this spring they're doing one of the oldest plays in theater. Sophocles (or Sophokles) wrote Antigone a couple of millennia ago, as part of the Oedipus trilogy (you know, the guy who famously murdered his father and married his mother). But this new translation, by classics scholar Anne Carson, is probably unlike any Greek play you've ever seen, and in that way, Full Circle is continuing their tradition of producing new, inclusive, relevant work. In a talkback after the show I attended, director Martha B. Johnson noted that this play is the only one Anne wrote not on commission, and it began as a graphic novel. She called the translation "startling;" Full Circle co-Artistic Director Rick Shiomi called it "wild." But the playwright insists it's a translation not an adaptation, saying (quoted in the program), "Everything I've done in the translation is an attempt to convey a move or shock or darkening that happens in the original text. This doesn't always mean reproducing the words and sentences of the original in their same order; but a play is a collection of actions or doings, this is what needs to be rendered from Greek into English." Her translation makes this ancient play feel alive, using lyrical language composed in interesting ways. Full Circle takes an equally creative approach, adding movement, and the talented 12-person cast beautifully brings the vision to life. See this new old Antigonick at Mixed Blood Theatre now through June 4.

"Fire in the New World" by Full Circle Theater Company at Park Square Theatre

Rick Shiomi, founder of Theater Mu and current co-Artistic Director of Full Circle Theater Company, returns to the Japanese-Canadian noir detective world of post-WW II Vancouver in his new play Fire in the New World. The first play in what is now a trilogy, Yellow Fever, is set in 1973 and premiered in 1982, and was produced by Mu in 2013 as part of Rick's last season as Artistic Director. It was followed by the prequel Rosie's Cafe, set in 1951. Fire in the New World takes place between these two, in 1963, but don't worry if you haven't seen the other plays, it stands on its own (although it would be great fun to see the three plays in rep). Once again, private eye Sam Shikaze battles crime, gentrification, and racism with the help of his friends. See it at Park Square Theatre through November 6.

"Atacama" by Full Circle Theater at Park Square Theatre

Full Circle Theater Company, a new-ish #TCTheater company that "produces heartfelt, groundbreaking theater that artfully addresses issues of diversity and social justice for 21st century audiences," is producing a new play by California-based playwright Augusto Frederico Amador. I believe I attended a virtual reading of Atacama sometime in the last two years (it's all kind of a blur), and now it's taking the stage for nine performances only on Park Square Theatre. This two-hander examines the long-lasting and devastating of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet's 17-year reign, during which he executed thousands of citizens who disagreed with him. It's a timely piece, when violence and human rights violations are occurring around the world. 

"The Empathy Project" by Full Circle Theater Company at Park Square Theatre

During this very long extended intermission from live performance, Full Circle Theater Company continued development of new works, including a play called The Empathy Project. They held several zoom readings, and now it's finally on stage in a full production. Having seen and appreciated the zoom version, it's wonderful to see what it has grown into in this fully staged version of the piece. Playwright Stephanie Lein Walseth interviewed 20 people across the state of Minnesota, looking for a good representation across politics, geography, and race. She asked people about their family story, their values, what empathy means to them, and their hope for the future. All of these stories are beautifully woven together, with the interviewees embodied by a talented nine-person cast, to create an inspirational tapestry of humanity that reminds us that behind all the rhetoric, we're much more similar than we thought we were. If you need a little more empathy in your life (and who doesn't right now?), see one of the few remaining performances of The Empathy Project at Park Square Theatre, closing November 21.

"The Empathy Project" streaming from Full Circle Theater

This past weekend, Full Circle Theater Company premiered a new play they've been working on for several years. Playwright and Full Circle Core Artist Stephanie Lein Walseth interviewed about 20 people around the state about empathy. She noted in a post show discussion (which followed all four showings of the recorded zoom reading) that she first had the idea for this project prior to the 2016 election, and started interviewing people about a year ago. Out of each interview, she pulled a short story, looking for moments of surprise or something that challenged our stereotypes. The stories are woven together in a structure she compared to the docu-theater style of a Laramie Project or Yellow Face, or like a story circle. The result is incredibly moving, and is well suited to the virtual format as it focuses on one person telling a story.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Glass & Lady M."

Day: 1

Show: 3

Title: Glass & Lady M.

Category: DRAMA / MYSTERY / PHYSICAL THEATER / LITERARY ADAPTATION / POLITICAL CONTENT / SHAKESPEARIAN ELEMENTS

By: Full Circle Theater Company

Created by: Lindsey Bushnell and Martha B. Johnson

Location: Dreamland Arts

Summary: New #TCTheater company Full Circle Theater gets Fringey with two short plays proving commentary on patriarchy and the troubling legacy of America.

Highlights: The new play Glass by Lindsey Bushnell imagines four women trapped in a room, waiting for a man to come through the glass and bring them "blessings" or "luxuries." One has apples, one is constantly sweeping, one is holding a baby, and one is obsessively applying make-up and checking her looks. In what is a pretty obvious metaphor for patriarchy, the women discuss their situation and how to get out of it, alternately chiding and supporting each other. Lady M. is a brief reimagining of Macbeth by Full Circle Co-Artistic Director Martha B. Johnson (who directs both pieces), with the bloody ambition of the Macbeths compared to the bloody ambition of America and the wake of tragedies left behind in the pursuit of "Manifest Destiny." A strong cast of four women (Alice McGlave, Charla Marie Bailey, Delinda "Oogie" Pushetonequa, and Marci Lucht) perform in both plays, fully committing to the absurdist style of the two pieces that speak to each other nicely. As an independently produced Fringe show at Dreamland Arts in St. Paul, this one is a little out of the way, but worth the 10-minute drive from the Cedar-Riverside hub to see this powerful, relevant, weird, and beautifully done new work.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Caught" by Full Circle Theater at the Guthrie Theater

When I took the elevator up to the Guthrie Theater's 9th floor Dowling Studio, accompanied by high school students dressed for prom*, I didn't know what I was in for. I knew I was attending my third Full Circle Theater show, and I knew enough about them to expect it to be something thoughtful, well done, and relevant to the world we live in. And I knew this play had something to do with Chinese political art. All of those things are true, but Caught is so much more. It's a Russian doll of a play with layers upon layers of truth, reality, and artifice. By the time it was over I didn't know what was real, where the play ended and reality began. And that's the point of Caught, to make us question truth, reality, art, politics, even theater. It's a brilliantly written play (by California based playwright Christopher Chen), perfectly executed by director Rick Shiomi and the team. I'm not going to be able to tell you too much about it because I don't want to spoil the surprising and delightful trip, but just trust me - you need to see this play. And with all tickets just $9 as part of the Guthrie's Level Nine initiative, you have no excuse not to.

"Under this Roof" by Full Circle Theater at the Guthrie Theater

Currently staging just their third production, Full Circle Theater is new to the #TCTheater scene, but the founding members are certainly not new to the community. Co-Artistic Directors Rick Shiomi and Martha B. Johnson, along with Core Artists Lara Trujillo, James A. Williams, and Stephanie Lein Walseth have combined their experience and talents "to produce heartfelt, groundbreaking theater that artfully addresses issues of diversity and social justice for 21st century audiences." The new play Under this Roof, written by veteran actor of local and national stages Barbara Kingsley, fits well with this mission. It's a simple story of friendship and family, with moments of lyrical beauty mixed with the mundane stuff of everyday life. Directed by Full Circle artist James A. Williams and featuring a solid four-person cast, it's a realistic and ultimately hopeful look at the challenges that life throws at us.

"365 Days/365 Plays" by Full Circle Theater at Penumbra Theatre

About 15 years ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks gave herself a challenge - write a play every day for a year. New #TCTheater company Full Circle Theater (they've been around a couple years but this is just their second production) has chosen to produce a "remix" of 46 of these plays in just over two hours. The result is a mishmash of stories, characters, and conversations, seemingly unrelated, but with some common threads to be found. Full Circle is intentionally multiracial, with a mission "to produce heartfelt, groundbreaking theater that artfully addresses issues of human nature and social justice for 21st century audiences." A wonderful goal, and 365 Days/365 Plays is an interesting, perplexing, thought-provoking step towards it.