"Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help" and "The Spitfire Grill" at Commonweal Theatre Company

Commonweal Theatre Company is in their 38th year of producing professional theater in Southern Minnesota; I've been a Twin Cities Theater Blogger for 16 years, and I can't believe it took me this long to visit them. The Commonweal is located in Lanesboro, a town known for the Root River State Trail, B&Bs, and great theater. They have a five-show season that runs from April through December, with shows overlapping so it is possible to see two shows in one visit, which is what I did. I made the beautiful 2-hour drive on a rainy Saturday morning, saw two shows that day (during which the clouds cleared), had some good food and drinks, did a little shopping, and stayed at a lovely B&B just down the street. This may have been my first visit but it will not be my last; I will be adding The Commonweal to my annual theater vacay list, which includes Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona (June-July), the Tony-winning American Players Theatre in Spring Green, WI (June-October, I'm making my 4th visit in a few weeks), and occasional trips to Duluth Playhouse and/or Zeitgeist (Urinetown in November!). There are obviously a ton of great theater options in the Twin Cities, but theater is everywhere, and people in rural areas or outstate cities deserve great theater too, in fact it's vital to a thriving community. "Commonweal" means "the public welfare," and this theater truly feels like it is for the public welfare, and an important part of the community. For us non-locals, it's really fun to experience theater in other locations, explore other areas in the Midwest, and make a vacation out of it. One of the two shows I saw closes this week, but the other continues through the end of October, with another play opening in September, plus a holiday show that is one of my favorites, so there's still time to visit Lanesboro and enjoy everything the area has to offer, including great theater, this late summer/fall/winter.

"The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui" by Frank Theatre at the Ivy Building for the Arts

Frank Theatre's production of Bertolt Brecht's 1941 play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui has been selling out for the last three weekends, with no tickets currently available for their final weekend. Turns out people are hungry for a three-hour play satirizing Chicago gangsters / 1930s Germany / 21st century America. In this 2017 adaptation by Chicago playwright Bruce Norris, the comparisons to our current political situation are not subtle, as fictional gangster Arturo Ui slowly gains control over the city of Chicago through its economic, political, and judicial systems in a way that's terrifyingly familiar. Frank Theatre, and its Artistic Director Wendy Knox, are experts at interpreting Brecht, and at holding up a mirror to our present moment, and this play may be the most timely and relevant one yet.

"Life Sucks" by Girl Friday Productions and Open Eye Theatre

Girl Friday Productions holds a unique niche in #TCTheater. Specializing in large-cast classics, they typically do just one production every other year. They skipped their 2021 production due to the pandemic (although they did create a really lovely virtual winter cabaret show - still available to watch here), and now they're finally back - four years after their last production. They're also stepping out of this niche, co-producing a play with Open Eye Theatre that was written in this millennium with just a seven-person cast. But Life Sucks by Aaron Posner is loosely based on Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, so I guess it counts in the classics department. And a seven-person cast is quite large for Open Eye's stage, which is the smallest and sweetest stage in town, so the cast to square footage ratio is still quite high. Maybe it's not such a leap for them after all, and it's consistent with their past work in that it's perfectly cast, thoughtfully constructed, and epic in themes if not in size. They've just extended their run through November 12, and you would be wise not to miss this funny and profound rare offering from Girl Friday and Open Eye (click here for info and tickets).

"HAIR BALL! A Bigfoot Musical Adventure" by Open Eye Theatre at the Bakken Museum

"Friends, this is the sweetest, cutest, funniest, silliest, naturiest, heart-warmiest 80 minutes of music-theater you could see! Don't miss it!!" Such was my Instagram post last night after coming home from seeing Open Eye Theatre's new original music-theater-puppetry creation HAIR BALL! A Bigfoot Musical Adventure. This new tradition of outdoor summer musicals at the Bakken Museum's lovely green rooftop lawn was birthed out of the pandemic last year, and I hope it never ends. There's just nothing better than witnessing the creative talent of artists in the great outdoors next to one of Minnesota's beautiful lakes. HAIR BALL! is a fairy tale for kids with plenty for adults to enjoy too - great music, much humor, and fantastic performances by the cast. Click here for more information and to purchase tickets (continuing through June 19).