"Family Dinner" at the Dudley Riggs Theatre

My favorite improv show is back! Improvisor Molly Ritchie started Family Dinner, a two-act improvised play about, you guessed it, a family gathering for a holiday* dinner, about 20 years ago. The show eventually landed at HUGE Theater where it played to sold-out houses for 13 years until HUGE sadly closed its doors last year. But it has found a new home at the Dudley Riggs Theatre, the home of Brave New Workshop and part of the Hennepin Arts group of theaters. It's been playing every Friday and Saturday since November 7, and will continue through the end of December (that means just four more shows!). It's become a sort of tradition for the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers to gather for our own TCTB family dinner, and then watch a performance of the most hilariously awkward Family Dinner you'll (hopefully) ever experience. I joined my friends from Beyond the Curtains, Minnesota Theater Love, Play Off the Page, The Stages of MN, and Twin Cities Stages for a fun evening of dinner (at Crave right across the street) and comedy on Hennepin Avenue.

"Family Dinner" at the Dudley Riggs Theatre

After the tragic closure of HUGE Theater this fall, only a year after opening their new space in Uptown, a bunch of improv shows needed to find new homes. Some of them organized as The Neighborhood, performing monthly at Jungle Theater just a few blocks away. Some of them moved to Strike Theater in Northeast Minneapolis, some of them found or created other spaces. Happily, my all-time favorite improv show Family Dinner has found a new home at Dudley Riggs Theatre where Brave New Workshop (the oldest comedy troupe in the country) performs, operated by Hennepin Arts. With just eight shows performed to sold out houses, hopefully Family Dinner will be back at its new home on Hennepin Avenue for years to come, so that we can experience this communal Family Dinner that's both absurd and grounded in reality, both laugh-out-loud funny and heart-warming, as we get to know a new and uniquely wacky family each time. There are two remaining performances this year, but if you want to go you should get your tickets now before they sell out (I have some friends who waited too long and missed out on the fun). For real, click this link and buy your tickets now, I'll wait here.

"Family Dinner" and "The Mess" at HUGE Theater

Have you heard the news? HUGE Theater has moved into a new space, and not only that - they own it! For more about the significance of an artist-led organization owning their own performance space, listen to Episode 2.7 of the Twin Cities Theater Chat podcast, in which we interview Executive Director Butch Roy. For a virtual tour of the new space, including classrooms and behind the scenes, watch this YouTube video in which John Gebretatose, Director of Diversity & Inclusion, shows bloggers Kendra from Artfully Engaging and Rob from The Stages of MN around the space. Or better yet - go visit HUGE in person! They've moved just a few blocks north on Lyndale and across the street (tip: plenty of free street parking on Aldrich, one block west of Lyndale). The new HUGE feels more spacious - from the lobby to the performance space, with more improvements coming soon, including a bar and risers to improve sightlines in the audience. HUGE currently has shows Wednesdays through Saturdays, with three-show line-ups on Fridays and Saturdays. I made my first visit to the new HUGE last night to see my all-time favorite improv show Family Dinner, which continues every Saturday through the end of the year. See the full schedule here and make your plans to see some improv this holiday* season.