American Players Theatre 2025

"This world is complicated, sometimes difficult. We hope that your visit to APT is a bit of a refuge for you. We hope it brings you joy, maybe lets you breathe easier. For a few hours, you can lean into a story, together in community with the rest of the audience. The people sitting around you may have different perspectives, beliefs or even politics (yeah, we said it). But we can share this common experience and maybe understand ourselves, and each other, a little bit better. That's the beauty of Theater, and of this place in the woods." This program note from American Players Theatre Artistic Director Brenda DeVita and Managing Director Sara Young so beautifully expresses why I love theater, and why I write about it to share it with others. At this moment, the world feels very complicated, difficult, and scary, so my weekend in Spring Green with my friends from Minnesota Theater Love and Ernest Goes to the Theatre was a welcome retreat. I like to refer to APT as a theater oasis in the middle of the woods of Wisconsin. And it is that, it is a place to take a break from the scary world and enjoy storytelling at its finest. But APT, and theater, is more than that. Some of the plays this season are a fun escape, but some are a brutal reflection of our harsh reality. And all of them are experienced in community with friends, strangers, and this beautiful acting company and creative team. This was just the third trip across the Wisconsin border to APT for this Twin Cities Theater Blogger, but I look forward to many more to come. The summer season of eight plays in rep (although more will be closing each week) continues through October 5, with one play presented in their indoor theater in late October through November, so there is still time for the best theater vacay in the Midwest this year. Or start making plans for the 2026 season, because American Players Theatre is a magical and wonderful experience, just a four-hour drive from the Twin Cities, that every #TCTheater fan needs to experience.

"Proof" at Gremlin Theatre

The 2001 Tony winner for Best Play, Proof ran for two and a half years on Broadway, had a national tour (rare for a non-musical), and was adapted into a 2005 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Gyllenhaal. There have been several local productions, but not in 5+ years, so it was time to revisit this brilliant play, and thankfully Gremlin Theatre is doing just that. I fell in love with the play when I saw it on tour 20+ years ago; in contrast to my current nearly 15 years as a theater blogger, I was a math major, so I love all of the math references and discussions of proofs and higher mathematics. But it wasn't just math nerds who made this play so popular. Despite the fact that I like to call Proof my second* favorite math play, it's about so much more than math. It's about family dynamics, caring for aging parents, relationships between very different siblings, mental illness, and what we inherit from our parents vs. making our own life separate from them. As per usual, Gremlin's production is practically perfect in every way - an excellent cast, clear direction, and spot-on design. See it in their Vandalia Towers theater (in St. Paul's Midway neighborhood) between now and March 30, and for one of the best and most convenient dinner-and-a-show pairings in town, visit Lake Monster Brewing in the same building, where you can now order delicious OG Zaza pizza from across the patio (bonus: as spring weather arrives, you can enjoy your beer and pizza al fresco).

"Steel Magnolias" at Yellow Tree Theatre

The first time I saw Steel Magnolias on stage (because of course the popular 1989 movie was a play first) was at Yellow Tree Theatre 13 years ago. Enough time has passed for them to revisit this funny and heart-warming story of female friendship. The last time I saw it was the at the Guthrie five years ago, in which Yellow Tree's Artistic Director Austene Van played Truvy. She moves to the director's chair for this production, leading a fantastic cast in this lovely production. I brought a group of female friends (as is my tradition at Yellow Tree, since I used to work at a nearby office), none of whom had seen the play (some not even the movie), and a good time was had by all. Well, a good time, and also a few tears. But as Truvy says, "laughter through tears is my favorite emotion!" Spend a couple of hours with these Steel Magnolias at Yellow Tree in Osseo now through December 22.

American Players Theatre 2024

This year I made my second visit to American Players Theatre, the magical theater in the middle of the woods of Wisconsin. My friends at Minnesota Theater Love have been going for years, and finally convinced me to join them two years ago. I was enamored of the setting and the quality (and quantity) of work produced, and declared that "if Middle Earth had a theater, it would look like American Players Theatre," so I was happy to make the trip again after missing last year. And now I am thoroughly and irrevocably ensorcelled by the experience that is APT; I don't think I'll miss another year if I can help it. We saw five shows in three days, four of them outdoors, each better than the last. If you're a theater fan in the Midwest, put APT on your must-do list. A lovely four-hour drive from the Twin Cities through the corn fields and rolling hills of Wisconsin brings you to a two-stage, eight-show repertory theater than runs from June through September (with an additional indoor show in October). It's a gem that even the New York Times has visited - so why haven't you? This year we stayed at House on the Rock Resort which is the closest (and perfectly satisfactory) lodging to the theater at just about a mile away, but there are other hotels, B&Bs, and AirBnBs in the vicinity. Plus there are plenty of shops and restaurants in and around Spring Green to entertain you (although I do recommend making a reservation for Saturday night dinner, we visited four restaurants before we found one that could seat us). So make a long weekend of it, visit the truly bizarre funhouse that is House on the Rock (admission included if you stay at the Resort), take in the majesty of Taliesin (which I have yet to do), and enjoy some amazing theater, scenery, and cheese!

"The Rats & The Wasp's Nest" at Yellow Tree Theatre

About halfway through the first of a pair of one-act Agatha Christie mystery plays at Yellow Tree Theatre, it started to seem familiar. At intermission I checked cherryandspoon.com (which is much more reliable than my memory) and found that I had indeed seen these two plays before. They were part of a triptych of plays at Park Square Theatre in 2019 called Agatha Christie: Rule of Thumb. The director of that piece, Austene Van, has brought two of these plays to Yellow Tree Theatre, of which she is now the Artistic Director, to begin their 16th season in their warm and cozy space in a strip mall in Osseo. Each one of these plays is under 45 minutes long, and both are wonderful examples of tight and concise mystery storytelling. It's like a mini Agatha Christie repertoire festival, but it only takes you less than 90 minutes on one night to see the shows. You will be rewarded by great performances in these murder stories that are more light and funny than dark and scary. A perfect way to ease into October (continuing through October 29).

"Top Girls" by Theatre Pro Rata at the Crane Theater

Everyone loves the '80s, right? Maybe not so much after seeing Theatre Pro Rata's production of Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, which takes an unflinching look at what the '80s were really like, particularly in the lives of working women who seemed on the surface to "have it all." It's dark, weird, and a little fantastical, like all of Churchill's work, but it's also smart, thought-provoking, grounded in humanity, and relevant to our world 40 years later, with a different sort of gender politics happening in the work place.