A Reading of "Minneapolis/St. Paul" at the Playwrights' Center

"Now in its 12th year, the Ruth Easton New Play Series gives selected Core Writers 20 hours with collaborators to workshop their script—to write, rewrite, experiment, and shape their work. For playwrights, this means great leaps forward for their plays. For audiences, this means a thrilling and intimate night of theater."

The Ruth Easton Series concludes at the Playwrights' Center tonight, and I was fortunate to attend all five new play readings in the season. The final reading is a full circle moment for this theater blogger - the very first reading I attended at PWC was a reading of core writer Lee Blessing's Minneapolis/St. Paul, which the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers were invited to attend and discuss with the playwright. It's hard to believe that was less than a year ago, and since then I've attended as many readings as I am able to. As Lee himself said in an interview, "There's no more useful tool a playwright has to improve a play than the chance to watch it presented to an audience of willing victims." Consider me a very willing victim for this sort of experiment. It's been so much fun to experience these five plays in development (see also December's Wink by Jen Silverman, January's queens by Martyna Majok, February's Eden Prairie 1971 by Mat Smart, and January's The Sea at the Stars by Harrison David Rivers). If you've never been to a reading at the Playwrights' Center, I highly encourage you to pay them a visit and be a part of the great work they're doing in their 45th season.

A Reading of "Minneapolis/St. Paul" at the Playwright's Center

A few weeks ago, the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB) were invited to attend a reading of a new play by Lee Blessing at the Playwrights' Center. The reading was open to the public, but the bloggers were invited by Marketing Manager Jessica Franken to attend and have a private conversation with the playwright after the reading. Our first official event as a group, it was an incredible opportunity to learn more about what the Playwrights' Center does, experience a fantastic new play still in development, and talk with a playwright about what we all love best - theater. We have another TCTB event coming up at Park Square Theatre, a pre- and post-show discussion at the Sunday matinee of Calendar Girls on June 26 (more details on that coming soon). As a group, one of the things we hope to do is increase connection among the theater-going audience, with each other and with theater-makers. We look forward to partnering with more theaters in the future as we work towards this goal (send us a message at our Facebook page or email me if you'd like to learn more).