"The Great Armistice Day Blizzard" by nimbus theatre at the Crane Theater

All signs point to this being a snowy winter here in Minnesota; since the first significant snowfall a few days before Thanksgiving it feels like it hasn't stopped snowing, and conditions are ripe for an above-average snowfall this season. This is good news for those of us who enjoy outdoor winter activities that rely on snow, but not so much for those who view snow as an inconvenience. But no one wants a recurrence of what happened on Armistice Day of 1940. This day that was founded to commemorate peace was anything but peaceful for people in the Midwest, where temperatures in the 60s lured them outside to enjoy the warm November weather, only to be blasted by dropping temperatures and several feet of snow. As is their wont, nimbus theatre has devised a new play about this historic event. But instead of focusing on the grand scale of a storm that resulted in 154 deaths, including 49 in Minnesota, playwright and director Liz Neerland has chosen to focus on four people caught up in the storm, resulting in an intimate and engrossing 80-minute story. It's worth going out into the snow and cold to see The Great Armistice Day Blizzard at the Crane Theater through December 21 (but if there's a blizzard - by all means, stay home!).

"Secret Warriors" at History Theatre

Did you know that Japanese Americans served in the U.S. Army as translators, interpreters, and interrogators during WWII, at the same time that their families were imprisoned in internment camps back home? I didn't either, but I do now thanks to History Theatre's world premiere new play Secret Warriors. As always with History Theatre's original, often commissioned, plays and musicals, Secret Warriors shines a light on a little known aspect of history, usually with a Minnesota connection, and draws a straight line from the past to the present. Today, the very law that was used to intern Japanese Americans (the Alien Enemies Act of 1798) is being used to justify mass deportations, and we're seeing a rise of division and hate crimes. Director Lily Tung Crystal sums up this parallel in the program and the questions that this excellent new play raises: "What lessons from the past must we carry forward to ensure history does not repeat itself? How do we reconcile patriotism with the injustices committed by our own government? And what does it truly mean to be American?" Remembering our history is so important, and what better way to do that than through an engaging and entertaining play? You can learn about and pay homage to these Secret Warriors at the History Theatre in downtown St. Paul through April 19 (click here for info and tickets).

"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.

"Aubergine" at Park Square Theatre

Food is life. Literally, we need it to survive. But food also sustains us in other ways. It's a way to express love, it's ever present at family and community gatherings, it's intrinsically linked to our memories, we commune with our fellow human beings over a shared meal. Playwright Julia Cho (whose work was last seen at Park Square in 2015's The Language Archive) has taken this universal human theme and written a beautiful play that tells the specific story of a Korean American chef and his dying father. For Aubergine (another world for eggplant) is not just about food (life), it's also about death. You can't have one without the other, something this play understands very well, and something the characters learn to understand. In his second season as Park Square's Artistic Director, Flordelino Lagundino makes his directing debut here, creating a piece of theater that engenders the full scale of emotion from the audience, from laughter to tears. It's a beautifully and devastatingly human experience.

"The Pillowman" by Theatre Coup d'Etat at SpringHouse Ministry Center

Theatre Coup d'Etat's production of The Pillowman is the third play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh that I've seen, and the darkest and most twisted. And that's saying something, considering I've seen The Beauty Queen of Leenane about an extremely unhealthy mother-daughter relationship and A Behanding in Spokane about a man in search of his missing hand. McDonagh has a knack for writing really fascinating characters, darkly funny dialogue, and extremely twisted situations. All of those are true about The Pillowman (best play Tony nominee in 2005), which explores the brutal interrogation of a short story writer whose stories of violence against children start coming true. With a fantastic cast, inventive design, and an intimate performance space, Theatre Coup d'Etat brings this creepy story to life almost too viscerally.

"The Pathetic Life and Remarkable Afterlife of Elmer McCurdy, the Worst Robber in the West" by nimbus theatre at the Crane Theater

With their original work, nimbus theatre often brings us some fascinating but little known historical event or issue, typically in a thoughtful way that's somehow relevant to today. Their newest work, The Pathetic Life and Remarkable Afterlife of Elmer McCurdy, the Worst Robber in the West, does that too, but it's the first straight-up comedy I've seen them do, and it's great fun. Real life unsuccessful outlaw Elmer McCurdy would likely have been lost to history, if not for the strange tale of his corpse, which was preserved and made the rounds of carnivals, exhibits, side shows, and even movies, eventually stashed away in storage where it was discovered in 1976 and finally buried. He was the subject of an episode of Drunk History, and this play sort of feels like an extended episode of Drunk History. Silly and funny yet sorta kinda true.

"Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery" by Mu Performing Arts at the Guthrie Theater

With their new production of Lloyd Suh's recent Off-Broadway play Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery, Mu tackles the issue of yellow face and the stereotypical portrayal of Asian Americans in media head on. Like Branden Jacobs-Jenkens' Octoroon (recently produced by Mixed Blood Theatre), the play includes yellow face and white face, a play-within-a-play format, and a weird human-sized animal. While Jacobs-Jenkins satirized the "antebellum melodrama," Suh satirizes the many stereotypes that have dominated the depiction of Asian Americans in popular culture, and specifically the dozens of movies from the '20s through '40s featuring detective Charlie Chan (played by a white man, natch). The result is a weird and trippy mash-up of stories, often told in exaggerated style, that effectively and poignantly exposes and skewers the stereotypes surrounding us while paying homage to the pioneers of Asian American theater.

"The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin" at History Theatre

I just got back from my annual trip to NYC, "center of the universe," where I saw six Broadway shows in five days (read my mini-reviews here). While I was there, I also took a walking tour of the Lower East Side through the Tenement Museum, which I highly recommended if you're in the city. The tour was fascinating and served to reinforce the idea that the history of the Lower East Side, the history of New York City, the history of America is an ever-changing story of immigrants. Immigrants who have come to this country in search of better opportunities and better lives for their families. Unfortunately, our history also includes an ever-changing story of prejudice and discrimination against immigrants. Today, it's Muslim and Mexican immigrants that face the brunt of it. But the idea of keeping immigrants out due to fear is not a new one; in 1882 the first legislation against the immigration of a specific race was passed - the Chinese Exclusion Act. Local playwright Jessica Huang's new play The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin tells the true story of one Minnesota family affected by this legislation. In keeping with the History Theatre's commitment to tell the untold stories of all Minnesotans, it's a beautiful and affecting look at the very timely and relevant issue of immigration through the very specific story of one family.