Ghostlight Series: "Heroic Acts of Music" streaming from Theater Latte Da

The third installment of Theater Latte Da's fantastic virtual cabaret series called "The Ghostlight Series" is now available! The five-part series began with the powerful and moving Twelve Blocks From Where I Live, Regina Marie Williams's response to the murder of George Floyd in photos and song. Next was Re-Cast, which gave some of our favorites the chance to sing a song from a role they would never be cast in. And now we have Heroic Acts of Music, honoring 20th Century musicians (and others) who used music for protest or support in difficult and dangerous times. All three shows are available to watch now and as many times as you want through August with the purchase of a season pass. These gorgeously filmed and edited 30-minute shows with fantastic performances from some of #TCTheater's best are worth every penny, helping to bridge the gap until we can gather in person again to share stories and music (hopefully very soon!).

"LOG JAM! A Paul Bunyan Musical Spectacular" by Open Eye Theatre on the Bakken Museum's green rooftop

My second outdoor* theatrical production this year (and hence only the second show I've seen live in 2021) is Open Eye Theatre's delightful new original musical LOG JAM! A Paul Bunyan Musical Spectacular, performed on the beautiful green rooftop of the Bakken Museum** overlooking Bde Maka Ska. The scheduled opening night turned out to be a cold and rainy spring day, but the actual opening night one day later was a gorgeous, sunny, cool evening. In just over an hour this group of talented performers, including many familiar faces I've greatly missed seeing in the last 15 months without theater, told a sweet and silly story about Minnesota legend Paul Bunyan, and I smiled through the entire show. Fun, safe, and accessible, great for kids and grown-ups alike, LOG JAM is another exciting step in the return of our vital performing arts community (continuing through June 20).

"In the Midst of Things: In Medias Res" streaming from An Opera Theatre

One fun thing about this virtual theater era is that you can discover new companies that you haven't been able to see before, since they're now easily accessible in your own home. Such as the new opera company called simply An Opera Theatre. I love their mission statement: "to produce socially-relevant works, in order to break down the barriers of the classical art form, and bring communities together," and this: "We hope to promote work for working artists in Minnesota. And it doesn't just stop at opera! AOT believes in fusing multiple art forms to create tantalizing theater events for a diverse artistic community." They've created a new original 15-minute opera that they've been sharing with schools around the area, and will be available to the public May 28 - June 6 on their Facebook page and website. I got to see a sneak peek of In the Midst of Things: In Medias Res; it's really great, and left me wanting more!

"Wonderland" by Collide Theatrical Dance Company outside the James J. Hill House

Oh happy day - outdoor theater has returned! Kicking off a great year of outdoor performances*, Collide Theatrical Dance Company (who also did an outdoor show last year) is presenting their take on Alice in Wonderland outdoors at the James J. Hill House and Mill City Museum. Over the last eight years, Collide has created original jazz dance musicals set to a soundtrack of well-chosen pop music, and WonderLand continues that tradition. Even better, this one is performed at a gorgeous outdoor location, behind the James J. Hill House on Summit Avenue in St. Paul overlooking the Mississippi River valley (and later this month, the Mill City Museum). It's a wonderful step back into the reopening of our vital preforming arts community. Click here for more info and to purchase tickets for an outdoor performance or to watch the show virtually.

"Beehive" streaming from Lakeshore Players Theatre

Lakeshore Players Theatre, the community theater of White Bear Lake, has been continuously operating since 1953. They weren't about to let a little thing like a pandemic that paused all live performances end that streak. Their virtual 67 3/4th season is now wrapping up with Beehive: the '60s Musical, recorded on stage at their gorgeous new home Hanifl Performing Arts Center. I watched it virtually with a friend that lives halfway across the country, and at the end she commented "that was swell." There's nothing new or ground-breaking about this benign jukebox musical, but it's chock full of songs that we love from the 1960s, well performed by a diverse all-female cast. That is pretty swell, and you can watch it from the safety and comfort of your own home at specific showtimes through May 16. And then mark your calendar for a special outdoor* performance of one of my favorite Sondheim musicals, Company, in July.

"Audrey Saves the Universe" streaming from Children's Theatre Company

This Friday, Children's Theatre Company is releasing a new original web series called Audrey Saves the Universe, and I was lucky enough get an advanced viewing of this fun, silly, and sweet show. Entirely created/filmed/edited by company members Autumn Ness (playwright) and Reed Sigmund (director), who are conveniently married, this 90-minute saga is split into seven easily digestible episodes as it explores the power of creativity. The show could be subtitled "what artists do when trapped in their house for a year," in the best possible way. They've created an entire universe out of what's available to them, even enlisting their kids and adorable pug in telling this story. Available through May 28, the entire series can be purchased starting at $15 and is a great way to stay connected to the work that CTC does during this extended intermission.

Jamecia Bennett in "The Evolution of Jazz & Blues" at The Belvedere at Crooners

After a long winter of no live in-person entertainment, spring has finally arrived, a hopeful spring which is bringing us vaccines and the return of outdoor entertainment! Even before living under the specter of a deadly airborne virus, outdoor entertainment was one of my favorite things about summer in Minnesota. Now, when outdoors feels like the safest place to be, outdoor venues are even more important to our arts and entertainment industry. Last summer, Crooners Supper Club in Fridley stepped up with an outdoor drive-in performance venue and it was a life-saver for me; I attended four drive-in shows, plus one on their outdoor patio. This year, they've expanded that intimate outdoor patio into a larger space with appropriately spaced table seating under a tent. Called "The Belvedere," it's a great venue for outdoor entertainment that I hope they keep going for years to come. I can think of no one better to christen this new space than the incomparable Jamecia Bennett, local music and theater legend. I was lucky enough to experience one of her two shows last weekend, and if this is any indication, it's sure to be a fantastic spring/summer/fall at Crooners!

"The Revolutionists" streaming from Lyric Arts

This morning I watched my third streaming Lauren Gunderson play in a week. Last week I watched Steppingstone Theatre's I and You and Jungle Theater's collaboration on Lauren's newest play The Catostrophist (the latter available through May 2, click here for info on both). Today I had the pleasure of watching Lyric Arts's first show since January 2020 - The Revolutionists, recently filmed on their Anoka stage. Like many of Lauren's plays, it tells a fictionalized story of well-known (or should be well-known) women from history with modern language and sensibility, and is funny, smart, poignant, and relevant. If you miss live theater and/or Lyric Arts' popcorn-scented Main Street Stage, don't miss this show (available through May 2 only)!

Two Lauren Gunderson Plays: "The Catastrophist" by Jungle/Round House/Marin Theatres and "I and You " by Steppingstone Theatre

After a particularly difficult week (rising COVID cases, vaccine side effects, the continued murder of Black people by the police, mass shootings, i.e., just another week in America) I took a much-needed hiatus from my phone today and instead spent some time at my church - theater. Specifically, I streamed two plays by one of my and America's current favorite playwrights, Lauren Gunderson (she's one of the most produced living playwrights in recent years; I saw two of her plays in February 2020, just before this extended intermission began). In the last year or so of virtual theater, I've found that I love watching theater in the morning - 7am or earlier, first thing when I get up while I eat breakfast, before doing my morning zoom yoga. It's a wonderful way to start the day. I began my phone-less theater-filled day with Lauren's newest play, The Catastrophist, a Jungle Theater co-production with DC's Round House Theatre and San Francisco's Marin Theatre Company. Then, after yoga and a lovely bike ride around my neighborhood, I watched I and You over lunch, produced by Steppingstone Theatre, which has recently joined forces with Park Square Theatre. The two plays are quite different, but share similar themes as well as Lauren's smart, clever, witty dialogue and realistic characters (one of whom actually is real). Both plays are under 90 minutes and really great choices for your stay-home-stay-safe-stream-some-theater week.

"Kodachrome" streaming from Locally Grown Theatre

One good thing to come out of this extended intermission from live theater is discovering new theater companies. I had not previously heard of Locally Grown Theatre, a community theater in "Cottage Grove, St. Paul Park, Newport, Grey Cloud Island, and the surrounding area," but this week I watched a virtual play in the zoom style of theater and quite enjoyed it. Kodachrome is a sweet little Our Town-ish play about life in a small town, with all the mundanity and profundity that entails. Even though they're each performing in their own little box, the seven-person cast (although disappointingly lacking in diversity) all give wonderful performances that create a feeling of community in this story of love and loss.

"The Lady with All the Answers" streaming from Lakeshore Players Theatre

Recently recorded on stage at the beautiful new Hanifl Performing Arts Center in White Bear Lake, the one-woman show about advice columnist Ann Landers, The Lady with All the Answers, is now streaming from Lakeshore Players Theatre. #TCTheater favorite Shanan Custer inhabits the woman behind the famous words, whose real name was Eppie Lederer, as she navigates a challenging time in her life and the wish to share honestly with her readers. With full set, costumes, lighting, and even a bit of crowd laughter from the crew, filmed from several different camera angles, it really feels like an engaging and entertaining theater performance that we just happen to be watching from home.

"Merge: Give Ear" streaming from the Cowles Center

Berit Ahlgren and Nathan Keepers
(photo by Shelly Mosman)

Give Ear is one of the many shows that were scheduled to open in March 2020; I call them "ghost shows." Some of them had a few performances before being cancelled, some of them just dress rehearsals or previews, some of them never even reached that point. Some of these shows will return in some form when theaters open again, but some will never come to be, and just remain an idea in the artists' minds. The Cowles Center gave creators Berit Ahlgren, Nathan Keepers, and company the opportunity to revisit Give Ear one year later and make it into something new. The result is a film/dance/theater piece that combines footage from the filmed final dress rehearsal last year and the new performance this year (both filmed on the Goodale Stage with no audience) with footage from the rehearsal/creative process (in one of the gorgeous studios in the Cowles Center) that sort of bridges the two performances. As Nathan says at one point, it "turned out to be super meta and weird." It's a look inside the artistic process as these artists try to make sense of the original piece they were trying to make one year ago and everything that's happened since. Nothing will be the same when this pandemic is over. Give Ear is an exploration of what that looks like for this one specific "ghost show."