Streaming #TCTheater

Friends - here are a few online and in person events to attend this week:

First,

New Dawn Theatre Company

's film A BREATH FOR GEORGE continues outdoor screenings this week at

Chanhassen Dinner Theatres

(tonight),

DalekoArts

(Tuesday), and

Minnesota State University Moorhead

(Thursday). See their website for details:

http://www.newdawntheatre.org/

Another in person (appropriately distant and masked) event -

The Theater of Public Policy

is hosting a discussion this Saturday about race and being anti-racist called "Let's Get Uncomfortable," with

Elliot Park Neighborhood (EPNI)

.

https://www.facebook.com/events/278154303251823/

On the virtual front, #GRSFEverywhere continues tonight -

Great River Shakespeare Festival

's newest Artistic Associate Melissa Maxwell is hosting a company conversation called "A More Perfect Union," about "the danger of a single story."

http://grsf.org/grsfeverywhere/

And a couple of weekly faves continue:

Leslie Vincent Music

- Monday night ukulele show

Rev. Matt's Monster Science

- Thursday night show featuring "Lizards from the Dawn of Time"

The Cut-Out Bar

- nightly record listening parties

#TCTheater Gives Back

Two local theaters are collecting donations to help people in the neighborhoods affected by the recent fires and looting.

Click the link for the schedule of donations at Mixed Blood Theatre Company, along with weekly "video, image, and textual responses to this crime born from systemic racism and fear."
https://mixedblood.com/community/mixed-blood-responds/

The image below details when and what you can drop off at Theater Latté Da (the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis).

You can also check this map for donation drop-off locations near you:

https://twin-cities-mutual-aid.org/

A BREATH FOR GEORGE Outdoor Screenings

Twice nightly this week, New Dawn Theatre Company is presenting an outdoor screening of a film piece they put together to honor the life of George Floyd. A BREATH FOR GEORGE includes "songs, interviews, and poems" from local artists and community leaders. It will be showing outside various theaters around town. Click the link for details.

Monday: Mixed Blood Theatre Company

Tuesday: Penumbra Theatre Company

Wednesday: Gremlin Theatre

Thursday: Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis

Friday: Penumbra Theatre Company

Saturday: Pillsbury House Theatre

Sunday: Yellow Tree Theatre

http://newdawntheatre.org/

Theater Crush Thursday: Black-Led Arts Organizations

For this week's #TheaterCrushThursday, we are focusing not on a specific company but uplifiting the collective black #tctheater community. Thanks to MPR News for rounding up this list of black-owned arts organizations, all of whom needed our help anyway, but especially need our support (and our dollars) now.

It can be easy to forget just how lucky we are here in the Twin Cities to have so many independent black-run companies. That is *not* a common thing in other major U.S. cities, and that's a diversity we treasure and want to preserve.

I can confidently say that many of these organizations count among the favorite local arts organizations for our bloggers, and we want to see them stick around for many more years to come. Please click through to find some you love (and some new to you!) to donate some money today as part of your anti-racism work. And if you have stories to share about your favorite black-run companies, we'd love to hear them in the comments below!

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/06/03/twin-cities-black-artists-need-broad-community-support-more-than-ever

Article Share

Thoughts from our #TCTheater leaders on justice and art.

https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/06/01/tired-but-not-daunted-in-the-twin-cities/

How You Can Help

Hello friends. We hope you're all staying safe amidst the many crises we're dealing with today. We'll get back to talking about #TCTheater soon, but first we wanted to share with you these lists of resources, organizations, and peaceful protests that some local theaters have compiled, in case you're looking for ways to join the fight for justice. If you know of any others, please post in the comments below.

Theater Mu:
https://www.theatermu.org/…/our-response-to-george-floyds-d…

The Playwrights' Center​:
https://pwcenter.org/…/statement-response-murder-george-flo…

In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre​:
https://hobt.org/rootedinresource/justice-for-george-floyd/

#BlackLivesMatter #JusticeForGeorge

Theater Crush Thursday: Theater Latte Da

THEATER CRUSH THURSDAY!
We've loved Theater Latté Da for many years for many reasons, but right now we love them because they're using this extended intermission to focus on the creation of new work. With their recently announced NEXT UP program, they are investing in the future of music-theater by supporting playwrights, composers, lyricists, choreographers, actors, and more as they write new stories. Stories that we will one day be able to share when it's safe again to gather in the same space together. Theater Latte Da will be ready for that day with some exciting new plays and musicals.

Founded by Peter Rothstein and Denise Prosek in 1998, Theater Latte Da has given us many memorable moments over the last 20+ years, and grown from a small nomadic company to one of the most popular companies in #TCTheater, consistently selling out shows in the Ritz Theater in Northeast Minneapolis, which they purchased as their permanent home a few years ago. TLD is a musical theater company, but "they don't do musical theater, they do theater musically." In everything they do, they expand the definition of what music-theater can do and be.

Their productions range from inventive new takes on classic musicals (see: their brilliant production of CHICAGO last fall), to rarely produced musicals (the haunting BERNARDA ALBA earlier this year), to enhancing the storytelling of plays with added music (e.g., UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL in 2018), to new works with a little music (Harrison David Rivers' gorgeous play TO LET GO AND FALL with cello duet) or a lot of music (the stunning new musical adaptation of CYRANO DE BERGERAC - C. by #TCTheater artists Bradley Greenwald and Robert Elhai). Other favorite memories are too many to mention - the regional premiere of the multiple Tony Award-winning ONCE, a lovely VIOLET ten years ago, the crazy brilliant carnival of Sondheim's ASSASSINS, a gut-wrenching RAGTIME, the simply beautiful original holiday classic ALL IS CALM (to be broadcast on PBS this year) - I could go on and on! Latte Da was about to open their unique take on the opera LA BOHEME when all public performances were cancelled, and they've promised to bring this to the stage whenever it's safe.

Find out more about NEXT UP, and how you can support it, here:
http://www.latteda.org/next-up

-Jill, Cherry and Spoon