Photos: Olivia Lampert and Mars Niemi in the World Premiere of DRAWING LESSONS

Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) has released promotional photos for the highly-anticipated world premiere play Drawing Lessons by Michi Barall. Co-commissioned by Ma-Yi Theater Company and Children’s Theatre Company, Drawing Lessons will be directed by Jack Tamburri, and is based on an original conception by Barall and Tamburri.

Check out the photos below!

Experience the energy of a graphic novelist’s imagination at work! Dynamic, jump-off-the-page drawings show Kate’s manhwa graphic novel coming together, even as she deals with school, friends, and how her Korean heritage fits into her American lifestyle. Will her contentious friendship with Paul help or hinder her progress? Will either of them ever find their true artistic voices? Get drawn into this innovative story that magically takes place both on stage and on screen! 

Drawing Lessons will run from October 8-November 10, 2024, on CTC’s Cargill Stage (2400 Third Avenue South Minneapolis MN 55404). Opening Night is Saturday, October 12 at 7pm. Tickets may be purchased online at childrenstheatre.org/drawing or by calling the ticket office at 612.874.0400. Ticket prices start at $15.

Drawing Lessons is proudly supported by the John W. Kurtich Foundation for Study and Research.

“Drawing Lessons shows CTC at its best,” said CTC Artistic Director Rick Dildine. “This world premiere play is a co-commission with NYC’s Ma-Yi Theater Company and a collaboration with Minneapolis’s very talented comic artist Blue Delliquanti. CTC has a history of creating new work, and this original piece incorporates the craft of the comic artist into the theatrical process in a dynamic way.” 

“It's absolutely thrilling to see my initial rendering of Drawing Lessons become a multi-dimensional production,” said playwright Michi Barall. “I am so immensely grateful to have such innovative and wildly imaginative creative partners on the design team.  Led by my longtime collaborator and dear friend, director Jack Tamburri, we have been busy exploring and integrating the compositional landscape of this play through the design process. Comic artist Blue Delliquanti's drawings are full of movement, warmth and humor, beautifully illustrating Kate's inner and external worlds. I know that experiencing Blue's visual storytelling on a theatrical scale will be magical! So many of the actors (and CTC administrators!) on our team helped me find both the direction and depth of this play during the developmental process! I'm excited to deepen these connections and to be in rehearsals with the actors we've added to the cast. The assembled group is so intuitive, playful and joyful, and I look forward to handing over the play to them and to local audiences.  This play is a celebration of the diversity and distinctiveness of Minneapolis, both past and present, and every audience member is an essential part of its story!”

“I have been a fan of comic books and cartooning since before I could read. In fact, comics taught me how to read,” said director Jack Tamburri. “And one of the reasons I got into making theatre was because I wanted to create visual art but had no confidence in my drawing. So now, as a director, I make drawings out of people. I am thrilled to be premiering Drawing Lessons at CTC because I want to share this beautiful story about how and why a sensitive young person might start to identify as an artist with the incredible audience community that CTC has cultivated in the Twin Cities. I hope that this love letter to Minneapolis, to the 1990s, and to cartooning resonates with you.”

Drawing Lessons was developed as part of Generation Now. Generation Now is a landmark partnership between five theatres, with the goal of expanding the canon of work produced for multigenerational audiences and creating a model of transformative partnership for the theatre field. With funding received from the Mellon Foundation in 2021, the consortium is committed to co-commission and co-develop 16 new plays and musicals by both established and emerging BIPOC artists for multigenerational audiences over five years. The partners strongly believe that if we are to have an extraordinary theatre culture in this country, we must start young, and it must be intergenerational, inclusive, inspiring, transformative, and lifelong. All commissions will receive at least two developmental workshops at the co-commissioning theatres.

The aim of Generation Now is that each play or musical will be produced by each of the commissioning theatres. These may be co-productions or completely independent productions. The co-productions may involve  sharing actors, creative teams, and designs, or simply sharing the physical production or some other way of collaborating.  The co-commissioning theatres will determine how each of their projects will be produced.

The adult cast of Drawing Lessons features Katie Bradley* as Gomo, Jim Lichtscheidl* as Paul, Darrick Mosley* as Jon, Matt Park as Matt, and Sophina Saggau as Miss Evans.

The student cast of Drawing Lessons features Malia Berg as Lia, De’Anthony Jackson as Omar, Olivia Lampert and Mars Niemi alternating as Kate, Anders Thielen as Jason, and Cullen Van Ranst as Justin/Anderson.

The adult understudies include Dominique Jones as Jon, Jeannie Lander as Gomo, Ryan Nelson as Paul, Nikko Soukup-Raymo as Matt, and Colleen Somerville as Miss Evans.

The student understudies include Charlie Gold as Jason/Justin/Anderson, and Addica Sharbono as Lia.

In addition to Michi Barall and Jack Tamburri, the creative team and production staff for Drawing Lessons includes Junghyun Georgia Lee† (scenic designer), Trevor Bowen† (costume designer), Paul Whitaker† (lighting designer), Victor Zupanc (composer/sound designer), Elizabeth Barrett (projection designer), Blue Delliquanti (illustrator), Amanda Espinoza (student actor coach), Hannah Steblay (assistant director), Kenji Shoemaker* (stage manager), Janae Lorick (assistant stage manager), Taylor Engel (production assistant), and Elijah Virgil Hughes (stage management fellow/production assistant).

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.

†Member of the United Scenic Artists, Local 829.

Ticket Information

Tickets to Drawing Lessons may be purchase online at childrenstheatre.org/drawing or by calling the Ticket Office at 612.874.0400. Ticket prices start at $15.

School groups interested in attending Drawing Lessons can contact schools@childrenstheatre.org for more information.

Drawing Lessons has a run time of 90 minutes with one 20-minute intermission.

Photo Credit: Kaitlin Randolph

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