BWW Review: Yellow Tree Theatre Returns to the Play That Started their Tradition of Hilarious, Heart-Warming, Original Minnesota Holiday Shows - MIRACLE ON CHRISTMAS LAKE
Gather round, children, this is one of my favorite stories in #TCTheater. Not that long ago, in a land not too far away, a couple moved home to Minnesota from NYC to start a theater company. Shortly after doing so, the rights to the holiday show they were planning were pulled a few weeks before rehearsal was set to begin. Luckily, one of them was a playwright, so she wrote a play. That play was a comedy about a couple that moved to a small town in Minnesota from NYC to run a theater company, when the rights to their holiday play were pulled the night before opening. They say write what you know, and Jessica Lind Peterson did just that, to great success. She mixed her and Yellow Tree Theatre co-founder Jason Peterson's story together with Minnesota humor, soap operas, LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, a handful of quirky characters, and a bearded dragon, put it all in a crock pot to simmer, and something delicious was born. Now, ten years later, Yellow Tree's holiday show is a huge hit every year and anchors their season to be able to produce some extraordinary and diverse work year-round. There have been two installments of MIRACLE ON CHRISTMAS LAKE, as well as two stand-alone plays A HUNTING SHACK CHRISTMAS and A GONE FISHIN' CHRISTMAS. For their 11th season they're returning to where it all began, the original MIRACLE ON CHRISTMAS LAKE with most of the original cast. This was my 6th time seeing some iteration of the CHRISTMAS LAKE franchise, and I love the silly, ridiculous, sweet, wonderful mess even more each time I see it. The show continues through the end of December, but as I mentioned it's always hugely popular, so get your tickets soon!
BWW Review: Yellow Tree Theatre's World Premiere New Play STILL DANCE THE STARS is a Heart-Wrenching and Heart-Warming Story of Grief, Love, and Family
Last week in the cozy intimate space of Yellow Tree Theatre, in a strip mall in Osseo, I saw a world premiere new play that's unlike anything I've seen before. As someone who sees a lot of theater (and I mean a lot), that's a rare occurrence. While playwright Jayme McGhan's STILL DANCE THE STARS reminds me a little of the Pulitzer Prize winning musical NEXT TO NORMAL, in that it deals with parents grieving the loss of a child in different (and sometimes hallucinatory) ways, the storytelling is completely unique, combining very real and natural dialogue, fantastical dream sequences in which stuffed animals come to life, dance, and music to tell a heart-wrenching and heart-warming story of grief, love, and family. It's a great choice of play for Yellow Tree, my favorite theater in the 'burbs, and the cast and creative team do a beautiful job of bringing the play to life with all of its humor, grace, silliness, and beauty.
BWW Review: Yellow Tree Theatre Opens 10th Season with Remount of the Original Play that Started it All - the Charming, Funny, and Quirky Rom-Com STRING
Seven years ago, just a few months after I started this #TCTheater blogging adventure I call Cherry and Spoon, a friend told me about this little theater in a strip mall in Osseo. Since at the time I worked just a few miles away, I organized a group of coworkers to go see a play after work one day. That play was STRING, and the theater was Yellow Tree Theatre. Now, to celebrate their 10th season, they're bringing back STRING, written by Yellow Tree co-founder Jessica Lind Peterson and co-starring her and her husband and co-founder Jason Peterson, their first time on stage together in years. If you're a Yellow Tree fan, it's a wonderful opportunity to celebrate this full circle moment with them, and if you've never been to Yellow Tree, it's time to make the (not that long) drive to the Northwest suburbs to see this charming, funny, quirky, sweet little play that started it all, a play that is 'as Yellow Tree as plays get.'
Award-Winning Loading Dock Theatre Presents THE DUDLEYS
Brooklyn based award-winning Loading Dock Theatre presents THE DUDLEYS! A FAMILY GAME by Leegrid Stevens. Directed by Jacob Titus, the NYC premiere this fall at HERE features original chiptune music, projection design by Reid Farrington, and life size 8-bit video animation.
ZACH Theatre Opens 2013-14 Family Show Series with SALT AND PEPPER Today
ZACH Theatre launches the new season of its family show series with a bilingual play celebrating the bonds of family and friendship. Salt is a boy whose family has a secret: his grandfather cannot read or write. When Salt befriends Pepper, her love of books sparks his interest in the world of words. Then, a mysterious box of postcards sheds light on Salt's family.
ZACH Theatre to Open 2013-14 Family Show Series with SALT AND PEPPER, Begin. 9/27
ZACH Theatre launches the new season of its family show series with a bilingual play celebrating the bonds of family and friendship. Salt is a boy whose family has a secret: his grandfather cannot read or write. When Salt befriends Pepper, her love of books sparks his interest in the world of words. Then, a mysterious box of postcards sheds light on Salt's family.
BWW Reviews: World Premiere of ZEUS IN THERAPY a Divinely Human Portrait of the Divine
I've always had the inclination that the line between man and God is infinitely small. In Greek mythology, that line is so small that the earthbound Mount Olympus is the home of the Gods, and the Gods often descend from their perch to mingle with humans. Moreover, the Gods have human emotions of anger, guilt, anxiety, depression, frustration, and lust. With that kind of storm, there are more than enough reasons to see a shrink. That's certainly the main point of Zeus in Therapy, Tutto Theatre Company's world premiere comedy based on the unpublished work of Douglass Stott Parker. It ain't easy being a God, and by extraction, it ain't easy being human, either.
The Hidden Room Presents INVISIBLE INC., Now thru 1/20
The Hidden Room presents Paul Menzer's (Brats of Clarence) stylish and crackling noire mystery INVISIBLE INC. The show appears at the Long Center's Rollins Studio tonight, January 11th, only to vanish into thin air January 20th.