Park Square Theatre seeks to enrich our community by producing and presenting exceptional live theatre that touches the heart, engages the mind, and delights the spirit.

Your Park Square Theatre Experience
Park Square celebrates your love for the pleasure and power of live theatre. Show after show, your experience is filled with the Twin Cities’ top talent – from actors and directors who breathe life into compelling stories to designers who conjure unique worlds. Every nuance registers, with a stage large enough to create boundless imagery, but small enough for perfect sightlines, crisp acoustics, and immediate connection.

Knowing the theatre experience begins long before the curtain rises, Park Square strives to be a gracious host from first reservation to final ovation. We delight in our friendly, intelligent audiences who are eager to experience stories that are humane, funny, and real.

With every season, we promise:

• every production you see is approached as our most important show
• every season presents a range of artistic experiences from varied voices and perspectives
• every show offers entertainment that matters, giving you a reason to keep talking, laughing, or thinking after the curtain falls

While the Theatre was founded in 1974, it was with its move to the Hamm Building in 1995 that Park Square acquired the facility and “street presence” it needed to realize its artistic vision. Pushing beyond its “classic-theatre-for-a-classic city” niche of the 80s, the Theatre embraced a leading role as a professional producer of new work from the adventurous stages of New York, London, and the regional theatre circuit.

1998 changed the Theatre’s profile forever. Park Square dispelled any notion of “classics only” by opening with the overtly gay and sometimes controversial Love! Valour! Compassion! With this bold choice, the Theater also let its first Actor’s Equity contract.

2000 was a watershed year for Park Square. The Theatre negotiated its first Small Professional Theatre (SPT) contract with Actor’s Equity Association, total revenues surpassed $1M, program revenues were the highest of the Cities’ seven million-dollar theatres, and total attendance surpassed 50,000 for the first time.

In the past three seasons, Park Square has again changed the rules of its own producing game to assure the best talent for each role. Today, 75% of the onstage talent is a member of Actor’s Equity, compared to 30% in 2003-2004. Talented up-and-comers develop their “chops” by sharing our stage with veterans like five-time Emmy nominee Linda Kelsey and Guthrie favorite Richard Ooms, directed by master storytellers like Warren Bowles, Peter Moore, and Tony-nominee Marion McClinton.

From the1996 area premiere of Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass, to the 2008 area premiere of Byrony Lavery’s Frozen, Park Square continues to pair top Twin Cities talent with compelling stories. From a mother caught in the dark mind of her daughter’s killer to Sherlock Holmes’ famous showdown with the head of London’s underworld, this year’s journey keeps you on the edge of your seat.

This is a theater to watch, if you're not already doing so. With more than three thousand season subscribers. . . Park Square is realizing its mission, which is to present the best in contemporary theater. It specializes in premieres, turning the stage over to shows with intelligence, compassion, and a social conscience. Unafraid of challenging its audiences, but knowing the importance of a good giggle, Park Square is a seriously hot artistic property.

Mpls. St. Paul Magazine, 2003