News Alert

Heads Will Roll in Feminist Dark-Comedy THE REVOLUTIONISTS

Saint Paul, MN. March 1, 2023: Park Square Theatre & PRIME Productions presents THE REVOLUTIONISTS directed by Shelli Place and written by award-winning playwright Lauren Gunderson, on Park Square’s Proscenium Stage March 31 – April 16, 2023.

THE REVOLUTIONISTS is a riotous comedy about four very real women who find themselves caught up in the French Revolution. Playwright Olympe De Gouge, assassin Charlotte Corday, former queen Marie Antoinette, and Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle find friendship, plot murder, fight for their rights, and lose their heads in The Reign of Terror. This grand and dream-tweaked comedy is about violence and legacy, feminism and terrorism, art, and how we actually go about changing the world.

THE REVOLUTIONISTS originally premiered at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park in February of 2016, where the Cincinnati Enquirer called the production, “…a wild ride, filled with verbal gymnastics that come racing at you so quickly it’s occasionally hard to keep up. Listen closely, though, and hang on tight. If you do, you’ll be treated to an invigorating and enlightening journey.”

Director and PRIME Productions co-founder Shelli Place says, “After a two year wait, we are excited to bring Lauren Gunderson’s comedy, THE REVOLUTIONISTS, to the main stage of Park Square. Comedy is about contrast. When I first read the play, I loved the “mash up” between the French Revolution and the smart, sassy, 21st century dialogue. The designers agreed, and this will be seen in the scenic, sound, and costume designs. This is a smart play, with smart women who declare their rights, at their own peril, regardless of age or race. We selected this play because of its reflections on society, past and present… but mostly because it’s a comedy!”

PRIME Productions was founded in 2016 as a response to the scarcity of substantial roles in theatre for mature female actors in the Twin Cities. PRIME believes that mature women of all cultures must be seen as fully drawn, proactive characters in an accessible way, on the stage, for the vision of their roles in society to materialize in real life.

The cast of THE REVOLUTIONISTS brilliantly tells the untold stories of the women who were at the forefront of the French Revolution. This production features the talents of Alison Edwards* as Olympe De Gouges, Tia Tanzer as Marianne Angelle, Jasmine Porter as Charlotte Corday, Jane Froiland* as Marie Antoinette, with understudies Laini Beth Devin and Julie Ann Nevill.

The creative team for THE REVOLUTIONISTS includes Shelli Place (Director), Ashley Raper* (Stage Manager), Keara Lavandowska (Assistant Stage Manager), Megan West (Producer), Anita Kelling (Sound Designer), MJ Leffler (Set Designer), Karin Olsen (Lighting Designer), Andrew Isaacson (Projection Designer), Lily Isaacson (Co-Projection Designer), Marc Berg (Properties Designer), Bee Tremmel (Wig Designer), Sonya Berloviz (Costume Designer), and Annie Enneking (Fight Choreographer).

*Members, Actor’s Equity Association

CALENDAR INFORMATION: 

 

Park Square’s Proscenium Stage

Opening Night: Friday, March 31

Performance Run: Friday, March 31 – Sunday, April 16 

Open Captioning: All Performances

Audio Description: Friday, April 7

Pay-As-You’re-Able: Sunday, April 2

ASL: Sunday, April 2

Post-Show Discussions: Sunday, April 2; Thursday, April 13 

Masked Performances: Thursday, April 6; Saturday, April 15

TICKET PRICES: Regular Run: $40 – $55. Discounts are available for students and educators, seniors, military personnel, those under age 30, and groups of 10 or more. Tickets are on sale by phone at 651.291.7005, (12 noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday – Friday) or online at https://parksquaretheatre.org/box-office/shows/2022-2023/the-revolutionists/

 

PARK SQUARE THEATRE. 20 W. Seventh Place, Saint Paul

Ticket Office: 651.291.7005. www.parksquaretheatre.org 

A Conversation with Shelli Place of The Revolutionists

A Conversation with Shelli Place of The Revolutionists

Research is oftentimes a forgotten, yet fundamental, aspect of theater. Shelli Place, the director of The Revolutionists and co-founder of PRIME Productions, ensured immersion and research lay at the forefront of this play. Facts and accuracy are especially vital to The Revolutionists because it revolves around real historical figures during the time of the French Revolution. Place emphasized her hopes for audiences to “have a great amount of respect for these women [who] came before us. These women, some of them are famous and some of them are not known. I want them to learn something from the history of it.”  The four central characters are based on real women: playwright Olympe de Gouge, Queen Marie Antoinette, assassin Charlotte Corday, and Marianne Angelle–a composite of Haitian revolutionaries.

Place has made it a priority to connect with the rich history featured in the play. She even traveled to France in an effort to learn more. On her trip, one historical landmark she visited was the Conciergerie: a former courthouse and prison in Paris, France where major trials and large-scale executions occurred. During the Reign of Terror, “17,000 people were executed,” Shelli Place said to put the pure scope of the tragedies into perspective. This courthouse is central to the plot of The Revolutionists and history itself. Place’s visit to France and research about the French Revolution, assures the audience that history will not get lost in the theatrics of the play.

xandru, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The play’s topic is a grim one, yet it is filled with humor and laughter. It is quite a feat to have these two deceptively opposing tones coexist seamlessly. Place shares, “comedy, to me, is about contrast.” Finding laughter in the darkness or difficult times is necessary for survival, and the four leads’ use of humor during this time attests to human strength in hardship. Shelli sought out actors who had the comedic chops, but made it clear that “when it comes to the vulnerability, they had to have that too.” The Revolutionists walks a fine line between seriousness and comedy–and the actors are key to this balance.

Shelli Place is the co-founder of PRIME Productions, which is a theater production company seeking to promote mature women in the theater industry. Place emphasized: “We want to support the women in town who are brilliant. We want to be there to keep the theaters available to them. We don’t want them to be aged out.” One way Place and PRIME Productions do this is through age-specific casting. So, when Place “had found out that Olympe de Gouge was not the age that she was in the play–she was actually almost a decade older,” she and Alison Edwards, who is her partner in PRIME Productions, called up Lauren Gunderson, who is the playwright of The Revolutionists. The phone call was productive in their choice to age up Olympe de Gouge’s character to match the age she would actually be during the French Revolution. Place’s dedication to the PRIME Production mission brings more historical accuracy to the play and supports mature women in theater. 

The Revolutionists makes history engaging and accessible to audiences by merging the past and present: historical figures using modern speech patterns, postmodern jukebox–working modern music into vintage genres such as string quartets–, and modernized costume design. Audiences will be faced with history and find it feeling familiar. Twists and turns still permeate the play with engaging characters who are tough, embrace their femininity, and stick to their convictions no matter the cost. Shelli said, “This is my goal every time I do a show: I want to surprise people.” 

The Revolutionists is playing on the Park Square Proscenium Stage from March 29th to April 16th. To buy tickets, please call the box office at 651-291-7005 or visit https://parksquaretheatre.easy-ware-ticketing.com/events.

 

Correction 2/27/2023: The executions did NOT take place at the Conciergerie, but rather, the prisoners were taken by cart to the Place de la Révolution, now The Place de la Concorde, one of the most famous public squares in Paris. 

Interview and article by Marketing Intern, Victoria Martynko

 

Mark Ferraro-Hauck to transition to Executive Director Emeritus

The Park Square Theatre Board of Directors announces that Executive Director, Mark Ferraro-Hauck, plans to step down from the role in Spring 2023.  The Board’s Executive Committee has initiated a plan to move forward which includes an interim leadership strategy and finding a permanent replacement. Once interim leadership is in place, Mark will transition to the role of Executive Director Emeritus. 

Mark had previously served as Executive Director of SteppingStone Theatre and assumed the joint position of Executive Director of both SteppingStone and Park Square Theatres in 2020. The two theatres completed an exciting merger in September 2022, which enabled them to bring their strengths into a combined organization which creates outstanding theatrical experiences for people of all ages.

“It has been such a joy and honor to serve Park Square and SteppingStone as Executive Director and to come to know the community that surrounds these remarkable organizations. Over the next few months, I will be shifting my perspective as a theatre-maker. I have accepted the position of Executive Director of Theatre Nova Scotia, a member organization of the Cultural Federations of Nova Scotia, providing support, programming, education, and advocacy across the province,” says Mark Ferraro-Hauck.

We honor Mark Ferraro-Hauck for his skillful managerial direction throughout the merger process. His achievements in combining the staff and operations of the two theatres have set us on a promising course. He has made extraordinary contributions toward our merged theatre’s vision of being “Your Theatre for Life”, integrating the youth theatre focus of SteppingStone, the daytime educational offerings of Park Square aimed at high school students, and Park Square’s evening programming targeting general audiences. We look forward to continuing this momentum under new leadership.

Cancellation of 2023 Productions of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Dear Park Square Patrons,

The last few months of producing live theatre after months of darkness through the COVID-19 pandemic have been wonderful. The importance of experiencing stories on stage feels even more relevant than before. Returning audiences have been enthusiastic to feel the energy and joy of gathering together as each show begins.

However, audiences have returned in lower numbers than anticipated, and building back to pre-pandemic audience numbers is going to take time. According to the Theatre Communications Group, theatres saw an 88% drop in total ticket income from October 2020 – September 2021. This drop is still affecting theatres across the country and it will take time to bounce back from these financial pitfalls. Additionally, COVID-19 is still a very real budget item in our industry. Ongoing testing, COVID Compliance Officers, and extra understudies have added thousands of dollars in cost for each production.

With this in mind, we are sorry to announce that after long deliberation, we have decided to cancel this season’s productions of The Diary of Anne Frank and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Regarding The Diary of Anne Frank, we know that there is grief that comes with letting go of this production with this particular cast. The up-front cost of production, coupled with the slow return to in-person programming, both from patrons and schools, makes this the best decision for Park Square Theatre as we work to continue steering the organization toward a vibrant, supportive, and sustainable future.  We rely heavily on school matinees for these performances and, unfortunately, do not have the ticket sales to sustain these productions this season.  It would be irresponsible for us as an institution to proceed with these productions. We are producing in an evolving world, and it is not clear if current trends with school groups are permanent, or simply a painful step in the post-COVID/post “everything-that-has-happened” process. We are so grateful for our community and offer our deepest apologies that we have to come forward with this message.

Our transparency in our decision making is of utmost importance and we prioritized intentional discussion of these changes with the cast and crew of these productions first, followed by notifying subscribers, schools and ticket holders before sharing this message with our community at large. We appreciate everyone’s understanding of the realities we and the theatre community at large are facing and look forward to seeing audiences at Park Square Theatre this coming March.

Sincerely,

Park Square Theatre

Experience the Wonder of Being a Kid Again With THE SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES

Saint Paul, MN. November 14, 2022: Park Square Theatre & SteppingStone Theatre for Youth presents THE SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES (December 2 – December 23) directed by Ansa Akyea, written by Jerome Hairston based on the books by Ezra Jack Keats. This ensemble-driven production will explore the joy of being a child through movement and storytelling.

This production follows Peter throughout Keats’s collection of stories, The Snowy Day, Goggles, Whistle for Willie and A Letter to Amy. Together, the audience gets a glimpse of what it’s like to be a child as Peter experiences the world around him for the first time. This show is specifically designed for children ages 3-10, but the whole family will enjoy the wonder of being a kid again! “Theatre is for everyone,” says Director Ansa Akyea. “Park Square is all about creating community, and we would love for people to come to the theatre together and experience THE SNOWY DAY.” This show helps us to remember some of our first childhood memories, like the excitement of seeing snow for the first time, making a new friend, and learning how to whistle. 

A timeless classic, The Snowy Day is the most checked out-volume of all time in the New York Public Library and was the first picture book featuring an African American child to win the Caldecott Medal. THE SNOWY DAY ensemble reflects this with a young, diverse cast. “Diversity is always so important when it comes to productions like these, and I think that we have an extra big responsibility being a children’s show,” says Actor Maje Adams, who plays Peter’s father. “Kids really need to see people that look like them or people who have similar experiences and backgrounds like them on stage. People aspire to be stories that they see in front of them.” Actor Latanya Boone, who plays Peter’s mother, says, “I never considered myself in the space of someone who would be on stage until I saw another person of color on stage. [The cast is] beautifully diverse in all aspects that you can think of. I think that it’s really important for other people to see that they can envision themselves in this space.” 

The cast of THE SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES stars Joe Charley as the beloved character Peter and a talented ensemble including Maje Adams, Jaeden Allen, Latanya Boone, Sophie Dannersmith, Nyla Spika , Jas Wade , and Mason Yang. In addition to playing many characters in the production, the ensemble works with puppets to bring even more characters to life. “The Park Square Team is awesome,” says Akyea. “Working with puppetry shows you how anything is possible if you spend some time thinking about it.” These incredible, life size puppets were created in partnership with Properties Designer Tyler Stamm, from Adventures in Cardboard, an organization set on inspiring creative and imaginative play through creating props and new worlds out of cardboard.

Akyea adapted THE SNOWY DAY to be set in St. Paul, creating custom visuals and elements of sound to portray the setting. Projections Designer Maxwell Collyard says, “attendees should look for local elements in the projections which they may recognize.” Collyard and the creative team researched how various St. Paul neighborhoods could best represent the different books and pieces of the story. “The North End of St. Paul feels like the neighborhood Peter is in, with the industrial areas flowing into more business districts.”  Sound Designer Anita Kelling provides insight on what to listen for. “When we first started talking about locating the show in Minnesota and specifically the Twin Cities, I started thinking about iconic Twin Cities sounds, like the light rail, the Farmer’s Market, or the State Fair. I have been capturing sounds around the Twin Cities for years, and I hope you will hear some of those sounds embedded in the soundscape for THE SNOWY DAY.” When adapting the music for this show, Akyea and the creative team took inspiration from influencers like Prince and indie music “…to give it that home grown feel and capture what’s unique about the Twin Cities.” 

The incredible creative team for THE SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES includes Ansa Akyea (Director), Mikell Sapp (Assistant Director), Dane Stauffer (Music Coach), Erik M.C. Gonzalez (Composer), Mark Ferraro-Hauck (Set Designer), Jeni Tolifson (Assistant Scenic Designer),  Maxwell Collyard (Projections Designer), Joe Samuel Burch III (Costume Designer), Anita Kelling (Sound Designer), Mikayla Paul (Lighting Designer), Tyler Stamm (Properties Designer), Pete Talbot (Puppets), Amm-Ra Seka (Puppets), Hannah Marh (Movement Director), Jaya Robillard (Stage Manager), and Olivia Nyman (Assistant Stage Manager).

 

CALENDAR INFORMATION: 

THE SNOWY DAY AND OTHER STORIES

Park Square’s Proscenium Stage

Opening Night: Friday, December 2

Performance Run: Friday, December 2 –  Friday, December 23 

Sensory Friendly: Saturday, December 10

Audio Description: Friday, December 23

Pay-As-You’re-Able: Sunday, December 11

ASL: Sunday, December 11

Open Captioning: Saturday, December 17

Post-Show Discussions: Sunday, December 11 

 

TICKET PRICES: Regular Run: $16 – $20. Discounts are available for students and educators, seniors, military personnel, those under age 30, and groups of 10 or more. Tickets are on sale by phone at 651.291.7005, (12 noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday – Friday), or online at https://www.steppingstonetheatre.org/series/snowy-day-2022/

 

PARK SQUARE THEATRE. 20 W. Seventh Place, Saint Paul

Ticket Office: 651.291.7005. www.parksquaretheatre.org 

Introducing the Company of FIRE IN THE NEW WORLD!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACTS: Quinci Bachman and Emily Halstead 

Press@fullcircletheatermn.org | 612-799-0641

halstead@parksquaretheatre.org

fullcircletheatermn.org

 

Park Square Theatre Presents A Full Circle World Premiere Production of

Fire in the New World

Written and Directed by Rick Shiomi

at Park Square Theatre in the Historic Hamm Building in Downtown Saint Paul

October 19 – November 6, 2022

A world premiere detective comedy with plenty of sly intrigue and a dash of social commentary.

Full Circle Theater’s first mainstage production of the season will be the World Premiere of Fire in the New World, written and directed by Full Circle Co-Artistic Director Rick Shiomi. Fire in the New World will run from October 19 – November 6, 2022 as part of Park Square Theatre’s 2022-23 Season.

To reserve complimentary press tickets contact: press@fullcircletheatermn.org | 712-830-7826

Ticket information and general audience safety protocols are available on Park Square’s website.

About Fire in the New World:  Written and directed by Rick Shiomi, this World Premiere is the third installment of Shiomi’s noir-style detective comedies featuring Sam Shikaze, the hard-boiled private eye who fights crime in Vancouver’s Japantown and beyond in the years after WWII. This time, Sam is up against a big time developer intent on bulldozing his community. But Sam is also hired to find the developer’s missing Japanese American wife. The play is a smart and fun detective comedy chock full of social commentary and sly intrigue.

The award-winning Yellow Fever was the first play in Shiomi’s trilogy featuring Sam Shikaze. It has been produced Off-Broadway, across North America, and in Japan. The New York production received a rave review in the New York Times:

“As a playwright, Mr. Shiomi is his own crafty private investigator, making his points through indirection and with droll humor. . .Mr. Shiomi’s Yellow Fever is so captivating that it makes one eager for further adventures of the inimitable Sam Shikaze.” -Mel Gussow, The New York Times.

Fire in the New World is recommended for ages 12 and up. If it were a movie, we would rate it PG-13. This hard-boiled detective caper contains gunshots and frank talk about anti-Asian racism. Imagine if Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade (of The Maltese Falcon) had lived through the Japanese internment camps of WWII and was fighting crime in the 1960s. That’s the world of Sam Shikaze, private eye!

Fire in the New World Cast

Come see it October 19 – November 6, 2022 at Park Square Theatre’s Proscenium Stage.

About Playwright/Director R.A. Shiomi: Rick Shiomi has been a leader in Asian American theater for over thirty-five years as a playwright, director and artistic director and has written over twenty plays, including the award-winning ​Yellow Fever​, ​Rosie’s Cafe, and Mask Dance​. In 2019 he directed the hit production of Christopher Chen’s Caught for Full Circle at the Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio.

For Theater Mu he has directed many plays including ​Into The Woods​ set in Asia, ​The Mikado​ set in Edwardian England (with Skylark Opera), and ​Yellow Face​ at the Dowling Studio. He was a co-founder of Theater Mu and Artistic Director there from 1993 to 2013.

He also directed Chen’s play ​Caught​ and ​Mia Chung’s You For Me For You for InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia, which both received Barrymore Award Nominations and Awards .

He has received the Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Vision, the Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the McKnight Distinguished Artist Award.

https://rickshiomi.com/

About Full Circle Theater Company: Founded in 2014, Full Circle Theater is led by a  Core Artist Leadership Group made up of Co-Artistic Directors Rick Shiomi and Martha B. Johnson and Core Artists Stephanie Lein Walseth, Lara Trujillo, and Siddeeqah Shabazz (Full Circle’s 2022-2023 Resident Core Artist.)

The MISSION of Full Circle Theater is to produce heartfelt, groundbreaking theater that artfully addresses issues of diversity and social justice for 21st century audiences.

 

Full Circle Theater expresses its gratitude to The McKnight Foundation for its general operational support of our company. 

This project is supported by the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation and by the F. R. Bigelow Foundation.

This activity is funded, in part, by an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the State’s general fund.

 

 

                                                                       ###

Watch THE HUMANS Rehearsal Video!

The Humans director and several cast members took a moment to share what they love about the play and what they hope the audience will take away from seeing it! Peer inside the rehearsal room and hear what they have to say in this behind-the-scenes video!

Video by Michael Hanisch.
Featuring Lily Tung Crystal, John Middleton, Laura Anderson, Darrick Mosley, Angela Timberman.
Interviews with Rachel Wandrei and Emily Halstead.

The Humans is on stage Sept 14-Oct 9.
Purchase your tickets today!

Introducing the Company of THE HUMANS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT
Rachel Wandrei |wandrei@parksquaretheatre.org
Emily Halstead | halstead@parksquaretheatre.org

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE ON FAMILY IN THE HUMANS

Saint Paul, MN. August 25, 2022: Park Square Theatre’s 2022-2023 Season opens with the Tony Award-winning comedy-drama THE HUMANS (September 14 – Oct 9, 2022) by Stephen Karam, directed by Lily Tung Crystal. A one-act performed in real time, the play takes place as three generations gather for Thanksgiving at the new apartment of one of the children. Blisteringly funny but with a dark underside, Karam offers a stunning portrayal of a family navigating the challenges of everyday life.

Audiences are likely to come away commenting about how they relate to one or all of the family members. “This play is deeply and delightfully about family,” shares director Lily Tung Crystal. “What I love about THE HUMANS is that it fully captures the joy, humor, and dysfunction of family in all its nuances. The characters are doing the best they can to get through this one Thanksgiving dinner and everything else life throws at them–the trauma of 9/11, economic hardship, health challenges, broken relationships, old age, the effects of a hurricane. No one is perfect, but no one is a villain either, and somehow their love for one another helps bind them together, for better or worse.” 

After premiering in Chicago in 2014, THE HUMANS opened on Broadway in 2016 where it became a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, but Tung Crystal is busy thinking about how to interpret it for a Minnesota audience in 2022. “There are a lot of Asian adoptees around the country, but particularly in Minnesota, and portraying a family of White parents with Korean adoptee daughters seemed to make a lot of sense. In fact, that choice has opened up many new ways to think about the play, which the audiences here in the Twin Cities will understand and resonate with. People often have a monolithic perception of what it means to be an ‘American family,’ but we are approaching this show with a 2022 lens, embracing a blend of different ethnicities, backgrounds, and beliefs, rather than the ‘traditional’ family construct. Portraying the family in this way allows us to embrace all the diversity that family can be.” 

Three generations will by played by John Middleton* and Charity Jones* as parents Erik and Deirdre Blake, Laura Anderson* and Dexieng “Dae” Yang as their daughters, Aimee and Brigid, Angela Timberman* as grandmother Fiona “Momo” Blake, and Darrick Mosley* as Brigid’s boyfriend, Richard. Lori Constable, Gary David Keast, James Rodriguez, and Janet Scanlon will understudy.

Examining human relationships and the bonds that tie people together is a through-line in the Park Square 2022-2023 Season. Executive Director Mark Ferraro-Hauck notes that THE HUMANS and BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY (at Park Square May 24- June 18, 2023) both specifically portray American family life. “A large part of the USA’s contribution to theatre is the exploration of family,” says Ferraro-Hauck. “It is really important to recognize that these two plays are in the same vein. While the central storytelling is told with different voices and comes from different lived experiences, they both show us ways in which our lives are bound together through the common experiences of family life.” 

Ferraro-Hauck also appreciates the deft hand in which Karam crafts the play. “What is amazing about THE HUMANS is how it weaves its way through both the best and worst of family experience but does so without judgment. It embraces us as flawed beings trying to make community and family together. It allows us to laugh at it, get angry, and cry over it simultaneously.” Who hasn’t felt that way after a holiday spent with their own family?

The production team for THE HUMANS includes Roshni Desai (Assistant Director), Erik Paulson (Set Designer), Matthew LeFebvreᐩ (Costume Designer), Katharine Horowitz (Sound Designer), Karin Olson (Lighting Designer), John Novak (Properties Designer), Katie Bradley (Dramaturge), Andrea Moriarity (Wigs Designer), Isabella Dawis (Music Director), Shae Palic (Intimacy Director), Keely Wolter (Dialect Coach), Lyndsey R. Harter* (Stage Manager), and Em Friedman (Assistant Stage Manager).
* Member, Actors’ Equity Association, ᐩ Member, USA Union 829

CALENDAR INFORMATION:

THE HUMANS

Park Square’s Proscenium Stage

Previews: September 14, 15

Opening Night: September 16

Regular Run: September 16–October 9

Audio Description: September 23

Pay-As-You’re-Able: September 25

ASL: September 25

Open Captioning: October 7, 8, 9

Post-Show Discussions: September 25, 29

TICKET PRICES: Previews: $27-$37. Regular Run: $40-$55. Pay-As-You’re-Able on Sunday, Sept 25. Discounts are available for students and educators, seniors, military personnel, those under age 30, and groups of 10 or more. Tickets are on sale by phone at 651.291.7005, (12 noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Friday), or online at parksquaretheatre.org.   #pstHumans

PHOTOS: As available, production photos will be posted at: PST The Humans_FOR PRESS.

BIOGRAPHIES:

LILY TUNG CRYSTAL (she/her) is a director and actor and the artistic director of Theater Mu. She is grateful to be collaborating with such talented and generous artists. In the Twin Cities, she has directed Jiehae Park’s peerless, Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band, and the live film-theater production of Susan Soon He Stanton’s Today Is My Birthday at Mu and Art is a Verb (Harrison Rivers, librettist) at MNOpera. Other shows include David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish and Flower Drum Song at Palo Alto Players, and the world premiere of Leah Nanako Winkler’s Two Mile Hollow at Ferocious Lotus. For all three shows, she was named a Theatre Bay Area Award Finalist for Outstanding Direction. As an actor/singer, Lily has performed at theaters across the country, including Cal Shakes, Crowded Fire, Magic Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, New World Stages, Playwrights’ Center, Portland Center Stage, SF Playhouse, and Syracuse Stage. She is a YBCA 100 honoree, named by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as a “creative pioneer making the provocations that will shape the future of culture.” theatermu.org; lilytungcrystal.com

PARK SQUARE THEATRE. 20 W. Seventh Place, Saint Paul
Ticket Office: 651.291.7005. www.parksquaretheatre.org

# # #

Inside the Prop Shop!

There is so much research and thought goes into every detail of a production like Holmes and Watson! Properties Designer Sadie Ward custom built a beautiful l00k-alike victorian camera for a scene in which a photograph is taken of the three men who are claiming to be Sherlock Holmes. Even though it may only on stage for a few minutes, the craftwork of talented designers is essential to creating the look and feel of a play, and helps bring the audience into another world!

Watch this video to see the process of creating this one special prop, and how designers like Sadie find ingenious ways to use ordinary tools like binder clips and tacky glue into something incredible.

Sadie is an active part of Next Stage Rental and Market, where this camera and many other props and set pieces will live on and be used in future theatre productions. Next Stage is a resource for the Twin Cities theatrical and event community, offering rental scenery and props and a shop to purchase reclaimed and salvaged building materials and scenery. Their mission is to create a circular economy by rescuing scenery and materials that would normally go to the landfill. Learn more at https://www.nextstagemarket.com.

Meet Actor and Teaching Artist Pedro Bayón

Summer Camps are in full swing, but before they started, School and Community Program Manager Amanda Hestwood sat down with Pedro Bayón, a long-time teaching artist with SteppingStone Theatre for Youth who has also acted on the Park Square stage, in The House on Mango Street (2014 and 2016), Elliot: a Soldier’s Fugue (2015), most recently in Full Circle Theater Company’s Atacama. As the two theatre companies come together, it is exciting so see how many artists and community members have connections to both organizations!

Hear some of Pedro’s stories about the creativity of young people and his favorite part of summer camps! (Be sure to listen at 3 minutes if you want a smile!)

Tickets

The box office is currently closed. Please email tickets@parksquaretheatre.org with any questions.

Stay in Touch!

Get the latest updates and offers from Park Square Theatre.
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

    Park Square on Instagram  See Park Square Videos on Vimeo