 Umbrella Collective's final show in their twelfth season, VELVET SWING, tells the true story of Evelyn Nesbit, the original 19th Century supermodel and leading lady of the "Crime of The Century!" Imagine: your favorite true crime podcast meets a wild vaudevillian circus with a pinch of postmodern narratives. Expect daring feats of self discovery, compelling choices in complex circumstances, delightful musical accompaniment, multiple narratives, and one very large snake named Baby. We're so thrilled to have a stellar cast of actors and creators working on VELVET SWING. Meet the team, and hear their thoughts on what's exciting them about the show! Cast:
VELVET SWING's creative team also features the talents of: Stage Manager . . . Jenny Moeller Costume & Props Designer . . . Josie Everett Dramaturgy Support . . . Jo Holcomb Producing Artistic Director . . . Hannah K. Holman Come join us at VELVET SWINGTickets are sliding scale $5 - $20 in advance and at the door. Get advance tickets here
April 5 - 27, 2019 at Bryant-Lake Bowl & Theater 810 W Lake St Minneapolis, MN 55408  Photo: Allison Witham as "B" and Kathryn Fumie as "Lil" in June (2016), credit Dan Norman. Dear New Work Lover,Thank you for bringing your brave heart and your bold ideas to every Umbrella Collective experience. Whether you've joined us as an audience member, collaborator, donor, friend, or all of the above, you play an integral role in the creation of new plays. We love that you are under the umbrella with us. "I love Umbrella Collective because it's just that: it's a collection of ideas, personalities, backgrounds, and artistic voices. Somehow we meld them all together and make beautiful, moving work that puts a smile on your face and sparks real conversations." For over a decade, Umbrella Collective has been making ambitious theater on a shoestring budget. Now, it's time to grow, and we need your support. This Valentine's Day, show your love by making a contribution to our New Work Fund! Over the next few years, we'll be working toward increasing artist pay, exploring new and exciting ways to collaborate with our artists and audiences, investing in organizational sustainability and strategic planning, and continuing to create the stunning and engaging new works of theater that you love. We want to do the work better, bolder, and together with you. How YOU can co-create new plays with us: To truly sustain the work of Umbrella Collective, select the "donate monthly" option after designating any amount of your choice. See you under the umbrella!
CAST:
CREATIVE:
& YOu!We need YOUR help to bring A SQUID HAS THREE HEARTS to life! Umbrella Collective believes the audience is a vital part of the creation process. Come experience a fresh new play-in-progress, and lend your voice to the play-making process! Umbrella Collective brings the rough drafts, big ideas, and burning questions to the audience par-baked to give YOU a chance to help shape the future of the work. Come join us at... A SQUID HAS THREE HEARTS WorkshopTickets are sliding scale $5 - $20 in advance and at the door. Get advance tickets here
January 28 & 29, 2019 at 7:30pm (Doors open at 7pm) at SpringBOX, 262 University Ave W, Saint Paul, MN 55103 Please join Umbrella Collective as we celebrate our outgoing Artistic Director Laura Leffler at a special post-workshop reception on Tuesday, January 29th, 2019 from 9:00 - 10:00 PM. I suppose I’m going to make a bit of a speech.
And that seemed a fitting framework to think about the large news I have to tell. The long and the short is, I am stepping down as the Artistic Director and leader of Umbrella Collective. This is not a decision I make lightly. I founded Umbrella Collective (formerly known as Savage Umbrella) over eleven years ago. That’s one of the longest amounts of time that I’ve ever done anything. In 2007 I toured internationally with our very first show. It was immediately after the first version of THE RAVAGERS closed in 2011 that I got pregnant. I was pregnant when I directed CARE ENOUGH. I was nursing when I served the hosted appetizers during intermissions of EMMA WOODHOUSE IS NOT A BITCH. I was in the writing process for JUNE when my heart cracked open, and my queerness that had been knocking quietly at the door of my consciousness finally got loud enough to hear. This collective, this company, these people, have been the people and the comings and goings of my adult life. My heart! My life! My loves  Laura and Paul Rutledge in LEAVES, 2013. Photo: Carl Atiya Swanson And now we are here in this moment, perched on the precipice between 2018 and 2019 and more than eleven years after that first wild tour. I find my time pressed and my energy wan. I’m in need of a recharge. There have been shifts in my personal life that have added responsibilities and subtracted even more energy and time. There are new professional opportunities in front of me, that I am compelled to explore. I am large. I contain multitudes. I don’t know what the future will bring, but I have to make room to see. “I and this mystery, here we stand.” On January 29th, 2019 I’ll be stepping down from the Core Collective and move to Emeritus Artistic Director, in an advisory capacity. Hannah Holman will become Umbrella Collective's Producing Artistic Director. Core Collective Members Alana Horton and Megan Clark will take on more responsibility. The beating heart of the collective thumps on. “Urge and urge and urge, Always the procreant urge of the world.” Like an irritating emeritus professor who still hangs around campus too much, I intend very much to keep "office hours", as it were, with Umbrella. I am not leaving. I’m not moving. I have stories I still want to help tell with Umbrella Collective--WOLF SONG, and TWO RUM PARTIES, and A SQUID HAS THREE HEARTS, and all these other new beautiful, nascent ideas continue to live and breathe and move forward. I’ll be around. Just differently than before.  Laura and Hannah Holman in THESE ARE THE MEN, 2015 I’ll let Whit help me close: “You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood. Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you.” See ya real soon. <3 Laura Leffler Please join Umbrella Collective as we celebrate Laura at a special post-show reception after A SQUID HAS THREE HEARTS Workshop on Tuesday, January 29th, 2019 at SpringBOX. The workshop performance will take place from 7:30 - 8:30 PM, and the reception will take place from 9:00 - 10:00 PM.
Hey, 2018. You've been a lot. I know it’s not quite the end of the year, but I always feel reflective around Give to the Max Day. (I suppose any annual event tends to offer a benchmark in that way.) As I think back on the past 365-ish days of art-making, I’m feeling a mix of celebration, amazement, some exhaustion, and immense gratitude. It feels good to think back on the moments of joy and discovery in rehearsal rooms and audience conversations. To be honest, it feels necessary and healing  THE RAVAGERS (Photo by Anna Schultz) Looking Back We started 2018 with the beautiful monster of a show that is THE RAVAGERS — with a cast of 20 in a haunting and crumbling basement. Then, we dug into the mythology of the WOLF SONG workshop presentation with open hearts and unending questions. During the summer, we created space for Beth Ann, Ricardo, Suzanne, Jex, Sabrina, and Steven to challenge, learn, and play through our Night of New Works incubation program. We also had a big, ol’ party because we turned 10+1 years old! Oh, and we changed our name!  WOLF SONG Workshop Presentation (Photo by Hannah K. Holman) Moving Forward It seems apt to end this big year with a party — more specifically the workshop presentation of TWO RUM PARTIES OF SIGNIFICANCE, our take on swashbuckling, mermaids, and reckless romance in the Golden Age of Piracy. In January 2019, the workshop presentation of A SQUID HAS THREE HEARTS will enchant and challenge us as we explore what it means to be a parent in current environmental climate. (You may remember the beginnings of this project from Night of New Works 2017!) And finally, we’ll invite Evelyn Nesbit back to the stage for the full production of VELVET SWING in April 2019. As we look forward, we’re also looking inward. Over the past decade+, we’ve made a lot of plays (over 20!), had a lot of conversations, and worked with so, so many incredible collaborators. Now, it’s time to dig back in and get our hands dirty with beginnings. We’ve got plans to strengthen our collaborative muscles, start simmering some fresh projects, and invite even more makers under the umbrella. Stay tuned to find out what's in store, and how you can get involved!  It is such an honor to continue growing, learning, and making with you, dear Minnesota artists and audience members. I know Give to the Max Day is sometimes overwhelming (so many emails!) — but it really is an important day for ambitious, small-budget organizations like Umbrella Collective. We believe that art, collaboration, and conversation build the bridges for understanding and compassion that are so essential to our communities.
Your support on Give to the Max Day helps us continue to create bold and vibrant new works that spark vital conversations. Together is better, and we’re better together with you. Head over to https://www.givemn.org/story/umbrellacollective to make it possible. Summer took its final bow and autumn has made its blustering chilly entrance. And with the new season comes a harvest of new theatre, and workshops, to attend. So, put on that extra layer, get your favorite spiced (or non-spiced) beverage, and go catch the collective making their thing. Here's a list of where you can see members of Umbrella Collective this fall: Once |
  | On the streets of Dublin, an Irish songwriter and a Czech immigrant are drawn together by their shared love of music. Over the course of one fateful week, their unexpected friendship and collaboration quickly evolves into a powerful but complicated love story, propelled by emotionally charged music. Winner of 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Once is an artistic triumph about the power of music to connect us all. Antonia Perez quadruple threats her way through the show; singing, dancing, acting and playing instruments. Foster Johns coached dialects for this well received regional premiere. September 12th - October 21st, 2018 The Ritz Theater, Minneapolis $34-51 | Tickets |
Dial M for Murder
at Gremlin Theatre
Gremlin Theatre is proud to present one of the most famous thrillers of all time, staged in the up-close and intimate style of our new thrust theatre. Dial M for Murder is indeed a psychological game of cat and mouse; and of life and death.
Emily Dussault is 'characteristically superb' (Jay Gabler, City Pages) in this classic thriller.
September 7th - 30th, 2018
Gremlin Theater, St. Paul
$25-28 | Tickets
Anyone under 30: pay half your age
Emily Dussault is 'characteristically superb' (Jay Gabler, City Pages) in this classic thriller.
September 7th - 30th, 2018
Gremlin Theater, St. Paul
$25-28 | Tickets
Anyone under 30: pay half your age
The Visit
at Frank Theatre
THE VISIT, by Swiss playwright Friedrich Durrenmatt, is the most well-known play by one of the most important playwrights since the Second World War. Set in a small town that is in a deep economic depression, the townspeople await the visit of Claire Zachanassian, who was driven out of town as a young girl years ago because she was pregnant. Now the wealthiest person in the world who has just married her 8th husband, she returns to a town that desperately hopes her millions will save them. She, however, has a different agenda, returning with the mission to buy justice: she will offer the town her fortune in exchange for the life of the man who not only spurned her but rigged the public trial against her.
Allison Witham joins the cast which also features a handful of friends of the Collective
September 28th - October 21st, 2018
Minnesota Transportation Museum, St. Paul
$22-25 | Tickets
Allison Witham joins the cast which also features a handful of friends of the Collective
September 28th - October 21st, 2018
Minnesota Transportation Museum, St. Paul
$22-25 | Tickets
2018 Twin Cities horror Festival
| The Twin Cities Horror Festival returns for its seventh season of horror based-theatricals. This year Leslie Vincent joins friend of the Collective Keith Hovis in creating a new song cycle about serial killers entitled A Morbid History of Sons and Daughters. While Nissa Nordland goes behind the scenes to stage manage Dangerous Productions' Home. We've produced at the horror festival in the past and it is always equal parts entertaining and chilling--perfect for late October. October 25th - November 4th, 2018 The Southern Theater, Minneapolis $15 per show | All Access Pass on sale now |   |
See you under the umbrella!
A Glimpse Into the Final Throes of the Night of New Works Process
Taz Song'ony and Marcela Michelle-Mobama rehearse SPOOK. // Photo credit: Alana Horton
On a rainy summer night - in a too warm room - twenty five artists gathered together to share ideas and space. TWENTY FIVE. There was sharing and checking in, there was movement and gesture, there was dialogue and essay, there was laughter and moments so disturbing we shook, there was questioning and debating, there were opinions and truths. We talked about what comprises America, how we deal with trauma, how we define “normal,” how we talk about sex, how ghosts live with us, Twister and lost needles, phone calls and paranoia, flashlights, aluminum foil, a Rubik’s cube, and so much more.
It was a beautiful - if sweaty - night. It was a lovely alchemy of artists all working and learning together. It was intimate and vulnerable and loud and challenging. Anxious, jittery, moment-before-the-storm electricity flowed through us all.
And the best part of it all? We’re inviting you in.
It was a beautiful - if sweaty - night. It was a lovely alchemy of artists all working and learning together. It was intimate and vulnerable and loud and challenging. Anxious, jittery, moment-before-the-storm electricity flowed through us all.
And the best part of it all? We’re inviting you in.
The cast of FRIGID rehearses. // Photo credit: Alana Horton
For three nights only THIS week - Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday - we will gather at the intimate and yet loud Bryant-Lake Bowl and share with our audiences all the work and growth and learning that has been this Night of New Works process. We’re excited - and nervous! - for the final component of the workshop process to arrive - and that’s our time with you.
Join us and be a part of the conversation. We can’t wait to see you there.
Join us and be a part of the conversation. We can’t wait to see you there.
The cast of FOILED shares a moment. // Photo credit: Alana Horton
See you under the umbrella!
Creating new works involves great risks and even greater amounts of trust. A Team Lead fosters their ideas through the creative expression of the ensemble. In today's spotlight, Umbrella Collective focuses on the ensemble. We asked a member from each cast to provide their perspective on the process from the new work in which they're collaborating.
Night of New Works is less than a week away. We are excited to reveal what's been brewing in the rehearsal room. Have you reserved your tickets?
Night of New Works is less than a week away. We are excited to reveal what's been brewing in the rehearsal room. Have you reserved your tickets?
 |  |  |
Kat Purcell from the Ensemble of Spook
What about this piece and/or process is important and/or exciting to you?
As a white artist, I am deeply humbled to be trusted and invited into the rehearsal room and on stage for this project. I'm excited to support the work of Ricardo, Suzanne, and the ensemble, and to learn and grow from that process.
What are you most excited about for the public works-in-progress showings?
I am excited to see in what way Umbrella Collective formats feedback sessions, to see how that shapes audience response and what it can accomplish for both audience and artists.
How would you describe SPOOK in three words?
Arresting, Sensory, Contemplative
As a white artist, I am deeply humbled to be trusted and invited into the rehearsal room and on stage for this project. I'm excited to support the work of Ricardo, Suzanne, and the ensemble, and to learn and grow from that process.
What are you most excited about for the public works-in-progress showings?
I am excited to see in what way Umbrella Collective formats feedback sessions, to see how that shapes audience response and what it can accomplish for both audience and artists.
How would you describe SPOOK in three words?
Arresting, Sensory, Contemplative
KJER WHITING From the Ensemble of Frigid
What about this piece and/or process is important and/or exciting to you?
I think it's exciting to be able to approach the ages old concept of frigidity through a modern lens. The concept has barely changed in the cultural eye, while the science of the day has evolved throughout time. Putting a queer spin on it is important to me personally.
What are you most excited about for the public works-in-progress showings?
I am most excited to see how the people who choose to come explore these new works with us will critique the three projects.These are not completed scripts, and the input will be extremely beneficial to the creators.
How would you describe FRIGID in three words?
Average American experience.
I think it's exciting to be able to approach the ages old concept of frigidity through a modern lens. The concept has barely changed in the cultural eye, while the science of the day has evolved throughout time. Putting a queer spin on it is important to me personally.
What are you most excited about for the public works-in-progress showings?
I am most excited to see how the people who choose to come explore these new works with us will critique the three projects.These are not completed scripts, and the input will be extremely beneficial to the creators.
How would you describe FRIGID in three words?
Average American experience.
ERIKA KUHN From the Ensemble of FOILED
What about this piece and/or process is important and/or exciting to you?
This devising process has been super exciting because it's combined a beautiful medley of writing, improvisation, and honest conversations between the creators. I find devising produces stunningly vulnerable and earnest art; everyone has brought so much of themselves to make this story, and I'm so excited to share it.
What are you most excited about for the public works-in-progress showings?
I'm most excited to see what gets people reacting, or what makes people feel most. From the inside it's easy to miss what moments are the funniest, or most tender; sharing these pieces shows us what works.
How would you describe FOILED in three words?
Heartfelt, refreshing, paranoid.
This devising process has been super exciting because it's combined a beautiful medley of writing, improvisation, and honest conversations between the creators. I find devising produces stunningly vulnerable and earnest art; everyone has brought so much of themselves to make this story, and I'm so excited to share it.
What are you most excited about for the public works-in-progress showings?
I'm most excited to see what gets people reacting, or what makes people feel most. From the inside it's easy to miss what moments are the funniest, or most tender; sharing these pieces shows us what works.
How would you describe FOILED in three words?
Heartfelt, refreshing, paranoid.
Night of New Works
Experience three new works created by Beth Ann Powers, Ricardo Beaird, Suzanne Victoria Cross, Jex Arzayus, Sabrina Crews, and Steven Michael Hall. All three pieces performed each night.
September 10 - 12, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater
810 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Sliding Scale Tickets: $5 - $20
September 10 - 12, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater
810 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Sliding Scale Tickets: $5 - $20
In the rehearsal room with SPOOK
Night of New Works can spark conversations that an ensemble or audience wouldn't have had otherwise. In our final team lead spotlight, we talk with Suzanne Victoria Cross and Ricardo Beaird. They both co-lead the new work SPOOK, premiering September 10th - 12th at the Bryant Lake Bowl.
What are the main themes and/or questions you are exploring in SPOOK? Why are they important to talk about through art right now?
Ancestral pain and trauma courses through our veins and aches in our bones. This pain manifest in ways not yet known or deemed appropriate for public expression. It is important to us that this pain and process is explored. This ghost story aims to explore how one seamstress is able to adapt, assimilate, and cope with the trauma of anti-blackness and simply living as a black woman.
A few more questions, we wanted to explore: In what manner does one grieve when their loss might not be acknowledged? Why are black folx left out of the horror genre when our history is a literal American Horror Story?
Ancestral pain and trauma courses through our veins and aches in our bones. This pain manifest in ways not yet known or deemed appropriate for public expression. It is important to us that this pain and process is explored. This ghost story aims to explore how one seamstress is able to adapt, assimilate, and cope with the trauma of anti-blackness and simply living as a black woman.
A few more questions, we wanted to explore: In what manner does one grieve when their loss might not be acknowledged? Why are black folx left out of the horror genre when our history is a literal American Horror Story?
What is one thing in your process so far that has surprised you?
During one of our first rehearsals, we did a talking circle where we opened space for the ensemble to express anything that was bubbling up for them that day. So many themes and situations that they brought up mirrored the themes and situations we wanted to explore in the text. This is before we laid out any of the questions we wanted to address to the ensemble. It was incredible!
During one of our first rehearsals, we did a talking circle where we opened space for the ensemble to express anything that was bubbling up for them that day. So many themes and situations that they brought up mirrored the themes and situations we wanted to explore in the text. This is before we laid out any of the questions we wanted to address to the ensemble. It was incredible!
If your show was a cocktail or beverage, what would it be?
A Hot Toddy! A medicinal beverage that carries a vice. Comforting and biting.
A Hot Toddy! A medicinal beverage that carries a vice. Comforting and biting.
Night of New Works
Experience three new works created by Beth Ann Powers, Ricardo Beaird, Suzanne Victoria Cross, Jex Arzayus, Sabrina Crews, and Steven Michael Hall. All three pieces performed each night.
September 10 - 12, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater
810 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Sliding Scale Tickets: $5 - $20
September 10 - 12, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater
810 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Sliding Scale Tickets: $5 - $20
Beth Ann Powers leads FRIGID
From FOILED to FRIGID. In the second of our series of spotlights, we drop-in with Project Lead Beth Ann Powers and ask about the new work, FRIGID. If these interviews peak your interest even the slightest then you're encouraged to join us as we put inspiration to action at Night of New Works, Sept 10th- 12th. Here's Beth Ann:
What are the main themes and/or questions you are exploring with FRIGID? Why are they important to talk about through art right now?
Who are the writers of our stories? What do we do when the only narratives we have of our own history are authored by others? Do we discard them? Do we reclaim them? And can we afford to get rid of them when they are often times all we have? FRIGID is an attempt to explore these questions by taking the reclamation path. It’s not so much a history as it is a re-telling of a re-telling of a history. It is the story of the Frigid person as told by the Medical Man as told by the Frigid person. It is a group of people telling their version, not of who they are, but who they have been told they are, and then making the decision to find their own definitions, identities, and labels. This may or may not be the right choice when it comes to dealing with these narratives, but the only way to find out is to try.
Who are the writers of our stories? What do we do when the only narratives we have of our own history are authored by others? Do we discard them? Do we reclaim them? And can we afford to get rid of them when they are often times all we have? FRIGID is an attempt to explore these questions by taking the reclamation path. It’s not so much a history as it is a re-telling of a re-telling of a history. It is the story of the Frigid person as told by the Medical Man as told by the Frigid person. It is a group of people telling their version, not of who they are, but who they have been told they are, and then making the decision to find their own definitions, identities, and labels. This may or may not be the right choice when it comes to dealing with these narratives, but the only way to find out is to try.
In the FRIGID rehearsal room What is one thing in your process so far that surprised you?
Apparently we are still learning the same lessons about love that we were in 1920. I think that I expected this to some extent but it has been quite a journey uncovering all the different ways that, while we are using different language, we are very much having the same conversations about communication, education, and fear as it applies to sex, gender, and relationships today as we were back then.
Apparently we are still learning the same lessons about love that we were in 1920. I think that I expected this to some extent but it has been quite a journey uncovering all the different ways that, while we are using different language, we are very much having the same conversations about communication, education, and fear as it applies to sex, gender, and relationships today as we were back then.
If your show was a cocktail or beverage, what would it be?
You know I tried really hard to come up with a joke about some kind of frozen cocktail to go with the title FRIGID but I came up short. I think I’m gonna go with an old fashioned because it sounds pretty classic but there are a million variations of it and you can kind of go with your own unique twist on it that works for you - just like love! Also it sounds old and we are talking about old stuff in this show so there you go.
You know I tried really hard to come up with a joke about some kind of frozen cocktail to go with the title FRIGID but I came up short. I think I’m gonna go with an old fashioned because it sounds pretty classic but there are a million variations of it and you can kind of go with your own unique twist on it that works for you - just like love! Also it sounds old and we are talking about old stuff in this show so there you go.
Night of New Works
Experience three new works created by Beth Ann Powers, Ricardo Beaird, Suzanne Victoria Cross, Jex Arzayus, Sabrina Crews, and Steven Michael Hall. All three pieces performed each night.
September 10 - 12, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater
810 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Sliding Scale Tickets: $5 - $20
September 10 - 12, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Bryant Lake Bowl & Theater
810 W Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Sliding Scale Tickets: $5 - $20
Archives
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
November 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
March 2011
February 2011
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
RSS Feed
