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Swimming into "A SQUID HAS THREE HEARTS"

1/8/2019

 
Climate change. Childbirth. Helplessness. Hope. It's all in the water in A SQUID HAS THREE HEARTS, Umbrella Collective's latest workshop, taking place January 28th and 29th. 

A SQUID HAS THREE HEARTS follows Quinn, a soon-to-be-parent who is forced to examine the environmental consequences of bringing a child into the world. The piece merges music and fluid physicality to create a story that lingers somewhere between fairy tale and hard reality.
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We're so thrilled to have a stellar cast of actors and creators working on SQUID: 
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CAST: 

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siQuinn  . . . Gracie Anderson ​
Gracie is a performer based in the Twin Cities. A graduate of Perpich Center for Arts Education and holder of a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from the University of Minnesota Duluth, Gracie has worked at Old Log Theater, Yellow Tree Theater, Artistry, 7th House Theater, Renegade Theater Company, and many more. In 2016, Gracie was named Best Emerging Actress in Minneapolis City Pages. 
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Ramona  . . . Alexandra Nedved
Alexandra is a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota BA Performance Creation program. She also holds a double major in Global Studies with concentrations in South America and Environmental Sustainability along with a Gender Studies minor. Alexandra has a love of experimental art/theatre that blends language and movement to tell visceral stories. Theatrical creation has become a vehicle for personal as well as community-engaged transformation for her. In using theatre as a tool to explore complex social topics she hopes to create work that questions normalized institutions, invites discussion, and deepens our understanding of the interconnectedness of our world(s). 
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Squid  . . . ​Cameron Reeves
Cameron Reeves is back again creating work with Umbrella Collective! Cameron comes from McHenry, Illinois and received his BFA in musical theatre from Drake University where he performed in several productions. He has had the pleasure of working other companies such as The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis Musical Theatre, Sidekick Theatre, Frank Theatre, Playhouse on the Square, Nebraska Shakespeare, Heritage Theatre Festival, The Repertory Theatre of Iowa and Stagewest Theatre Co. He would like to thank his friends and family for their constant love, support and advice. 
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Miles  . . . Courtney Stirn
Courtney Stirn is a jack-of-all-arts living in the Twin Cities, and is thrilled to be collaborating with old and new friends on this musical journey. Recent credits include As You Like It with 21/40 Productions, FRIGID with Umbrella Collective’s Night of New Works, TART with The BAND Group, The Ravagers and Ex-Gays with Umbrella Collective, Much Ado About Nothing with Desperate for Approval, and The Smitty Complex with 20% Theater Company’s Q-Stage. When not in a designated performance space, Courtney makes one by inventing silly voices with friends, noodling on musical instruments, and writing good words for the future.  
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Dana  . . . Amber Davis
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Amber has been working with Umbrella Collective in various capacities since 2010. They have a BA in Theater from Augsburg College, and studied at the School of International Training in Bali with emphasis in Balinese dance and puppetry. Amber is a person in their thirties. They like beer and roller skating.

CREATIVE: 

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Project Leader / Composer . . .  Mark Sweeney
Mark Sweeney is a performer and writer based in the Twin Cities. He's performed at Actors Theatre of Minnesota, Artistry, Troupe America and HUGE Theater among many other local stages. As a producer, he co-created Perpetual Motion Theater Company and Catalog Models, both having sellout runs in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. He is a Nautilus Music-Theatre Composer/Librettist Studio participant and a proud company member of Umbrella Collective. Mark holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Millikin University in Decatur, IL.
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Director  . . . Eli Purdom ​
This is Eli’s fourth time working with Umbrella Collective, third time as a company member, first time directing! He is very excited to be working in this new capacity, and is thrilled to be continuing the work of Squid in this new iteration. ​
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Music Director   . . . Keith Hovis ​
Keith Hovis is a playwright and composer based in the Twin Cities. His work has been produced by Freshwater Theatre, Market Garden Theatre, Revisionary Theatre Collective, the University of Minnesota, Six Elements Theater, Box Wine Theater, Luther College in Iowa, and the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Keith's one-act musical, Mrs. Housel: A Suicide Suite was featured at the 2014 Ivey Awards, and his first full-length musical, Pioneer Suite, premiered with Freshwater Theatre in October 2015. His hit 2017 Minnesota Fringe Festival musical, Jefferson Township Sparkling Junior Talent Pageant, is currently in development with Park Square Theater, and a full-length version will premiere in June 2019. As a composer, his work has been commissioned by Theater Mu, Mixed Blood Theater, and Fortune's Fool Theater. Education: University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Nautilus Music-Theater Composer-Librettist Studio.
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Dramaturg   . . . Laura Leffler ​
Laura is the Emeritus Artistic Director of Umbrella Collective. She led the company from 2007-2018 and dramaturged, performed, directed, wrote, and produced over 29 projects in that time. Additional theatrical adventures include assistant directing THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE (Guthrie), REFUGIA (Guthrie/The Moving Company), COME HELL AND HIGH WATER (The Moving Company), FISHTANK (Theatre de la Jeune Lune), BY THE BOG OF CATS... (Frank Theatre at the Guthrie), and more. She was named "Best Director" in 2018 by City Pages. She is the Associate Artistic Director at Park Square Theatre and will be performing in ANTIGONE there in February, and directing JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP SPARKLING JUNIOR TALENT PAGEANT there this summer.

& 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 Workshop 

Tickets 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.

A Letter from Laura

12/31/2018

 

I suppose I’m going to make a bit of a speech.

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Laura in LEAVES in 2013. Photo: Carl Atiya Swanson
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It’s a big thing, so I have been trying to find a way to organize my thoughts. I considered making a list. Then I remembered a notion I heard recently at a theatre convening - time is a colonial construct - and so then I figured that list making is probably a colonial construct, too.
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So I turned to an old friend, that big queerdo from 19th century America, Walt Whitman. I turned to him, as I often do in times of questioning and times of worry, and I re-read “Song of Myself” in 
Leaves of Grass. And near the end of the very long poem in stanza 51, was the sentence that caught me. Diminutive in its parenthesis, but grand in its message: “(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"

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
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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.
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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.  ​

Looking back, Moving Forward By Hannah

11/10/2018

 
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
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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!
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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!
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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.

Autumn Under the Umbrella

9/24/2018

 
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
at Theatre Latte Da

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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

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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


The Visit
at Frank Theatre

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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


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
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See you under the umbrella!

The Best Part of It All by Laura

9/6/2018

 
A Glimpse Into the Final Throes of the Night of New Works Process
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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.
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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.
GET TICKETS>>>
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The cast of FOILED shares a moment. // Photo credit: Alana Horton

See you under the umbrella!

Spotlight on New Work: The Ensemble

9/4/2018

 
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?
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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

  • Read an interview with the Team Leads of SPOOK

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.

  • Read an interview with FRIGID's Team Lead

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. 

  • Read an interview with the Team Leads of FOILED

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
GET TICKETS>>>

Spotlight on New Work: SPOOK

8/30/2018

 
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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?
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!
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.

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
GET TICKETS>>>

Spotlight on New Work: FRIGID

8/24/2018

 
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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.
PictureIn 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.

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.

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
GET TICKETS>>>

Spotlight On New Work: FOILED

8/21/2018

 
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The ensemble of FOILED
Hey, what are all these new works about? As Umbrella Collective counts down to Night of New Works 2018, let's get to know a little about each project. First up, FOILED, lead by Jex Arzayus, Sabrina Crews, and Steven Michael Hall. We asked the team three questions and all three leads responded with their perspective.

What are the main themes and/or questions you are exploring? Why are they important to talk about through art right now?

SC: On the surface, FOILED's a dark comedy about a young humanitarian who gets consumed and vanquished by paranoia. On a deeper level, at least to me, it's about flawed, peculiar people connecting in extraordinary ways, but ultimately failing to understand each other. We've got a dynamic cast of complicated personalities that makes it easy to present this disorienting and timely narrative. As for themes... Well, there's a sort of hysteria surrounding millennials in our culture that's been hard to escape for a while now, and we have a lot of fun toying with the stereotypes perpetuated by pop psychologists, various media outlets and... well basically anyone who isn't a millennial. We also examine fringe theory, specifically the way conspiracy theorists are perceived by society, and whether that perception's still valid, given our dystopic, post-truth climate.  

JA: (I think) it's important because we are in a state of distrust in our country now.

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What is one thing in your process so far that surprised you?

SC: I'd never devised before. Rehearsals were essentially a series of exercises, and I wondered how integral they'd be to the actual script. Turns out the exercises had an enormous impact. So much of what we developed together as an ensemble is reflected in the play; this is a true collaborative effort.

JA: One process that surprised me was how amazing our cast was at capturing their characters and life-like they brought the story.

SH: Through the devising process our talented ensemble brought our ideas and their characters to life. I was surprised every rehearsal by the wealth of content that was being generated.

If your show was a cocktail or beverage, what would it be?

SC: Wild Turkey cocktail with a twist

JA: I think we should be a viente soy latte with an extra pump of vanilla from Starbucks
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SH: Four Loko (original recipe)

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
Get Tickets >>>

What's the deal with workshops?

8/17/2018

 
Night of New Works is coming up next month! You might be wondering: what’s it gonna be like?

Here under the umbrella, we believe together is better, and we live out this value in every step of our process — with our artists and with our audiences. We truly believe that our audience members are our valued collaborators. That’s why we invite you in to experience the messy parts of new play making — the first drafts, the unfinished movement sequences, the big ideas. We want to show you something before it’s finished because we want you to have a voice in the process.
We know that when you see a play — whether it’s a brand new work or an adaptation of Shakespeare on-the-moon-recited-in-pig-latin — you walk out the door with all sorts of questions, thoughts, and ideas. Well this time... we don’t want you to walk out the door with them! We want to know what they are. (No, seriously, we’re really going to listen to your ideas!)

Our audience conversations are not your usual talkback. It’s not about talking to the actors, creators, or directors — though there is always time afterwards for that kind of thing! We want to know what you think, so we ask you the questions to get those wheels turning:

  • What moments were most memorable to you?
  • Which characters or themes resonated most with you?
  • What are you excited to see more of?
  • What are you interested in seeing differently?
  • Were there elements that surprised you?

The goal is to invite the most interesting, resonant, delightful, and/or important elements to bubble to the surface to help us shape the next steps of the piece. (AND... something you suggest might make its way into a full production of the play — who knows!) Your answers also give us a lot to think about as we continue to make work that inspires vital conversation in the future.
We also want to stress that our audience conversations are extrovert and introvert-friendly. We invite you to participate in whatever ways are most comfortable to you. We always start out by saying silence is okay because thinking and processing time are important. If speaking up in a group of people is totally not your thing, we welcome you to listen and provide feedback on the surveys we provide. You can also always email us at hello@umbrellaco.org if you have another burning question or brilliant thought after you leave the workshop!

You might be thinking — but, I won’t have any good ideas! To that we say: #1. we think you’re wrong and you have lots of very creative questions and ideas, and #2. we think even the most “Minnesotan” audience member will be surprised by their own courage to share. Join us and see for yourself!
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All of this is to say that when you attend any evening of Night of New Works in September, you’ll be treated to three brand new works-in-progress that need your creativity and support. They will be fresh, raw, and rough-around-the-edges by design, and we can’t wait to add your voice to the mix.

As Rachel Teagle of MN Playlist said last year:
“If making a play is like cooking a meal, the Night of New Works was like having the chef offer you a tasting spoon. Some flavors aren’t fully developed, maybe something could use a bit more mixing, but you really get a sense of what these works could be when they’re done simmering. And I’m hungry for more."
Come hungry for some new work and conversation. See you under the umbrella!

NIGHT OF NEW WORKS

Experience three new works created by Beth Ann Powers, Ricardo Beaird, Suzanne 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
GET TICKETS > > >
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