Theater arts has been at the center of the creative atmosphere within Minnesota for decades. The varied array of local venues have both fostered talent through the years and brought world-renowned individuals to present their artistic approaches to our Minnesota stages. The theater scene has also been integral in social dynamics within our communities…from social issues, race, to gender.
The likes of The Guthrie, Mixed Blood, Penumbra, Park Square, Stages Theater, History Theatre, Theater in the Round, Duluth Playhouse, and so many more have drawn audiences in and left an indelible mark.
Collected here are a selection of interviews, performances, critiques, and profiles of those behind and in front of the curtains.
October 15, 1979 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan presents a sound portrait of the new Hennepin Center for the Arts, which is opening in downtown Minneapolis. Fushan interviews Carol Ann McKay, who is behind the renovation of building. The Hennepin Center for the Arts will hold ten arts organizations, including Cricket theatre and Minnesota Dance Theatre.
November 1, 1979 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews director Scott Rubsam, playwright Lance Belleville, and actor Jim Lawless about the COMPAS-St. Paul History Theater production James J. Hill: The Man Who Bought Minneapolis, performed at the Landmark Center.
March 17, 1980 - John Orlock, resident playwright for the Cricket Theater in Minneapolis, describes his play Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs. It is the first time Orlock has attempted a three-act play.
March 24, 1980 - An interview with John Orlock, resident playwright for the Cricket Theater in Minneapolis. Orlock talks about the field of drama and his work Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs.
October 17, 1980 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan reports on on Jim Stowell's play, Desperados. Stowell is the director of the Palace Theater, where the play is being performed.
December 17, 1980 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan talks with Libby Larsen, a local composer; and John Olive, resident playwright at Actors Theater, about their musical collaboration of O. Henry’s Gift of Magi into a musical.
June 20, 1981 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews Tom Dunn, founder an director of Playwrights’ Lab (now known as the Playwrights’ Center), about the organization’s 10-year anniversary.
September 3, 1981 - Foxfire, a dramatization of a series of novels based on Appalachian folk tales, opens at the Guthrie Theater. MPR’s Nancy Fushan talks with actors Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy about the play and the Minneapolis stage itself.
March 4, 1982 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews actor David Warrilow, who is currently performing in Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Warrilow talks about his career and his roles in plays by Samuel Beckett, as well as the challenge of Shakespeare.
April 3, 1982 - MPR’s Dale Connelly presents Playwrights’ Laboratory 82’, which showcases playwright Paul D'Andrea’s Lumbah Yard, a drama written especially for radio, with assistance from the Minneapolis Playwrights' Lab. Following radio play, Robert Collins, critic for City Pages, and listeners share impressions and ask questions of playwright.