The Guthrie Theater has gone dark until March 2021. While Theater Latté Da’s stage will also remain unlit for an unknown period of time, Artistic Director Peter Rothstein has committed the theater to developing new works. “While we may not be able to bring audiences into our theaters, we can certainly support our playwrights, our composers and our lyricists,” he said in a press release.
The NEXT UP laboratory will include Terrence McNally’s last play, “Immortal Longings,” and a lineup of projects by playwright Harrison David Rivers, composer Ted Shen, musicians Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses of The Kilbanes, Jessie Austrian and Noah Brody of Fiasco Theater, Mexican playwright Joserra Zúñiga, scenic designer Kate Sutton-Johnson, local writer-performers Bradley Greenwald and Steven Epp, actress Sally Wingert, and hip hop theater artists The Q Brothers. The laboratory will be led by Rothstein and Associate Artistic Director Elissa Adams.
“We believe we can safely implement processes to support the development of new work, in person when possible and virtually when not. We will be able to employ actors, musicians, stage managers, directors, music directors and choreographers in this process. The work of these artists came to a complete stop in mid-March, this will be a way to help support them and keep them practicing their craft. We will also look for every opportunity to safely include audiences in this process and find creative ways of sharing the bold creativity happening in this seemingly quiet time,” Rothstein said.
Rothstein will continue work on “Immortal Longings.” Twin Cities playwright Harrison David Rivers is exploring a new piece about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 alongside the 1927 premiere of the Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein and Edna Ferber’s musical, “Showboat.” Rothstein will also partner with actress Sally Wingert on “In Paper Boats,” a play about Frances Cabrini, patron saint of immigrants.
Mexico City-based playwright Joserra Zúñiga, along with Rothstein and Twin-Cities-based designer, Kate Sutton-Johnson, are collaborating on a musical and visual theatricalization of the life and work of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Bradley Greenwald and Steven Epp are working on an English-language adaptation of Giacomo Puccini’s comic opera, Gianni Shicchi. Working in a completely different genre, the Q Brothers will continue work on their latest project, “Rome Sweet Rome,” an ad“rap”tation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
A musical by Ellen Fitzhugh, Harrison David Rivers and Ted Shen, “Broadbend, Arkansas,” is story of an African-American family grapples with decades of inequality, violence, and suppression in the South. Singer/songwriters Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses, who together form the musical duo, The Kilbanes, and actor/directors Jessie Austrian and Noah Brody, co-artistic directors of New York-based Fiasco Theater, will come together for the first time to create a new musical.
Source: Theater Latté Da news release