What a pleasure to actually see Autumn Ness. In The Biggest Little House In The Forest (on the Children’s Theatre Co.’s Cargill Stage, 2400 3rd Ave. S., Minneapolis, through June 20, childrenstheatre.org) Ms. Ness wears none of the feature disguising makeup or the over-the-top costume effects that marked her work in Cinderella, The Iron Ring,...
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The Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) opened a strikingly handsome staging of the now classic Disney film, Mulan, to a full house of adoring fans – some even dressed as the title character. According to director, David Mann, the script sent from Disney was void of any stage directions, so the company that is renowned...
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Iron Ring (on the Children’s Theatre Company mainstage, 2400 Third Ave, through April 10, childrenstheatre.org) adapted by Charles Way from a novel by the gifted Lloyd Alexander is a journey story in the grandly mythic Joseph Campbell tradition. Way (one of the best and best known writers of theater for young audiences) and director Peter...
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The Trickster pops up everywhere. Reynard the Fox, Prometheus, Eshu (in the Yorba culture), the Monkey King (in Chinese mythology). In western literature, the quintessential Trickster is probably Shakespeare’s Puck. The character appears most vividly, though, in the vast and varied Native American storytelling tradition. He can be a crow or a spider, but most often he’s...
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The real test of theater is whether or not it works for the intended audience. Mr. McGee & the Biting Flea, the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre Company’s winter offering for young children, clearly knows its audience. CTC partnered with the Australian Patch Theatre Company, which created the show based on work by Pamela Allen, a...
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