106. Music Box Theatre
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 871-1414
Address: 1411 Nicollet Ave.
Description: The Music Box is a fantastic little space, seating 440 people in an auditorium with a thrust stage that makes it a superb venue for acoustic music and small-scale theater. The 1920 structure has a fascinating history, including stints as a movie theater and a church. Most recently, it was home for over a dozen years to the comedy show Triple Espresso. That show closed in 2009 and the venue reopened for music and theater rentals amid much fanfare, but that promise may be fading. As this guide went to press, the venue had no scheduled shows except for a weekly worship service and an encore run of…Triple Espresso.
107. Old Arizona
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 871-0050
Address: 2821 Nicollet Ave.
Description: A desert-southwest-themed theater would seem a little odd anywhere in Minnesota, so the eclectic Eat Street stretch of Nicollet Avenue is probably as suitable a place as any for Old Arizona. There’s a flexible theater space, a cafe, a “Chocolate Lounge,” a wine shop, a dance studio, and a rehearsal loft in this incongruous complex run by a nonprofit organization that also runs enrichment programs for youth. Because…well, why not?
108. Open Eye Figure Theatre
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 874-6338
Address: 508 East 24th St.
Description: Michael Sommers and Susan Haas, the married couple who run Open Eye Figure Theatre, had already made a national name for their company’s dark and innovative blend of puppetry and live action when they opened this storefront space in 2006. Though it’s in the middle of Minneapolis, the Phillips neighborhood theater isn’t near any other venues—when you try to explain to locals exactly where it is, you’ll see them squint their eyes and scratch their heads. The rich and intimate space is worth finding, though, especially when it’s hosting one of the company’s own magical performances.
109. Orchestra Hall
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (952) 371-5600
Address: 1111 Nicollet Mall
Description: The Minneapolis counterpart to St. Paul’s Ordway, Orchestra Hall is the place to go to hear the Minnesota Orchestra. The auditorium, which seats 2,400, has a large main floor with three balconies symmetrically girding it. Whatever you think about the venue’s aesthetics (the desert-red interior is not for everyone), you can’t argue with its excellent acoustics. The hall lobby opens to Peavey Plaza, which holds the orchestra’s popular outdoor summer music festival.
110. Patrick’S Cabaret
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 724-6273
Address: 3010 Minnehaha Ave.
Description: Bawdy cabarets are all the rage in Minneapolis now, but they’re nothing new for Patrick’s, which for a quarter-century has hosted an incredibly eclectic mix of acts that are notably GLBT-inclusive. Patrick’s is like a year-round Fringe Festival: The only thing you know for sure is that you don’t know what you’re going to get.
111. Pillsbury House Theatre
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 825-0459
Address: 3501 Chicago Ave. South
Description: Pillsbury House Theatre, a very nice little space, is located in a south Minneapolis community center; accordingly, its home company has a mission. That mission? “To create challenging theatre to inspire choice, change, and connection.” Pillsbury House productions aren’t just after-school specials, though; they feature some of the area’s top artists working on ambitious shows about (very) real life. The theater also hosts local companies who mount mainstream—and not-so-mainstream—shows there.
112. The Playwrights’ Center
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 332-7481
Address: 2301 East Franklin Ave.
Description: This former church converted into theater space stands in the middle of the Seward neighborhood on Franklin Avenue. If people know about it, it’s because they read the name in another theater’s playbill—usually because the Playwrights’ Center supported the performance through a fellowship, residency, commission, or other funding. Plays supported by the center have been featured at the Guthrie and other local theaters, as well as on national and international stages. Behind the scenes this membership organization helps actors and writers workshop their creative ideas. It also hosts performances in its own black-box space.
113. Rarig Center
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 624-6699
Address: 330 21st Ave. South
Description: The Rarig Center, located on the West Bank of the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus, hosts University Theatre and Xperimental Theater productions throughout the year in four theaters: a proscenium, a thrust, an arena, and a black box. The Mainstage shows are usually the more popular ones, and the smaller theater spaces offer experimental shows. The X Theater productions are directed and performed exclusively by undergraduate U of M students. At University Theatre, student and professional actors, designers, and directors write and direct musicals, comedies, and dramas. The Minnesota Centennial Showboat offers performances each summer aboard a sternwheeler riverboat anchored at Harriet Island in St. Paul.
114. Red Eye Theater
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 870-0309
Address: 15 West 14th St.
Description: The Red Eye, converted from a former car dealership, is squeezed so tightly into its space at the southern edge of downtown that its lobby is in two parts—one on either side of the theater—but that can be taken for the foot-in-the-door the theater allows emerging playmakers. The theater’s annual festival of works in progress is typical of its commitment to supporting new work in a community that’s positively bursting with it.
115. Ritz Theater
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 623-7660
Address: 345 13th Ave. NE
Description: The Ritz is the landmark venue standing amid the restaurants and galleries in the northeast Minneapolis arts district, and it’s home to an eclectic array of shows. It’s favored particularly for dance, and it’s home to the Ballet of the Dolls, an irreverent company best known for its naughty Nutcracker. If you’ve lived in Minneapolis for a while, you’ve learned to be delighted when a show you want to see goes up at the Ritz: the parking’s easy, the sight lines are good, and the post- or preshow comestibles at the neighboring establishments are simply superb.
116. Southern Theater
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 340-1725
Address: 1420 Washington Ave. South
Description: Though it’s home to theater and music performances, the Southern has increasingly become a venue for dance due to its recently rebuilt stage floor and its commitment to smart programming. Many local dance companies perform here, and everything from flamenco to classical Indian dance to modern dance can be seen in this venue. Exposed-brick walls enclose the auditorium, lending a comfortable warehouselike feel to the performance experience.
117. Theatre In The Round
City: Minneapolis, MN
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (612) 333-2919
Address: 245 Cedar Ave.
Description: Theatre in the Round, the oldest community theater in the Twin Cities, performs drama and comedy on a unique arena stage designed by the late Ralph Rapson, Minnesota’s premier modern architect. Audience members surround the actors, who are unpaid volunteers performing largely traditional scripts both classic and new. The quality is high for community theater, and sometimes the company produces real gems—but it can also lay goose eggs, so you might want to check the reviews before planning a trip.