This issue has…

• 🎭 Some Hot Takes
  hot-ish at least

• 🎥 Promo Vids
  just one actually

• 🏴‍☠️ Several Cute Kids
  and one pirate

COMMUNITY

Do you have any notes?

Phipps Community Day went off last week without a hitch. Several of you wandered in to check out the various spaces and activities going on at your favorite local arts center. This event is tentatively scheduled next year for Saturday, March 6th, so mark those calendars.

For those who’ve attended in the past, what have you enjoyed? What didn’t work? Are there any things you’d love to see at Phipps Community Day that we aren’t giving you? Tell me all of the things!

PROGRAMMING

My season mailer hot takes

By now, you should’ve received your Phipps 2026/27 season brochure in the mail. If not, you basically have three options:

1. Swing by the Phipps and pick one up at the Welcome Center.

2. Click HERE to view the mailer online.

3. Scream loudly at your nearest USPS employee.

For those of you without reason to rage at your mail carrier, have you perused the new season yet? What are your thoughts? Any favorite events? Hit reply and let me know. I’m only in Year Three, so I’m still trying to figure out what you’re into, what you’re not, and what kinds of new things you might be willing to try. Your feedback helps immensely.

Here are five events I’m excited for and why (in season order):

The Shrieking Harpies is a 4-person improv group that improvises full-scale, 60 to 70-minute musicals in front of your very eyes. It’s incredible. The first time I saw them, I was like “okay okay…that was fun, but this was probably just a good night for them.” When I saw them a second time, I was like “okay okay…they did it twice; maybe they’re just really lucky.” After my third time, I was like “okay okay…these people are clearly musical improv magicians.”
You will not want to miss this.

Transatlantic Love Affair, the producing company of 5×5, talks about creating theatre productions that “celebrate the human body as the ultimate theatrical instrument.” 5×5 is your perfect entry point to this unique type of storytelling. Not only do these five performers use NO props and NO set…they perform the entire play within the boundaries of a 5-foot by 5-foot square. If you’re thinking “there’s no way I would enjoy that” you are 100% wrong. 5×5 will be here for two weekends in November. Definitely check it out.

And the winner in the category of Show Title Most Likely to Offend My Mother: it’s Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle! This is a solo musical dramedy (drama + comedy) from local musical theatre writer/performer, Max Wojtanowicz, about his personal experience with cancer. Max is typically acting super hard on the Guthrie stages, so to have him here in our very own little black box is pretty neato. Now, I know you weren’t sitting around in February with your fingers crossed, hoping the PCA would present a musical about testicular cancer, but friends…this show is excellent. It’s equal parts funny, heartwarming, poignant — just an all-around wonderful piece of musical theatre performed by one of this region’s best musical theatre performers. See this one or you will hurt my feelings.

This is a sort of remount from our friends at Walking Shadow Theatre Company in Minneapolis. I was lucky enough to catch it when they produced the regional premiere of this play back in 2019 and it was easily one of my favorite shows of the year. If you love theatre that truly moves you, makes you think, challenges you, and lingers in your brain for days afterward, this is the show for you. Open will be in the black box for three performances over one weekend in February and has my highest recommendation.

Founded and led by famed vocalist and TC music educator, Courtland Pickens, Known MPLS is a youth and young adult gospel choir that will KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF. I was lucky enough to hear them at the NAZ gala last year, and my jaw was on the floor. There’s a ton of media out there if you’re interested in learning more, but if you want a quick taste of what’s to come, check out this video of them singing the national anthem at a recent Vikings game — and make sure you stay for the very last note. Courtland’s arrangement is so much fun. Big thanks to my sis-in-law, Nicole, for encouraging me to program this amazing group of artists. 😊

And, of course, I’m a huge fan of the entire season…but these are a few of the newer things you may not have had on your radar. I’m hoping you’ll consider them all. And don’t forget that if you plan to see more than 2 events in the season, it makes financial sense (and it helps the Phipps) to purchase a Season Pass.

👆
my favorite gallery piece of the week
There’s a ton of really great work in Gallery Two right now from the MN New Institute for Ceramic Education. You have one more weekend to check it out, as these exhibitions close on April 12th. Don’t miss out!

CHILDREN’S THEATRE

Cute Judy Moody pics in 3…2…1…

We braved 40-degree weather and risked getting sand all over everything, but IT WAS WORTH IT. Our good pal, Molly Weibel, worked her magic yet again and we snapped the cutest pics in the history of Judy Moody & Stink.

These kids are absolute champs and would win several gold medals in the Goofball Olympics. You’re going to want to take the young ones in your life to see this production. It runs May 1-17. Don’t miss out!

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Talk to you next week!