Day: September 11, 2026

Pinocchio is Great Fun for the Whole Family, Ignore the 5 to 10 Year Olds suggestion, It’s for Everyone at Children’s Theatre Company

Antonisia (Nisi) Collins, Reed Sigmund, and Dean Holt Photographed by Glen Stubbe

The Children’s Theatre Company’s production of Pinocchio, according to the website, is geared toward ages 5 to 10. I hope that won’t dissuade people from bringing their older children as well, because it worked for me, so I’m sure it will work for them as well. This production is adapted and directed by Greg Banks, whose scripts for Robin Hood and The Hobbit we’ve seen produced over the last two years at Zephyr Theatre and Theatre in the Round. I’m getting a sense of Banks’ style at this point: he takes a classic story and retells it in a non-traditional way. Banks likes to acknowledge that we are sharing a story and shares openly the importance of the audience’s role in bringing their imagination into the theater.

Pinocchio opens not in Italy but in a theater. Company member Dean Holt comes on stage in his painter clothes, ready to get to work painting the set for the upcoming production of Pinocchio. He’s surprised to see us all there and tells us we’ll have to leave. When he discovers we all have tickets for Pinocchio, he convinces the other four members of the painting crew that they should tell us the story since we are there.

They then proceed to perform a seemingly makeshift telling of Pinocchio, using the ladders and scaffolding, paint cans and drop cloths, and even the head of a mop to take the place of props and costumes. This open communication with the audience allows the cast to engage directly at times with the audience, helping to keep the little ones engaged throughout. There was also a nice peppering of clowning throughout. There is nothing like a little good clowning to get an audience laughing together.

The cast is filled with the theater’s core company: Holt, Autumn Ness, Reed Sigmund, and the newest member and 2025 Twin Cities Theater Bloggers Favorite New Artist Award winner Antonisia Collins as Pinocchio. Also joining in, mostly providing instrumental accompaniment, is Victor Zupanc.

Zupanc, as with the style of telling this story, provides young audience members a chance to think about where the sounds they hear in entertainment come from. To see how creatively certain instruments can be used to conjure more than just music.

Holt and Sigmund playing schoolhouse bullies was brilliantly realized, the timing and the facial expressions priceless. Ness gets to pull at our heartstrings, first because the only role they’ll give her is the neighbor, who’s sleeping, later as she tries to deviate from the story to help Pinocchio.

And Nisi Collins… man, did we pick that one right. Pinocchio has a lot in common with the role she played last year in Once on This Island. There is a naivete and a trusting nature to both roles, but there is zero overlap in her performances. She plays the same traits but in a completely new way. I cannot wait to see what she does next.

Pinocchio is perfect for 5- to 10-year-olds, so bring them. But trust me, don’t leave the tweens or teens, or Grandma and Grandpa, at home. This is a very fun show. What I love most about it is the way in which it engages with the audience, not only telling them a story but sharing how we tell a story in theater. It’s the kind of show that could get some young mind thinking about more than just acting, but directing as well.

Pinocchio runs through October 18 at Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://childrenstheatre.org/whats-on/pinocchio/

I want to alert you faithful readers to a new Website that has just started up in the Twin Cities. It’s called 79 Seconds on Stage and it is a free and full guide to local theatre in the Twin Cities.

Don’t rely on Facebook or Instagram algorithms to keep you in the loop about great shows. Subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN delivered straight to your inbox. It’s the best way to make sure you never miss out on the theater action. To subscribe on a computer, enter your email address on the home page (right-hand side) and click subscribe. On mobile, scroll to the bottom of the page to find the same option. You can also follow me on Facebook @thestagesofmn and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

The Stages of MN YouTube channel is home to the Stages of MN Show. You can watch it by clicking here. Be sure to check out the latest episodes and subscribe so you’ll always know when a new one drops. Not sure you agree with one of my takes? I’m also part of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can find review roundups from my colleagues and me. Follow us on Facebook at @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.

Mothership a Space Allegory For Our Troubled Times. This Penumbra World Premiere Science Fiction Play is Far Out!

The Cast of Mothership Photo by Caroline Yang

Penumbra opens its 50th season with the world premiere of a science fiction play titled Mothership. Set in the not-too-distant future, the Earth has been all but destroyed by man, and in order to protect itself, it has turned on mankind, forcing people to flee in rockets, many of which exploded, or go deep underground to try and survive. Those who remain, the ones not allowed on the initial rocket ships, are all Black.

Now the survivors have been invited onto a sentient spaceship called the Mothership to be taken to a new planet to start over. But in order to reach that destination, the five survivors in the pod where the play takes place must grow, change, heal, and transform. They must unfurl themselves from the past in order to gain the chance to begin again.

The pod is filled with five characters, each with trauma, secrets, or unacknowledged truths they carry with them like burdens. The new planet will not accept them if they have not freed themselves from the bonds of the past and become who they truly are meant to be. This planet will not allow them to devastate it as they have Earth.

Mothership uses this future world and situation to speak to us about our world today. It’s a little on the nose, but that’s because the extrapolations from our time to the future time of this play feel as though they might be ripped from next year’s headlines. Co-authors Resmaa Menakem and Kristen Adele Calhoun infuse the story with enough humor and unique character details to keep the play entertaining and from feeling like a lesson being preached.

A strong cast helps ground the futuristic tale, the standout being Ashambaga Jaafaru as Harper. Starting out full of attitude and defiance, Harper will evolve into the group’s leader. Jaafaru is equally compelling at both ends of the spectrum.

The role of the youngest member of the pod is played in rotation by two young actors, Juliah Jefferson and Michelle Kanyugi. I saw Jefferson, whom I’d seen last season in Penumbra’s production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. I hope she continues on with acting. I see a lot of potential in this 12-year-old, and she’s getting the opportunity in both those productions to work with some really gifted performers.

Outside of the Twin Cities Horror Festival or Minnesota Fringe Festival, we don’t often see science fiction plays. I can only think of a couple off the top of my head: Fahrenheit 451 and Marjorie Prime, both of which, at least in the productions I saw, took a very low-tech approach.

Mothership’s production design, by contrast, is very creatively executed. There are three video screens that appear to show the space through which the ship is traveling, though they are also used to visually represent some exposition and give us a somewhat distorted visual of the entity that is the Mothership’s sentient split personality. There are also unexpected transformations of the set itself that help to achieve a larger scope visually. Great work from Scenic Designer Chelsea M. Warren and Associate Scenic Designer Sebastian Zavalza. Likewise, Projection Designer Miko Simmons and Video Programmer Bevibel Harvey.

This world premiere from Penumbra is a great start to their 50th season and a rare chance to see a science fiction stage play. Under the skillful direction of Candis C. Jones, it reminds us of the path we are on, but also allows us to leave with hope.

Mothership runs through October 4 at Penumbra Center for Racial Healing. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to https://penumbracenter.org/event/mothership/

I want to alert you faithful readers to a new Website that has just started up in the Twin Cities. It’s called 79 Seconds on Stage and it is a free and full guide to local theatre in the Twin Cities.

Don’t rely on Facebook or Instagram algorithms to keep you in the loop about great shows. Subscribe and have every post from The Stages of MN delivered straight to your inbox. It’s the best way to make sure you never miss out on the theater action. To subscribe on a computer, enter your email address on the home page (right-hand side) and click subscribe. On mobile, scroll to the bottom of the page to find the same option. You can also follow me on Facebook @thestagesofmn and on Instagram thestagesofmn.

The Stages of MN YouTube channel is home to the Stages of MN Show. You can watch it by clicking here. Be sure to check out the latest episodes and subscribe so you’ll always know when a new one drops. Not sure you agree with one of my takes? I’m also part of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can find review roundups from my colleagues and me. Follow us on Facebook at @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers.