I’m thrilled to announce that after months of hard work The Stages of MN has broken out of the confines of the blog and into new formats. The blog isn’t going away, but you might notice the reviews getting a little shorter. First off is the big one, the YouTube Show! Here is a link to the first episode https://bit.ly/TheStagesofMNEpisode1 . It clocks in at about 40 minutes but I think this first episode earns the extra time. Future episodes will be targeted at a 20 to 30 minute length, which I think is a little more digestible for the average viewer. The shows in general will feature an interview of some kind, a couple of reviews, and a montage of photos taken with people, like yourselves faithful readers, that I run into out at the theater. If you see me out at a show, or anywhere really, except standing at a urinal, don’t be shy, say hi, ask for a photo and you’ll be part of the next episode! I’m hoping this will allow me to meet more of you and connect with you in a more personal way. You love theater! I love theater! You know what I think of every show, but I want to hear what you think, I want to know what you are seeing.

I interviewed Austene Van, the Executive Artistic Director of Yellow Tree Theatre as well as an accomplished Actor, Choreographer, Director, and Writer for the first episode. You’ll see from that interview that we are having some fun with this show, but we’ll also at times talk about some really important things as well. We also have two reviews for shows closing this weekend Significant Other at Lyric Arts and Mae West and the Trial of Sex from Walking Shadow Theater Company. Along with a couple of other fun little items. I’m really proud of the show, it’s not perfect, but we’ll iron out the rough edges over time. For instance the opening sequence which was filmed in the historic Orpheum Theatre for which I’m very grateful to the folks at Hennepin Arts for allowing us to do. I think it came out great, but it is too long, you don’t want to sit through that every week. So sometime in the next few weeks I’ll get that edited down. But I wanted to share the full cut with you. And, if we have an episode that runs a little short in the future, we might pull it out and pop in from time to time.

The second new format is a podcast version of the YouTube show. You can hear the first episode by clicking here https://bit.ly/TSOMNPodcastEpisode1 or searching for The Stages of MN wherever you listen to podcasts. What’s the difference? Well the podcast version is a little shorter as some of the YouTube version is purely visual, like the opening and the photo montage, so those have been cut. My preferred version is the YouTube, but some folks don’t really want to sit and watch something on YouTube. Some would prefer to listen to a podcast, which they can do while driving, exercising, cooking, clipping their nails or shucking corn. And for those folks we have the podcast version, and to them I say happy shucking!!!

So while this exists for you to simply enjoy, you can also help do what this blog and these new versions of The Stages of MN was designed to do in the first place. Share the love of theater. You can help me spread the good words by sharing these shows on your social media pages, subscribing, liking, and reviewing them. For algorithms are a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion, the more these are viewed/listened to, the more the platforms themselves push them out to new folks. That is how we get others into the theater groove with us. They hear about a show and they check it out and then rinse and repeat! So let us rally to Austene Van’s call for us all to work together to ensure that theater does not go quietly into the night but blazes forth and comes out stronger and more vibrant and vital than ever. Theater is under attack, but we can do this.

Gratefully,

Rob Dunkelberger, Founder and Grand Poobah of The Stages of MN