On Stage

On Stage (fiscally sponsored through Springboard for the Arts) is designed to make local theater relevant to younger and non-traditional audiences and to lay the groundwork for building future theater attendance.

On Stage brings actors to classrooms and community settings. Actors and students read scenes from a play in current local production followed by a lively discussion of the themes tying in current events, personal values and narratives, and stimulating critical thinking. Subsequently attending the full play is encouraged.

Over the last year, we launched a new education experience for students called: OnStage/OnLine. This program was a series of discussions based on plays that were ‘in the works’ to be produced and performed in the Twin Cities in the future, designed to: stimulate an interest in live theater, examine the cultural context of a play, and, of course, to have fun!

We ended up discussing three plays on Zoom with students. Last fall (election time) we discussed Bertolt Brecht’s play: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Frank Theatre hopes to present it in the future). This spring we discussed two plays with students. The first one is a play in development with Mixed Blood Theatre about housing insecurity called The Most Beautiful Home… Maybe, and the second play was Nina Simone: Four Women (which Pillsbury House Theatre hopes to stage in the future). 

All in all it was a great experience talking about these plays/social issues with students, and we ended up facilitating 44 classes with over 750 students. A survey with the students found that 97% of students said that the discussion added to their fuller understanding to what they have been discussing in class; 93% of students said that as a result of the discussion, they are more inclined to see this play when it is presented at a theater; and 96% of students said that after participating in the discussion, they are more inclined to see OTHER live theater productions.

On Stage returned to in-person class discussions in the fall of 2021! We facilitated 18 in-class discussions with college students about Mixed Blood Theatre’s play, Animate. We visited over 350 college students and had great discussions with students about the play (which dealt with race and philanthropy, species preservation, conservation and education). 

In the Spring and Summer of 2022, On Stage facilitated in-class discussions with students based around the following plays: Man of God (@ Theater Mu), Passing Strange (@ Yellow Tree Theatre), and Twelve Angry Men (@ Theater Latte Da).

Coming up for Fall 2022, On Stage will be discussing the following plays in classes: Freeing Assata & A Love Story in 8 Scenes (Produced by Exposed Brick Theatre; @ Open Eye Theatre) and the bull jean stories (@ Pillsbury House Theatre).

For more information, go to: onstagemn.org

Your support is greatly appreciated during this time as On Stage continues to schedule as many engaging inline discussion with Twin Cites classes as possible.

Thank you!

Lucas Erickson

Project Manager

lucas.erickson1@gmail.com