With a similar edgy, avant-garde, experimental style footed by a regional powerhouse, the Twin Cities strive to be more than a mini-Chicago.

BY BEN WINTERS

The first thing to do is forget that they’re two different places.

Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, are two mid-sized cities that in many ways operate as a single metropolis, split down the middle by the mighty Mississippi, with a total population of over 700,000 souls–still a mere quarter the size of Sweet Home Chicago.But despite their relatively modest size, the Twin Cities together represent one of the country’s most dynamic artistic communities, more so than comparably sized cities like Indianapolis or Detroit. The stage community in particular, anchored by several nationally and internationally regarded institutions and buttressed by a thriving storefront and experimental scene, has a depth and range that place it among the nation’s foremost theatre towns.

Indeed, Minneapolis/St. Paul have much in common with another of the nation’s foremost theatre towns, namely Chicago. The communities share a risk-taking, rough-around-the-edges spirit, and in talking to Twin Cities actors, directors and producers there are certain uncanny similarities: itinerant companies jostling for space; a fair balance of conventional and avant-garde material; a shifting mix of Equity and non-Equity and sort of Equity; Broadway touring shows raising excitement but sapping potential audiences.

That doesn’t mean the Twin Cities are a mere mini-Chicago, but there are several illuminating comparisons, the most obvious of which is the (roughly) three tiers into which the towns’ theatres, like Chicago, can be divided.At the top, where we find big gorillas like Steppenwolf and the Goodman, sits the Guthrie Theatre with an $18 million budget and easily the most well-regarded theatrical institution in the upper Midwest. The Guthrie, founded in 1963, was one of the key players in the regional theatre boom of the 60s and 70s, and has retained a national and international reputation. Another important top-tier theatre is St. Paul’s Ordway Center for the Performing Arts–roughly comparable in size and range of activities to our North Shore Center–which is home to the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera, and a annual season of touring plays. Last but not least in this upper strata is the famous Children’s Theatre Company, arguably the biggest theatre for young audiences in the country; and, not incidentally, one of a number of financially established, vibrant children’s theatres in the Twin Cities, from Stages Theatre Company to Climb Theatre.

Graydon Royce, a theatre crtitic and news reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, walks PerformInk through the crowded level just beneath the very top.

"Another huge piece of the puzzle is the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre," says Royce, referring to the 90,000 square foot complex just outside of Minneapolis, a popular destination for both tourists and locals, and a reliable employer of actors. "It’s a dinner theatre complex about 20 miles west of here in [suburban] Chanhassen. It’s a phenomenal place. I call it almost like an amusement park, it’s so big… it’s a dinner theatre, then they have a musical revue that’s going on in another theatre, and sometimes a third or a fourth stage doing playhouse things…big part of the theatre community in that actors love getting in there, because it pays well and it’s really steady work."

If Chanhassen is a distant cousin of the Marriott Lincolnshire then the "Hennepin Broadway" series, an SFX-owned venture importing touring shows to the restored historic theatres on downtown Hennepin Avenue, has a fraternal twin in our own "Broadway in Chicago." Another key suburban playhouse is the Old Log Theatre, the oldest theatre in the Twin Cities area, which nowadays does mostly straight ahead, Odd Couple-type stuff, and "draws a crowd primarily interested in a suburban theatre experience," as Royce tactfully explains.

The next set of theatres are those comparable to local Victory Gardens, Bailiwick, or Court: Theatres who’ve got a permanent space, a well-defined aesthetic and a solid, consistent audience base. In Minneapolis/St. Paul this includes places like Theatre de La Juene Lune, with its full mainstage season and roster of visiting artists, and the African American Penumbra Theatre Company.

"Whole groups that started in the late 70s had the administrative savvy to stick around for 20-odd years: Illusion, Penumbra, Juene Lune, Park Square, the Great American History Theatre–they all sort of have a similar origin time," says Jack Reuler, the artistic director of another such theatre, Mixed Blood. "All those are still artistically healthy. What’s nice is that it used to be that people in non-profits got to their mid 30s and got out because they wanted certain luxuries, like lunch. But we’ve stuck around and let that school of thought evolve into what it could be."The final strata, which has some natural overlap with the mid-level, is that wide territory of young to new to brand new theatres–some itinerant, some settled. In Chicago, of course, new theatre companies are as common as new Starbucks (and so much more satisfying), and the number of storefront and itinerant theatres is dizzying, from Strawdog and Trap Door to Frump Tucker and Theatre Oobleck. Though the numbers are somewhat lower, theTwin Cities shares the same semi-constant influx of new companies.

"From the time you and I have started this conversation, three new theatre companies have started up," says Dominic Papatola, theatre critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, not five minutes into our conversation. "They’re popping up all the time."

"There are a lot of small theatres in a number of venues," says Reuler. "Some of them have their own home, some don’t. There’s more then there’s ever been; it used to be they lasted anywhere from one production to three years. [They’d be] started by one theatre artist who wanted to do some idea, and they used to come and go. Now they’re actually coming and sticking around. The missions are all over the place, so are the aesthetics, and there’s an number of venues that are supporting that."The venues supporting these smaller companies–which range from In The Head to the Beast Puppet Theatre to Eye of the Storm, which did Beauty Queen of Leenane last season–have no in-house company. In Chicago, strictly producing venues–like the Athenaeum and Theatre Building–tend to be too pricey for fresher, poorer companies, whereas the Twin Cities have a number of very cheap (in every definition) rental spaces available.

"There’s a lot of backs-of-coffee-houses, a couple little places that have been rehabbed into 150 seat theatres," says Papatola. "Maybe there’s no fly space, but there’s a workable lighting system, so you can tell where the actors go and the audience goes. On Nicollet Avenue, there are probably, boy, at least a half dozen really shitty places for people to put on plays. Little tiny 50 to 75 seat spaces. It’s places like that where…if you’ve got 500 bucks and a dream, you can put on a show."

Then there’s the Bryant Lake Bowl, a bowling alley/restaurant/theatre with a tiny stage, often used for goofy one-man show or cabaret type stuff. Some local artists, however, note that more comfortable spaces are beginning to become harder to find.

"I would tend to say we could use a little more," says Joe Stanley of 15 Head, an experimental company doing movement-based, epic adaptations. "We are fortunate in the arrangement we have, but our options, our inexpensive options are not real huge."

Wendy Knox of Frank Theatre says that they have a permanent deal with a place called Southern Theatre, but that of late, as the number of itinerant companies have grown, the scene has "developed something of a space crisis…what’s happened is, some of the spaces that have been available in the past, their options have changed, commitments have changes, and there’s less space available for theatres."

But the same surfeit of companies that creates an occasionally space crunch means a lot of options for audiences and gigs for actors.

"It’s a great town for actors in terms of if you want to do stage work," says Royce. "There generally are a lot of things going on. It’s not Chicago and it’s not New York, but…you can have as many as 20 to 25 companies doing shows at the same time, so it’s pretty active."

Reuler goes further, exhibiting the same genial nose-thumbing we here in the "Second City" like to aim at New York: "Certainly the Chicago scene should be envious of the Minneapolis scene," he says. "The Twin Cities theatre scene is as healthy as the Twin City theatre scene has ever been."

"A couple years ago the rumor was that the season ticket was dead," reports Papatola. "But now pretty much every theatre of significance in town…uniformly all these theatres are reporting that they’re selling record numbers of season tickets. For the well-established theatres, most of these theatres are doing really well. People are buying season tickets, they’re giving to the annual campaign, and all that stuff."

Of audience interest, Royce adds that "in the course of a year, probably more than 2 million people attend a theatre show of some type in the Twin Cities, which is more than, say, the Vikings and the Twins combined in a season."

Another important factor in Twin Cities theatre is Minnesota’s well-documented philanthropic tradition, which has been a major player on the scene since the Ford Foundation helped the Guthrie get through its opening seasons. Besides the numerous local companies–Pillsbury, Dayton’s, General Motors–who regularly give to the arts, there are three major foundations who are regular significant donors to theatre companies: the McKnight Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the Bush Foundation.

"This is a community that really gives," says Papatola. "If you make it through your first two or three seasons, you’ll probably get money from Jerome. If you can make it five or six seasons you’ll probably get money from McKnight."

Moreover, adds Knox, the foundations "get what art is and they try to help you do art, rather than crank out another Hello Dolly."

"I don’t think you can underestimate [corporate and foundation giving]," says Papatola. "That really can be the difference between a company struggling with identity, mission, and audience, and then someone comes along and says here’s $5,000 or $10,000, just because we like what you’re doing. That goes a long way."

Unfortunately that culture of generosity may be changing.

"One of the interesting transitions that’s happening in the community [is] that a lot of these family-based companies are now part of national conglomerates that don’t have the focus locally," says Rueler, noting the disappearance or flight of companies like Dayton’s, Honeywell, and Pillsbury. "So these locally founded companies, [which] used to have all these national headquarters here, are no longer invested in the local community in the way they used to be… a lot of major companies that were responsible on a number of fronts for the success of the cultural community are no longer necessarily going to be here for the local community. It’s been coming over the course of the 90s."

Reuler notes that "arts giving still increases on an annual basis," it’s just that the rate by which it increases is starting to drop off–but not at the rate it used to.

"But still, relative to other communities, we have little to whine about," he says.

Missing from the Twin Cities are some of the support and resources we take for granted: There is no League of Minneapolis/St. Paul Theatres, only the Minnesota Association of Community Theatres, and a loose group of itinerant theatres called Tip of the Iceberg. There’s no Arts & Business Council, no Arts Bridge or PerformInk. The first half-price ticket booth opened this year.

At the same time, due to the smaller size of the community, people tend to know each other organically to a larger degree than here.

"First of all, informally, you don’t have to go too far," says Stanley. "The degrees of separation are pretty few. I’ve been here now about 10 years, and I won’t say I know everybody, but I know a good chunk of them."

That, in a nutshell, is the Twin Cities theatre community: As artistically vital as Chicago, smaller in scale but perhaps gentler and more familial, more accessible. A lower cost of living and more (for now) cash floating around for the arts and artists.

"The economy is strong, the audience is out, people are doing bold work and getting an audience for it and funding for it," says Reuler. "If there’s a good time, it’s probably now."

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