Open Eye Theatre Announces Fall/Winter Season
Tuesday, September 6, 2022 at 12:04PM
Open Eye Theatre announces its Fall/Winter Season, featuring rowdy puppetry, a horrifying Halloween show on the roof at The Bakken Museum, a Mexican-American multimedia collaboration, masterful Indigenous storytelling, and a raucous musical version of A Christmas Carol! This season, audiences will see a thrilling array of original theatre, inventive puppetry, and world-class storytelling from local, national, and international artists.
Producing Artistic Director Joel Sass officially took over the leadership helm at Open Eye in 2020 after Founder and Executive Director Susan Haas announced her departure from the organization. Since then he has successfully led Open Eye through the pandemic, commissioning and directing LOG JAM! A Paul Bunyan Musical Spectacular and HAIR BALL! A Bigfoot Musical Adventure on the roof of The Bakken Museum, and creating unique opportunities for audiences to engage with artists through outdoor spectacles, virtual performances, global online puppetry workshops, a wildly successful Driveway Tour, and PUPPET LAB residency and festival this year. In addition to creating new and exciting productions, his leadership focuses on supporting artists, fostering connections with community, and expanding the circle of those who call Open Eye a creative home.
FULL MOON PUPPET SHOW, October 21 – 23
A rowdy puppet cabaret during the full moon! Join us under the full moon for an adult, rowdy puppet cabaret. Featuring performances by some of the most innovative Twin Cities puppetry artists and live music between acts! Since 2008, FULL MOON PUPPET SHOW has been performing puppet slams throughout Minneapolis. This October, nominated artists will perform 10 minute original puppet shows to an audience encouraged to howl at the moon and cheer on each show!
HALLOWEEN @ The Bakken Museum, October 27 - 30
Open Eye returns to The Bakken Museum for a third year of Halloween mayhem, this time with a multimedia spectacle conjured by Steve Ackerman and his team of puppet poltergeists. Ingredients in this witch’s cauldron include a gothic heavy metal band, puppet-animal sacrifice, arcane mystic rites, and comic demons summoned in a rock concert / seance / mockumentary that will delight fans of movies such as “This Is Spinal Tap” and “The Exorcist.”
SPEECHLESS | SIN PALABRAS, November 3 – 13
SPEECHLESS illuminates the extremes of both isolation and proximity between feuding neighbors who learn to overcome their conflicts and communicate across their divided community. The unique multimedia puppetry is performed without words to connect with audiences across language barriers and cultures.
Kling & Co Master Storyteller Series: BIRD BRAINED November 17 - 20
Beloved storyteller Dovie Thomason returns to Open Eye as part of Kevin Kling & Co’s Master Storyteller Series. One of the country’s most respected tale-tellers, Dovie Thomason combines her knowledge of Indigenous stories with contemporary observations in evenings of luminous storytelling, rich with tenderness and humor. Each performance is followed by an audience talk-back with the artist, hosted by Kevin Kling.
SCROOGE IN ROUGE, December 1 - 23
The Royal Music Hall Variety Players' production of A Christmas Carol is in a pickle after seventeen members of the company suddenly fall ill. This leaves the three remaining members to plow on (so to speak) through a musical performance of the Dickens classic. Expect missed cues, unfamiliar characters, and costume mishaps aplenty. With cheeky puns and bawdy songs, this quick-change, cross-dressing version of the Christmas tale is a hilarious holiday treat!
The return of PUPPET LAB this fall
Following a sold out relaunch during the PUPPET LAB Festival this year, and continuing under the leadership of co-artistic directors Oanh Vu and Rebekah Crisanta de Ybarra, we will soon announce a call for applications for our fall PUPPET LAB cohort of emerging artists. More info will be available soon at openeyetheatre.org/about-puppet-lab.
Tickets
Visit openeyetheatre.org for showtimes and tickets. A limited number of $10 Economic Accessibility tickets are available online for each performance. Patrons may also pay what they can at the door.
Location and Parking
Open Eye Figure Theatre. 506 East 24th St., Minneapolis, MN 55404 (Map) Open Eye is located 2 blocks south of Franklin Ave between Portland Ave and 35W. Park for free in the Lutheran Social Service lot at 24th and Portland.
