Theatre in the Round Players Celebrates 75 Years With Minnesota Stories and Artists

Theatre in the Round Players (TRP) is celebrating its 75th season by celebrating the community it calls home.

Theatre in the Round’s 2026–2027 season, We’ve Been Around: A Celebration of Minnesotan Art and Resiliency, celebrates Minnesota art and artists. The season also celebrates something that has been at the heart of TRP since its founding in 1952: the belief that theatre is something a community can build together. 

A Season Full of Minnesota Connections

Opening September 11 with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, adapted by Simon Levy and directed by Vanessa Brooke Agnes, Season 75 celebrates the remarkable artists and stories Minnesota has sent into the world. The season features beloved Minnesota authors F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kate DiCamillo and Charles M. Schulz, acclaimed Minnesota playwrights Carlyle Brown and

Jeffrey Hatcher, two world premieres by Minnesota playwrights John Gaspard and Pamela Hill Nettleton and music from acclaimed singer-songwriter Eric Peltoniemi. The season – including collaborative efforts with FAIR School for Arts, The American School of Storytelling, and The Bearded Company - explores the many ways Minnesota has shaped American theatre and storytelling and, conversely, the many ways that theatre and art has shaped Minnesota. 

Together, the productions offer a broad definition of what a Minnesota season can be - not simply stories set here, but stories connected to the people, artists, history and experiences that have shaped the state. 

75 Years of Community-Made Theatre

Theatre in the Round Players was founded in 1952 by seven artists who wanted to create a theatre supported by its members. They persuaded 50 friends to contribute $10 each and opened their first season, Life with Father, at the YWCA in downtown Minneapolis in January 1953. That spirit of community participation remains central to TRP today. The organization’s model provides opportunities for people to learn and participate in many facets of theatre, bringing together professional and amateur artists, volunteers and audiences. 

Over the decades, TRP has also played an important role in the growth of the Twin Cities arts community, pioneering opportunities and helping support the development of multiple organizations including Penumbra Theatre and Youth Performance Company. TRP moved to its current home in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in 1969, transforming a fire-damaged restaurant into a theatre with thousands of hours of volunteer labor. Today, the building houses every part of the organization’s operation under one roof.

Theatre in the Round - Literally

Theatre in the Round’s name comes from its distinctive arena configuration: the audience surrounds the stage. The theatre’s approximately 240 seats are only seven rows deep, putting every audience member within 30 feet of center stage. There is no traditional “back row” and no fourth wall separating actors from the people watching them. That intimacy is central to the TRP experience.

“Arena theatre represents the soul of this organization. This form of theatre is a beautiful metaphor for community – we have a shared experience, but everyone’s perspective is a little different.”  Executive Director, Larisa Netterlund

Still Here - and Still Growing

Seventy-five seasons is a remarkable milestone for any theatre. For TRP, the anniversary is also an opportunity to think about what comes next. The organization has weathered changing artistic landscapes, changing funding realities, a pandemic that forced the theatre dark, and the ongoing challenges of maintaining an aging building. Through it all, the basic idea has remained: bring people together, make good theatre, and make room for people to be part of it. 

Season 75 celebrates the people who built the theatre, the artists who have filled its stage, the volunteers who have kept it running and the audiences who have come back year after year - while inviting a new generation to become part of TRP’s story. 

Season information and tickets are available at theatreintheround.org. 

Season 75 productions:

• Sept 11-Oct 4: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby adapted by Simon Levy
• Oct 23-Nov 1: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, Adapted by Dwayne Hartford, a Co-Production with FAIR School for Arts
• Nov 20 – Dec 20: Dial M for Murder by Frederick Knott, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher
• Dec 4-Jan 10: Acting Can be Murder a world premiere by John Gaspard
• Jan 22-24: Home is Where the Art is: Stories of Art & Belonging, a Co-Production with The American School of Storytelling
• Feb 12-March 7: Ten November by Steven Dietz and Eric Peltoniemi
• Feb 17-21: Swords & Sorcery a Co-Production with The Bearded Company
• April 2-25: Quantumly Entangled: Love & Rock’N’Roll in the Age of AARP a world premiere by Pamela Hill Nettleton
• May 7-30: The African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown
• June 18-July 18: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown by Gesner, Mayer, and Lippa,