After canceling all but one of its 2023 shows, St. Paul’s Park Square Theatre has announced its new 2024/2025 season, which includes four major productions.
“We are beyond excited to not only bring outstanding productions to our stage but also to have a world premier be part of this strong season,” said Park Square artistic director Stephen DiMenna in a news release. “We worked hard to choose plays that can serve as vehicles for many of the Twin Cities most acclaimed and favorite actors while also making opportunities for younger actors to develop their craft.”
Under the guidance of DiMenna, who was named executive artistic director in October, the theater’s staff and board spent the past eight months “engaged in a brand audit of the theater’s past programming, mission, purpose and vision to create a plan for the theater’s future.”
After looking at what other theaters in the metro were programming, Park Square decided to focus on contemporary American plays and re-imagined American classics with an emphasis on the actors and artists who create the work. Park Square’s new brand is “The Stories You Want to See with the Artists You Love” and its new logo symbolizes an open door where all are welcome.
The theme of the upcoming season, the theater’s 49th, is “New Beginnings — Plays about redemption, renewal and rebirth.” The season includes:
• “Holmes/Poirot” (Oct. 9-Nov. 3): This world premiere co-written by Twin Cities playwright Jeffrey Hatcher and actor Steve Hendrickson tells a “tale of intrigue, international politics, wine and murder” involving Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
• “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” (Dec. 4-22): Adapted for the stage by Barbara Robinson from her much-loved children’s book of the same name, this show inaugurates Park Square’s new Family Series.
• “The Gin Game” (Feb. 5-23): A new take on D. L. Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play will star locals Greta Oglesby and Terry Hempleman.
• “Between Riverside and Crazy” (May 14-June 8): The 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy/drama by Stephen Adly Guirgis follows an ex-cop and recent widower and his recently paroled son as they struggle to hold onto one of the last rent-stabilized apartments on Riverside Drive in New York City.
For further details, see parksquaretheatre.org.
Park Square canceled five of its planned 2023 productions, citing the pandemic and slow ticket sales. The company’s sole 2023 play was “The Revolutionists,” a co-production with PRIME Productions that ran in April.
Park Square started in 1975 with 70 seats and has grown to a multi-stage, 550-seat professional theater. In August 2020, Park Square and SteppingStone Theatre for Youth announced they were becoming partners due to prepandemic debt issues. SteppingStone later moved into Park Square’s home in the historic Hamm Building in downtown St. Paul.
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