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About the Beat

The world of community theater is full of talented and hard-working people donating their time and energy to telling stories on the stage.  The shows that are created can be exciting, thought-provoking, frightening, funny--but they're all labors of love.  Community theater reviews are a way to recognize the skills that people bring to these shows and the moments that make these shows shine.

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Shrek: a Powerful Opener for Open Door

If you don’t like Shrek: the Musical , I have to wonder if you’ve even seen it.  Or maybe you have to see a community theater production to really get into it. I did see a professional version once and it wasn’t as good, but every community production I’ve been to or been in has been really enjoyable.  Maybe it’s that the show’s message is about embracing differences, but Shrek is better when it’s done by “real” people. This is not to insult professional actors or non-professional actors, but there is a difference between the performances that the audience can feel, and this time the advantage is definitely not with the professionals. Shrek , based on the animated film of the same name, is about a grumpy ogre who lives in a swamp.  When the short, title-hungry Lord Farquaad evicts all magical creatures from their homes and dumps them on Shrek’s swamp, the ogre ends up going on a quest with a talking donkey to rescue a princess in exchange for the deed to his swamp....
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"Rent" Rocks at Inver Grove Heights Community Theatre

Rent is one of the most iconic shows in musical theater history. Based more or less on the opera La Boheme , it follows a group of young people in 1980s New York trying to find their purpose or just trying to live despite poverty, addiction, and illness. The show is propelled by a rock and roll score, bold characters, and the sense that time is limited and precious - primarily because  multiple characters are living with AIDs at a time when long-term survival still felt like a longshot. This show brought me for the first time to Inver Grove Heights Community Theatre, which performs at the Simley High School Performing Arts Center. Due to COVID concerns, some of the cast was masked for the performance I attended. One thing I appreciated from this theater group was the inclusion of cast and crew pronouns in the program. That's something I'd love to see catch on. It's certainly helpful for me as a reviewer to know that I'm referring to people correctly! Quinn Forrest Mas...
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An Emotional and Unique "Rent" at Theatre 55

How do you live your life when tomorrow’s not guaranteed? The characters of Rent try to create art, fight the systems of power, and have fun – but in the end, what matters are their connections with each other. Theatre 55’s production of Rent may not be the edgiest or the sexiest version of the show you’ll ever see on stage (there was at least one cut of some racier material), but this production delivers where it matters most, in the sense of connection between the characters on the stage and between the performers and the audience. One element that helped this was the space; Gremlin Theatre’s thrust stage and steep seating put the actors and the audience very close to each other.   (Gremlin is in a very cool spot, sharing a building with a brewery and other businesses; one downside of this space, though, was that the seating is a little cramped.)   But the most essential element in the emotional impact of this show was the cast.   The characters in Rent ar...
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