Ten Thousand Things Theater

Ten Thousand Things awakens the creative spirit of audiences and artists by bringing essential and exceptional theater to people from all backgrounds and life experiences.Ten Thousand Things delivered on FY24/25 season goals to produce excellent and accessible theater programming to diverse audiences in Minnesota. Programming highlights included three season productions: John Barton and Kenneth Cavanders HELEN, based on the play by Euripides, produced in the fall; Finegan Kruckemeyers THIS GIRL LAUGHS, produced in the winter; and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawleys VIOLET, produced in the spring. All three productions were presented both to paying public audiences and to audiences who may not otherwise have access to professional theater, through free community tours across the Twin Cities. The season received critical acclaim and the productions were received positively by audiences. In addition to our main production season, Ten Thousand Things re-developed educational programming for individuals experiencing incarceration, after a multi-year pause due to pandemic-related changes in staff and policies at our carceral partner facilities. We developed and led three semester-long theater courses: partnering with Scholars Serving Time to deliver a course in theater to women at Minnesota Correctional Facility Shakopee in the fall; working with Transformation and Reentry Through Education and Community (TREC) to deliver a course to men at Minnesota Correctional Facility Stillwater in the fall; and working again with TREC to deliver a course to men at Minnesota Correctional Facility Faribault in the spring. We also taught workshops at Ramsey County Corrections and Harmony Learning Center's ELL program. In total, we presented 104 shows, reaching 8,191 audience members, and led 50 workshops attended by 945 participants. We partnered with 24 community organizations to reach new audiences. We continued to increase our partnerships with correctional facilities across Minnesota throughout the season, while also serving audience members in the Twin Cities through partnerships with ELL centers, elder centers, youth-serving centers, rehabilitation centers, support centers for the unhoused, and organizations serving people with disabilities. Ten Thousand Things unique, bare-bones model of essentialized theaterperformed in the round, with all the lights on, minimal sets and live musicmakes it possible to tour directly into community organizations and paying audience venues throughout the Twin Cities and into Greater MN.