The Commonweal Theatre Company is a professional, live theatre company in

Lanesboro, Minnesota Lanesboro is a city in Fillmore County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 754 at the 2010 census. It was named after F. A. Lane, an early landowner. The South Fork of the Root River flows through it, with a waterfall dam across fro ...

, United States. Established in 1989 by Eric Bunge, Scott Olson and Scott Putman, the company's season runs April to December and comprises five plays chosen from among classic, contemporary, and emerging playwrights.

Company structure

The Commonweal is an artist-run company, organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization. It has a "Resident Ensemble" of members living in the Lanesboro, MN, area. This group provides the day-to-day artistic and operational needs of the company as artist-administrators. The company also employs seasonal company members, college interns, and, since 2008, an Apprentice Company.

History

The Commonweal Theatre was founded in 1989 by Eric Lorentz Bunge, Scott Olson, and Scott Putman at the request of the Lanesboro Arts Council. The first season of the company was eleven weeks long and employed ten artists who presented

Crimes of the Heart ''Crimes of the Heart'' is a play by American playwright Beth Henley. It is set in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in the mid-20th century. The play won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play. In 1986, the p ...

and

A Midsummer Night’s Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

. In 1991, the company launched its student matinee program, and in 1992 began its high school conservatory program, a two-week, intensive immersion in theatre training for area high school students. In 1993, the company moved to a rotating repertory season schedule. By 1994 the production season extended to December.Commonweal Website, History. Accessed 9.24.08 In 2008, the company added the first ever Apprentice Company, bringing five young professional theatre artists to the Lanesboro area to act, direct, and become more familiar with the company's structure. Currently, Hal Cropp serves as the company's Executive Director and Adrienne Sweeney serves as Assistant Artistic Director.

New Theatre

The 200-seat Commonweal Theatre opened in July 2007, located on Lanesboro’s main street. The exterior façade, created by Minnesota artist Karl Unnasch, recreates three Lanesboro shop fronts. The interior design focuses on the natural beauty and history of the region with barn doors acting as bathroom stalls, stone walls mirroring the surrounding bluffs, concrete floors reflecting the building’s prior life as a cheese factory, and seats reclaimed from the original Guthrie Theater.

2020 mainstage season

''I Ought to be in Pictures'' by Neil Simon ''Born Yesterday'' by Garson Kanin ''One Man, Two Guvnors'' by Richard Bean ''Doubt'' by John Patrick Shanley ''A Christmas Carol'' by Commonweal Theatre Company; based on the novella by Charles Dickens

References

External links

Commonweal Theatre Company Website
{{authority control Buildings and structures in Fillmore County, Minnesota Theatre companies in Minnesota Tourist attractions in Fillmore County, Minnesota