Flash bulbs were popping. Actors, directors, even fans were darting—kiss-kiss—from cheek to cheek. Sequins and silk flashed alongside vintage wear and tuxedos, but the décolletage was discrete—this is Minnesota, after all. The third annual Ivey Awards, which celebrate the Twin Cities’ burgeoning theater scene, got underway last September with the usual panache. Jumbotrons captured every enthusiastic song-and-dance routine, dramatic monologue, and award winner’s heartfelt thanks given from the stage of the State Theatre in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, in the audience, after each winner’s name was announced, two theater mavens tilted their well-coiffed heads together and whispered in unison, “. . . and Peter Rothstein.”
In 2007 alone, the prodigious former actor had directed more than 10 productions for an astounding variety of theater companies. While Rothstein himself didn’t get any awards this night (in 2005, his production of La Bohème with his musical-theater company Theatre Latte Da did receive an Ivey, and it was restaged at the Southern Theater last year), others involved in his productions did.
Michael Matthew Ferrell won for choreography for the Disney juggernaut High School Musical, which Rothstein directed for the Children’s Theatre Company. Sally Wingert was awarded for her portrayal of Peggy Guggenheim in Woman Before a Glass, which Rothstein directed for the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company. And Rothstein stood in for John Arnone, accepting Arnone’s award for scenic design for Private Lives, which Rothstein directed at the Guthrie Theater.
Originally from Grand Rapids, Rothstein came to Minneapolis in 1992 as a recent MFA graduate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, hired as an unpaid assistant to the Guthrie’s Garland Wright in directing A Woman of No Importance. He hasn’t been without an acting or directing gig since. And his success can be attributed, in part, to the remarkably extensive theater scene in the Twin Cities.
Forty-five years ago, there were virtually no professional theater companies here. Now, there are something like 69—a development at least as unlikely as Minnesotans exchanging air kisses.
Enter Boasting
Civic and cultural boosters say variously that the Twin Cities have “more theater seats per capita than any city besides New York,” “more live theater than any city outside of New York,” “more theater companies per capita than any metro area in the country.”
Hard numbers are hard to pin down because, as Dominic Papatola, theater critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, points out, “You have to define what a theater seat is, define what a theater is, define your population.” How do you account for the theater company with no building of its own that moves from outdoor venue to vacant factory to college auditorium?
