Sight Unseen

When: Fashion 47, Sept. 25–Oct. 21; Average Family, Sept. 7–Oct. 6; A Special Trade, Nov. 6–Jan. 6
Where: Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 3rd Ave. S., Mpls., 612-874-0400

Peter Brosius has been the artistic director of the Tony award–winning Children’s Theatre Company for the past ten years, but there’s someone behind the scenes who has been just as crucial to the theater’s success. Elissa Adams, director of new-play development, spends her time reading new scripts and identifying world-class artists with whom she thinks interesting collaborations might be possible. Her efforts have helped turn CTC into one of the most vibrant and productive laboratories for new work in the country, and has extended CTC’s reputation around the world.

Adams came to Minneapolis via La Jolla Playhouse in California and worked with The Playwrights’ Center for a few years, but says she became “extremely frustrated” with the cookie-cutter process of developing new work. Most new plays in this country never see the light of day; instead, they get stuck in workshop and staged-reading purgatory. When Brosius came to CTC, Adams was the first person he hired. Together, they smashed the standard development model and committed to staging all the plays they commissioned. To date, CTC has produced more than eighteen world premieres under her guidance.

Adams’s play-development program, Threshold, is responsible for birthing many of the nationally lauded, high-quality plays for which CTC is known. Such groundbreaking plays as Snapshot Silhouette, Brooklyn Bridge, and last season’s The Lost Boys of Sudan are the kind of pieces Threshold develops. “A play doesn’t really exist until it’s onstage,” says Adams. In order for artists to develop, she believes it’s crucial to support them with the resources to stage their work as professionally as possible.

Consequently, CTC’s lineup for fall is one of the most ambitious in town. For teens, there’s Fashion 47, a fantastical dance-theater spectacle developed by director Diane Paulus and lighting designer Randy Weiner. Paulus and Weiner are the creators of New York’s long-running hit The Donkey Show, a Studio 54-like, ecstasy-inducing disco dance party based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Fashion 47 has a similar style, but is designed for ages thirteen and up.

For the elementary school set, there’s Larissa FastHorse’s Average Family. Commissioned by the CTC, Average Family provides a comic yet poignant take on modern-day American Indian and American culture. The play is about a bickering family whose father signs them up for a reality television show to try to work out their differences and reclaim their Dakota heritage.

The final world premiere of the season is a testament to Adams’s versatility. A Special Trade is a coproduction with Sweden’s leading preschool puppet troupe, Dockteatern Titutt. The show is for ages two and up (yup, toddlers).

“Elissa may be the best in the business for what she does,” says Brosius. “I try to hire good people and get out of the way.”