St. Paul's Park Square Theatre returns after extended break
After facing financial challenges that only got worse after the pandemic, Park Square Theatre is ready for a reboot. The downtown St. Paul theater company will open the world premiere of the mystery "Holmes/Poirot" Friday after two nights of previews.
"Park Square is back on track," said artistic director Stephen DiMenna.
Troubles had been brewing at Park Square for years, with the theater running deficits in 2016 and 2017. Longtime artistic director Richard Cook retired in 2018 and his replacement Flordelino Lagundino was let go in January 2020 when the board cut the artistic director position to balance funding shortfalls. Later that year, Park Square and SteppingStone Theatre for Youth became partners due to debt issues.
Last year, the theater canceled five of its six productions and cut its staff from 21 people down to just two. It lost numerous grants due to its darkened stage.
"We now have seven full-time staff members and we're approaching a $1.8 million budget," DiMenna said. "We're solvent."
Park Square's turnaround happened thanks to the board's focus on fundraising in 2023 and the work of interim executive director Rachel Murch-D'Olimpio. They also restructured loans, reached a new rental agreement with the company's landlord that DiMenna called "extremely doable for us" and earned some income from stage rentals and small concerts.
DiMenna began working with Park Square in the summer of 2023 as a volunteer consultant and conducting what he called a brand audit.
"We took a look at what Park Square is, who we are and what we do," he said. "We also did a brand audit of all the other major theaters to look at what they do. We looked at what's missing from Twin Cities theater. We don't need to do Shakespeare, the Guthrie and Ten Thousand Things are doing it beautifully."
DiMenna and the board settled on a new focus on contemporary American plays, with one reimagined classic and one contemporary musical each season.
"We can do new American plays coming right off the pipeline from New York Off-Broadway theaters," said DiMenna, who took over as artistic director at the end of 2023. "We're picking plays for some of the best actors in the Twin Cities."
Coming back with a mysteryPark Square is reopening with "Holmes/Poirot" in large part because mysteries have traditionally been audience favorites.
Written by local theater veterans Jeffrey Hatcher and Steve Hendrickson, the show is directed by David Ira Goldstein, whose history with Park Square goes back to the very beginning.
Goldstein grew up in St. Louis Park and acted all over town, including shows for Actors Theater of St. Paul in the space that Park Square took over in 1995. He eventually served as associated artistic director for Actors Theater before moving to Seattle and later Phoenix.
"When Stephen called me to do the show, I told him he had no idea how deep my roots are with that space," Goldstein said. "I helped turn it into a legitimate theater. It's been kind of thrilling to be back there."
Goldstein, 71, said he "pretty much retired" five years ago and now splits his time between Phoenix and a cottage on the Oregon coast. But he jumped at the chance to direct his first Twin Cities production in more than three decades.
"My whole family is here and I always welcome the chance to come back, especially when it's 113 degrees in Phoenix," he said. "I have to applaud Stephen, as it was a stroke of genius to open with a Jeffrey Hatcher and Steve Hendrickson mystery. It's the right play at the right time."
As its title suggests, "Holmes/Poirot" pairs up two of fiction's most famous detectives, Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, and takes place during two different time frames, in 1901 and the early 1920s. Goldstein compared it to PBS' recent Masterpiece series "Magpie Murders."
"It mixes together two different time periods to solve the same mystery. It's a great puzzler and the way they put it together is very ingenious, like a crossword puzzle or sudoku."
DiMenna is in it 'for the long haul'DiMenna, 66, also has a long history in theater, both in Minnesota and New York City. He was associate artistic director of St. Paul's History Theatre from 1989 to 1995 and also spent time as co-artistic director of Manhattan Theatre Club's Stargate Theatre Company. He has directed productions for numerous Twin Cities theaters, including the Guthrie, Pillsbury House Theatre, Theatre in the Round, Minnesota Opera and Children's Theatre Company.
"I'm in it for the long haul," he said. "I've got at least five or 10 more years in me. I was a freelancer for 40 years and I like the idea of having an artistic home. I want to help tell stories the community should hear. Park Square is 49 years old, that's too much of a legacy and history to lose."
'Holmes/Poirot'
What: This world premiere co-written by Twin Cities playwright Jeffrey Hatcher and actor Steve Hendrickson tells a "tale of intrigue, international politics, wine and murder" involving Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.
When: Wednesday through Nov. 3
Where: Park Square Theatre, 20 W. Seventh Place, St. Paul
Tickets: $60-$25; 651-291-7005 or parksquaretheatre.org
