Rebecca Collins

About me

Rebecca Collins is a writer and thing-maker who lives in South Minneapolis. She is also the communications coordinator for the Minnesota Film and TV Board and edits the blog MNDialog.

workaround

THEATER | Walking Shadow Theatre Company dances with desire in "Drakul"

By Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

Walking Shadow Theater Company breathes new (and yet eternal) life into Bram Stoker's Dracula with their latest production, Drakul, written and directed by John Heimbuch. The play speculates about the lives of the book's characters seven years after their final, violent encounter with the Greatest Vampire of All Time.MORE »

THEATER | Walking Shadow's "The Crowd You're In With" explores the child choice

By Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

As a married woman in her 30s who has yet to have a child, I sometimes feel as if my crowd is shrinking as members "leave" to have kids. Of course, I'm not supposed to feel this way. It's not a competition and it's not a race. Right? So I could perhaps be considered the ideal audience member for The Crowd You're In With, the current production by Walking Shadow Theatre Company. In fact, if you're on the fence about having kids, going to see this production could be therapeutic—the characters take turns voicing the various questions and concerns that might run through anyone's head as they try to make this major life decision.MORE »

THEATER | "From Here to Maternity" amuses—whether or not you have a baby on board

By Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

When asked to review From Here to Maternity, the latest sketch comedy show from Joshua Scrimshaw and Shanan Custer, I was a bit skeptical that I was the right person for the job. Me? Ms. Ambiguous-About-All-Things-Baby? Should I bring along one of my friends with children to interpret the humor about pregnancy, birth and pregnant sex?MORE »

THEATER | MJTC's "Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins" is children's entertainment without any bite

By Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

With the December calendar choked with Christmas shows—Nativities, Nutcrackers, shows about Santa crying and A Christmas Carol featuring the Golden Girls—it seems only fitting that some alternate holiday programming should pop up. Hanukkah seems like a natural choice.MORE »

THEATER | Brave New Workshop lights a fire under Santa in "Brett Favre's Christmas Spectacular"

By Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

The Brave New Workshop and its founder, Dudley Riggs, have won many accolades over the years for being, well, really funny. And just this week, I read in my neighborhood newspaper about how green the theater is, leading the charge by converting its stage lights to LEDs. Funny and green secures you quite a place in the hearts of the people of South Minneapolis, so when the opportunity to review the Workshop's latest show, Brett Favre's Christmas Spectacular: The Immaculate Interception, came my way, I knew I'd enjoy going to the show and laughing my ass off at satirical songs and jokes about family.MORE »

THEATER | "Grey Gardens": When life hands you duvets, make ponchos

By Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

If you're a true fan of the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, you may have some trepidation about seeing the musical version on stage.MORE »

Why I love "Grey Gardens" (and Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale)

By Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

by Rebecca Collins | March 28, 2009 • The Broadway musical version of Grey Gardens began its run at the Ordway in St. Paul this week, and it's a sure bet that fans of the 1975 documentary that inspired it will flock to see it.MORE »

Theater note: "Amazons and Their Men" dramatizes the life of Leni Riefenstahl

By Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

Amazons and Their Men, a play by Jordan Harrison, is a richly-layered piece that involves bits and pieces of an imaginary screenplay, production notes, history, and a great deal of speculation. What’s being speculated about is the life and work of director Leni Riefenstahl (Triumph of the Will, Olympia), although the playwright notes that it is not a historical play.MORE »

Music note: Black knights and seductive Gypsies romp in St. Paul

By Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet

The turnout on Tuesday night at the Ordway for the Minnesota Opera’s staging of Verdi’s Il trovatore (The Troubadour) was impressive. A bustling lobby and long line at the box office translated into a full house. And people do dress for the occasion—rumors of Minnesotans wearing jeans to the opera proved to be mostly false.MORE »