Youth Performance Company empowers young adults with ‘Just Before Sleep’

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YPC offices return to Prospect Park neighborhood
Ask any elementary school teacher or parent: children and young adults contribute a great deal, but working with them on a daily basis — especially over many years — can be trying. Almost 20 years after establishing the Youth Performance Company (YPC), there is no trace of burnout or cynicism in founder and acting Artistic Director Jacie Knight. A graduate of Augsburg College, Knight is an impassioned advocate for youth empowerment through artistic expression. “We’re here to promote young artists in the community,” said Knight. “We want to listen to them, and what they feel is important.”
“Just Before Sleep”Sept. Continue Reading

The Pillowman: Review

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Martin’s McDonagh’s The Pillowman is a blend of anti-totalitarian agitprop, surreal Kafkaesque narrative, and ripped-from-the-headlines crime story. Thematically and structurally, the play is a challenge to stage. Wendy Knox and Frank Theater’s production at the Guthrie is both compelling and uneven. The Pillowman runs through October 14 at the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio. Set in some vaguely Cold War Eastern Bloc state, the play opens on an interrogation room and three men. Continue Reading

The Home Place: Review

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This play both requires and rewards careful, thoughtful viewing. As the curtain of The Home Place goes up, the audience is immediately drawn into the courtyard of the big Victorian house that is home to Christopher Gore and his son David. A peat gravel path leads from a warm living room to a cool lawn bordered by shrubbery and buckthorns, and a flower-filled garden. Over the course of the evening, the Gores, their visiting cousin Richard, their servants Sally and Margaret and visiting neighbors reveal a complex array of emotions and concerns from unrequited love to political awareness to family love and disappointment. The Home Place runs through November 25 at the Guthrie. Continue Reading