Children’s Theater Company, the internationally renowned Minneapolis-based theater, has announced its upcoming season, featuring two world premiere musicals, beloved classics, a first-ever magic show, and an expanded core company of theater makers.
Artistic Director Rick Dildine, who previously led the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival joined The Gaily Show to share what audiences can expect from the new season.
Two World Premieres Headline the Season
The season’s standout offerings include two original musicals developed in-house. The first, “Twelve Kinds of Ice” by Ben Steinfeld, follows a father and daughter’s annual tradition of turning their backyard into an ice rink.
“Well, the thing that I think I’m most excited by is that CTC is continuing its decades-long history of developing new work,” Dildine said. “One of them is Twelve Kinds of Ice that is by Ben Steinfeld. Ben has had several Broadway credits. He’s one of the founders of Fiasco Theater in New York. Written this beautiful little story about a daughter and her dad and their annual tradition of turning their backyard into an ice rink. It is this lovely little chamber musical. I think it has the potential to become like the holiday show. If you don’t want to do a Christmas carol, you do this.”
The show is already slated to travel beyond Minneapolis. “Twelve Kinds of Ice is going to leave here and go immediately to Seattle. And I think it will have a life beyond that,” Dildine said.
The second world premiere, “Princess Kay of the Milky Way,” centers on the Minnesota State Fair and its annual crowning of the butter queen — a beloved tradition unfamiliar to many outside the Upper Midwest.
“This is one of the best new musicals I have heard in years,” Dildine said. “It celebrates Minnesota. As a former farm kid myself, this celebrates rural America. It’s a beautiful, beautiful show. We will premiere that in the late winter, early spring 2027.”
“Princess Kay” is generating early industry buzz, with a private invited reading planned for New York. “It has that type of muscle and that type of talent behind it,” Dildine revealed. “These two writers are just, you don’t have to be from Minnesota to appreciate what this story is.”
A documentary film team is also following the project, with plans for a film exploring the history behind the Princess Kay tradition.
Classics, Steel Guitars, and a First-Ever Magic Show
The season also brings back audience favorites including “Pinocchio,” the holiday staple “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “School of Rock.”
“We want to do as many shows that feature young people as protagonists, and School of Rock is that,” Dildine said. “It’s about a substitute teacher who comes in thinking he’s going to get just a free paycheck. And that turns into him changing the lives of these young people who play instruments, they sing, and they go out to try to win a Battle of the Bands.”
“The Grinch” has become a full-on tradition at CTC, drawing tens of thousands of attendees each year. The show is such a hit kids arrive dressed as the Grinch, and as Elsa from Frozen, and — no matter the production — there’s always everyone’s favorite web crawler.
“No matter the show, Spider-Man comes to every one of our shows, which I think we may be the only theater in America that can say that,” Dildine said with affection.
Rounding out the season is “Joseph Kekuku and the Voice of the Steel Guitar,” presented in partnership with Honolulu Theater for Youth. The show chronicles the story of the steel guitar’s creator and the instrument’s lasting influence on rock and roll. The lineup also includes “Havana Hop” and marks CTC’s first-ever magic show, “Mr. Messado’s School of Magic,” featuring Joshua Messado, a magician-in-residence based in Pittsburgh who has trained with David Copperfield and consulted for Disney.
“He has this beautiful story that he tells about his relationship with his grandmother, but he does it all through magic and through sleight of hand,” Dildine said. “It’s really an uplifting piece for young people.”
An Expanded Core Company Built on Trust
Children’s Theatre Company has also expanded its core company — an ensemble of artists who collaborate across multiple productions and seasons. The new core company includes three returning actors and four new additions: directors, choreographers, actors, and designers.
“What I noticed was these people aren’t just actors, they’re theater makers with a capital T,” Dildine said. “What I call these folks are usual suspects. They’re helping create the culture, they’re helping create the rhythms, they’re helping create the aesthetic for how when someone says, ‘I know a CTC show,’ it’s because these people have helped create and craft that vision.”
Dildine drew parallels to Steppenwolf Theatre Company, noting that ensembles built over years foster vulnerability, trust, and the freedom to take creative risks. The expansion to include designers and choreographers alongside performers reflects an intentional commitment to elevating roles that often go unrecognized.
He emphasized that the ensemble model serves as an example for the theater’s youngest audience members.
“They’re the most important audience in the world, and we want to model for them what it means to be collaborators,” Dildine said. “And they see that when they get to watch people, professionals working side by side, grappling with not a screen, not AI, but grappling with something creative right there with their hands and their minds.”
“Hadestown” Teen Edition Hits the Stage
Children’s Theatre is also among the first theaters granted permission to have its teen program perform “Hadestown,” the Tony Award-winning musical by Anaïs Mitchell, with virtually no cuts to the original material.
“We are one of the first theaters that has been given the permission to allow our teen program to perform Hadestown,” Dildine said. “And I got to say it’s almost, there’s hardly any edits to it at all. I mean, these young people are tackling a meaty piece of musical theater.”
Tickets for “Hadestown Teen Edition,” scheduled for Aug. 7 and 8, and the full upcoming season are available at childrenstheater.org.
