OPEN EYE MAINSTAGE: Theatre / Storytelling
Open Eye Theatre presents
BROOMSTICK
October 10 – 31, 2024
By John Biguenet
Featuring Cheryl Willis
Directed by Joel Sass
Open Eye offers up a frightfully fun show perfectly suited to the season of ghosts, haunted houses, black cats and pumpkins. Don’t miss this twisted yarn of delightful humor and spine-tingling suspense that will conjure a spooky experience unlike any other.
A tour-de-force of witchery, heartbreak, and vengeance
BROOMSTICK stars Twin Cities favorite Cheryl Willis in a tour-de-force solo performance of a village witch who tells a heartfelt and poetic tale of her long life – from first love to heartache to the hair-raising vengeance she wreaks upon those who’ve crossed her.
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TICKETS
$30 — General Admission
$24 — Seniors
$20 — Fringe Button Holders
$18 — Students
$15 — Economic AccessibilityDo you have a MN Fringe button? Get $10 off General Admission tickets with discount code FRINGE. Show your button at the box office when checking in.
A limited number of $15 Economic Accessibility tickets are available online for all performances (does not include benefit show on 10/31). If not sold out, a limited number of pay-as-able tickets will be available at the door. View our ticketing policy.
AGE RECOMMENDATION: Ages 14 and up.
CONTENT AWARENESS
This show is playful, but scary at times, and also references adult language, violence, and sexual situations. It is not intended for young children. -
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Thursday 10/10 - 7:30pm – OPENING
Friday 10/11 - 7:30pm
Saturday 10/12 - 7:30pm
Sunday 10/13 - 4pm – Masked Show
Thursday 10/17 - 7:30pm
Friday 10/18 - 7:30pm
Saturday 10/19 - 7:30pm
Sunday 10/20 - 4pm
Thursday 10/24 - 7:30pm
Friday 10/25 - 7:30pm
Saturday 10/26 - 7:30pm
Sunday 10/27 - 4pm SOLD OUT
Monday 10/28 - 7:30pm - INDUSTRY NITE
Thursday 10/31 - 7:30pm - HALLOWEEN TRICK-or-TREAT PARTY**Our Sunday 10/13 matinee performance is masking-required. All other shows are masking-optional.
**Join us for a post-show party with sweets, drinks, and a demonic DJ! Halloween costumes encouraged!
RUN TIME: 90 minutes, no intermission
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ACCESSIBILITY
Contact us at 612-874-6338 or boxoffice@openeyetheatre.org for accessibility information and requests. Learn more.
COVID PRECAUTIONS: All audience members will be required to wear masks during our Sunday 10/13 matinee performance. All other shows are masking-optional. The masking policy will be posted on the door.
Creative Team
John Biguenet - Playwright
Cheryl Willis - Performer
Joel Sass - Director & Set Design
Kathy Maxwell - Lighting Design
Claire Looker - Costume Design
C. Andrew Mayer - Sound Design
About the Artists
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Cheryl Willis (Performer)
A Twin Cities actor by way of the United Kingdom, Cheryl has worked multiple times with companies and directors who seem to understand her idiosyncratic “Britishness.” She has played many lead roles at the Jungle Theatre where her credits include Shining City, Shirley Valentine, Death Trap, Dial M for Murder and Noises Off; Mr. Puntilla and His Man Matti, Vinegar Tom, By the Bog of Cats and Escaped Alone for Frank Theatre; Great Expectations and Oliver Twist at Park Square Theatre; and most recently the role of the spiritualist Linda in The Thin Place at Gremlin Theater.
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Joel Sass (Director)
Joel serves as Open Eye Theatre's Producing Artistic Director, after having first joined the company as Associate Producer in 2017. He has been based in the Twin Cities since 1991, working as a producer, stage director, designer and adapter, specializing in the creation of new multi-disciplinary work for the stage and devising imaginative reinterpretations of classic texts. Learn more about Joel.
“An arresting blend of evocative humor and eerie gravitas permeates ‘Broomstick,’ New Orleans playwright John Biguenet's ripely poetic tale of an Appalachian crone who may or may not be a witch. . . the merger of pathos, insight and horror is hair-raising. . . . Biguenet's text [has] an undulating rhythm that ebbs and flows like a rain-swelled river—[but] there's always another hairpin turn to Biguenet's narrative. Tightly woven, richly detailed and fully enjoyable.” – Los Angeles Times
“After a show at the world premiere, a woman from the audience told me she was a witch and that it was a very accurate portrayal. She wanted to reserve 20 tickets so she could bring her coven the next week.” – John Biguenet, Intimate Excellent
Thank you to our Media Partner!
We’re thrilled to partner with AM950, The Progressive Voice of MN for this production. AM950 is the progressive talk station dedicated to bringing unfiltered, diverse, lively debate to Minnesota and the world. Tune in!
Photos by Bruce Silcox.
Visit Open Eye Theatre
506 E. 24th Street
Minneapolis, MN
Free parking is available in the lot on the southeast corner of 24th Street and Portland Avenue, courtesy of Lutheran Social Services.