OPEN EYE MAINSTAGE: Theatre / Storytelling

Open Eye Theatre presents

BROOMSTICK

October 3 – 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.

  • TICKETS

    $45 — Benefit Party on Halloween*
    $30 — General Admission
    $24 — Seniors
    $18 — Students
    $15 — Economic Accessibility

    *    Support this incredible production by joining us for a special Halloween Trick-or-Treat Benefit Party Night! In addition to supporting Open Eye, your ticket price includes complimentary pre-show drinks conjured from the witch’s pantry, and a post-show party with sweets and a demonic DJ! Halloween costumes encouraged!

    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 10/3 - 7:30pm - OPENING
    Friday 10/4 - 7:30pm
    Saturday 10/5 - 7:30pm
    Sunday 10/6 - 4pm
    Thursday 10/10 - 7:30pm
    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
    Monday 10/28 - 7:30pm - INDUSTRY NITE
    Thursday 10/31 - 7:30pm - HALLOWEEN TRICK-or-TREAT BENEFIT PARTY

    Our Sunday 10/13 matinee performance is masking-required. All other shows are masking-optional.

    RUN TIME: 90 minutes, no intermission

  • 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.

    View our COVID-19 Policy

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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

  • 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.

  • 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

 

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.