nimbus has begun rehearsal for its next production, tentatively called The Shadows. Rehearsal began Monday, March 11 for this new play that seeks to understand and retell the stories that we have told since the beginnings of time about humans and their relation to the natural world. Inspired by Trickster myths and the many common threads between them, directors Ernest Briggs and Mitchell Frazier had initially started discussing the show concept several years ago. As they grew more excited about the idea, they brought in playwright and co-Artistic Director Josh Cragun.

Many years ago, Chuck Neerland, the father of nimbus co-Artistic Director Liz Neerland, said to his daughter after a show: “Why can’t you just do A White Christmas?” To which Liz replied, “You don’t want to see what we’d do to A White Christmas.” This interaction spawned years of jokes about the production, including a poster design created one year with crayons at the old Little T’s off of Eat Street.

Every show begins with Idea Week, where we explore the show’s concept and look for inspiration. During this phase, we watch videos, explore visual concepts, and we do a lot of reading. Playwright Liz Neerland did a lot of research to prepare for creating the show. First, she explored the history of wolves in North America: from efforts to eradicate them; their near-extinction before researchers and conservationists led studies to understand who they really were; and, once we understood more, to re-establish the wolf in the United States.

Since our origins in the 2001 Fringe Festival, we’ve brought 49 productions to life at stages across the Twin Cities. This April, we are bringing our 50th production to life. This world premiere devised work will be written by Co-Artistic Director Liz Neerland, who is co-creating the work along with director Josh Cragun and an all star cast of nimbus alums: Heidi Berg, Ernest Briggs, Nicole Goeden, Brian Hesser, Song Kim, and Laura Mason. Tapped to design the show are artists Ursula Bowden, Mitchel Frazier, Forrest Godfrey, Caitlin Hammel, Rubble&Ash, and Corinna Knepper Troth.