Past Productions 1980 to 1974
Click here to view 1985 to 1981.
1980
Cordelia Anderson, a co-creator of Touch, leaves the Hennepin County’s Attorney’s Office and serves as the ILLUSION’s Prevention Education Director. She holds this position for 12 years.
The ILLUSION THEATER is one of the first theaters to perform in the former Guthrie II, now renamed as The Southern Theater. For ILLUSION’s performance, David Krchelich rewires the electricity in the proscenium arch of the Southern getting the light bulbs to work for the first time in over 75 years.
Masonic Temple - Hennepin Center for the Arts
1979
ILLUSION performs at The New Theater Festival in Baltimore, Maryland. Bonnie and Michael meet Bill Irwin, Spalding Grey, and Ping Chong - in the following years, each of these artists will be invited by ILLUSION to come to Minneapolis.
Bonnie and Michael invite Bill Irwin to celebrate ILLUSION’s 5th Anniversary. This is Bill Irwin’s first appearance in the Twin Cities.
ILLUSION is one of the first organizations to move its offices into the renovated Masonic Temple on the corner of 6th and Hennepin in downtown Minneapolis. The building is renamed the Hennepin Center for the Arts and later becoming the Cowles Center. Brooke Portmann becomes Managing Director.
1978
Marlow Burt, Executive Director of the St. Paul Ramsey Arts Council and Jim Howland, Managing Director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, become friends and advisors to Bonnie and Michael. With their mentoring, ILLUSION hires Jane Stamstad to be the first Administrator.
1976/77
Carol Harris Lipshultz leaves the ILLUSION to pursue other professional opportunities.
ILLUSION renovates and moves into its first home. Located on the corner of 4th Street and 2nd Avenue North in Minneapolis, it is the first artist-run building, eventually known as the New French Café Building, in what will become the Warehouse District in downtown Minneapolis. David Krchelich’s studio is across the hall, David becomes ILLUSION’s set designer, and later ILLUSION performs in the warehouse theater he built DK Studios.
In 1977, ILLUSION began work on Touch, created in partnership with the Hennepin County Attorney's Office. Click here to read more about the history of TOUCH.
With University of Minnesota ‘s English /Shakespeare Professor Toni McNaron, Bonnie and Michael create Several Stray Matters adapted from the works of Virginia Woolf. This is performed at the Walker Art Center. One of the stories the three perform is from Virginia Woolf’s fantastical novel Orlando. The ILLUSION Company decides to do a physical adaptation of Orlando. They read the book aloud, and then spin out theatrical ideas, musical impressions into a 200 note-card script. David Feldshuh directs, Kim D. Sherman composes music, and Patrick Scully does the choreography. The Company includes Robin Taylor, Louis Linder II, Marysue Moses, Mary McDevitt, Alfred Harrison, Bonnie Morris, and Michael Robins . Orlando, Orlando tours extensively across the country including the East and West coasts. This work becomes a signature piece of Illusion, remained in the repertory for three years and in 1988 was performed again.
Bonnie Morris and Michael Robins become Co-Producing Directors.
Bonnie and Michael take a working sabbatical and travel to England to study the British Theater-in-Education-programs. The British system of theater is a way of engaging people in a dialogue of ideas. They cross the Engliah Channel to Paris where they reconnect with Mary McDevitt. Mary studied physical theater in France with Michael . She performed and toured as a member of Ella Jarowcheiez‘s theater company. Mary returns to Minneapolis to become a company member of illusion.
1975
ILLUSION performs in every venue the Company can find in the Twin Cities including the Walker Art Center, Guthrie II (which later becomes the Southern Theater), O’Shaughnessy, St. Paul Arts and Science Center (now the History Theater), the Walker Church, and Gibbs Farm Museum.
The Pioneer Play exploring the stories of the European families who came to make a home in Minnesota. Created by Michael Robins, Carol Harris Lipshultz, Bonnie Morris, Sheila Gowan, Nancy Joseph, Pamela Hansen, and Delton Silberstein, this play tours to ten Minnesota communities in 1976 to celebrate the United States' Bicentennial. With this tour ILLUSION begins building its connections to communities across Minnesota.
1974
ILLUSION THEATER is founded by Michael Robins and Carol Harris Lipschultz in May 1974. Bonnie Morris is a founding company member.
Michael Robins and Carol Harris Lipschultz study in Paris with Etienne Decroux, Ella Jaroszewicz, and Marcel Marceau. They return to the Twin Cities teaching at the Guthrie, CTC, and the University of Minnesota. They find an eagerness from actors, dancers, and teachers to study physical theater. One of those who took their classes is Bonnie Morris. Bonnie came to Minneapolis to work with the Guthrie Theater’s Gary Parker’s improvisational theater with youth. Michael and Carol perform My Illusion at the Walker Art Center. Bonnie is the Stage Manager. The performance at the Walker launches the ILLUSION THEATER.
