Not many neighborhoods can claim such a highly regarded theater only a stone’s throw away. For 25 years, the Jungle has been producing marvelous shows in its wonderful jewel box theater.
Humble Beginnings
The Jungle was the inspiration of Bain Boehlke, a longtime champion of the Minneapolis theater scene. While lying on a beach in Mexico in 1986, Boehlke suddenly thought — what Minneapolis needs is a neighborhood based, storefront theater. It’ll be called (looks around) the Jungle!
With this idea percolating, Boehlke found an empty storefront on Lake Street and Lyndale Avenue that was the “intimate space to produce simple productions and lavish a lot of care on them.” On February 7, 1991, the Jungle opened its sold out show of Timothy Mason’s “Only You” in its 93-seat theater. With the help of co-founder George Sutton, the early years were successful, bringing four to five plays each year to the neighborhood. These plays were usually by established playwrights — Pinter, Albee, Beckett, Mamet — featuring small casts in small spaces.
The Second Phase
Second Phase With success came growth, and the theater needed an upgrade. After six years, Boehlke and Sutton still wanted to maintain an intimate feeling but needed to expand beyond a 9 ½ foot stage.
In 1996, the Jungle announced a $2.5 million dollar campaign for a new theater. By September 1997, the campaign was complete, and groundbreaking began kitty-corner in the Kinicker’s building.
The new space housed a 30’ x 80’ stage with two stage doors. However, with only 140 plush velvet seats, the theater still maintained the intimacy of a small theater. On February 12, 1999, “Macbeth,” with a cast of 36, opened in the new theater.
Middle Years
The Jungle carried on for many seasons, turning out excellent productions of both classics and contemporary shows. In June 2015, Boehlke announced that he planned to retire from his post. For the first time, the Jungle would be in the hands of a new artistic director. The board decided that the search should be broad enough to allow for new ideas and creativity — something not always welcomed by an outgoing founder. This inclusive approach enabled Sarah Rasmussen to become the second artistic director, in 2016.
Rasmussen, a native of Sisseton, South Dakota, shared Boehlke’s dedication to small theater.
After seeing “As You Like It” at the Guthrie Theater in 1982, she returned home and started a theater in her basement. Her love of theater was insatiable. Boehlke and Rasmussen first worked together professionally in 2012 when Rasmussen directed Sarah Ruehl’s 2009 play “In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play)” at the Jungle.
Boehlke said that Rasmussen was impressive as she “articulated the ongoing vision of the Jungle, the depth at which she understood the theater’s core and what its arc of intention is.”
Rasmussen became the Jungle’s artistic director in 2016 and launched her first season with an all-female production of Shakespeare's “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” Rasmussen continued this focus on women by hiring all female directors for the 2017 season.
She also shifted the emphasis to new play development and shows by new playwrights with BIPOC actors and directors. Her approach increased theater memberships and drew younger audiences.
Covid Challenges
Having just opened “Redwood,” the Jungle, along with most of the world, shut down in March 2020. However, something else had also impacted the Jungle. Rasmussen had just been offered and accepted the artistic director position at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey.
At a normal time, a broad search might have taken place for her replacement. In a pandemic, the board looked to someone who was at hand and up to the challenge. The Jungle found that person in Christina Baldwin, a revered actor and director in Minneapolis. Baldwin was very familiar with the Jungle's vision, having acted and directed in many plays there.
For a year, as interim artistic director, Baldwin brought creative solutions to the Covid crisis while complying with rules prohibiting Equity actors and audiences from being in the theater.
The Jungle had Shine a Light, a free multimedia event of local artists and exciting window installations and projection on the Jungle exterior. Baldwin directed a virtual show, “Is Edward Snowden Single?”, a two-person cast with over 20 roles. With this trial by fire, Baldwin saved the Jungle and was named its artistic director in April 2021.
"The past is the present. It's the future, too." — Long Day’s Journey into Night
Since Covid, the Jungle has returned to problems of old — budgeting for a small theater. Its size prevents the Jungle from qualifying for many grants available to larger or even smaller theaters.
Baldwin can produce only three productions each season while she “finds some way of sustainability not so reliant on outside fundraising.” It is very important to her that the actors earn a living wage, and she stresses that Minneapolis needs to double down and support the arts with more funding.
In 1991, Bain Boehlke recognized that Minneapolis needed a theater like the Jungle. Twenty-five years have proven that he was right. Rasmussen and Baldwin carried the torch for this neighborhood and community. It is important for us to return to supporting this amazing theater. You won’t be sorry!
As heard on stage at the Jungle….
“So, what are we going to do the rest of our lives?” Before we “shuffle off this mortal coil,” go to the Jungle so that you can "regret nothing! You hear me? Nothing!” because the Jungle will continue to produce top-notch, thought-provoking, diverse plays. “Same procedure as last year? Same procedure as every year.”
The Jungle will announce and open its season tickets sales on July 17. The hilarious and sentimental “Dinner for One” needs to be part of your holiday season!
