Shows

The Gun Show by EM Lewis

From a farming community in rural Oregon to the big cities of Los Angeles and New York, playwright EM Lewis takes aim at her own relationship with firearms in “The Gun Show.” An actor shares Ms. Lewis’s unique perspective and true stories about America’s most dangerous pastime as if they were his own, with brutal honesty and poignant humor. Leaning neither right nor left, “The Gun Show” jumps into the middle of the gun control debate, and asks “Can we have a conversation about this?”

Show runs 3 May-18 May

Performances will be at The Off Leash Art Box: 4200 East 54th St. Minneapolis, MN 55417

Tickets:

(To purchase a ticket, choose what date/time you’d like to see the show and click through. There are no assigned seats. General Admission tickets are $20 but you can also use the pay what you can levels starting at $5. Support tickets help to offset the costs for the folks who use the pay what you can levels.

Friday, May 3 7:30pm

Saturday, May 4 1:30pm

Saturday, May 4 7:30pm

Monday, May 6 7:30pm

Thursday, May 9 7:30pm

Friday, May 10 7:30pm

Saturday, May 11 1:30pm
Saturday, May 11 7:30pm

Monday, May 13 7:30pm

Thursday, May 16 7:30pm

Friday, May 17 7:30pm

Saturday, May 18 1:30pm
Saturday, May 18 7:30pm

Meet the community partners:

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. Moms Demand Action campaigns for new and stronger solutions to lax gun laws and loopholes that jeopardize the safety of our families. Moms Demand Action has established a chapter in every state of the country and, along with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Students Demand Action and the Everytown Survivor Network, it is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country with more than 5 million supporters and more than 350,000 donors. Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter at @MomsDemand.

THE ASK: either sign our sign-up sheet to learn more about Mom’s Demand Action OR sign a Commitment Card to become involved. If you text READY to 644-33 — that will get your on their contact list and a welcome call as to how you can get involved.
To connect further: https://momsdemandaction.org
Survivor Resources provides immediate and long-term grief support for family and friends affected by suicide, homicide, overdose or accidental death. A non-profit
organization, Survivor Resources is housed in the Minneapolis and St. Paul
Police Departments. This partnership helps our team quickly get information about each case from police and the medical examiner.
Within hours after a violent death, a staff member reaches out to help with immediate family support. Staff members are available 24/7 to offer crisis intervention. Weekly support groups are available for ongoing grief work. These sessions are led by trained experts who have experienced the loss of a loved one.

THE ASK: We have had a big increase in our kids group participation over the last few months. We would be so grateful for anything that we could use in that group- snacks, craft projects, coloring books, games, amazon gift card for grief related books/activities, or anything that would be fun for kids aged 3-12.

Uprising is Proud to be hosting a table for NAMI MN to support their work:

Here’s more about NAMI: NAMI Minnesota champions justice, dignity and respect for all people affected by mental illnesses. Through education, support and advocacy we strive to eliminate the pervasive stigma of mental illnesses, affect positive changes in the mental health system, and increase the public and professional understanding of mental illnesses.

Uprising will be collecting fidgets and other items for NAMIs programming. You can bring donations to the theatre.


Meet the cast:

Lauren Diesch graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a B.A. in Theatre Arts. She has worked with numerous companies in the Twin Cities as an actor and director including: Theatre Coup d’Etat, Gadfly Theatre, Theatre in the Round, Hypnick Jerk, Open Window Theatre, Chameleon Theatre Circle, Umbrella Collective (Formally Savage Umbrella), and Theatre Unbound. Most recently she directed One Flew Over Cuckoo’s Nest with Chameleon Theatre Circle and reprised her role as Antigone in Antigone at Park Square Theatre. Lauren is the Director of Education/Associate Artistic Director at CLIMB Theatre and the Vice President of Chameleon Theatre Circle’s Board.

Meet the Creative Team:

Emily England (Director): Uprising Theatre Company: Laramie Project Cycle Theater: Dark & Stormy Productions: Fool For Love; Blackbird. Children’s Theater Company: Jungle Book; Frank Theatre: The Good Person of Setzuan; Lyric Arts of Anoka: Anything Goes, Steel Magnolias; Berkshire Theatre Group: Fiorello!, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Constellations; Paper Mill Playhouse: Pump Boys and Dinettes. Theatre Latte Da: A Christmas Carole Petersen; San Francisco Playhouse: Non-Player Character; Education: Otterbein University. Honors: Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Foundation Observership Class of 2017-2018. For Maggie and Martin. Never Settle.
Elizabeth Larson: Stage Manager. Elizabeth is excited to be working with Uprising for the very first time! Previously she has worked as a stage management intern for Five Points with Theater Latte Da, as well as an Assistant Stage Manager for Dancing on the Edge with Theater Novi Most and The Mystery of Pig’s Eye Manor with Flying Foot Forum. Elizabeth is a graduate of the College of Saint Benedict.
JAKE OTTO is excited to be returning to work with Uprising Theatre for this incredibly important show! Some of Jake’s notable designs include: Twisted Deaths, The Laramie Cycle (Uprising Theatre), Anthony and Cleopatra, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, First Lady (Lex-Ham Theatre), Willy Wonka, Annie Get Your Gun, Children of Eden (Masquers Theatre Co.), The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (CB Productions), The Voysey Inheritance (Mosaic Productions), Goldilocks and the Three Pigs (Phipps Center for the Arts), Batboy: The Musical, The Pillowman, The Seagull, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Hamline University), Minnesota’s Coldest Case: The Unsolved Murder of John Hays (Landmark Center). Other areas that Jake enjoys working in are video design, sound design, fine woodworking, and technical design/management of various events. Jake is also a photographer, focusing mostly on concert photos and portraits. See more at www.jakeotto.com.
E. M. Lewis is an award-winning playwright, teacher, and opera librettist. Her work has been produced around the world, and published by Samuel French. Lewis received the Steinberg Award for Song of Extinction and the Primus Prize for Heads from the American Theater Critics Association, the Ted Schmitt Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for outstanding writing of a world premiere play, a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, a playwriting fellowship from the New Jersey State Arts Commission, the 2016 Oregon Literary Fellowship in Drama, and an Edgerton Award. Her epic Antarctic play Magellanica is a finalist for the Angus Bowmer Award for Drama from the Oregon Book Awards. Plays by Lewis include: Apple Season (currently receiving a rolling world premiere at New Jersey Rep, Riverside Theater in Iowa, and Moving Arts in Los Angeles), Infinite Black Suitcase, The Gun Show (which has had more than thirty productions across the country, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland), Reading to Vegetables, True Story, You Can See All the Stars (a play for college students commissioned by the Kennedy Center), and How the Light Gets In (a semi-finalist for the O’Neill which will premiere at Boston Court Pasadena this fall). Lewis is currently working on an opera commission, and a big, new political play called The Great Divide. She is a proud member of LineStorm Playwrights, Opera America, and the Dramatists Guild. She lives on her family’s farm in Oregon.