Ten Thousand Things brings Shakespeare to the masses

Ten Thousand Things Theater kicks off its 2025–26 season with a series of firsts. The Minneapolis company, known for bringing stripped-down productions to nontraditional spaces like prisons, shelters, and community centers, will stage Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” for the first time. The production also marks the directing debut of Artistic Director Caitlin Lowans, who took the helm last year.

“‘Two Gents’ is about firsts… first friendships, first loves, first heartbreaks,” Lowans said. “It felt right to begin my own journey with Ten Thousand Things through a story that’s all about discovery.”

The company has built its reputation on bringing theater to those who might not otherwise experience it: correctional facilities, low-income senior centers, shelters, schools, and community spaces across Minnesota. Its touring model is simple and portable: a cast of five, one musician, and just enough props to fit in a U-Haul. The staging is always in the round, with no lighting effects or division between performer and audience.

“Because we’re very spare with the objects we bring, we have to be steep and imaginative with them,” Lowans said. “Audience and artists co-create the world of the play together. At a time when we increasingly don’t gather in real space, that kind of shared imagination feels urgent.”

For Lowans, that urgency is also political. Creativity, they believe, is “everyone’s birthright,” and part of the company’s mission is to invite audiences who may have been denied space for imagination by circumstance.

“How do we overcome a poverty of imagination that the world has put on some folks? We create a richness of the world together, even with just a few objects.”

In “Two Gents,” the theme of identity runs throughout both the text and its staging. Actors take on multiple roles; one character is even played by four different performers during the show.

“It’s such a different way to explore the idea of self,” Lowans said. “When a character sits on different bodies, a five-foot-two Filipina actor one moment, a six-foot-two Black actor the next, it changes how that self is experienced. It asks the audience to play along with what ‘self’ even means.”

That sense of transformation connects to a broader idea: the importance of being open to change.

“In the play, the two friends begin with very firm ideas of who they are. But when new information arrives, one character is flexible and grows, while the other hardens and causes harm,” Lowans said. “In 2025, that feels like an essential question: When the world shows us something new about ourselves, do we respond with openness or with cruelty?”

That question resonates with Kamani Graham, who plays Valentine, the more romantic of the two gents. A recent graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA program, Graham is making his Ten Thousand Things debut.

“Theater can be such an elitist thing,” he said. “Communities of color and underprivileged communities don’t always get access to it. Ten Thousand Things takes Shakespeare to those audiences, and that really excited me.”

Graham said the minimalist format sharpens the connection between audience and actor. “Sometimes spectacle just distracts,” he said. “Here, it’s all about the words and about clarity. The audience becomes another character in the play.”

Valentine, he admits, is “a little lover boy,” but one he’s grown to enjoy, especially during a soliloquy after his banishment from Milan.

“It’s such a juicy speech, comparing death to losing the woman he loves,” Graham said. “It’s my favorite moment to perform.”

Working with Lowans has also stood out. “Caitlin’s great,” Graham said. “They let us carve out our characters ourselves and then reel it back in when clarity is needed. It’s never prescriptive; instead, it’s collaborative.”

What audiences can expect

The production blends silliness and seriousness. There are love triangles, clowns, outlaws, and even a dog, though not a real one.

“Anyone coming to see a real dog should probably go find a local production of Annie instead,” Lowans joked. This dog, they added, makes a nod to Minnesota hockey culture and involves a skateboard.

Still, the play doesn’t shy away from its darker elements. “Harm does happen in this story,” Lowans said. 

“We’ve rearranged the ending a bit to face that harm differently than Shakespeare did. I hope audiences leave with delight, with openness to change, but also with questions about forgiveness, how we forgive as individuals, and how we forgive as communities.”

“We’re all co-creating the world together,” Lowans said. “And that kind of gathering feels especially urgent at a time when so much of life pulls us apart.”

For Lowans, the production is both a culmination and a beginning. “Every time I embark on a project, I’m bringing every self I have been and everything I’ve learned,” said Lowans. “But I’m also opening myself up to what’s next. Things are always both culminating and opening at the same time.”

That duality feels right for a season opener, and for a company that insists theater should be for everyone. If Ten Thousand Things has its way, “Two Gents” will not only entertain, but also inspire audiences to imagine new ways of seeing themselves, and each other.

“Two Gents” runs Sept. 24 through Nov. 2, with free performances at schools, senior centers, and correctional facilities, plus public shows at Open Book, Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, the Capri Theater, and 825 Arts. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, starting at $15, with a suggested price of $40.

For tickets and more information, visit www.tenthousandthings.org.

Kaylie Sirovy is a recent journalism grad and contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.