Once On This Island, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.
Star Tribune: "The powerful myth shines through in this joyous telling of a sweet love story."
Pioneer Press: "It's well worth lingering on this musical's shores."
City Pages: "I've seen few pieces of recent theater so pleasurable to watch and admire."

Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl.
Pioneer Press: "Something lingering for the heart and soul."
City Pages: "It's phenomenally moving stuff."

Richard III, William Shakespeare.
Star Tribune: Outstanding Small Theater Production, Outstanding Actor Performance - Bob Davis. "Intimate, articulate, so emotionally honest that we wait achingly for each line, this staging affirms another personal opinion: Ten Thousand Things produces this community's best Shakespeare."

Little Shop of Horrors, Howard Ashman.
Star Tribune: Top Three Small Stage Theater Picks of the summer.
Pioneer Press: “Whatever TTT lacks in stage wizardry, they make up for in skill, craft and pure pluck…[TTT’s actors] each give their characters fresh, vibrant coats of honesty and humanity...if you want to see seven fine performers having a really good time on a set made out of rebar and tinfoil, this is the show for you!”

Blood Wedding, Federico Lorca. Guest directed by Juliette Carrillo.
The Rake: “Deeply poetic yet also accessible, this play sets up a gut-punching war between the heart’s passion and the human brain’s limited capacity for reason.
Star Tribune: “The show, with its actors playing real people and manipulating puppets, plays out like a mastery of miniature.”

Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare.
Took a close look at the often difficult consequences of taking risks with money and love.
Star Tribune: Outstanding Small Theater Production, Best Actor Performance: Steve Hendrickson as Shylock. "Ten Thousand Things finds rich human subtlety in The Merchant of Venice… This terrific staging reflects in its characters our own shortcomings and complexities. What a treat." (11/06)

Red Noses, Peter Barnes. Guest directed by Larissa Kokernot.
Pioneer Press: "The bubonic plague as a laugh riot. Who knew? . . A well seasoned feast, contributing a variety of flavors and textures, from sweet and savory to crisp and creamy." (5/06)

In A Garden, Gertrude Stein.
Pioneer Press, Top Ten: "Especially daring . . . an hour long play date with three very inventive, rambunctious children." (3/06)

Antigone, adaptation by Emily Mann
Star Tribune: "This is an urgent and raw production that muses on the delusion of absolute power."
Pioneer Press: "(Mann’s script is) succinct, straightforward and clear without feeling like some sort of Classics Illustrated…..this adaptation should immediately become the standard for all high schools interested in staging the Greek tragedy.”
City Pages’ #2 on Top Ten of 2005 List;
Star Tribune’s Outstanding Production by a small theater.

Ragtime, Terence McNally.
The intersecting lives of American families from New Rochelle, Harlem and Latvia at the turn of the last century.
Pioneer Press: “How tiny TTT ever dared imagine it could do justice to the musical Ragtime is utterly beyond me. But it does so. And spectacularly.”
Star Tribune: “No collection of words, however eloquent, can convey the glee, tears, goosebumps and spiritual transformations that radiated [from the audience at the women’s prison].”
Pioneer Press’ #4 on To Ten 2005 List

Iphigenia, Euripides, guest directed by Theodora Skipitares.
A look at the price of going to war, using actors and puppets.
Star Tribune: “Theater companies often prattle on about their current productions having ‘an amazing relevance for today’s times.’ In Iphigenia, Ten Thousand Things actually delivers.”
Star Tribune’s Outstanding Production by a small theater, 2005

Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand.
A swashbuckling hero with an enormous nose struggles with his fears that he is unworthy of being loved.
Star Tribune: Outstanding Small Theater Production of 2004!”
Pioneer Press: #2 in Top Ten, “An intimate, achingly lovely staging.”

The Winter’s Tale, William Shakespeare.
A look at the intersection of love, obsession, and the magical possibilities of faith.
Pioneer Press: (#7 in Top Ten)“a dazzlingly immediate production . . . Offers much of the best of what Shakespeare and the theater can be.” (5/04)

At Your Service!, Kevin Kling.
Based on Japanese Kyogen tales, an unusual look at the plusses of being a servant, and ways of escape through good stories.
Star Tribune: “A zesty joie de vivre!”
City Pages: “A hugely enjoyable show.”

The Good Person of Szechwan, Bertolt Brecht.
For its tenth anniversary season, the company returned to the story about struggling with little money that started it all.
Pioneer Press: Number 5 in 2003 Top Ten List: “All the all marks of the best TTT productions . . Some of the best actors in town . . . set off on a journey of great clarity and vision.”
Star Tribune: Nominated for 2003 Best Ensemble: “ No wonder the audience was so engaged.” (11/03)

Carousel, Rogers & Hammerstein.
A fresh look at this story of the hard lives of workers in a Maine fishing village, and how the consequences of the choices they make play out.
Pioneer Press: “The wonderful thing about TTT’s production is that it makes you think deeply. . . . When Hensley decides to take on a musical, she can get slyly subversive.” (5/03)

The Island, Athol Fugard.
Two prisoners on Robins Island in South Africa put on the play Antigone for their fellow inmates.
Star Tribune: “The play blossomed through the heart and skill of actors James Austin Williams and James Young.”

King Lear, William Shakespeare.
The story of a king’s journey to the bottom, echoed by similar downward spiraling journeys of many other characters.
“The acting is superb, as it usually is in TTT productions. . . It has majesty and a measure of grace. -- Pioneer Press (12/02)

Anna Bella Eema, Lisa D’Amour.
A 10 year old girl, her reclusive mother and a mud doll face eviction from their trailer park home.
“Hensley and D’Amour tap into the alienation that results from a sense of powerlessness in this challenging, dense work.” -- Star Tribune (6/02)

Miss Julie, Strindberg.
The battle between the classes and the battle between the sexes come to life in the brief intense affair of a young aristocratic Swedish woman and her father’s valet.
“Norah Long is superb in Miss Julie title role” -- Star Tribune (2/02)

The Furies, Aeschylus.
The story of the string of murders in the house of Atreus asks if one can live with huge injustice without wanting revenge.
Pioneer Press: “With a superb adaptation by director Michelle Hensley and Lisa D’Amour and a stellar cast, this is production that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and gives you a good hard shake.” (12/01)

The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser.
Through the awkward romance Tony, an old Italian immigrant to the Napa Valley, and Rosabella, a waitress from San Francisco, a look at how fear gets in the way of the abundance that unconditional love has to offer.
Top 10 Lists of City Pages and Pioneer Press: “A smart, nuanced, big-hearted reading that’s by turns joyous, knock-down funny and almost unbearably poignant.” (6/01)

Waiting For Godot, Samuel Beckett.
Two tramps wait endlessly for the arrival of someone to change their lives, performed for audiences who know all too well the meaning of the verb “to wait."
Star Tribune: “[It] might be a difficult play, but the inmates at Roseville “got it” from the start of TTT’s production. . . Sciple leads a talented cast on a romp. . . always appreciating Beckett’s sense of whimsy for the absurd in every day situations.” (2/01)