CrowRiverPlayers

The Crow River Players' mission is to maintain and make available the building that is Little Theatre Auditorium as a platform for cultural exchange and artistic exploration via the presentation, development and experimentation associated with the creation of artistic works.

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We see Little Theatre Auditorium as a hub for artists, musicians and performers to gather, experiment, create, study and share original work and works-in-progress. We regularly host artists through residencies and special performance series. This includes performance artists, teaching artists, visual artists, musicians and bands, and events like independent film screenings, lectures, workshops and community conversations and activities.

 

We hold space and reserve support specifically for artists and culture-bearers from our immigrant communities and those identifying as LGBTQ+ and/or BIPOC. We see the work of baselining diversity, equity and inclusion in our systems of support and decision-making as an everlasting mandate to practice self-reflection. Inasmuch, we recognize our place as stewards of the spaces we occupy and their layers of history. We are guided by a practice of exploring connections through art to gain a progressive understanding of coexistence. In doing so we represent and acknowledge our community's steady growth in diversity as well as acknowledge and grow our role as a model for acceptance and inclusion. 

 

In this mindset of grace, openness and reciprocity we offer opportunities for artists and culture-bearers who/to experiment with the boundaries of performance/engagement, explore storytelling with depth and dimension, and bring community audiences into new landscapes where each art experience has the possibility of becoming a conversation. 

 

Little Theatre (aka Crow River Players, Inc.) began in 1998 as a community-wide call to renovate the then dilapidated building. The space was managed and maintained by a cross-sector group of volunteers for New London's public school system as its exclusive drama department. Additionally, during summer months Crow River Players would produce repertory plays with community members as cast and volunteers.

 

Today Little Theatre Auditorium's board of directors is made up of a group of community artists and arts advocates motivated by a belief in art as a catalyst for social movement and a platform for cultural exchange and civic engagement. To that end we're building a thriving home for our artist community as a host for experimentation, creation and presentation of original artistic works. At the same time we continue to offer the space for groups to hold public events, meetings, trainings and serve as a neutral facility for educational presentations and workshops. 

 

As people who live here, grew up here, and feel a connection to this place it is our deepest wish to make sure everyone who lives in New London can feel a sense of belonging and that everyone who visits can feel welcomed. To make our wishes come true we are building up our rural arts infrastructure as a vehicle to belonging, inclusivity and acceptance.

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We recognize the original peoples of this place and affirm tribal sovereignty. We acknowledge that the state of Minnesota, the City of New London and Little Theatre Auditorium exist on the unceded homelands of the Dakota people. 

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Board of Directors

Bethany Lacktorin | Chair

Erik Hatlestad | Co-Chair 

Kyle Novak | Secretary | Production/Events

Deb Mortenson | Treasurer | Film/Box Office

Brooke Eischens | Marketing & Design

Hannah Holman | Outreach

Andrea Limoges | Production/Events

Eric Payne | Production/Events

Matt Hegdahl | Production/Events

Todd Anderson | Production/Events

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