Meet The Melancholics
Our history and first-ever Give to the Max Fundraiser!
Welcome to Melancholics Anonymous’ Substack Newsletter (and our first-ever Give to the Max Fundraiser!)
Wait, what’s Melancholics Anonymous?
Melancholics Anonymous is an award-winning independent theater company of ten Gen Z artists that champions tomorrow’s playwrights. Centering queer and female voices, we’re developing wildly original new works for the Twin Cities, from large scale festival productions to free public play readings.
Okay, you make live theater, but why make a Substack?
As we keep growing and collaborating within Minnesota’s incredible and thriving grassroots theater scene, we’ve decided to transform our mailing list into a Substack newsletter. We want to pull back the curtain on our process by bringing you a monthly newsletter full of updates on upcoming productions and access to behind-the-scenes dramaturgy, shenanigans, ponderings on new play development and much more!
A Brief-ish Company History by Rachel Ropella, Artistic Director
Melancholics Anonymous started off as two college students with two folding chairs and a dream of making weird theater. Co-Founder Timothy Kelly and I had zero producing experience and truly lucked our way into writing and producing 10 Minutes Between 1:50 and 2AM in the Minnesota Fringe Festival in 2019. We chose the name Melancholics Anonymous on a whim as we were just ‘two sad nobodies’ without a clue that the name would follow us and grow.
While we were immediately caught by the ‘producing bug’ after performing in Fringe to, let’s be honest, just our very kind friends and family, the world shut down before we could keep making shows. Yet despite the pandemic, Melancholics continued making new theater work virtually. We performed original works over zoom, devised a Sweeney Todd musical, and built full-scale sets for a fictional TV show to film a fake true-crime documentary with our friends puppeteering while laying on yoga mats.
When live theater returned, we were thrilled to return to the stage and began expanding the size and scale of our productions. Dear friends soon became frequent collaborators and when our MN Fringe show A Girl Scout’s Guide to Exorcism became a breakout hit after selling out performances and winning three awards, it became clear that it was time to expand the company with the folks who made this magic possible.
Cherry and Spoon notes that, “In a few short years, [Melancholics Anonymous has] become a reliable source of theater that is inventive and delightful and a little bit dark”. And it’s true! When you see a Melancholics show, there’s always bound to be laughs, wonder sparked by our stagecraft or puppetry, and maybe a little fake blood. I am endlessly impressed with how the Melancholics team pushes the boundaries of what we built, crafting polished, high-quality work out of cardboard and secondhand finds from thrift stores.
We’ve grown from a dreaming duo to an incredible company of ten Gen Z multi-hyphenate artists who create and produce together year round. Our theatrical season now includes a Minnesota Fringe play written by our company in the summer, a fall offering such as our recent show The Last Menagerie in Twin Cities Horror Fest, our free New Play Series (NPS) in the winter, and a spring production.
Founded in 2023, the New Play Series has truly become our annual pride and joy, a chance for us to dig into the text and help uplift some of the Twin Cities finest emerging writers. A developmental program for emerging playwrights, we select 4–5 playwrights and pair them with a local director and a team of performers. During their workshop, they meet and rehearse— digging deep into the dramaturgy, trying revisions, and exploring what’s possible before culminating in a free public reading in Minneapolis.
I am over the moon for our audiences to see the plays that we have in store. We’ve got a jam-packed season of new work including workshops for local playwrights Brian James Polak and Alex Church as well as a truly twisted and silly show, Worm Teeth by Kelsey Sullivan, which will be at Phoenix Theater this May!
The past six years have been a long, winding road trip to get to where Melancholics Anonymous is today, but that ride has been full of laughter, blood squibs, mid-rehearsal walks to get fries or ice cream, and immense, joyful collaboration. Whether you’ve been a longtime supporter of the Melancholics or have just recently seen a show for the first time, we’re grateful to have you here and cannot wait to bring more live theater to YOU.
How YOU can help! Give to the Max Day by Samantha Miller, Director of Development
Melancholics has grown in ways we never expected over the past few years and we remain committed to our values. As we continue to extend our reach and offer more opportunities for artists and audiences alike, we want to keep removing barriers and further compensating our artists.
And we need YOUR help.
When you donate to Melancholics Anonymous this Give to the Max (November 20th), you are investing in local process, accessibility, and the future of new play development.
You’re saying yes to increasing artist compensation.
You’re saying yes to free public performances and events in the Twin Cities.
You’re saying yes to making space for bold, eccentric, and exceptional local theater that is championing tomorrow’s playwrights.
We hear “theater is more important now than ever.” We believe that is true, but to be effective we must create unrestricted opportunities to experience it. Theatre must do more than celebrate its own existence.
Melancholics works to activate the Twin Cities community and artists in ways that provide connection and exceptional experiences in a time where we need to lean on each other. Melancholics gives voice to stories that might not otherwise be told. In The Minnesota Daily this summer, Ziggy Keairns wrote that Melancholics has a “focus on developing new work and providing accessible, public readings across multiple months. Their ongoing programming reflects a Fringe-rooted spirit: expanding artistic possibilities without financial or institutional barriers.”
We are intentionally launching our Stubstack this month after finishing two back-to-back productions not only to give you a behind the scenes look at our process, but also as a call to action.
Please consider donating to Melancholics Anonymous this Give to the Max Day, and help us keep the conversation rolling, the stories (and puppets) strange, and the theater accessible to all.