Our Story
The company was founded in 2016 by Bob Wendland, Martha Stai, Ruth Sturm and Sydney Place-Sallstrom. The four co-founders met performing Mary Poppins at the local community theatre in early 2016 and dreamed up what would become the Good Night Theatre Collective that same summer. The company’s first show, Twisted: A Miscast Cabaret, debuted in November of that year at ICON Lounge, with three of the four founders performing, Sturm directing and the company’s first guest artist, Maren Engel, on board. Seven additional guest artists joined Good Night’s ranks during its first season, which consisted of seven more cabarets and the company’s first-ever touring show, Twin-Cities-based Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle.
The second season marked the first full-length, original musical production taken on by the collective, David & Lucy, written by Ruth Sturm and Luke Tatge. The 2017-2018 run also included five of Good Night’s signature cabarets. Heading into the company’s third year, founders Sturm and Place-Sallstrom left to pursue new adventures in the Minneapolis area as the 2018-2019 season brought four memorable cabarets, a host of new guest artists, another brand-new original musical in the form of Daytime: A Soap Opera Musical and Good Night’s first-ever non-original musical, The Last Five Years, featuring founders Stai and Wendland, as well as the collective’s first live band.
Season four kicked off in the fall of 2019, with The Big Band Cabaret and the premiere of Good Night’s production of The Rocky Horror Show. That winter also featured Good Night’s first-ever dinner theater production, It’s a Wonderful Life. Prior to the season ending early due to the unforeseen circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, Good Night debuted its third original musical, Alvin Fletcher’s Surprise 34th Birthday Party in spring 2020. Though forced to cancel and indefinitely postpone performances throughout the pandemic, Good Night debuted its first virtual performances that spring, including A Very Virtual Cabaret in March and the original sketch comedy event Christmas in July: A Virtual Variety Show in July.
The following fall marked Good Night’s landmark fifth season, additionally marking a change in venue to better safely serve patrons into the future. It began with the live-recorded The Greatest Hits Cabaret on the beautiful Mary W. Sommervold stage of the Washington Pavilion in September, followed by a series of outdoor “garden parties” collaborating with local performing arts companies in the Paladino Hohm Sculpture Garden. The season continued onward with outdoor and virtual outings, such as The Fantasticks and A Very Valentine Virtual Variety Show, before Good Night returned to an indoor audience with the season closer, An Iconic Cabaret.
Marking a triumphant return to debuting original works, Good Night presented the world-premiere musical Reality Wives at the Sioux Falls Orpheum in August 2021, before launching season six at the Washington Pavilion’s Belbas Theater, the company’s current residence. The 2021-22 season brought four more cabarets, including the first featuring a dinner theatre experience, as well as productions of Little Shop of Horrors, Into the Woods, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown and the company’s fifth original musical, Suspect.
Good Night kicked off the fall of the seventh-season run in 2022 with a tribute to all things Halloween in A Haunted Cabaret, followed by the company’s biggest show yet (and 50th production!), the original musical Salem, which was the first to feature a live chamber orchestra, youth actors and a cast of 26 performers! The 2022-23 season also marked Good Night’s first foray into black-box straight plays, including the touring production of Little Women and following with God of Carnage in February 2023. With two more delightful cabarets later, as well as productions of Reefer Madness and Company in the rearview, Good night wrapped Season 7 in spring 2023.
Season 8 launched in fall 2023, with A Honky-Tonk Cabaret featuring our first live string players in a cabaret setting, followed by a uniquely staged production of Spring Awakening, where audience members could join the actors seated on stage in the Belbas Theater. Packed houses enjoyed two more Schulte shows, our live musical radio play Miracle on 34th Street and Sense & Sensibility, our first traverse stage setting where actors performed on a runway with audience on two sides. Our seventh world-premiere original musical Legendary Adventure capped off the winter as we close the season with the sinister Sweeney Todd and catchy Classic Rock Cabaret!
As we gear up for fall 2024, we’re thrilled at what our ninth season has in store, including musical classics, offbeat originals and even more opportunities for adult and youth actors alike to have the Good Night experience!
