About Us

The What

A town square: The flurry, flow, and hustle of diverse people greeting one another, gathering the days news, exchanging products and services, having a laugh, a conversation together—sharing moments.

Minnesota Playlist is the virtual town square for Minnesota’s performing arts. We herald the latest news, offer services that enrich your career or your life, and share a sense of camaraderie and society. We want you to take a step inside and become a part of this exciting, bustling village.

All content is free to read, including calendar listings, show reviews from great artists and writers, audition notices, talent profiles, and in-depth articles. Posting an audition, a classified ad, an advertisement, or talent profile costs small fees.

Minnesota nurtures some of the best theater, dance, and unclassifiable live performance in the country. We enjoy an impressive collection of successful community theaters, Tony Award-winning regional theaters, scrappy small professional theaters, dance companies, academic training programs, and indescribably odd and wonderful performance festivals.

Minnesota Playlist connects the diverse vibrant strands of this influential and admired performing arts community into a comprehensive, high-quality online platform aimed specifically at performing artists, designers, administrators, and performing arts fans.

 

The Who

Damon Runnals (Owner and CEO) is a Minneapolis based jack-of-all-trades. He oversees Minnesota Playlist, co-operates Swandive Theatre with his wife and artistic partner - Meg DiSciorio, and tries to make the world a little better for his two amazing daughters. He is a long time tabletop gamer and dungeon master for his home game of Dungeons & Dragons. He has worked in arts administration (The Southern Theater), printing (FedEx Office), social media (Two-Pair Marketing), and currently is a People Operations Planner at Apple.

Alan Berks (Founder) is a Minneapolis-based writer whose work has been seen in New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Indianapolis, San Francisco, and around the Twin Cities. In his 19 years and counting in Minnesota, he also co-created Thirst Theater, directed communications at Pillsbury House + Theatre for four years, and taught at St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota. He was a member of the Workhaus Playwrights Collective, and he is also the co-Artistic Director (with Leah Cooper) of Wonderlust Productions.

Leah Cooper (Founder) has been a theater practitioner for over 30 years as a director, producer, performer, and arts administration leader. She was the first Executive Director for the Minnesota Theater Alliance. Prior to that she provided arts and non-profit administration consulting to dozens of organizations in Minnesota, she co-founded this here website, and led the Minnesota Fringe Festival from crisis to record attendance and financial stability. She is also the co-Artistic Director of Wonderlust Productions.

 

The How

In 2001, Twin Cities Theatre and Film started as a nonprofit organization called Twin Cities Theatre and Film Alliance. The mission of the alliance was to strengthen, promote and unify the theatre and film communities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Part of the fulfillment of this mission was the founding of a website.

In February 2002, the alliance sold the site to David Lind, a local actor, director, playwright, and teacher. Over the next few years, David expanded the site’s audience until tctheatreandfilm.org became one of the leading theater industry websites in Minnesota with thousands of visitors a week.

In mid-2007, Alan and Leah began discussions with David about taking the site to another level of service. In 2008, they purchased the site and began its transformation in to an in-depth magazine about all live performance (excluding music without a conscious narrative element) around the state.

In October 2008 Minnesota Playlist launched with all the functions of tctheatreandfilm.org plus a beautiful new design by Matthew Foster and unique content from artists around the state. In 2015 after an incredibly successful Indiegogo campaign, Minnesota Playlist launched a major update - version 2.0 of the website. Everything was updated - visuals, experience, options, and the user interface. And then a big ole party was held.

In Feb of 2017 Alan and Leah graciously passed the keys to this kingdom to Damon Runnals. Hands were shaken, lawyers consulted, documents signed, checks cashed, and with little fanfare a transition of power was managed.

The website went dormant in summer and fall of 2020 in conjunction with the sleeping giant of peforming arts during the COVID global pandemic.

Following the waking up and return of live performance Damon sought out a developer to build version 3.0 of the site to address major technical issues. Local developer Ten7 was brought on board in late 2021 and after a year and a half developed the current site which launched on April 27th, 2023.