The north end of Parkway Avenue has been home to many businesses over the years. Restaurants like the White Front Café and Intermission. A Chevrolet car dealership. An Amish cheese factory. In 1989 a new dream born of creative minds took shape here. Called the Commonweal Theater, there’s been nothing else quite like it in the long history of this little town.

The Commonweal is a professional theater company with a locally-based ensemble dedicated to story-telling of the highest caliber. Its beginnings were small when a “let’s try something new” idea floated out of the forerunner of Lanesboro Arts. Borrowing the stage of the St. Mane Theater (that still sits next door), ten young actors (led by Eric Bunge and Hal Cropp) presented Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Crimes of the Heart.” That initial 11-week summer season, enjoyed by nearly 3,000 people, created enough momentum to make plans to “do it again” next summer. The Commonweal Theater, with growing casts, repertoire, and audiences, has been “doing it again” every year ever since. All in a town of less than 750 people. Remarkable.

A new $3.5 million Commonweal facility opened in 2007 with a cozy 200-seat house. (None of those seats, which came from the famed Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, is more than 35-feet from the stage). The building’s exterior portrays Lanesboro shop fronts; its interior design highlights bluff country beauty. (Look up to discover creative ceiling art of artist Karl Unnasch). Before the first moment of any play (a season normally presents five over nearly 180 performances), the Commonweal Theater is a welcoming and inspiring experience all by itself.

The play is the thing, as they say. That’s certainly true here. For two decades the Commonweal presented the work of Henrik Ibesen, garnering international accolades. In 2017 the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits awarded the Commonweal Theater their Award for Excellence, the first time that award had ever been given to a professional theater company. “Drama unfolds,” the Commonweal promises, “where the Root River bends.” Their faithful delivery of that promise is not to be missed.