At the end of Commonweal Theatre’s 2011 season, the company is celebrating the most successful year in its twenty-three year history. “It sounds like a broken record,” says Commonweal Theatre’s Executive Director Hal Cropp, “but for the fourth year in a row, we can say that more people than ever before came to see our shows this year. If we could bottle that kind of success, we would, but in the meantime, all we can do is say ‘Thank You’ from the bottom of our hearts.”

More than 21,000 theatregoers attended Commonweal’s mainstage shows, from the riveting drama An Enemy of the People to the romantic-comedy Parfumerie. In between, audiences howled at the antics of a stray dog in Sylvia, laughed (and screamed) as man-eating plants threatened the Earth in Little Shop of Horrors, and took a hard look at prejudice through the eyes of an innocent child in To Kill a Mockingbird. Overall, some 3,000 households visited the Commonweal for the first time in 2011 – the company’s largest ever single-season increase in first-timer attendance.

Two shows this year – Sylvia and To Kill a Mockingbird – also ranked in the top three for best-attended productions in Commonweal’s history in terms of average per-performance attendance. “Artistically, this has been an amazing season,” adds Cropp. “In my twenty years, I don’t know if I can think of another year when every single show hit such a high mark in terms of quality.” The Commonweal also welcomed nearly 2,200 high school students from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota to special student matinees of its mainstage shows and gave a special benefit performance of its holiday comedy, Parfumerie, for Habitat for Humanity Winona-Fillmore Counties. Both programs were made possible by the generous support of F&M Community Bank in Preston and Chatfield.

The theatre’s success onstage has also been supported by generous giving from individuals and public and private foundations. In the final quarter of 2011, the Commonweal Theatre Company was awarded $10,000 from the Southeast Minnesota Art Council through the Arts and Cultural Heritage program, and $38,250 from the Minnesota State Arts Board for programming support in 2012. Funds from the MSAB are made available through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and private funders.

“We’re excited to hit 2012 running,” says Cropp, “with a slate of shows that includes some titles we’ve wanted to produce for a long time.” The Commonweal’s twenty-fourth mainstage season begins in April with a world premiere adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s drama, Pillars of Society, then followed by the fast-paced comedy The 39 Steps, the romantic-comedy The Philadelphia Story, the heartwarming drama The Drawer Boy, and ends with Commonweal Theatre’s own distinct imagining of Charles Dickens’ immortal classic, A Christmas Carol.

For more details, including information about schedules, tickets, and other Commonweal programs, visit www.commonwealtheatre.org or call the Box Office at (800) 657-7025.