The Playhouse opens its 80th season this weekend with The Complete History of America (abridged), a comedy that attempts the impossible: squeezing roughly 600 years of American history into a 90-minute theatrical sprint.
Written by Adam Long, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor, the show doesn’t try to deliver a careful history lesson. Instead, it tears through major events, historical figures, wars, politics, and cultural milestones at full speed, turning centuries of American history into a string of sketches, costume changes, audience interaction, and controlled theatrical chaos.
The entire production is carried by just three performers: Liv Moeller, Jason Reuter, and Skyler Weaver. That’s part of the design. The show was written specifically for a cast of three, requiring the actors to jump rapidly between dozens of characters, time periods, and comic scenarios as they race from the Bering Strait to Watergate and beyond. The trio spends 90 minutes racing through centuries of American history and historical absurdity at a pace that leaves little time to catch your breath.
Development Director Jeff Kingsbury recently stopped into rehearsal and came away convinced audiences are in for a good time.
“It’s going to be knock you off your feet, funny,” Kingsbury said.
With the nation approaching the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Playhouse selected a season focused on America and the people who have shaped it.
“We wanted to do things that aligned with the story of America,” Kingsbury said.
That theme continues with 1776, the Tony Award-winning musical that follows the debates and compromises behind the Declaration of Independence. Rather than presenting the story as a room full of historical figures reciting dates and facts, Kingsbury says the production explores the personalities, conflicts, and contradictions behind the nation’s founding.
This year’s production will also feature diverse casting choices, including women playing traditionally male roles and performers whose identities create new perspectives on familiar historical characters.
Later in the summer, the Playhouse will present Come From Away, the acclaimed musical based on the true story of the 38 planes diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, following the September 11 attacks. The production follows a small town that suddenly found itself caring for thousands of stranded travelers and examines both fear and generosity in the days that followed.
The season concludes with What the Constitution Means to Me, Heidi Schreck’s autobiographical play about a woman who funded her college education through American Legion speech contests centered on the Constitution. The one-woman show explores four generations of women in Schreck’s family and how the promises of the Constitution landed differently across different eras of American life.
While the productions touch on subjects that continue to shape national conversations, Kingsbury says the Playhouse did not select the season to make political statements.
“Theater, by its very nature, is political,” he said. “We don’t select shows to make a political statement.”
Instead, he sees the season as an opportunity for audiences to revisit familiar parts of American history and remember details that are often lost in simplified versions of those stories.
The milestone season also arrives during a period of growth for the Playhouse itself. In recent years, the organization has increased artist salaries, expanded fundraising efforts, and attracted a larger pool of performers from across the country. Kingsbury says those changes have helped the Playhouse compete for talent while remaining committed to its educational mission through University of South Dakota.
Even with more theater companies operating throughout the Black Hills than ever before, Kingsbury doesn’t see them as competitors.
“The arts are not competitive. They’re symbiotic,” he said.
That philosophy is easy to spot across the region this summer. Community theaters, independent companies, educational programs, and professional productions are all sharing audiences, artists, and resources. The Black Hills Playhouse remains one part of that larger ecosystem, but for 80 summers it has also been a destination for performers hoping to spend at least one season in the canyon.
For some, that goal lasts exactly one show.
For others, it becomes a reason to come back year after year.
