Revere graduate founds alternative theater company

by Wendy Turrell

Colleen Somerville was bitten by the acting bug at Revere High School her freshman year when she saw a school production of Grease. “I decided to audition the next year. I was cast as Dorothy Gale in “The Wizard of Oz,” and I was hooked,” she said.

The Richfield native, daughter of Susan and Joffre Somerville, also acted in the Revere performances of “Anything Goes” and “Guys and Dolls,” before she graduated in 2000.

Even before her introduction to the Revere Players, Somerville credits her grade school music teacher Mary Ryan with sowing the seeds for her love of theater and music. “She gave me my first solo in our baseball musical,” Somerville recalled. Another early influencer was Revere High choir teacher Dr. Deborah Devore. “She was one of those teachers who made everything fun and relatable.”

In the summers, she explored community theater at Western Reserve Playhouse, appearing in “Cabaret” as a Kit-Kat girl and running lights for “My Fair Lady.” After earning her BFA in musical theater from Kent State University, she moved to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota in 2005.

For the first 13 years that Somerville lived in the Twin Cities she acted and sang in professional and community theaters. “I worked at The Guthrie Theater, Ordway Center for Performing Arts, Flying Foot Forum, Artistry and Theatre in the Round, among many others,” Somerville reminisced. “In that time, I also occasionally directed educational theatre.”

Somerville has many gifts. “I’d say that I’m a singer first, as that is the art form I come back to time and time again, to heal and learn and center my ambitions,” she admitted. She also writes, directs and produces for the stage.

By 2017, Somerville began to feel all was not well with commercial theater: “Many of the shows I auditioned for and performed in had not aged well, particularly in the way they treated women. I began to produce my own solo singing shows, while I figured out how I wanted my theater career to look … to change the way women in theater were being treated, both on and off stage.” This led her to start Somerville Productions in 2018.

She recalled, “It started by accident, as I decided with my co-writer to have an entirely woman cast and production staff. And then we mostly cast close friends or referrals … and at one of our first rehearsals I looked around and thought, ‘This is what it should always feel like when I do theater.’ Since then, I’ve worked to recreate that supportive, hilarious, safe environment every time.”

Somerville’s first production for her new company was entitled “Not Fair, My Lady!,” which debuted at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. She described it as a parody about the ways women are treated in musical theater, particularly in classic roles.

“The show was a hit. We won a bunch of ‘best of’ awards, and I set off to continue to find my footing in this new world,” she remembered.

Somerville’s success continued in 2019 with another production for the annual Fringe Festival entitled “SIZE,”which explored fat phobia and the diet industry. It, too, proved a hit.

Then along came 2020 and COVID-19. Somerville explained, “All of the theater world disappeared, and we all had to figure out what to do.” That hiatus awakened Somerville’s passion for social justice. “I became very involved … following the murder of George Floyd, and eventually took a job as a housing, case manager.”

As COVID receded from prominence, Somerville returned to the theater, co-directing her first musical called “Songs for a New World.”

Another passion – youth theater education – led her to become part-time interim company manager of Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company. Although she left that role in 2023, CTC remains an important part of her life. Somerville taught six weeks of theater summer camp at CTC in 2024, and has taken on the role of understudy for the world premiere of “Drawing Lessons,”which will be staged on Oct. 8 – Nov. 10.

Somerville enthused, “I adore working with youth … truly the most wonderful way to stay hopeful and humble.” 

Somerville continues to create work that will expand understanding and lift up alternative voices. A recent self-discovery has once again expanded her horizons.

“I’m currently hoping to continue to grow my directing resume as I’ve recently learned I’m neurodivergent,” she explained. “I have been studying people my whole life, and I think that I have so much to bring in leading a cast through the human emotions onstage.” ∞

Photo: Singer, actor, director and producer Colleen Somerville has been involved in theater since her days at Richfield Elementary School. Currently, she has taken the role of understudy in Drawing Lessons for the Minneapolis Children’s Theater Company. Photo submitted.