Q&A: Behind the Scenes of Children’s Theatre Co.’s ‘Forts!’

Jerrod Sumner

Step inside the Cargill Stage at Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) right now, and you will find a landscape made of cardboard, blankets, and pure possibility. “Forts! Build Your Own Adventure” is exactly what it sounds like: a sprawling, interactive world where the audience is the architect. There is no script to follow and no “quiet” sign in sight. Instead, Julie Ritchey and her team craft a space where the verb “play” is the entire point.

As an arts editor, I see the industry grappling with a massive identity crisis. We say we want new, diverse audiences, yet we often enforce rigid, elitist rules that make people feel like they are being graded on their behavior. If you clap between movements at the orchestra or whisper a question at a play, you are often made to feel like you don’t belong. “Forts!” flips that script. It acknowledges that when a child audibly processes a story, it is a sign of wonder, not disrespect. By removing the pressure to sit still and be silent, they create a low-risk gateway for families. When the first experience is this welcoming, it builds the confidence to explore everything else the Twin Cities’ vibrant arts ecosystem has to offer. I applaud CTC for building the next generation of audiences with shows like “Forts!” and the recent success of “Go, Dog. Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve!”

Jerrod Sumner (JS): Coming to CTC feels like a full-circle moment for you. Tell me about that.

Julie Ritchey (JR): It really is. When I was at Northwestern, I chose to research CTC because it was the ‘North Star’ of the industry. At the time, I didn’t even know children’s theatre was a professional field. I grew up in a pre-K through 12 school where I was the drama club president. I noticed our high school shows weren’t always appropriate or engaging for the little ones, so I started a program specifically for the elementary students. I just wanted our whole school community to have access to the arts. Twenty years later, standing here at CTC, I wish I could tell that 20-year-old Julie that she’d eventually be working in the very building she spent a semester studying from afar.

JS: Tell me about the ‘Forts!’ performance space where we are sitting. 

JR: We are in the world’s biggest living room. It’s a landscape of textures—velvet couches, woven rugs, vintage lamps, and massive, architectural towers of cardboard boxes. It’s designed to look like the ultimate ‘blank canvas’ for a Saturday morning. It’s waiting for an audience to decide if these boxes are a castle, a spaceship, or a secret laboratory.

JS: What does the experience look like for a family when they arrive?

JR: Every session is a unique ‘performance.’ The idea for ‘Forts!’ came from watching young people in their basements and bedrooms. They are natural storytellers. We thought: What if we took the greatest theater designers in the business and asked them to build a set that supports ‘play’ as a verb? It’s not a ‘play’ where you sit and watch; it’s an environment where the lighting and sound design follow the journey of the kids. If they start building a city, the soundscape shifts to a cityscape. If they settle in for a ‘sleepover’ in their fort, the lights might dim to a soft nighttime glow. Their imagination is the literal driver of the theatrical tech.

JS: How do you curate the space to be repeatable? Do kids ever just freeze up?

JR: The experience is facilitated by two guides who hold the ‘ethos’ of the space. They aren’t there to tell you what to do, but to protect the play. We have a transition room called the ‘foyer’—think of it as a decompression chamber. Whether a family is coming in frantic because they were running late or they’re grumpy because of the Minnesota cold, that space allows them to settle before they hit the main floor. The design itself provides the ‘rails.’ We’ve been doing this since 2017, and we’ve learned how to calibrate the environment so it’s impossible to fail. You see parents who walk in a bit stiff, but 10 minutes later, they’re on their hands and knees engineering these architectural wonders with their kids.

JS: You should have an adults-only night.

JR: We absolutely do! We have 21-plus nights where the bar is open and the creativity is just as intense. Watching grown adults get ‘fort-building fever’ is just as magical as watching the family shows.

JS: How is ‘Forts!’ rooted in your values as a creative?

JR: It’s deeply rooted in the idea of autonomy. The modern world isn’t built for young people to move through independently. There’s a staggering statistic that kids under 5 hear the word ‘no’ or receive a correction 500 to 600 times a day. We wanted to create a world where they don’t need to be micromanaged.

I love watching the social microcosm that develops. We were in Toronto recently and three sisters decided to build the ‘Welcoming Fort.’ They built it massive so anyone could join. Then a child nearby built a ‘bakery’ and started recruiting employees to ‘sell’ free cardboard food. My favorite was two older kids who started out very ‘no girls allowed.’ Within 20 minutes, they had ‘adopted’ a 5-year-old girl from a different family, and they were all reigning together as King Archibald I, II, and III. When resources are shared in a loving way, kids naturally build these incredible communities.

JS: In traditional theater, there’s usually a big showstopper. Is there a moment like that for you here?

JR: I’ve seen this thousands of times, and I never get bored because I see something new every single day. The ‘showstopper’ is the human element. Each city brings a different vibe. In some cities, the play is very literal and architectural; in others, it’s purely abstract and emotional. Each theater we work with teaches us something new about how people interact with their surroundings. It’s a constant, evolving springboard for surprises.

JS: What do you want people to carry home with them?

JR: There might not be a song to hum, but there is a new way of looking at a cardboard box. I never tire of getting emails from parents with photos of their kids at home, taking Amazon delivery boxes, and building beds to sleep in. If a child leaves feeling like they have the agency to imagine a new world and then actually build it, we’ve done our job.

JS: Why is immersive theater important right now?

Julie: I come from the tradition of ‘Theater of the Oppressed,’ which views theater as a rehearsal for the revolution. By imagining an experience you’ve never had and feeling it emotionally, you grow your empathy. ‘Forts!’ provides a ‘safe cocoon’ where the consequences feel real, like when a tower falls over, but there’s no judgment. It’s a kinesthetic, somatic way to build resilience. If your fort collapses, you don’t get a bad grade; you just try a different engineering approach. That is a vital life skill.

JS: How do you invite the adults to participate?

JR: There is no ‘wrong’ way to be in the room. Some people are high-energy ‘destructors’ who want to push the towers over, and that’s great. Others are ‘planners’ who want to map out their build. I find that the sensory experience often triggers deep memories for adults; they’ll tell me, ‘This feels like the woods behind my house where I used to get lost.’ Whether you’re observing your child’s imagination or diving in yourself, the space is there to hold that energy. We adults need to play just as much as the kids do.

JS: How do shows like this build future theater audiences?

JR: We need to get over the idea that ‘quiet equals focus.’ I just saw ‘Go, Dog. Go! • Ve Perro ¡Ve!’ with my 6-year-old, and the kids in the audience were narrating the whole time: ‘Look, the dog is swimming!’ or ‘How do the cars move?’ That curiosity is what theater should spark. When institutions like CTC value that wonder instead of giving a ‘sit still and be quiet’ speech, they tell young people that the theater is a space for them. It removes the elitist barrier.

I think the industry is in a bit of a crisis trying to navigate how to be inclusive while maintaining traditional decorum. My husband is a classical musician, and in that world, there’s often this ‘God forbid you clap between movements’ attitude. But how is a newcomer supposed to know that? If someone is moved to clap, let them clap!

JS: I agree. It goes back to the leadership, the conductors and directors, letting people know it’s okay to feel moved.

JR: Exactly. We have to train artists to understand that a 4-year-old’s processing speed is different. They might not laugh at the joke in the moment, but they’ll go home and reenact it 400 times. Artistic leadership in 2026 needs to realize that a clap is a compliment. We need to get over ourselves a little and embrace the energy of the audience.

JS: This will be the first theater experience for many. How do you frame that?

JR: I leave the ‘Is it a play?’ questions to the scholars and marketers. I just know that when we premiered at Filament Theatre in Chicago, people came because it sounded fun and accessible. Once they were through the door and had a great time, they started looking at what else was on the schedule. ‘Forts!’ is an entry point. It gives families the confidence to say, ‘We belong here,’ and that makes them more likely to take a risk on the next show.

JS: How does the spirit of Minnesota play into this production?

JR: As a lifelong Midwesterner, there is something so special about the creative ecosystem here. We have the best food, the best art, and an incredible work ethic. But more than that, there’s a level of kindness and encouragement for creativity that I don’t see everywhere. Minnesotans are an inspiration right now; the world is looking at this community as an example of how to support the arts and each other.