The Old Log Theatre was the oldest professional theater in the state of Minnesota. It was sometimes cited as the oldest continuously operating professional theater in the United States.

Venue: Old Log Theatre
Town: Excelsior, US

The Old Log Theatre was the oldest professional theater in the state of Minnesota. It was sometimes cited as the oldest continuously operating professional theater in the United States. It was located in Excelsior and was funded entirely by ticket sales and income from its restaurant. On February 20, 2024, owners Greg and Marissa Frankenfield announced their retirement, and said that the theatre and its associated restaurant would be closing permanently, with its last production consisting of a tribute to Buddy Holly occurring on March 2, 2024. The Old Log Theatre first opened in 1940 in Greenwood, in a dirt-floored log building now used as a scenery shop. Throughout its existence the theater has focused mostly on screwball comedy, contemporary plays and British farces, though in its early years it operated as a summer stock company. The original building seated 270 people and during its summer season the theater presented a show a week. During the 1950s the theater's popularity grew and late in that decade it found a need for larger quarters. Herb Bloomberg, a builder in Chanhassen, was hired to design and build the new theater on 10 acres (40,000 m2) adjacent to the original theater in 1965. The new building could seat 655 and was designed to look like a barn with a large lobby featuring a fireplace and a high ceiling. Herb Bloomberg went on to build and operate the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. For 73 years the theater was owned by Don Stolz, who joined a year after its inception, when he was 23 and a graduate student in theater at Northwestern University. Hired to direct, he also performed in The Taming of the Shrew starting on his second day. The first show he directed that year was Sidney Howard's Ned McCobb's Daughter; he bought the theater in 1946 and continued to produce/direct the majority of shows and oversaw 600 productions. Stolz was instrumental in the growth of television in the Twin Cities and became a radio veteran in the area. In 2006, several of Sto