Stillwater Zephyr Theatre

06/19/2026

Because of you—our audience, our neighbors, our champions—we’re already more than halfway to our mid-year fundraising goal.

An Evening in the Shire, along with early donations, helped us plant the roots—bringing us past the halfway mark of our $20,000 goal and helping us continue to educate, connect, and inspire our vibrant community.

Now the Sutcliffe Family Fund is helping us grow: they’ve given $5,000 to start one side of the tree—and challenged our community to match it.
As each gift comes in, we’ll fill the other side together.

One tree. Two halves. $10,000. Growing forward—together.

Donate today at https://donate.stripe.com/28o9Df6ujbEY1j26oo.

06/18/2026

Welcome to the third chapter of our Hobbit History series, where we uncover the hidden magic beneath the surface of the story we love.

Before The Hobbit was an adventure, it was a language lover’s playground.

Tolkien was an Oxford philologist who spent years developing language and mythology for Middle-earth, and that passion shows up all through The Hobbit in its names, runes, and echoes of Norse myth. That’s one reason the world feels so rich: it was built from the inside out, word by word.

At Zephyr Theatre, that kind of detail matters to us. This summer at Aamodt’s Apple Farm, we’re inviting audiences into a story that doesn’t just imagine another world—it speaks like one, too.

Performances in July & August | Tickets on sale now through the link in our bio

Sources: The Hobbit entry, Encyclopedia.com (notes that Tolkien was “an eminent Oxford philologist,” that he “spent a great deal of his life developing his own language and mythology,” and that his studies included Welsh, Old and Middle English, and Old Norse); “The Hobbit,” Tolkien Gateway (notes that the novel contains “many names and words derived from Norse mythology” and uses Anglo-Saxon runes).

06/15/2026

At the Zephyr, serving our community means more than presenting great performances—it also means creating meaningful opportunities for young people to learn, grow, and shine. Education is one of our core focuses, and that comes to life through our educational programming, including classes and our collaboration with Stillwater Community Education.

This summer, that work takes center stage with The Wizard of Oz. Since the program began earlier this month, local kids have been building confidence, learning teamwork, strengthening communication skills, and discovering what it means to create something together. The lessons go far beyond the stage—and so do the smiles.

We’re especially grateful to + Orchin Specialists in Orthodontics, sponsor of our educational programming performance of The Wizard of Oz, for helping bring confidence, joy, and opportunity to kids in our community.

Come cheer on these young performers June 25–28 🌈Tickets: https://cur8.com/15574/project/139655

06/12/2026

What a night!

Thank you to everyone who joined us at An Evening in the Shire at Aamodt's Apple Farm and Saint Croix Vineyards—good food, great company, and a whole lot of heart.

Because of you, we’re able to Inspire, Connect, and Educate in even greater ways through the rest of the year!

06/11/2026

Tonight, Broadway takes center stage. As we celebrate the Tony Awards, we also celebrate the theatre teachers, students, troupes, and school programs where so many Broadway dreams first begin. To every Thespian watching tonight: keep creating, keep learning, keep showing up, and keep telling stories that matter. The future of theatre is already in rehearsal.

06/09/2026

Welcome to the second chapter of our Hobbit History series, where we uncover the hidden magic beneath the surface of the story we love.

Before The Hobbit was a book, before it was a bedtime story, before Bilbo ever packed a handkerchief—it was a blank page.

One summer in the early 1930s, J.R.R. Tolkien was doing what many teachers are doing right now: grading.

Surrounded by a towering stack of student exam papers, Tolkien came across one page that had been left completely empty. On that unexpected stretch of white space, he scribbled a single sentence:

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

He didn’t know what a hobbit was yet. He didn’t know it would become a beloved story read around the world. He simply followed a moment of imagination sparked by a pause in the work.

As the school year wraps up and classrooms empty for summer, we love this reminder: sometimes the most magical stories don’t begin with a plan—but with a breath, a blank page, and permission to imagine.

That spirit is at the heart of what we do at Zephyr Theatre—turning curiosity into creativity, and simple sparks into shared stories. This summer, we’re bringing The Hobbit to life under the trees at Aamodt’s Apple Farm, inviting audiences of all ages to step into a world that began exactly this way.

Because every great adventure starts somewhere. Sometimes… it starts when the grading is finally done.

Performances in July & August | Tickets on sale now (link in bio)

Source: Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977); see also The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Humphrey Carpenter.

06/07/2026

06/06/2026

Join us in the Shire (like… tonight!), explore what’s ahead for The Hobbit, and see how The Zephyr continues to grow and thrive with community support.
Details for all of this and more in our June update--check it out thtrough the link in our bio.

05/31/2026

Nearly four years after the theater’s 2022 financial meltdown, new executive and artistic directors are leading the Zephyr’s reemergence with youth education programs and immersive outdoor plays.