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From a shuttered theater in the pandemic to a red-carpet premiere at the Parkway, a new Twin Cities film has taken an unlikely path.

Playwright Harrison David Rivers was approached to write a new play for the innovative Twin Cities-based Trademark Theater in 2019. So he wrote a love story for two performers told through monologues. 

The COVID-19 pandemic made live performances of the play impossible. 

“So we pivoted,” Rivers said, explaining that he and the Trademark team turned one of the sections of that play into a short film. In 2021, that section emerged as a short film titled “What You Can’t Keep.” 

Soon after, the team began asking what came next — another film? Would another part of the story be performed live?

“We knew we had probably 70 percent of a script left to play with, and we just fell in love with the characters,” said Trademark artistic director Tyler Michaels King — who also directed “What You Can’t Keep.”

In 2023, the creative team reunited to shape the next chapter. While part one was filmed on phones with direction given on Zoom, part two was filmed in person.

“We shot that second part, and I think fell even deeper in love with the characters,” Michaels King said. 

The final part of the “What You Can’t Keep” was filmed over this past summer.

“That was an even larger budget, more people involved,” said Braddon Alexander, who has worked on all three parts of the film as the editor and cinematographer. 

Part three brings in an expanded cast, with Twin Cities luminaries like Harry Waters Jr., Sally Wingert and David Mura in supporting roles. The grandness of the film is a departure from the smaller play Harrison David Rivers originally penned, but at the heart of the story is a young couple, Lizzie and Lucas.

“Actors are always becoming other characters and adding parts of themselves to their characters,” said Miriam Schwartz, reflecting on her performance as Lizzie in the film. It’s usual for actors to be able to embody a character over multiple years, according to Schwartz. 

“Think about how much people can change over the course of five years?” Schwartz said, describing having all three parts of Lizzie and Lucas’ love story in one film as “beautiful.”

The film isn’t just a years-long return to the story — it’s also a bold experiment for Trademark Theater. 

While some theaters produced virtual theater during the early years of the pandemic, Tyler Michaels King doesn’t know of another theater that took on the production of a feature-length film.

“I think it really is a manifestation of letting the art lead,” Michaels King said, explaining that once the team had to pivot to COVID-19 safe storytelling, they realized the story felt more cinematic and better suited for the screen. 

“What You Can’t Keep” is a blend of genres, and with the plan to submit it to film festivals in the future, it presents the theater with a new way to connect with audiences, both locally and beyond. 

“We have this three-part journey that feels like a conclusion at this point, but we keep saying, maybe in 10 years, we do a part four,” Michaels King joked. 

 in Minneapolis, with a second screening later in October at The Main Cinema.

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From Zoom-era beginnings to a festival-ready feature, “What You Can’t Keep” shows how one Minnesota theater reinvented itself on film.

A play, a pandemic — and 5 years later, a new Minnesota film

A black and white image of two people in a stairwell.

Courtesy of Trademark Theater

Two people talk while working on a filming session, kneeling inside a bathroom.

Photo by Studio Aura, courtesy of Trademark Theater

A screen captures two people looking at each other in a video recording.

A play, a pandemic — and 5 years later, a new Minnesota film

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