March 2009
March 31, 2009No joke: The Southern needs you
Yes, the Southern Theater, which is the beneficiary of the City Pages Wine Tasting on April 3, would very much appreciate it if you donated 28 bucks to quaff some 250 wines and D'Amico snacks starting at 6 pm at International Market Square (designated drivers get in for just $10). They'd also like it if you stood on the other side of the tables, helping pour the wine -- they could really use some volunteers, who of course get in for free. Steady hands should send a note to Kate Nordstrum of the Southern at Kate@southerntheater.org. Meanwhile, you've got just a few chances left (through April 5) to catch Passage of Dreams, Theater... Read more » Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
|
March 27, 2009The loving weekend
Rarely does a theater director get a chance to develop a concept over several different "episodes," if you will, over a short period of time, but that's what Chantal Pavageaux has been able to do with Bedlam Theatre and the Love Party performances, which conclude on Saturday with a kind of awards ceremony--don't think about it too hard, just go (early for the great Bedlam food), have a glass of something, another glass of something else, and realize that all you needed to get over, into, or out of love was a group of super-creative people who just want you to realize you're living in an amazingly rich place where almost anything is possible. If it can be conceived, after all, it's generally going to be seen at... Read more » Posted on Friday, March 27, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
|
March 26, 2009"Grey Gardens": the Minnesota Connection
Last week, a production of one of the sharpest and most entertaining Broadway musicals of the past several years went up at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, as co-produced by the Park Square Theatre. It stars a couple of our sharpest and most entertaining musical performers: the operatic Christina Baldwin and the indomitable Wendy Lehr. But among all the reasons to pay attention to the Tony Award-winning Grey Gardens, about the delightfully eccentric aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy Onassis—mother/daughter recluses who went from the top of the social register to somewhere below the charts—one is a direct link between the Twin Cities and the... Read more » Posted on Thursday, March 26, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
|
March 23, 2009Dowling reveals big surprise in new Guthrie season
The announcement of a new season at the Guthrie Theater is always treated—by the press as well as the theater—as akin to a State of the Union address, with both great anticipation and formality. This year, however, the theater's 2009-2010 season was announced this afternoon not with a typical press conference or any press conference at all. Rather, the famous thrust-stage theater was filled with invited guests in addition to local media—Guthrie staff and volunteers, and ranks of University of Minnesota BFA students, with whom the Guthrie collaborates as part of their training. It was a familial atmosphere, whoops and hollers rising from the crowd when the inclusion of particularly favorite plays or actors was announced. It was the Fireside Chat of season... Read more » Posted on Monday, March 23, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
|
March 20, 2009Your weekend arts guide
There's a lot of compelling music to be heard this weekend, but none more inspirational perhaps than the Friday and Saturday comeback gigs by local guitarist Billy McLaughlin, who slowly lost control of his right hand and arm starting in 2001. It was due to the mysterious crippling disease called dystonia, which has ruined many musicians' careers. But McLaughlin, not to be deterred, retaught himself to play left-handed and his return to the stage will also be complemented by not just one but two movies that have been made about his battle. Both shows are at the Parkway Theater, tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 pm. More great music is to be had--and for a $5 bargain--Saturday night during... Read more » Posted on Friday, March 20, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
|
March 14, 2009Review: A Raisin in the Sun at the Guthrie
Barack Obama's ascendancy to the White House has been predicted to usher in everything from a post-racial era to a renewed faith in America abroad to a rise in gun sales (yes, indeed). And this was before he'd even been sworn in. But one thing I can say for sure, watching A Raisin in the Sun on opening night at the Guthrie Theater, his triumph has lit a fire under the performance of this crackling, empowering production of a play that once marked another first in African-American... Read more » Posted on Saturday, March 14, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
|
March 13, 2009Preview: Penumbra's "A Raisin in the Sun" at the Guthrie
In about 10 minutes, I'm headed to opening night of Penumbra Theatre's 50th anniversary production of "A Raisin in the Sun," being staged at the Guthrie Theater. I have high expectations--there's no question that Lou Bellamy understands the material, or that the Guthrie's Proscenium Stage is a terrific venue for this classic story. But I also have become accustomed to seeing Penumbra stretch out and relax into the familiar confines and the embrace of its audience at its home theater in St. Paul--will the production feel overplayed in the big blue house? I'm very much looking forward to finding out. Read more »Posted on Friday, March 13, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
|
March 6, 2009The arts week of the year so far
It always takes a while to get going after the holidays, but it's safe to say we're entering the meat of the Twin Cities performing arts season and it all starts over the next seven days. If there was ever a time to contemplate just how good we've got it here, artistically speaking (at least for the moment), this would be it. Tonight, the Children's Theatre Company opens the world premiere of Iqbal, the true story of a Pakistani boy sold into slavery at age 4 to work in a rug factory. He escapes six years later and becomes an influential advocate against child labor. And while the subject could easily have veered into a didactic "Child labor: bad!" or even a self-congratulatory "Hmph, glad I don't live... Read more » Posted on Friday, March 6, 2009 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0) |
|
