A video still from Garin Nugroho’s The Planet – A Lament, now playing in the 2021 virtual incarnation of the PROTOTYPE festival. It was with profound jealousy that I first learned of the PROTOTYPE festival of new music-theatre works. My editor had traveled to New York City to see the festival
NEWS: Hennepin Theatre Trust’s New 2021-2022 Season
The cast of Hamilton, one of 12 musicals in the redesigned 2021-2022 season announced today by the Hennepin Theatre Trust. Photo by Joan Marcus. The Hennepin Theatre Trust announced its 2021-2022 season today. After numerous cancellations due to COVID-19, 11 of the 12 planned Broadways shows – plus an addition –
NEWS: Crooners to Reopen Jan. 28
Cocktails sit on the bar in a summer promotional photo from Crooners Supper Club in Fridley, MN. The Fridley, MN-based Crooners Supper Club will reopen January 28. Like other dining entities across the state, Crooners has been closed since November 20; by the time it reopens two weeks from today, it
INTERVIEW: MCA Executive Director Sheila Smith & the Road Ahead
NEWS: Chanhassen Dinner Theatres to Resume Concerts & Comedy Jan. 15
Michael Gruber (as traveling conman Harold Hill) and Ann Michels (as Marian Paroo) in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' The Music Man, whose performances were suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Dan Norman. Chanhassen Dinner Theatres announced today that it will resume its live concerts and comedy shows beginning
NEWS: Forecast Public Art’s 2021 Grant Recipients
St. Paul-based Forecast Public Art announced today the recipients of its 2021 early- and mid-career artist grants. A total of $86,000 has been distributed to support 15 artists working on 13 separate projects, leadership and professional development activities, risk-taking, multidisciplinary approaches, and collaborative problem solving in the field of public
INTERVIEW: Taking the Multi-Site PROTOTYPE Festival Online in a Pandemic
A visual collage of six works featured in the 2021 PROTOTYPE festival. Clockwise from upper left: TIMES3, Wide Slumber Lepidopteris, Ocean Body, The Planet – A Lament, Modulation, and The Murder of Halit Yozgat. For lovers of new music-theatre, there are few events more exciting than the annual PROTOTYPE festival held
NEWS: SPCO Cancels Live Concerts through June 2021
A 2015 SPCO performance at the Ordway Concert Hall in Saint Paul, MN. Photo by Ash & James Photography. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra announced today that all regular, in-person concerts will be suspended through June 2021. The announcement comes as the number of COVID-19 cases is increasing rapidly across the
FEATURE: Back to the Theatre: Fortune’s Fool and St. Croix Retaking Stages
Heidi Garrido is one of 22 artists featured in Fortune's Fool Theatre's production of To Breed, or Not to Breed, opening tonight at the Crane Theater in Northeast Minneapolis. Photo by Jace Garrido-Edington for HM Photography. It's a morning that has Americans waiting on the edge of their seats – the
VIDEO: Cantus Sings Ola Gjeilo’s Ubi Caritas
The members of the Cantus vocal ensemble. As with Major League Baseball, so with Cantus: the award-winning vocal ensemble is back at work after following a strict period of quarantine. Unlike Major League Baseball, however, there haven't been any quarantine jumpers to sow confusion and potential sickness in the ranks. And