NEWS: Loring Park Art Festival to Return July 28-29 Arts Visual Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - March 14, 2018March 14, 2018 Flowers blooming during a past Loring Park Art Festival. Photo by Sher Stoneman. The Loring Park Art Festival returns to downtown Minneapolis on July 28 and 29, 2018. This year will mark the 19th installment of the annual festival and showcase of art. This year's festival will showcase work by 140 artists across a
REVIEW: It’s the Time for Newsies (Chanhassen Dinner Theatres) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - March 14, 2018March 14, 2018 Aleks Knezevich (center) leads a ragtag group of newspaper boys (and one girl) in sticking it to the man in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' production of Newsies. Photo by Rich Ryan Photography. There is a moment in Newsies when Aleks Knezevich (as lead newsboy Jack Kelly) gives a speech about standing together. "All across this
REVIEW: Opera on Tap’s New Arias Program (Honey–Minneapolis) Arts Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - March 13, 2018March 18, 2018 Opera on Tap–Twin Cities director Eryn Tvete and singer Ben Winkler at 2017 installment of the organization's New Arias Program. Photo courtesy of Opera on Tap. The Twin Cities are home to a lot of things, but if you're a fan of new opera you shouldn't wait around too long to
REVIEW: Orphans and NHCC’s New Blackbox (North Hennepin Community College) Arts Theatre by Dan Reiva - March 11, 2018March 11, 2018 It seems like every other month that another long-time theatre in the Twin Cities announces its closure, caught between rising property values and fundraising woes. Discovering a new performance spaces being created is a welcome counter-current of good news. Last week, I attended an incredible dramatic performance of Lyle Kessler's play Orphans in
REVIEW: Kids Rock Out in School of Rock (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Bev Wolfe - March 10, 2018March 11, 2018 The cast of the national tour of School of Rock. Photo by Matthew Murphy. Andrew Lloyd Webber made much of his name and reputation with original – and now classic – rock operas like Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. Returning to the genre in 2013, however, Andrew Lloyd Webber surprisingly chose something quite
REVIEW: Indecent: Art and Erasure…and the Rain Scene (Guthrie) Arts Theatre by Kit Bix - March 10, 2018March 10, 2018 A "troupe" of Yiddish theatre players in the Guthrie Theater production of Paula Vogel's play Indecent, directed by Wendy C. Goldberg. Photo by Dan Norman. Indecent is one of the most powerful plays I’ve seen on the Guthrie stage. It is beautiful. At times, it’s funny. At moments, it’s transfixing. It is
INTERVIEW: Grace Chermak on Playing a Doll (in Guys and Dolls) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - March 10, 2018June 24, 2018 Grace Chermak (second from the left) stars in the Old Log Theatre's upcoming production of Guys and Dolls. Also pictured: Eric Sargent, Charlie Clark, and Kym Chambers Otto. Photo courtesy of the Old Log Theatre. The Old Log Theatre's production of the classic musical Guys and Dolls opens today in Excelsior,
NEWS: Rebuilding a Library after ISIS Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - March 7, 2018March 7, 2018 The Great Library of Alexandria burning in antiquity, as depicted in John Westrop Watkins' Popular History of Egypt (1886). There's not a lot that you can do for a library that's been deliberately set on fire. There is, however, quite a lot that you can do when the fire's stopped burning, most of
PHOTOS: Corduroy at the Children’s Theatre Company Arts Dance Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - March 6, 2018 The cover image for the classic children's book Corduroy by Don Freeman. Freeman both wrote and illustrated this classic series, which has now been adapted for the stage. The Children's Theatre Company's production of Corduroy, a stage adaptation of the classic children's novel by Don Freeman, opens today. Freeman (1908-1978), a professional
PREVIEW: The Still Days – SPCO’s The Last Seven Words of Christ Arts Music by Basil Considine - March 4, 2018March 5, 2018 A page from an 1801 printing of Joseph Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross. The Triduum - the three days before Easter - are one of the holiest parts of the Christian calendar. In many parts of Europe, the Triduum were observed with silence in churches and