PREVIEW: Weekly Concert Picks: Post-Thanksgiving to Christmas Arts Music by Amy Donahue - November 25, 2021November 25, 2021 The Champagne Drops (Emily Dussault, left; Leslie Vincent, right) will make their debut on Crooners' Mainstage in Fridley, Minnesota on December 19. A dinner with family might make you feel clammily, but a concert a week makes you feel pretty chic. Aphorisms and strained rhymes notwithstanding, Thanksgiving marks the formal start of
BREAKING NEWS: Brand New Minneapolis School of New Music Abruptly Closes Arts Music by Amy Donahue - October 6, 2021October 7, 2021 A message from Minneapolis School of New Music founder Bart Johnson on the school's closure. The Minneapolis School of New Music has closed. The charter school, which opened its doors this fall, promised middle school children a tuition-free, music-immersive curriculum. Founder Bart Johnson cited the resignations of 2 of the school'
PREVIEW: The Playwrights’ Center’s 50th Anniversary Season Arts Theatre by Amy Donahue - September 26, 2021September 26, 2021 The Playwrights' Center launched its first detailed look at its 50th Anniversary Season last night with its Taste of the Season preview. While in normal times, the Taste of the Season has served as an in-person, hybrid fundraiser and preview, due to ongoing public health conditions it went online this
PREVIEW: Opera on the Lake Strikes Back Arts Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - July 27, 2021July 27, 2021 It's summer in Minnesota, which means it's officially Lake Time. By the lake, in the lake, on the lake – we're not the Land of 10,000 Lakes for nothing. This makes the return of the Opera on the Lake festival to Lake Como this week as natural as sweet corn at
NEWS: MN Jewish Theatre Returns to Live Performance with Sally Wingert, A Pickle Arts Theatre by Amy Donahue - April 23, 2021April 25, 2021 If you were going to return to live performances with a big splash, what would you pick? The Hennepin Theatre Trust's answer this past winter was simple: Hamilton, the genre-bending Broadway mega musical hit by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Sadly, this was not to be – as the Third Wave of COVID-19 infections
NEWS: Christina Baldwin to Take Reins at Jungle Theater Arts Theatre by Amy Donahue - April 20, 2021April 21, 2021 Christina Baldwin, the Jungle Theater's newest Artistic Director. Christina Baldwin has been appointed as permanent Artistic Director of the Jungle Theater, a storied theater located on Lyndale near Lake Street in Uptown Minneapolis. Baldwin is the company's third permanent Artistic Director, succeeding Sarah Rasmussen and founder Bain Boehlke. Baldwin is no stranger
NEWS: Yellow Tree Theatre Appoints New Artistic Director Arts Theatre by Amy Donahue - February 15, 2021February 15, 2021 Osseo, MN-based Yellow Tree Theatre has appointed Austene Van as its next Producing Artistic Director. Van will succeed founders Jason Peterson and Jessica Lind Peterson, who formed the regional theatre powerhouse in 2008. Austene Van is a multi-talented theatre professional with more than three decades' experience in the performing arts as
REVIEW: Stirring The Planet – A Lament (PROTOTYPE Festival) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Amy Donahue - January 15, 2021January 15, 2021 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
FEATURE: Back to the Theatre: Fortune’s Fool and St. Croix Retaking Stages Arts Music Theatre by Amy Donahue - November 4, 2020November 4, 2020 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
PREVIEW: Cutthroat Rivalries, Horror, Music Conservatories in Nocturne Arts Movies Music by Amy Donahue - October 9, 2020October 15, 2020 A promotional image for the psychohorror drama film Nocturne (2020). Sibling rivalry. A book of secrets. A cutthroat music conservatory. Something supernatural shifting the balance of power. These are a few of the elements in Nocturne, a Netflix Original movie dropping on October 15.Nocturne tells the story of twin sisters at a