REVIEW: Stirring American Musical Heroes (Minnesota Orchestra) Arts Music by Basil Considine - July 31, 2021July 31, 2021 Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Photo by George Heinrich Photography. The Minnesota Orchestra is getting its flirt on. No, not some sort of brass-woodwinds or string-percussion imbroglio – flirting with the audience. The ensemble's American Musical Heroes program, playing this weekend, is a grand tease, leaving the audience wanting more of just about every
REVIEW: Musically Impressive Islander (Theatre Elision) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - July 29, 2021July 29, 2021 Deidre Cochran and Christine Wade in Theatre Elision's production of Islander by Amy Draper, Finn Anderson, and Stewart Melton, playing through July 31 at the Elision Playhouse in Crystal, MN. Photo by Jessica Holleque. If you're hesitant about returning to live theatre attendance, Theatre Elision is rolling out the red carpet treatment
BREAKING NEWS: Uprising Theatre Company to Close Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - July 26, 2021July 27, 2021 The Twin Cities-based Uprising Theatre Company announced today that it will cease operation in 2021. The organization joins the ranks of more than 200 Minnesota nonprofits to announce their plans to close since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Uprising Theatre's close leaves behind a legacy of rich and vigorous
REVIEW: Leslie Vincent Rocks the Belvedere in Sold-Out Show (Crooners) Arts Music by Basil Considine - June 6, 2021June 6, 2021 Singer-songwriter Leslie Vincent at her sold-out show at Crooners in Fridley, MN on Saturday, June 6. It was 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the open air in Fridley on Saturday evening. At Crooners, however, things were cooler, with a cooling breeze blowing off the lake and running under the tented canopy of
INTERVIEW: Leslie Vincent on Jazzing Up the Return to Live Performance (Crooners/The Belvedere) Arts Music by Basil Considine - June 3, 2021June 3, 2021 White Bear Lake-based singer-songwriter Leslie Vincent (front left) with her band at Crooners on August 10, 2020. Photo by Darin Kamnetz. For some musicians, 2020-2021 has been a giant artistic blank spot – less a tabula rasa, more a vacant room. Not so for singer-songwriter Leslie Vincent, who is taking the
REVIEW: Thrilling WonderLand at the Hill House (Collide Theatrical) Arts Dance by Basil Considine - May 22, 2021May 22, 2021 The White Rabbit (Rush Benson), The Doctor (Jarod Boltjes), Alice (Miranda Shaughnessy), and the Mad Hatter (Patrick Jeffrey) in Collide Theatrical's dance show Wonderland, now playing at the James J. Hill House in St. Paul, MN. Photo by Wells Film & Photo. There is nothing quite like seeing a good show
NEWS: Loring Park Art Festival Returning July 31-August 1 Arts Visual Arts by Basil Considine - May 20, 2021May 20, 2021 A visual collage of work by the featured artists at the 2021 Loring Park Art Festival. Clockwise from upper left: Jay Nielsen, Megan Murrel, Emily Gray Koehler, Aryn and Courtney Kern, Janine Schwendinger, Josh Driver. 140 juried artists. Seven featured Minnesotan artmakers. That's the Loring Park Art Festival's opening salvo for
REVIEW: Jamecia Bennett and the New Tent in Town (Crooners) Arts Music by Basil Considine - April 25, 2021April 26, 2021 Jamecia Bennett headlined the opening of Crooners Supper Club's new outdoor space on Friday evening. If you had a brand-new outdoor venue to commission, who would you hire? Do you need a Grammy Award-winning local artist who can sing the blues, sing the soul, and scat through jazz? If so, call
INTERVIEW: MCA Executive Director Sheila Smith & the Road Ahead Arts by Basil Considine - January 11, 2021January 11, 2021 A lot can happen in a quarter century – just ask Minnesota Citizens for the Arts Executive Director Sheila Smith, who has lead the organization since January 1996. After 25 years, however, Smith is stepping down from her role at MCA at the end of February 2021. On her retirement
INTERVIEW: Taking the Multi-Site PROTOTYPE Festival Online in a Pandemic Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - January 8, 2021January 15, 2021 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