Playwright Sami Pfeffer in December 2017 while working on an Art Shanty Project. Tomorrow, Gadfly Theatre Productions will premiere Children's Play, a new theatrical work by Sami Pfeffer. This play for adult audiences explores melancholy and symptoms of mental health. Pfeffer spoke with the Arts Reader's Basil Considine about bringing this work to
Author: Basil Considine
Basil Considine is the Performing Arts Editor and Senior Classical Music and Drama Critic at the Twin Cities Arts Reader. He was previously the Resident Classical Music and Drama Critic at the Twin Cities Daily Planet and remains an occasional contributing writer for The Boston Musical Intelligencer and The Chattanoogan. He holds a PhD in Music and Drama from Boston University, an MTS in Sacred Music from the BU School of Theology, and a BA in Music and Theatre from the University of San Diego.
Basil was named one of Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year in 2017.
BREAKING NEWS: Patrick’s Cabaret to Close Permanently
A scene from the 2014 Culture Wars Cabaret hosted by Patrick's Cabaret. Photo by Ryan Stopera. Patrick's Cabaret announced today that it will close permanently this summer. The surprise announcement stunned many in the Twin Cities; the organization has been a fixture in the Twin Cities performing arts scene for 31
INTERVIEW: Kimbra on Her Primal Heart and the Cedar Cultural Center Concert
A promotional photo for Kimbra's third studio album, Primal Heart, which drops April 20. Photo by Micaiah Carter. New Zealand singer-songwriter Kimbra first burst onto American airwaves in 2012, when her duet "Somebody I Used to Know" with Australian recording artist Gotye rocketed to the top of the Billboard 100. This was
INTERVIEW: Incoming Producing Artistic Director Rod Kaats and Ordway President/CEO Jamie Grant on the Future of the Ordway
Rod Kaats, the incoming producing artistic director at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. There were big tap shoes to fill at the Ordway when James Rocco announced last year that he would step down as Vice President of Programming and Producing Artistic Director. On Thursday, the Ordway Center for
TOP 10: Basil Considine’s Favorite Twin Cities Stage Performances of 2017
Brittany Bellizeare as Pecola (foreground) in the Guthrie Theater's production of The Bluest Eye. Photo by Dan Norman. During the 2017 calendar year, I saw more than 150 theatre performances. That tally excludes shows that I directed and dance-only performances, but includes spoken theatre, musicals, opera, improv, and pretty much anything
PREVIEW: The Humans Captures a Vanishing Middle Class (Orpheum/Hennepin Theatre Trust)
INTERVIEW: Sarah Rasmussen on the Jungle Theater’s New Season
A promotional image for the Jungle Theater's upcoming production of Ishmael. It's been several winters – and, some would say right now, not enough summers – since the Jungle Theater announced the appointment of Sarah Rasmussen as its new artistic director in March 2015. At the time, the native of Sisseton,
INTERVIEW: Elena Giannetti, The Last Five Years, and Creating Directing Spaces
A promotional photo for Artistry's upcoming production of The Last Five Years showing Cathy (Aly Westberg O’Keeffe) and Jamie (Ryan London Levin). Photo by Devon Cox/Artistry. One of the archtypical cult musicals of the early 20th century is Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. This two-person show tells the story of a
INTERVIEW: John Olive and How the Ghost of You Clings
FEATURE: The Chandelier in The Phantom of the Opera
The chandelier used in the current Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera. The current touring show chandelier is proportionally taller and emphasizes other details of the model chandeliers at the Paris Opera. Read Basil Considine's review of The Phantom of the Opera. At the height of the first megamusical craze,