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
INTERVIEW: Sami Pfeffer on Children’s Play and the Hideous Monster Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - February 28, 2018March 1, 2018 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
BREAKING NEWS: Patrick’s Cabaret to Close Permanently Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - January 30, 2018January 30, 2018 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 Arts Music by Basil Considine - January 22, 2018January 24, 2018 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 Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - January 22, 2018January 22, 2018 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 Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - January 12, 2018January 12, 2018 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) Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - January 10, 2018January 10, 2018 Sarah Steele and Cassie Beck in the Broadway tour of The Humans by Stephen Karam. Photo by Brigitte Lacombe. In the last several years, I have read and heard a growing chorus of calls for the American theatre to reflect and represent more of the turmoil roiling American society. As U.S. society
INTERVIEW: Sarah Rasmussen on the Jungle Theater’s New Season Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - January 8, 2018January 8, 2018 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 Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - January 5, 2018January 5, 2018 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 Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - December 27, 2017January 9, 2018 A photo collage of the early-20th century actress Anna May Wong, whose story is the focus of the upcoming How the Ghost of You Clings, the Anna Wong Story. Some people make New Year's resolutions to do less. The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis doesn't seem to have gotten that memo – come