NEWS: The Return of the Northern Spark Festival, 6/12-6/27 Arts Dance Music Visual Arts by Twin Cities Arts Reader - June 4, 2021June 4, 2021 A promotional image for the Northern Spark festival, adorned with Ojibwe pictographs. The acclaimed Northern Spark festival returns to the Twin Cities from June 12-27. This year’s festival has a deliberate emphasis on healing, transformative art within the larger theme of Alchemy. The festival is designed to draw artists and the
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
NEWS: Ordway to Throw Doors Open in September Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - June 3, 2021June 4, 2021 The facade of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in Saint Paul, MN. Photo by Mike Boeckmann. The Arts Partnership announced today that the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Saint Paul will reopen for performances beginning this September. The September shows will be the Ordway's first in-person,
NEWS: Cats Out of the Bag, Off Hennepin Theatre Trust’s 2021-2022 Season Arts Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - June 2, 2021June 7, 2021 A cat sitting on a tree branch in front of a bright harvest moon. Hennepin Theatre Trust announced today that the Broadway musical Cats will no longer be part of its upcoming 2021-2022 season. The schedule adjustment is the latest of many cascading changes in entertainment planning across the country as different
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: Playwrights’ Center Announces New Core Writers Arts Theatre by Twin Cities Arts Reader - May 22, 2021 The Playwrights’ Center announced the latest additions to its Core Writers program this week. This program, which gives playwrights a three-year affiliation and assistance with developing new works for the dramatic stage, will welcome seven new writers for 2021-2024: Mathilde Dratwa, L M Feldman, Franky D. Gonzalez, Yilong Liu, TyLie Shider, Deborah
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
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