WEEKEND PICKS: Space Eggs, Play Readings, Hobbits, and Sunken Pharoahs Arts Dance Dining Lifestyle Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by Hanne Appelbaum - March 28, 2019March 28, 2019 A man steps into the giant space egg sauna at the American Swedish Institute. Photo by Basil Considine. Looking for things to do this weekend? Here are our top picks: Thursday Gun control's on the mind and theatre is the battleground. Code Red Playwrights presents a series of short (1-5 minute) play readings
INTERVIEW: Maggie Burr and Jim Ahrens on Theatre Elision’s Of Art and Artists Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre Visual Arts by Basil Considine - March 26, 2019March 26, 2019 A word cloud built from the names of composers in Theatre Elision's upcoming Of Art and Artists program. Next Thursday, Theatre Elision opens a short-run performance entitled Of Art and Artists. The ambitious, label-defying program will mix readings of poetry, showings of visual art, choral singing, and dance in three performances
REVIEW: Così fan tutte Hits New York (Skylark Opera Theatre) Arts Music Theatre by Basil Considine - March 23, 2019March 26, 2019 KrisAnne Weiss, Laurent Kuehnl, Luke Williams, Tess Altiveros, and Justin Spenner in Skylark Opera Theatre's production of Mozart's Così fan tutte. Photo by Matt Bellin. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte's opera Così fan tutte has been getting a lot of programming love in Minnesota of late. Last week, Fargo
REVIEW: A Thoroughly English Mikado (GSVLOC) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - March 19, 2019March 19, 2019 "Three little maids from school are we" – Sarah Mehle as Patricia Singleton/Patti Sing, Margaret Matejcek as Taylor Tarrington/Tum Tum, and Blanka Melbostad as Barbara O. Peoples/Bow Peep in the Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company's new production of The Mikado. The Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company opened
REVIEW: Freewheeling Adaptation of The Hobbit at CTC (Children’s Theatre Company) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Amy Donahue - March 19, 2019March 19, 2019 Becca Hart and Reed Sigmund in the Children's Theatre Company's new adaptation of The Hobbit. Photo by Dan Norman. There's a freewheeling musical adaptation of The Hobbit playing at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. This new take on J.R.R. Tolkien's classic children's novel is very loosely based on the source
INTERVIEW: Soprano Liv Redpath on Singing in the Best of All Possible Worlds Arts Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - March 18, 2019March 18, 2019 Opera is seemingly everywhere in the Twin Cities in March, with productions and concerts by the University of Minnesota, Minnesota Opera, Skylark Opera Theatre, and more. Into this tangled period leaps the choral music ensemble VocalEssence, which has chosen "The Best of All Possible Worlds" – that is, to perform Leonard
REVIEW: Timely The Fix (MN Opera) Arts Dance Music Opera Theatre by Basil Considine - March 17, 2019March 17, 2019 The ensemble of Minnesota Opera's world premiere production of The Fix, which opened Saturday at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota. Photo by Cory Weaver. It's rather poetic that Minnesota Opera's The Fix premiered just days after breaking news of a major college admissions fraud and bribery
INTERVIEW: Tyler Michaels on Becoming Hedwig and Trademarking Theater Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - March 15, 2019March 15, 2019 Tyler Michaels rehearsing for Theater Latté Da's upcoming production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Photo by Emilee Elofson. 21 years ago, on Valentine's Day, an unlikely success called Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened Off Broadway. An in-your face, mostly solo punk rock musical, Hedwig dives straight into the physical
REVIEW: The Joys of Mamma Mia (Chanhassen Dinner Theatres) Arts Dance Music Theatre by Basil Considine - March 12, 2019March 15, 2019 Michelle Barber, Kersten Rodau, and Therese Walth as galpals in Chanhassen Dinner Theatres' new production of Mamma Mia! If you'd asked me 20 years ago about the commercial future of Mamma Mia!, a then-new musical set to open in London's West End, I would have said "Don't invest in it." You
INTERVIEW: Theatre Unbound’s New Executive Director Jenny Moeller on Taking the Wheel Arts Theatre by Basil Considine - March 11, 2019March 11, 2019 A wordcloud generated from an interview with Theatre Unbound's incoming Executive Director, Jenny Moeller. This fall, Theatre Unbound will celebrate its 20th season of making live theatre created and conceived by women. A 20th birthday is counted as a crown year; for its 20th, Theatre Unbound is crowning a new Executive