Downtown
THURSDAY PICK | At RetroRama, the personal is political
Is there any key to the mysteries of history that's more accessible than fashion? Turn back the clock just ten years, and you can see yourself wearing something that you'd never wear today...but of course, everyone was wearing it back then. In the past. The past(s) is (are) where the Minnesota Historical Society makes its business to dwell, and each year the MHS celebrates fashions past with a "RetroRama" event featuring looks from a selected moment in time. This time around, though, the designers' mandate is thematic rather than periodic: the fashions on display will all be somehow related to politics. Also on tap are custom cocktails, music by the Southside Aces, and "Blingo" with Ellie Blades.MORE »
SUNDAY PICK | Folk Baroque: String fusion at the Baroque Room
I was nonplussed at the Portland Cello Project, but just to prove that I don't hate the entire concept of classical fusion, I'm going to go ahead and give a shout-out to Folk Baroque, an ensemble who explore the full range of the violin/fiddle repertoire. Folk and classical music have been elegantly wed many a time, from Dvořák's New World symphony to the stylings of Minnesota's own Orange Mighty Trio, and Folk Baroque's May 27 performance at the Baroque Room looks likely to please a varied crowd.MORE »
Očhéthi Šakówiŋ: The Seven Council Fires website is now live
For over a decade the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) has been digitizing collections materials for the purposes of increasing accessibility, supporting research, and preserving original materials. The Očhéthi Šakówiŋ—The Seven Council Fires digitization project expanded to include additional goals. Sought by Dakota individuals who wanted increased access and understanding of the Dakota material culture in the MHS collections, a new level of transparency was achieved. By using the WOTR (Write On The Record) tool to record feedback and comments MHS steps back and shares authority in interpreting this material. Both MHS and Dakota communities will benefit from this partnership as information about these items is dramatically enhanced.MORE »
THEATER REVIEW | Blank Slate Theatre's "Analyzing the Bully" looks at peer abuse from the bully's perspective
I am not a bully. Despite my stint in fifth grade of pushing fourth-graders into snowdrifts and calling them stupid, I have never been, nor could I ever be, a bully.
At least that’s what the doctors from blank slate theatre’s original production of Analyzing the Bully told me. Bullies, to them, can only be males under the age of 20 who are athletes, bigots and homophobes. Bullies always use force, wear torn jeans and black shirts, and have no reason for their “random” acts of violence.MORE »
THEATER REVIEW | "The Addams Family" musical: La cage de la mort
In The Addams Family musical, the famously morbid tribe must welcome into their Gothic mansion a family who are distressingly lively and bright. But there's a larger problem that they're not allowed, except for one sly aside about word-of-mouth, to realize: they're in a Broadway musical, a genre as antithetical to unhappy endings as country music is to flag-burning. A successful Addams Family musical would steer into that skid, would deploy the contrarian Addamses to tear down the walls of a genre that's desperately in need of renovation. Instead, the characters inhabit this by-the-numbers show like the brand they are, answering to their names but not their natures.MORE »
THEATER | Analyzing "Analyzing the Bully" with Adam Arnold
I met with Blank Slate Theatre's artistic director Adam Arnold in late April to discuss the company's production of Analyzing the Bully. The ground-breaking work had its world premiere over the weekend of May 3-5.MORE »
THEATER REVIEW | At Park Square Theatre, "Doubt" is a riveting drama
A riveting production of Doubt: A Parable is now playing at Park Square Theatre. In 2005, playwright Patrick Shanley’s play won both the Pulitzer Prize Award for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. Director Craig Johnson delivers a tight, well-paced and tense production of this multi-layered play.MORE »
THEATER REVIEW | History Theatre's "Capital Crimes" don't quite get off scot-free
Being a big history buff of the gangster era in St. Paul, I always thought that the stories of the Barker-Karpis gang warranted their own play. But the History Theatre did better: it made not only a play based on them, it produced a play about the whole gang. The current production of Capital Crimes: The St. Paul Gangster Musical is a revival of the theatre’s 2000 production of The Gangster Musical, which was written by David Hawley with music and lyrics by Drew Jansen. In this latest version of the musical, the show has been tweaked and songs have been added. Noah Bremer directs this new version with interesting, but sometimes mixed results.MORE »
BOOK REVIEW | Rhoda Gilman's "Stand Up!" describes Minnesota protest history, echoed today
"I'm an addict of history," says Minnesota historian Rhoda Gilman, the author of Stand Up! The Story of Minnesota's Protest Tradition, in a Minnesota 2020 video interview. Her book, published in 2012 by the Minnesota Historical Society, draws on that addiction and on Gilman's passion for progressive politics to "connect the dots" and portray protest as central to Minnesota's history.MORE »
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