Jon Behm

The Twin Cities' premier ballet institution, the James Sewell Ballet Company, presented its newest season performance this past weekend: The

The Varsity Theater was the perfect place for the Bowerbirds performance on Tuesday night—the North Carolingian trio's bittersweet melodies were perfectly matched to the theater's lush, velvety decor. In fact if it weren't for the stage lights one could have mistaken the entire performance for an intimate gathering in someone's enormous living room. Attendees lounged around the floor, chatting, sipping drinks; sometimes cradling pillows from one of the venue's many couches. Three hundred pairs of pajamas would have made the picture complete—but alas, the recent cold spell kept everyone bundled.

The Fresh Five is a series of five world premiere one-act plays currently being staged at Bedlam Theatre by 20% Theatre Company Twin Cities. Each play is directed by an emerging female director, handpicked by the theater for her "gutsy" and "provocative" attitude towards her work. While in theater the verb "gutsy" is often mistakenly attached to plays which pointlessly try to raise the stakes of perversity, histrionics, or sheer confusion, the Fresh Five directors admirably work within the bounds of conventional narratives to tell their unconventional stories.

Fans attending Sunday's performance by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros at the Varsity Theater were treated to a night of seemingly endless waiting. Not only did the doors open 40 minutes behind schedule while hundreds shivered outside, but the lengthy soundchecks and time between sets made it a four-hour show, of which less than two hours were actually music. Luckily, when there was music it was generally spectacular; anything less and the venue might have had a riot on its hands.