Theater

If you love local theater, consider the Theater All Year program offered by the Twin Cities Media Alliance, the Daily Planet's parent nonprofit. For only $99, you can buy six vouchers good for tickets to shows by dozens of top local theater companies.

(The Theater All Year program is run independently of the Daily Planet's editorial coverage, and participation in the program does not affect the likelihood or content of any Daily Planet previews or reviews.)

THEATER REVIEW | "Rock of Ages" is so 80s at the Orpheum Theatre

By Morgan Halaska, TC Daily Planet

Photo credit Scott Suchman

My understanding of the 80s is mostly constructed by the stereotype of the era—growing up Carebear-obsessed didn't gain me much perspective outside of what was happening in Care-A-Lot. Yeah, I know all the songs I'm supposed to and the style just like everyone else. And while Friday, May 17th's performance of Rock of Ages didn't show or tell me to anything non-cliched about what it was like to live in the 80s, I concluded that—between the crass tongue lappings, booby jokes, and repulsive hair styles—it was just simply a gross time. That probably wasn't the consensus in the midst (is it ever?), but it certainly seems to be now.

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THEATER REVIEW | "An Illiad" at the Guthrie Theater: Homer, up close and personal

By Dan Reiva, TC Daily Planet

Stephen Yoakam in An Illiad. Photo by Aaron Fenster, courtesy Guthrie Theater.

In Athens, Greece, circa 450 BCE, the blind poet Homer was bigger than the Beatles. His The Iliad and The Odyssey put him on the level of John, Paul, Luke, and Matthew in terms of laying the literary foundation of a civilization’s religious beliefs. Dramatizations of Homer’s work are always a challenge in the modern day and I can only imagine a theater approaching Homer with fear and trepidation. Director Benjamin McGovern rises to this challenge in the Guthrie Theater production of An Illiad.

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John Munger: A life in dance

By Linda Shapiro, Arts Orbit

John Munger—dancer, choreographer, teacher, writer, philosopher, raconteur, researcher and historian—invested everything he did with passionate intensity. He illuminated the field of dance with his droll and sophisticated dances, his wizardly statistical analysis of dance trends, and his passion for making dance accessible and available to everyone. His untimely death on April 30, 2013, at age 67 has left his family and his many colleagues, friends, students, and supporters heavy of heart and full of praise for this man of many parts.

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Arts Orbit

"Aberration of Starlight": Playwright Walter A. Davis gets to the heart of Emily Dickinson

By Dwight Hobbes, Sounding Off On Sound

There aren't a great many male playwrights who do well creating female characters of any dimension. In fact, the list of famous names is fairly short. After William Inge, Tennessee Williams, and August Wilson you have to scratch your head pretty hard to come up with more. Which makes it all the more fascinating that accomplished author Walter A. Davis (The Holocaust Memorial: A Play About Hiroshima, Trim: The Tiger Woods Story) is bringing his work back to the Twin Cities with the premiere of Aberration of Starlight: A Play About Emily Dickinson.

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THEATER PREVIEW | Sibyl Kempson, living female playwright of Elevator Repair Service

By Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet

Sibyl Kempson. Photo by Sheila Regan.

Last week, I met Sibyl Kempson on the day of her arrival from Brooklyn as she began final rehearsals for the preview performance of Fondly, Collette Richland at the Walker Art Center. She's a petite, exuberant firecracker of a woman, and we immediately dished about arts education policy, the economy, sexism, and a number of other political, artistic, and social topics as we walked across Loring Park to have a drink.

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MayDay 2013 moments, part 4

By Alan Wilfahrt

MayDay means making noise. Making our community voice unite and celebrate, criticize, teach together in one world. We share, we mourn and rejoice. We are MayDay cheer.

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MayDay 2013 moments, part 1

By Alan Wilfahrt, The Public Recluse
As anyone who has participated in a MayDay event on the first Sunday of May will testify, a daze often prevails over the following days. The players had practiced and played their parts.
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The Public Recluse

MayDay 2013 moments, part 3

By Alan Wilfahrt

 In my normal photography, I often avoid images with recognizable faces. I am usually trying to capture the essance of the situation and not a specifice individual.

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Theatre in the Round's "Treasure Island" and the power of imagination

By Jay Gabler, Front Row Seat

A 1911 Treasure Island illustration by N.C. Wyeth

I try not to let commenters bug me, but one who did succeed in getting my dander up was an anonymous (of course) commenter on my negative review of the Jungle Theater's Noises Off. In the review I said that people would be better off watching the 1992 film adaptation, and this commenter condescendingly sneered that comparing a theatrical production to a movie was patent evidence of my incompentence as a critic. "No critic worth anything would compare stage to screen. They're completely different mediums and completely different techniques are used to accomplish them. I'm amazed that someone with two masters degrees doesn't know that."

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MayDay 2013 moments, part 2

By Alan Wilfahrt

Powderhorn Park in South Minneapolis is the host location for MayDay.  The over-all-the-park, day-long event is referenced as the MayDay Festival.

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