Theater
THEATER | At Bedlam, Four Humors prove that "Love is Blind...and Furry"
I see quite a few plays, but never have I heard someone laughing so hard that she actually cried out for help. At the Thursday night performance of Four Humors' Love is Blind...and Furry at Bedlam Theatre, the woman behind me was in such paroxysms that she pleaded for mercy, as though someone was tickling her. "Stop! Oh, Stop!"MORE »
Arts Orbit Radar: 11/5/09
What's Happening This Week
On the radar: For most of human history, no one ever said, "Fo shizzle, my nizzle." Then Snoop Dogg said it, then everyone said it—and now, thank God, we're back to no one (except your awkward uncle) saying it. The West Coast drawler will be at Epic tonight, playing to a crowd of former frat boys, aging gangstas, and hipsters who face a tough choice between Snoop and A Fine Frenzy.
Under the radar: Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble isn't coming to Minnesota in the near future, but tonight we have the next best thing: Robaybat and Güvenç and Burk Orchestra, an all-star cast of local musicians who promise to lead "a musical journey through Greece, Turkey, into the Balkans, through Central Asia and Persia."
On the radar: This weekend's Art Attack gives you a chance to see the work of Northrup King artists without having to fight the Art-a-Whirl crowds. If you're looking for a crowd, try to squeeze in to the Paramore show at Roy Wilkins.
Under the radar: Lowertown has been pushing hard to compete with Minneapolis as an entertainment destination, and at least according to Sean McPherson, it's working. Tonight, the newly-anointed Lowertown Entertainment District hosts its first monthly First Friday open-studio event.MORE »
Six Nutcrackers, eight Nativities, and seven Christmas Carols: Your complete guide to holiday theater
The holidays are a time of cherished traditions, and for many families, those traditions include a theater outing. Local theaters are mounting a dizzying array of holiday shows this November and December—but most of them are variations on a few standard plots. You've got your Nativity stories, you've got your Nutcrackers, you've got your Christmas Carols, and you've got your Santa stories; in each category, there are options ranging from the reverently traditional to the completely outlandish. MORE »
Joe Dowling miscast himself in the Guthrie's "Faith Healer"...but who should have played his role? Here's my suggestion
Despite the fact that it meant ending an extended acting hiatus, it must have been irresistible for Joe Dowling to cast himself as the title character in Brian Friel's Faith Healer. Not only is Friel a playwright whose work has long been particularly significant for Dowling, Faith Healer is much more a meditation on art—and theater in particular—than on faith.MORE »
THEATER | "Elijah's Wake" at Open Eye: A taut emotional tightrope walked by humans and puppets alike
Elijah's Wake runs just over an hour, and it's paying Michael Sommers's creation a compliment to say that you probably wouldn't want it to last much longer. The acclaimed 2003 work by Open Eye Figure Theatre, now being reprised at the company's storefront space in the Phillips neighborhood, is a bracing cocktail of macabre puppetry and convincingly desperate acting; it's visually rich, but it's also unremittingly challenging both intellectually and emotionally.MORE »
THEATER | Pillsbury House's "Breaking Ice" program helps organizations open the channels of communication
Since 1992, Breaking Ice, a theater program developed by Pillsbury House Theatre, has been helping to break down the barriers to communication found in the workplace through dynamic custom performances geared toward specific institutions or organizations. MORE »
Break a leg...but do it at the audition, not on your way there: Learning the ropes at the Twin Cities Actor Expo
Nearly 300 actors, models, and others interested in making it in the entertainment "biz" showed up at Hotel Ivy on October 24 for the Twin Cities Actor Expo, a one-day networking event for the Twin Cities entertainment industry.MORE »
THEATER | "All's Well That Ends Well" in a stark London production beamed to the Guthrie
Love. Whoever said it conquers all had not the unrequited kind in mind. Unrequited love remains as much of a puzzle in contemporary life as it did when posed as one of the moral dilemmas present in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well. Last weekend, the Guthrie presented a video of the London National Theatre's production of the play, directed by one of Britain's finest, Marianne Elliot.MORE »
Arts Orbit Radar: 10/29/09
What's Happening This Week
On the radar: Unbelievably, there are still Miley Cyrus tickets available for tonight. This is going to leave her with no choice but to follow the Britney route and start getting skanky. Speaking of skanky, those man-whores Jim James, Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and M. Ward have all put their steady bands on hiatus to jump into a wild foursome at the Orpheum as Monsters of Folk.
Under the radar: Artist Lucia Hwang, writes the curator of her show opening today at Augsburg, "brings up the conflict that occurs when people cannot entirely accept or reject the world around them." Specifically, she does this with 365 rolls of toilet paper. They're right...I can neither entirely accept nor entirely reject that.
On the radar: Tiësto, the world's #1 DJ (more or less), is at Epic tonight with several celebrity collaborators "joining" him on video.
Under the radar: Alarmel Valli, one of the greatest living practitioners of classical Indian dance, performs at the O'Shaughnessy tonight. If you go, expect to rub elbows with the Twin Cities' most passionate dance connoisseurs.MORE »
Barebones Halloween extravaganza in St. Paul
Stilts, bicycles, rigging, gigantic vultures, wolves, chickens, and moths take the stage at Hidden Falls Park for the last two weekends in October. This year's Barebones Puppets production, the largest ever, is the 16th annual outdoor Halloween extravaganza. The first weekend saw crowd far beyond the hay bale seating capacity. Barebones performs gigantic puppetry in public parks or outdoor spaces, with this year's celebration taking place between fall storms. MORE »
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