March 2008

March 31, 2008

New Guthrie Season Announced: Something for Everyone

So many actors in this town, so little time/money/patience to sit in front of them and see what they want to tell us. Thing is, most of them are better than, say, Rock Hudson was in his prime. Better than Veronica Lake, better than almost anyone on TV in the '80s, with the possible exception of Alf. Yeah, us reserved Minnesotans, we act out in strange, but talented, ways. So what happens when one theater, the Guthrie, installs so many seats that they pretty much have to play to every taste--or have no taste--to fill them? Who's got time for so much theater--three stages, year-round? You do. Why? Because in a couple short years since moving into its airport-like new digs, the Guthrie has taken off, becoming what everyone either hoped or feared: a one-stop shop for Twin Cities theater. Read more »

Posted on Monday, March 31, 2008 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (3)

March 21, 2008

Hot new plays, SXSW

Let's do some housecleaning first--it's been awhile. I wish I could say I was at South By Southwest, the massive indie music festival in Austin, but better yet, I was in Mexico. In a treehouse. Enough said.

But since regular readers know my affection for eBay oddities, I was kindly sent this Jesus on a Salisbury Steak just in time for Easter. Seriously, up to $212 at press time? Maybe artists should reconsider their mediums. Again, enough said.

In any case, Minnesota musicians made... Read more »

Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 9, 2008

Review:

"The Piano Lesson" isn't the first installment in the late August Wilson's legendary 10-play chronicle of African-American life in the 20th century, but it sets the stage, as it were, as well as any. A black family has inherited a piano with a history entwined with slavery; one member wants to sell it to finance his dreams, the other wouldn't dream of it.

Wilson was a master of the old school, investing his--and the audience's--energy in the power of words rather than actions: people sitting around talking is one way to describe it, with characters moving pretty much only to leave or enter the set. Another is that all the talking, Tennessee Williams style, pulls you into another world the way a novel does--sit back and enjoy the soliloquies that roll off these actors' tongues... Read more »

Posted on Sunday, March 9, 2008 in Front & Center | Permalink | Comments (0)