Q&A with playwright Alan Berks about his new play, Music Lovers on 3/8/10

By: David de Young
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Nathan Christopher, Lindsay Marcy and Randy Reyes in MUSIC LOVERS - Photo credit - Travis Anderson Those of us who regularly see both music and theater events in the Twin Cities know that the scenes overlap a lot more than people might suspect. Musical theater aside, as exemplifed by the recent production of Rent which featurng Twin Cities Hip Hop and R&B ...

Somebody/Nobody at Mixed Blood Theatre on 2/26/10

By: John Olive
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 Elizabeth Grullon and Taj Ruler (in T-shirt) in Mixed Blood's SOMEBODY/NOBODY  - Photo by Ann Marsden Deranged starlet Sheena Keener flees the Surf Awards ("All those eyes"), stumbles out of her limo, rolls down a bebrambled freeway embankment and now with a photogenic scrape on her pampered forehead pounds on the wobbly door of Loli's cinderblock L.A. a...

Violet at The Guthrie Theater on 2/26/10

By: Janet Preus
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Violet - Britta Ollmann, Monty - Randy Schmeling, Preacher - Alan Sorenson and Young Violet - Maeve Moynihan in Theater Latté Da's production of VIOLET presented by the Guthrie Theater - Photo by Michal Daniel Theater Latté Da’s new musical, Violet – nicely suited to the Guthrie’s black box space, the Dowling Studio Theater – is a tight little ens...

Black Pearl Sings at Penumbra Theatre on 2/21/10

By: John Olive
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Crystal Fox (Pearl) and Stacia Rice (Susannah) -Photo credit: Ann Marsden Playwright Frank Higgins does two very smart things with his vivid Black Pearl Sings! (at Penumbra, 270 N. Kent Street, St. Paul, through March 14, penumbratheatre.org). First, he shoehorns an amazingly wide range of Depression-era America into his story: the humid Texas penitentiary, complete with chain g...

My Antonia at Illusion Theater on 2/19/10

By: Janet Preus
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John Catron as Jim Burden & Katie Guentzel as Antonia - Photo by Lauren B. Photography I will admit that I wondered why Illusion Theater (528 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis)  might pick this standard in American literature classes for a new adaptation. I know the book well, and even after years away from the classroom, I could recollect many images from its pages. Such is the p...

According to Coyote at The Children's Theatre Company on 2/14/10

By: John Olive
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George Keller in ACCORDING TO COYOTE - Publicity photo by Dan Norman The Trickster pops up everywhere. Reynard the Fox, Prometheus, Eshu (in the Yorba culture), the Monkey King (in Chinese mythology). In western literature, the quintessential Trickster is probably Shakespeare's Puck.     The character appears most vividly, though, in the vast and varied Native American storyt...

Expecting Isabel at Lowry Lab Theatre on 2/13/10

By: John Olive
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Expecting Isabel - Publicity photo At the outset I have to declare a prejudice: my wife (my play-going companion last night) and I are adoptive parents. We underwent, 13 years ago, the infertility/adoption tribulations of the hapless couple in Lisa Loomer's Expecting Isabel (Theatre Unbound, Lowry Lab Theatre, 350 St. Peter St., St. Paul, through Feb 28, theatreunbound.com). Anyone who has ever gone thro...

Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice at Twin Cities Friends Meetinghouse on 2/12/10

By: John Olive
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 Eurydice - Publicity photo by Scott Pakudaitis Last night I had the pleasure to attend the first performance of the first production of the Prospero Theatre Company, a group composed, so far as I can tell, of three "founding members", actors Rebekah Henrickson and MaryLynn Mennicke, along with director Kate Wulf. For their premiere, Prospero is tackling Eurydice (at...

Young Frankenstein at Orpheum Theatre on 2/9/10

By: Janet Preus
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Shuler Hensley and Roger Bart in Young Frankenstein - Photo by Paul Kolnik The Hennepin Theater Trust continues its season of touring productions with the Mel Brooks classic, Young Frankenstein, a musical version of his movie spoof on the monster horror genre.     But everybody knows that movie, right? If you do, you won’t be disappointed with the stage version. The schtick, the gags and the cha...

Yellow Face, a Theatre Mu Production at The Guthrie Theater on 2/7/10

By: John Olive
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Randy Reyes and Kim Kivens in The Guthrie presentation of a Mu Performing Arts production of Yellow Face, by David Henry Hwang.  Photo by Michal Daniel. David Henry Hwang calls the question very early in Yellow Face (produced by the always worthwhile Theatre Mu in the Guthrie's Dowling Studio, through Feb 21, guthrietheater.org): "Is race a meaningless construct?" Who, the play ...