Nice Fish

by SOPHIE KERMAN There’s a certain mystique out there about fishing, a sense that the long wait (or desperate quest) for a fish can somehow be compared to the various ways of leading one’s life with artistry, impatience, or obsession. The idea has been exploited in various forms for centuries, from “A River Runs Through…

Hamlet: $20 Tickets

The Minnesota Opera is inviting readers to purchase $20 tickets to Hamlet for tonight, March 5! Here is a link to our review, and check out the offer details below. You can also see preview videos on the MN Opera’s YouTube channel! $20 tickets* to Hamlet Tuesday, March 5 Use code blog20 Visit mnopera.org for a show synopsis and…

Doubt: $20 Tickets

The Minnesota Opera is inviting readers to purchase $20 tickets to Doubt for tonight, Jan 26, or Tuesday, Jan 29! Here is a link to our review, and check out the offer details below. You can also see preview videos on the MN Opera’s YouTube channel! $20 tickets* to Doubt Saturday, January 26 or Tuesday, January 29 Use…

Doubt

by SOPHIE KERMAN The Minnesota Opera has done a brave thing by commissioning John Patrick Shanley and Douglas J. Cuomo to write an opera based on Shanley’s Pulitzer- & Tony-winning play (and Oscar-nominated movie) Doubt. With the amount of acclaim the play and the movie have gotten over the years, a third adaptation could be seen as either redundant or…

Kill Me Don’t Go

by SOPHIE KERMAN Kill Me Don’t Go, a brand new play by Trista Baldwin, does not shy away from marriage’s most harrowing moments. Ambitious in its emotional scope, Kill Me explores the profound connection and dangerous interdependency that can develop between two people who have chosen to wind their lives around each other. Although the situation between…

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been…

by SOPHIE KERMAN When it comes time to justify their work, the testimony of an artist speaks to much more than simply the words on the page. Although Are You Now or Have You Ever Been… is framed around Langston Hughes’ 1953 hearing in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, it is not Hughes’ sympathies…

What’s the Word For

by SOPHIE KERMAN Despite its being a world premiere, the Illusion Theater’s latest production is strangely undersold. On its website and in press materials, What’s the Word For is presented as the story of inter-generational support between a middle-aged man and an older woman who somehow bond over crossword puzzles. This doesn’t necessarily come across as a play…

On the Spectrum

by ANNA ROSENSWEIG For the the third play in its Center of the Margins festival, the Mixed Blood Theatre Company offers the world premiere of On the Spectrum, an encounter between two young adults who live with different degrees of autism. Written by Ken LaZebnick and directed by Jack Reuler (Mixed Blood’s founder and artistic…

Special Offer: Silent Night, Tuesday November 15

Want to see this phenomenal world premiere but feeling broke? The Minnesota Opera has kindly offered a special $20 ticket rate for our readers for the performance on Tuesday, November 15! Here’s the details: Limit up to 4 seats regularly priced $50- $110. Online: Enter blog20 and click “Add Coupon”. You will see your savings applied. Do…

Silent Night

by SOPHIE KERMAN The Minnesota Opera‘s world premiere production of Silent Night – opening this Saturday for a limited run at the Ordway – fights both an artistic and an ideological battle. First, it takes a stand for the continued relevance and importance of new opera. Second, it makes the case that some of the most effective anti-war arguments…