State of the Arts Category Archive: People

Plowing new ground: the sequel to 'King Corn'

Posted at 6:16 PM on November 17, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

A couple of years ago Curt Ellis (left) and his friend Ian Cheney decided to teach themselves about agriculture by planting, growing, harvesting, and selling an acre of corn in Iowa. They filmed it all of course and released a documentary about the experience called "King Corn."

The neophyte farmers travelled the country with their movie which explored the impact of subsidies on US farms, and on food choices for American consumers.

Now they are back with a sequel. Curt Ellis admits that's a little unusual in the documentary game.

"I think that's probably for good reason," he laughs.

Yet they have done it all the same.

"I guess from the minute we finished 'King Corn' we had a realization we hadn't told the full story. 'King Corn' is really the food story of one acre of Iowa farmland, and we spent a year growing one acre of corn and following our harvest off the farm. But by the end of the year, having learned our harvest was going to become high fructose corn syrup and corn-fed confinement-raised meat, we realized there was something else at least as valuable as the corn we had grown, and that was the land we had tended and the way we had tended it."

Ellis and Cheney went back to Iowa and explored the ecological impact they'd had on their acre of soil, through the way they had plowed it and applied various chemical herbicides and fertilizers.

"We really only spent two hours over the course of the year actually farming," he says. "And most of that time was spent spraying things, injecting anhydrous ammonia, or spraying a cocktail of herbicides on our field of corn that had been genetically modified to make it withstand a direct spray. So there was clearly a chemical process as much as a biological process going on. "

Ellis and Cheney followed the run-off from their land through the watershed and into the Mississippi. They also talked to various experts about the health impact of modern farming methods.

"The goal of the "Big River" film was to create a follow-up to "King Corn" that would introduce people to these consequences that are hidden behind our everyday meals," Ellis says. He talks about the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the flow of fertilizers in the run-off from Midwestern farms, and about reports of cancer clusters in some farm communities.

Ellis will bring both films to a screening at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis on Wednesday. Several local organizations are sponsoring the show, which will include a panel discussion of some of the issues raised.

He says at other similar events there have been a number of farmers in the audience and there has been a great discussion. He expects that to be the case in Minneapolis too.

"It's not always friendly," he says. "But I've been pretty amazed by how friendly it is. Both "King Corn" and "Big River" are pretty moderate films. We are not taking a finger-wagging approach to these problems. You know we are really all in this together. The reality is our food system is in trouble right now, and the only people who can fix that are all of us coming together."

"Big River" is just 30 minutes long and Ellis hopes it will have use as an educational tool in schools and for environmental advocacy groups.

Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis look to the future in "Big River" (Image courtesy WickedDelicate Films)

Ellis laughs when asked if there will be a King Corn III, but then mentions the next big project will be called "Truck Farm" which is about how the two film makers took the rust 1986 Dodge pick-up truck which appeared in "King Corn" and put a roof on it so they could grow vegetables. In time they turned it into a community supported agriculture subscription farm serving 20 people. This maybe the only farm which can actually drive around town.

"It started just because Ian and I moved to Brooklyn after we finished our film projects and we wanted to grow food, but we didn't have any land, so we turned to the only open space we knew of which was the bed of the old pick-up truck."

You can see episodes from the project at WickedDelicate films. Ellis sees it as a fun way to spur discussions of the very real problem of so-called 'food deserts,' areas in cities where healthy food is hard to find.

"We had a neighborhood kid who kept eating the parsley down to a stump," Ellis says. "So that was our only pest problem."

The hour-long version of "Truck Farm" will probably premier next spring. They are also working on a film about light pollution from urban areas.

You can hear our conversation here: Listen

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An audience with the Boondock Saints

Posted at 2:33 PM on November 12, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People, Video

It was a strange night at the Mall of America last evening. "Twilight Saga:New Moon" fans filled the rotunda for the appearance by Edi Gathegi and Jamie Campbell Bower. Meanwhile upstairs in the movie theater a wondrous collection of pumped-up Boondock Saints fans were howling at the arrival of director Troy Duffy and star Sean Patrick Flanery (pictured above.)

Duffy and Flanery came to introduce "Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day," and to grow the legend of one of the stranger film stories in recent years.

In case you missed it, here's the thumbnail: in the late 1990's Troy Duffy became a Hollywood hot property because of his "Boondock" script. The story of a pair of gun-toting Irish vigilantes blasting Boston baddies seemed ideal for studios eager to build on the success of "Pulp Fiction." He got a huge advance from Miramax, a budget for his film which he was also to direct.

Then things went south real fast.

Duffy alienated Miramax with his behavior, and the studio pulled out. He also had agreed to let some friends make a film of his experience in the Hollywood limelight, and when things went bad it got captured on film. The resulting documentary "Overnight" portrayed Duffy as an egomaniacal bully. Duffy made his film on half the budget he's had from Miramax, but then found in post-Columbine days no distribution company would touch a movie about a pair of black coat clad guys shooting people. The film opened briefly on a handful of screens, got ripped by critics, and that appeared to be that.

However as Duffy and Flanery told the MOA crowd, that's when the Boondock fanbase began kicking in. As the film appeared in video stores it began to attract fans who made sure their friends all saw it. Then they in turn turned on their friends. Official estimates say about $50 million worth of discs have sold over the years since. Duffy and Flanery toss around much larger numbers than that.

Now after a decade, and lawsuits, and a lot of other strange stuff the Boondock Saints are back, and judging by the reception the movie got from the Minnesota crowd it's not a moment too soon.

The Troy Duffy who appeared in the movie theater was not a monster. In fact, while he does delight in the use of expletives, he was thoughtful, and even charming in a blunt kind of way. Flanery was also clearly having a ball, and described making Boondock 2 as the best experience he ever had making a film, with Boondock 1 being the second.

"It was like they gave a bunch of blue collar dudes the keys to Hollywood," he proclaimed at one point.

After the q and a and a signing where the Boondocks posed for dozens of pictures, they sat down with me for a long chat. We'll air some of it tomorrow evening.

As they left, I mentioned the Twilight Saga folks were there too.

"So who would win in a fight?" I had to ask. "The Boondock Saints or the vampires and the werewolves?"

Sean Patrick Flanery smiled back and said, "I could take five of them myself."

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When the term 'Revolutionary Cinema' really meant something

Posted at 7:30 PM on November 8, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Walker Art Center film curator Sheryl Mousley recalls what she had to do when she travelled to China in 2001hoping to see some of the underground social issue documentary films she'd heard were being made at the time.

She made some contacts and was told "This is totally illegal to show these films in China. But if you show up at this bar at noon, anybody who MIGHT want to show you something MIGHT be there."

Mousley says she was there at noon, and found a VCR set up. Over the next few hours, a stream of people turned up to show her their films. She brought some of the tapes back and screened them at the Walker.

Her interest in Chinese film has resulted in the latest Walker Film event "The People's Republic of Cinema" which celebrates the 60 years of movie-making in mainland China since the Revolution in 1949.

Mousley says she hopes the event will offer a chance for people to learn a little more about China through the stories it has told about itself.

"The very first one, made in 1949 tells us of the coming revolution," she says of 'Crows and Sparrows.' The early films capture the stylized look of socialist realism. Later films from the Cultural Revolution have a starker appearance.

"Then the reaction to that by the next generation of making films, but still working within the government system, making films that were classic rural films of still challenging the system, but in a revolutionary way," Mousley says. "And then the next generation comes along and it's urban and gritty and making films about what they are seeing now."

The images are remarkably recognizable, but Mousley says that's perhaps not surprising when we think of how much of US history has come to be thought of in terms of cinematic scenes.

"Going back to the Civil War, we would probably show 'Gone with the Wind' and it would be that great image of Tara, and then we would show 'Bonnie and Clyde' in the thirties. We have all these iconic images of our own history through the cinema as well and so that is what we know."

Some of the films in "The People's Republic of China" are well known here, but some have never been screened in the US before. In fact some of them haven't been shown much even in China.

"So we are seeing a China that not even Chinese people always see," says Mousley. "So it's a very interesting mix of information."

She says repeat attendees will be able to follow the evolution of Chinese cinema. She saw it herself. When she went back to China just four years later in 2005 to do an artist-in-residence program and she asked to see some work in advance. She was expecting trouble again, but that time round the film makers told her they would just post them to her web site.

The People's Republic of Cinema runs through November 23rd in association with the University of Minnesota. Some of the films will screen at the Walker and others at the Bell Auditorium at the U.

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Writer Bill Holm to be remembered tonight

Posted at 11:31 AM on November 2, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: People, Writing

Luminaries from the Minnesota literary world will gather this evening at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis to remember Bill Holm and to read from his latest work (published posthumously), "The Chain Letter of the Soul."

Those reading from his new book will include Minnesota Poet Laureate Robert Bly, Holm's wife Marcella Brekken, Milkweed Editions' publishers Emilie Buchwald and Daniel Slager, and poets Phil Bryant, Phebe Hanson, Jim Heynen, Jim Lenfestey, Freya Manfred, Joe and Nancy Paddock and John Rezmerski.

Pianist Sonja Thompson will accompany the evening, performing selections of Hayden (one of Holm's favorite composers) and other classics.

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Dan Graham on Bob Dylan's heart

Posted at 2:30 PM on October 30, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

A new exhibit at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis traces the career of Dan Graham. "Dan Graham: Beyond" includes examples of Graham's magazine pieces, films, sculptures and live performances that go all the way back to the 1960s. One of the subjects that Graham has been intrigued by throughout his career is pop music. He's written about the Kinks and the Rolling Stones, punk rock and the place of women in rock and roll. Graham came to Minneapolis for the opening of the exhibit and Minnesota Public Radio's Jim Bickal asked him what music he's interested in right now. Bickal found the response interesting, and passed it my way to share:

"I'm intrigued by Bob Dylan's new persona. On the album "Together through Life" his persona is that of an 80-year-old guy who has a romance in a nursing home and takes his new girlfriend or wife to Niagara Falls. It's 1940s or '50s songs, very trite. There's a lot of doggerel I think. He's using accordion and trumpets. And I think when he had his satellite radio program he got very involved in the '50s and '40s, but his persona is like an old guy now. I think ("Together Through Life") is a great album. It's all about cliches; it's very humorous. I think he's going back to his teenage years.

I think on the new album "Christmas in the Heart" he's trying to be like his hero, Dean Martin. He's always loved Dean Martin. Of course there's the whole idea of if he's doing things from the heart or not; he's dealing with the cliche of doing things from the heart. In "Chronicles" (Dylan's autobiography), he talks about being a normal family man, having a good marriage, but in fact he was cheating on his wife the entire time. So, I think he's trying to portray himself as somebody who has heart."

What do you think of Bob Dylan's image? Do you see an attempt to recreate himself, or to rewrite his history? Oh and if you haven't heard the new Christmas album, you must check this out.

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A visit to Kelly Marshall's weaving studio

Posted at 10:42 AM on October 19, 2009 by Marianne Combs (5 Comments)
Filed under: Craft, People

Inspired by my recent trip to the Textile Center, I decided to pay a visit to a local star in the weaving world. Kelly Marshall actually got her start in weaving at the Textile Center Weaver's Guild of Minnesota when she was 19, then went on to study in Sweden, and now runs a nationally recognized business from a studio in the Northrup King building in Minneapolis.

Marshall's studio has four large looms in it, and a staff of three full-time weavers to work them. While weaving is often considered a solitary art, Marshall says she's always wanted company:

When I started weaving for a profession, I took a business class at Women Venture to help me get my mind around running a business as a weaver. One of the first things we did was project what the business would look like in 5 years. My vision was a large, sunlight room with several looms and myself and several weavers working on the looms. I have always wanted to share the craft of weaving, making the textiles, with others.

Photo by Abernathy Photography

Marshall is very aware of the pleasure that comes from making something with your own hands, but she also recognizes that if she wants to be a professional weaver for many years to come, she has to take care of herself.

I enjoy doing many different kinds of handwork and always have a project going whether it is stitching, knitting, beading, or bobbin lace making to name a few of the crafts I enjoy. Weaving is very taxing on the body and although I never had an injury from weaving I could feel the stress on my body after 15 years of weaving full time.

Photo by Andrea Rugg

Now Marshall spends the majority of her time working with clients, attending craft shows, and working on her favorite aspect of weaving - the design process. The infinite possibilities of form and color are what really excite Marshall.

Photo by Abernathy Photography

Marshall says even though she's not on the loom weaving every day, she still feels very connected to the work:

I consult with the clients and do all the designing. I calculate all the yarn needed for each piece and lay out the patterns and consult with the weavers when they start a piece to get the proportions correct. I am in the studio sewing the totes and am always working on developing new product.

Sometimes I do miss working on the loom where the task ahead of me is very determined, repetitive and meditative at times. It is a process of doing something that has hand memory, my body knows how to weave, set up a loom, the actions are learned in my cells, it is wonderful to be so connected to something. On the other hand I enjoy challenging other parts of myself: how to run a successful business, employees, human resources, benefits, marketing, product development, and financial planning. How do I fit into a community of fiber artists, and craftspeople in general?

If you'd like to check out Kelly Marshall's studio, you can! She'll be participating in the Northrup King Building's "Art Attack" gallery open house November 6-8.

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Sarah Hicks and the Sequined Vests

Posted at 4:54 PM on October 12, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

Sarah Hicks admitted to a little larceny in the name of art today. Hicks spoke at the press conference announcing she is the Minnesota Orchestra's Principal Conductor of Pops and Presentations. It's a job which was created back in 1993 for former Tonight Show band leader Doc Severinsen.

Hicks recalled how shortly after she arrived at the Orchestra in 2006 as an assistant conductor Severinsen asked her to give him a hand. He was going to perform a duet with the Orchestra's Principal Trumpet Manny Laureano and realized it would be too complicated to play and conduct at the same time. Hicks said she would be happy to oblige.

However just before she and Laureano went on stage they slipped into Severinsen's dressing room and each selected one of the Doc's famous sequined vests. Then they walked out into the hall where Severinsen and the audience was waiting.

"Doc was shocked and absolutely delighted," she said. "And it was such a thrill for me. One of my first concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra was that concert conducting Doc Severinsen. And that moment is imbued with so much more meaning for me today as quite literally the baton has been passed."

Severinsen retired in 2007, and is now the Orchestra's Pops Conductor Laureate. However Orchestra President and CEO Michael Henson says he and his staff wanted to take their time before appointing a replacement - in part because they knew they could never actually replace him.

So they decided to look for someone different, someone who could lead the pop series in new directions, and expand the boundaries for new audiences.

"The more that we saw of Sarah Hicks in action over the last couple of years, the more we realized she was made for this role, " he said. "She has a real passion for popular music and she has the artistic imagination to develop intriguing new programming for this series."

The Orchestra sees the pops series as critical for the development of audiences, a view Hicks shares.

Music Director Osmo Vanska says he was quite surprised when Hicks told him she wanted the job, as most up and coming conductors want to focus on classical music and as he put it see themselves as the next Bernstein or Karajan. However Vanska says Hicks is the right person at the right time for the job.

Hicks, who was the first woman to get what they call a titled conducter position at MnOrch, says she is very excited about the new gig. In addition to four pops series a year, she'll continue with the popular Inside the Classics series, and also conduct classical concerts as part of the regular Orchestra program.

She sees her new job as being multi-faceted, and it will be a lot of work. In the next two weeks she'll be preparing and performing a series of classical and pops concerts, culminating with piano rocker Ben Folds playing with the Orchestra.

"I met Ben about a year and a half ago at the Mann Center in Philadelphia, and we hit it off immediately," Hicks says." And he said 'I feel so comfortable with you, can you to conduct me as much as you can?' And I said yes."

The concert will include arrangements Folds has done both of his solo work, and with his band the Ben Folds Five.

"It's a really, really fun show, but with fantastic arrangements for orchestra. So it really is us collaborating together and creating this great show for you," Hicks says.

Sarah Hicks is excited about the new job, and all it's possibilities. She and her husband just bought a new house in Minneapolis and are now sorting through boxes. No word however if she's found any sequined vests.

You can listen to our conversation here: Listen

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The places, people, and language of the Coens

Posted at 9:03 AM on September 26, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

At the beginning of "Fargo," a story of kidnapping, murder, and an infamous incident with a woodchipper, a title splashed across the screen claims it is a true story. Many people still believe it.

"I'm surprised that lasted so long," Joel Coen said at the Walker Art Center last night.

However Ethan Coen went on to say the claim of truth was very important for their main purpose - to tell a good story. He said if audiences believe a story is true, it gives them as film makers much more latitude .

"They (the audience) allow you to do things they won't let you do if they think you made it up," he said.

This was just one of the many insights the Coen Brothers provided during almost two and a half hours in conversation with broadcaster and film critic Elvis Mitchell at the Walker. The event was the 50th Regis Dialog at the Walker, and the central event of "Raising Cain," a month long retrospective celebrating the 25th anniversary of the release of the Coen Brothers first feature "Blood Simple."

A great deal of the conversation focused on the Coens attention to the specificity of a story. Their scripts often grow out of a sense of place, such as the West Texas of "Blood Simple" and the Minnesota of "Fargo." In fact Joel Coen said the "Fargo" story grew out of wanting to tell a story about Minnesota in winter. That desire for specificity has also led to them doing what might be described as period pieces, set in the recent past.

Ethan Coen said setting a movie in the present is like an off switch to them as writers, because it makes a story more generic for an audience. Joel Coen followed up by saying one of the pleasures of film making is creating a world, and none of their movies are exercises in naturalism.

Elvis Mitchell's questions and choice of film clips drew some surprises from the Coens. They laughed out loud at some of the scenes, saying they hadn't seen some of the work since completing the film in question. Ethan Coen particularly enjoyed a sight gag from "The Big Lebowski" where Jeff Bridges in the title role gets a shock when he discovers what has just been drawn on a notepad.

They also talked about the challenges of writers block, admitting that they were stuck for months on how to proceed with the "Fargo" script after a scene where one of the characters has sex with an escort. Ethan says they would switch on the computer every morning to see the same somewhat lurid line, and couldn't find a way to go forward.

A similar block in writing "Millers Crossing" led to them setting the movie aside and they wrote most of "Barton Fink" before breaking the block on the "Miller" script.

Joel Coen also said "It took us a while to realize we were writing "The Odyssey," while they were scripting "O Brother Where Art Thou?"

Ethan continued saying they had been writing what he described as a 'three-dopes-chained-together' script and it was only later it came to them that their plot line was echoing the classical tale.

The conversation returned repeatedly to the brothers voluminous reading habits and the works of great writers.

Joel Coen said when they think of storytelling its often in terms of the depth of a novel rather than the simplified plots of movies. While they write, they have to pare out a lot more, but they can find that specificity of story they always seek.

There were also clearly surprises for the Coens themselves during the evening, particularly when Elvis Mitchell posed to them that all their films, with the exception of "A Serious Man" are basically chase movies.

The brothers didn't exactly endorse the idea, but it prompted Joel to quote his son who once asked "Is this going to be another one of your depressing movies where everyone dies in the end?"

There were no clips from "A Serious Man," which will be released in theaters next week. However the Coens talked about seeking to recreate an environment that they render from their own experience. They said though that while they grew up in the 1960s in St Louis Park as the children of two academics, and the central character is a physics prof in the same time and place, that is as autobiographical as the new film gets.

They talked about getting their first Super 8 camera in their early teens and making films inspired by things they experienced. There was their three minute remake of "The Naked Prey" which they did the day after seeing the Cornel Wilde vehicle on TV. They remade the political drama "Advise and Consent" again just a few minutes long, and complicated by the fact it was silent.

They also created original stories including "Henry Kissinger:Man on the Go" with Ethan in the title role, which they shot around the terminals of the Minneapolis St Paul International Airport, which Ethan Coen pointed out would be impossible today.

"It was about shuttle diplomacy in between the flights," Joel Coen deadpanned.

There was also "Lumberjacks of the North" which produced the comment "We had flannel shirts. You use what you have," from Ethan.

Returning to "The Naked Prey," Joel described how they used a parallel shooting technique where they did all the scenes in sequence. It meant they had to keep moving back and forth between two different locations. "The big advantage was when you got it back from the drugstore the movie was finished," he said to laughter from the audience.

The Coens talked a great deal about how they read a lot as children, and how they see many of their films as being in the style of certain writers. The acknowledged the echoes of Isaac Bashevis Singer in "A Serious Man" and after Mitchell brought him up Philip Roth.

They talked about the challenges of capturing the St Louis Park of their youth for "A Serious Man." The suburban architecture is still there, but there are now a lot more trees. They ended up shooting in as many treeless spots as they could, actually removing a few real trees in some cases, but also using a lot of special effects techniques to paint out the trees in other scenes.

Next up for the Coens/ They said it looks as though they will be doing an adaptation of the Charles Portis novel "True Grit."

"Raising Cain" continues at the Walker through October 17th.

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The Coens come home

Posted at 11:22 PM on September 25, 2009 by Euan Kerr (2 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Joel and Ethan Coen on the set of "A Serious Man" (Image courtesy of Walker Art Center)

Oscar-winning Twin Cities natives Joel and Ethan Coen spent almost two and a half hours with Elvis Mitchell and a sold-out theater at the Walker this evening, talking about films, film-making, and where they find inspiration.

It was a fascinating and at times surprising conversation, not least for the Coens themselves. A number of times during the evening they considered the interpretations of their work which Mitchell posed to them, and more often than not they came away agreeing.

The one that seemed to give them biggest pause was his contention all their films have been at their heart chase movies, barring the latest one, "A Serious Man." Ultimately they didn't argue very hard on that one.

More details tomorrow when I have had time to decipher my notes.

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Art, straw, and a daughter for inspiration

Posted at 2:36 PM on September 25, 2009 by Euan Kerr (12 Comments)
Filed under: People, Sculpture

There is a 12 foot straw camel in Brian Sobaski's yard. The neighbors must be getting used to it. There was a huge horse a couple years back, and an elephant last year.

Sobaski says there's now a regular stream of SUV's and other vehicles past the house as people seek out his Falcon Heights home.

The camel is the result of his artistic training and interest - and the Halloween desires of his young daughter. She wanted to be a Chinese princess a couple years ago, and when they visited the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and saw the terra cotta figures in the Chinese collection.

Sobaski says he thought, "I could do that."

He's got an interest in Bricolage, making art from materials at hand, and he's been making scenery for Hollywood for years. He also likes the idea of green, recyclable sculpture.

So a huge horse soon appeared in his yard made from a wooden armature and straw.

The next year his daughter wanted to be an Indian princess, so an elephant was in order. He admits that the camel this year was his pick. He wanted to make something where he could work to give the animal more of a sense of movement. Another step forward was his discovery that landscaping cloth makes a fine-looking stomach.

Another innovation this year was to send out fliers to orchards, corn mazes and other autumnal businesses offering his services, and suddenly Brian Sobaski is very busy. He's been doing three to four pieces a week: bears, pirates, scarecrows, a woolly mammoth, and even a Buddha. Each takes a day, or a day and a half, to finish.

He's got several more to do in coming weeks and he's having a lot of fun.

"On top of that I get an awesome photograph with my daughter on top," he says. You can see more pictures of his creations at his website

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The panels of artist peers have spoken

Posted at 1:57 PM on September 24, 2009 by Chris Roberts (1 Comments)
Filed under: Dance, People, Theater

It's been a week of honors and acknowledgement in the Minnesota arts community.

On Monday night, the Ivey Awards, the annual celebration of Twin Cities theater, brought glitz, glamour and local thespian star power to the State Theater in Minneapolis.

On Wednesday night, members of the dance scene trained a spotlight on their best and brightest in 2009, with the fifth annual Sage Awards (named after dancer, choreographer and philanthropist Sage Cowles) at the Walker Art Center's McGuire Theater.

Both ceremonies are designed to tone down competition -- there are no pre-established categories and awards are decided by peer panels rather than independent judges.

A hearty congratulations to the winners!

Ivey Awards

Jennifer and Christina Baldwin---Outstanding singing and acting in "Sister Stories," by Nautilus Music Theater

Greta Olgesby---Outstanding performance in Tony Kushner's "Caroline, Or Change" at the Guthrie Theater

Luverne Seifert---Outstanding performance in "800 Words, The Transmigration of Philip K. Dick," by Workhaus Theater Collective

Sonja Parks---Outstanding performance in the one-woman show, "No Child," at Pillsbury House Theatre

The Youth Performance Company---Civil rights musical "Little Rock, 1957"

Greg Banks---Oustanding direction in "Romeo and Juliet," by the Childrens Theatre Company

Chris Griffith---Oustanding prop design in "Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins," by the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company

Sean Healy---Oustanding sound design in "Shipwrecked," by the Jungle Theater

The History Theatre---Overall excellence for its production, "Tyrone and Ralph," written by Jeffrey Hatcher

Theatre Latte Da--Overall excellence for its production, "Old Wicked Songs"

Emily Gunyou Halaas---Emerging Artist award

Dudley Riggs---Lifetime Achievement award

Sage Awards

Tary Griggs---Outstanding Performer award

Kristin Van Loon---Outstanding Performer award

Tamara Ober---Outstanding Performer award

John Munger---Outstanding Performance award for "Lord Cutglass"

Hijack---Outstanding Performance award for "O.M.G. P,Y.T.M.K."

Chris Yon---Outstanding Performance award for "The Infinite Multiverse"

John Koch, Vanessa Voskull, David Mehrer---Technical award for lighting, prop and video design in "En Masse"

Karen Sherman, Jeremy Wilhelm---Technical award for set design in "Copperhead"

Jane Shockley---Recognized for her contributions to dance education as a founding member of Zenon Dance Company

Wild Goose Chase Cloggers, DeLaSouljah Steppers--Special citation

Sachiko Nishiuchi---People's Choice award for work with Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre

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The lingering lure of "Into Temptation"

Posted at 11:19 AM on September 22, 2009 by Euan Kerr (3 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People, Religion

Minneapolis film maker Patrick Coyle says he doesn't know what it is, but "Into Temptation," the small budget film he wrote, directed, and acted in, seems to have grown legs. The film's run at the Lagoon Theater in Minneapolis has just been extended again.

"I had to use all my powers of persuasion to get one week," he says. "And it's turned into five and going strong."

The film follows a young Minneapolis priest as he tried to find a young woman who comes into the confessional to ask for absolution for a sin she has yet to commit. She says she is going to kill herself on her birthday, but then runs out of the church before he can identify her.

The film has now screened in Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, and Coyle's hometown of Omaha. He says the film seems to hook people, and not only do they encourage their friends to see it, they appear to be coming back to see it again.

"The gratifying thing is it's not just Catholics," Coyle says. "It's kind of cross-demographic. Age and gender and religion. So I don't know. It's really fun. That's all I know for sure, it's really fun," he laughs.

"I do think that people are hungry for a story that resonates truthfully with people you care about, that speak in complete sentences."

The big numbers in Minneapolis and Omaha have apparently attracted the attention of First Look the film's distributors, and the Landmark chain, so plans are already underway for runs in other cities, including Duluth and Fargo.

"We don't have national release, but we are going city by city, and we are trying to get to as many cities before the DVD comes out."

Coyle describes it as a race against time, because that release date is October 27th. It's been a busy time for Coyle because even as he is pushing his film, he also plays Lou Grant in the Torch Theater production of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," which has also become a hit.

Coyle was speaking to me from Omaha where he is scheduled to introduce the film tonight. "Into Temptation" smashed the Dundee theater's box office record over the weekend.

"They grossed more Friday, Saturday and Sunday at "Into Temptation" than they ever had at this theater and it's been open since the Depression," Coyle says. He admits his family publicity machine has probably helped, but now word of mouth has taken over.

Coyle admits he is mystified as to what the secret is behind the films success.

"One day I might understand it, but I don't now. People see it, they love it and they are telling people about it."

Which makes it a challenge to recreate for his next project. But Coyle is happy that this success improves the chances that will happen.

"I love film making, and think this is definitely going to get me to my next project, and that makes me very happy," he says.

The run at the Lagoon is now scheduled to end on October 1st, but Coyle says he is looking into screenings at other theaters in the Twin Cities.

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Michael Moore comes to town

Posted at 12:07 PM on September 19, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Michael Moore was distressed that the journalists lined up to interview him hadn't seen the film he was in Minneapolis to promote Friday night.

The original plan was everyone would see the film "Capitalism: a love story" and then he would do interviews.

The plan got changed when someone realized he wouldn't make the last plane out to get him back home to Michigan. He thanked everyone for being flexible, and said the set up allowed would allow him to sleep in his own bed for the first time in three weeks.

Moore says he began making "Capitalism" six months before the economic crash, because it seemed obvious to him that something bad was on the way. His film examines the causes and effects of what happened from an unabashedly leftist viewpoint.

We meet people who have lost their homes to foreclosure, pilots who are so poorly paid they have to augment their income with food stamps, and hear Moore's analysis that the worst may be still to come. He's particularly concerned about the mountain of credit card debt out there and the crippling healthcare costs hanging over the heads of many working families.

Occasionally as we talked Moore looked tired, and he admitted the past few years have taken a toll. He has to travel with a couple of security guys because he has been so vilified on talk radio and other right-leaning media he fears for his safety.

"They have created a fictional character called Michael Moore and they lie about him," he told the crowd at the Lagoon Theater during a q and a after the film.

However he says he hopes his film will encourage people to take action. He jokes that he's assuming theaters will be stocking up on pitchforks and torches to replace Twizzlers and Goobers at the concession stands.

Back at the interview room Moore was still concerned that the journos were missing the film. As each interview finished he looked at his watch and said, "OK this is what has happened so far," and then caught every one up. He may be wanting to hand out pitchforks, but Michael Moore is very much a film maker at heart.

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The Imaginarium of Terry Gilliam

Posted at 1:36 PM on September 15, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

I think my belief that "every story has a Minnesota connection" was cemented the day I learned (many years ago now) that Terry Gilliam is a Minnesotan. The Monty Python alum and epic film-maker ("Brazil" is one of my personal all-time faves, but I also love "12 Monkeys" and "Time Bandits") was born in Medicine Lake, Minnesota. He moved to California with his family at the age of twelve.

Something about Terry Gilliam's overwrought and baroque imagery emerging from the belly of "Minnesota Nice" seems wholly incongruous to me, but also wonderfully appropriate. It takes a truly fertile field to give rise to such a creative crop!

Gilliam's latest movie "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" may be his most epic in vision yet. Mysterious Doctor Parnassus runs a travelling show and is able to guide people's imaginations. He makes a bet with the devil not once, not twice, but three times, and his luck appears to be running out.

Over the course of the film we travel through centuries and universes and the infinitely imaginative landscape of Terry Gilliam's mind. But the movie returns again and again to the backdrop of modern-day London.

The film stars Christopher Plummer as Doctor Parnassus and Tom Waits as "Mr. Nick" (the devil). Due to the untimely death of actor Heath Ledger, his character is alternately played by himself, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law.

You can see Terry Gilliam talking about his creative vision for "Imaginarium" here.

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" opens mid October in England, but an exact release date in the U.S. has yet to be set.

FYI, in 2006 Terry Gilliam renounced his U.S. citizenship (he's quoted as saying it was a political act, but he's also admitted it has tax benefits), so his visits here are limited to no more than 30 days each year.

Odd thought: it seems like a very balanced trade that England should get Terry Gilliam while the American midwest gets Neil Gaiman.

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The worth of an arts education

Posted at 12:21 PM on September 14, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Education, People

This morning on Midmorning I interviewed Jay Coogan, the new president of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. We talked not only about MCAD in particular, but the market in general for an arts degree in today's economy.

People like Richard Florida (author of "The Creative Class") and Daniel Pink ("the MFA is the new MBA") say creativity is essential for successful business. But many students and parents think an arts education is both pricey and dicey when it comes to finding steady work. Jay Coogan believes the most exciting work is being done in areas where arts and business combine to innovate new solutions (health care, for example).

What do you think an arts degree is worth today? Is it a smart investment? Or a losing proposition?

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Arts Journal is 10 years young

Posted at 10:29 AM on September 14, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Criticism, People, Writing

Congratulations to Arts Journal which celebrated the 10th anniversary of its first post over the weekend.

AJ serves as both an arts news aggregator and as an originator of content in several different area. It taps into the arts scene through some 200 publications from all over the US and across the English-speaking world. There is always something, if not many things, of interest to read.

Readers can also sign up for a free daily or weekly digest, depending on their appetite for arts news.

Founder and editor Douglas McLennan tells a little bit of the Arts Journal story in his blog Diacritical.

In it he promises much more, including a new design: We're working on the next version of ArtsJournal, which we hope to launch in the next month or so. As the media world changes from newspapers to other sources, we want to make sure we're casting our nets in the right directions. And we want to make it easier to find the stories they're looking for. Here's to another ten.

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Interesting reading: a glowing early review of the Coen Bros "A Serious Man"

Posted at 9:56 PM on September 12, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

The crowds at the Toronto International Film Festival have just seen "A Serious Man" set and shot in the Twin Cities. Cinematical has this early glowing review.

It describes the film as the culmination of the Coen brothers 25 years of film making:

It grabs the magic of local flavor and charm we saw in "Fargo" with a cast widely filled with unknown names (that pack as much of a cinematic punch as any star-studded roster you can think of), to the rapidly escalating drama of "Burn After Reading." A Serious Man is cohesive and slick from stem to stern.

The film opens in Minneapolis, New York and Los Angeles on October 2nd.

And just in case you haven't seen it, here is the trailer for the film.

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SPCO's Skip Layton James to retire after 41 seasons

Posted at 6:16 PM on September 11, 2009 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

Ask Skip Layton James to tell stories about what he has seen during his tenure at the SPCO and he has so many it's hard for him to know where to begin. There have been good times, and hard times. He's worked with seven different music directors.

There were the concerts at what used to be the Arts and Science Center, later the Science Museum of Minnesota.

"Eddie Blitz, the former cellist used to come in and look at the brontosaurus there and start his day by saying "Hi Bones!" James says.

He talks about how the Orchestra used to take the train to gigs in Fargo, and the time the plane due to return the musicians home after playing in Brookings S.D. sank up to its wheel-hubs in the mud after a spring rain.

"We had to call a tractor to pull us out wheel by wheel before we could fly back to the Twin Cities," he says.

"We played the first concert ever at O'Shaughnessy Auditorium over at St Kates. We played the opening concert at the Benedicta Arts Center in the cornfield out at the College of St Benedict. It's a beautiful hall by the way."

And there was the opening of the Ordway, and the unprecedented public fundraiser which saved the SPCO from financial ruin.

There will be a lot of these stories in coming months after today's announcement that James will retire from his position of Principal Keyboard with the SPCO, a position he has held since 1969. He's currently the longest tenured musician with the orchestra. He has conducted and composed during his time with the SPCO, creating cadenzas for Baroque and Classical concertos.

During that time he's established a reputation as a master of many keyboard instruments, from the pipe organ to the harpsichord. He actually built three of the harpsichords the SPCO now owns.

When asked how he came to do that he describes approaching SPCO music director Leopold Sipe at a rehearsal to ask is he could play a Haydn piece.

"What are you going to play it on?" the maestro asked.

"Well, a harpsichord," James says he replied.

"We can't afford one," the conductor responded.

So James said he'd build one.

"That's kind of how it started. I've always loved to improvise and the harpsichord is the perfect instrument to do that on. So I start to build them."

That was in 1970, and it's put James in a somewhat unique position.

"Basically you've been hearing me on an instrument I made myself with music that I make up as I go along, which is about as enabling and ennobling and as wild as you can get as a music profession, I think," he says.

After he steps down at the end of the current season he intends to write a book on trout fishing. He'll also continue to appear as a presenter at pre-concert talks at the SPCO and as necessary onstage at the keyboard.

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The Oak Street rides again

Posted at 11:57 AM on September 11, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

The phones keep ringing, but Minnesota Film Arts Program Coordinator Ryan Oestreich looks relaxed and ready as he contemplates the series of events which mean he not only has a theater, but also funding to run it.

While MFA's Minneapolis St Paul's International Film Festival keeps rolling along, the organization's Oak Street Cinema on the U of M campus has been on the verge of closure for years it seems.

But in one of those curious twists of economic fate, things now look better than they have for a while. The proposal to buy the Oak Street and all the other buildings on the block to make way for student housing has been put on hold for the moment.

Oestreich says he knows times are tough, but it's working out for the Oak Street at least in the short term.

"We have been pushed off for at least another year so with a year, we said, 'OK, we had a very successful festival. We had really good showings at the Oak Street of theatrical exhibits from the festival and other films. So we said, let's just take a little bit of a pause and work on a fall program."

The State Arts Board is also helping out with an institutional support grant which is funding the fall season. Oestreich says it's not a complete reprieve, but he aims to make the most of it

"We don't quite know when the Oak Street will be sold, but in the meantime we are going to program it whether it be obscure titles, big titles or foreign titles, the best we can do."

And Oestreich wants to push the envelope a little. "We can take risks," he says with a smile.

The fall season opens tonight with Canadian director Kari Skogland's "Fifty Dead Men Walking" a political thriller set against the Troubles in Ireland in the late 1980s starring Ben Kingsley and Jim Sturgess.

The following week the Oak will present John W. Walter's documentary "Theater of War" about the Tony Kushner production of Berthold Brecht's "Mother Courage and her Children" at New York's The Public Theater. The film follows Meryl Streep in the lead role aided by Kevin Kline. (It's probably a little different from when they worked together on the A Prairie Home Companion movie.)

Oestreich is excited about his program, but gets even more animated when he moves onto what is a blast from the past. As a student himself in years past Oestreich used to come to the Oak for late night fright nights. Those screenings fell by the way, but now he's bringing them back with a twist.

"Something I wanted to bring back was horror films but in particular, let's do some international stuff so some foreign horror films that never get played in theaters."

The screenings will start on Thursday 17th, with the 9.30 shows on Thursday through Saturday set aside for scary stuff. It starts with the British grave-robbing film "I Sell the Dead" starring Dominic Monaghan, best known as Merry Brandybuck in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Then there's a Canadian take on zombies with Bruce MacDonald's film "Pontypool" and then a Norwegian film "Dead Snow" which moves into the area of Nazi zombies.

The Oak is then moving into a two week "French Crime Wave" series of French noir films, in early October. Titles include "Bob Le Flambeur" ("Bob the Gambler," 1955, Jean-Pierre Melville); "Le Cercle Rouge"("The Red Circle", 1970, Jean-Pierre Melville); "Classe Tous Risque" ("The Big Risk", 1966, Claude Sautet); "Le Doulos" ( The Finger Man", 1963, Jean-Pierre Melville); "Pepe Le Moko" (1937, Julien Duvivier); "Touchez Pas Au Grisbi" ("Don't Touch the Loot", 1954, Jacques Becker).

There will also be a music week in late October featuring films about classical and world music subjects. And every Wednesday will be experimental film night, where a program of rarely seen films will screen.

One of the interesting challenges this year will be the opening of the new TCF Bank Stadium which Oestreich has been watching grow through his office window.

It's going to bring huge crowds down to the Stadium Village area six times a year on Gopher game days. The facility could be a mixed blessing for the Oak. The theater will be sending out e-mails warning patrons to plan ahead on certain Saturdays. Oestreich says they will encourage film goers to come early, use public transportation, or carpool, and at the very least give a little extra time.

Of course having thousands of alums walk by your front door can't hurt, especially for an organizations which has struggled to fill it house sometimes in recent years.

Oestreich says that the MFA's long-time leader Al Milgrom knows where there are 16 mm films of the old games at Memorial Stadium, and they considered showing them for fans on game days, but eventually decided to hold off as it may interfere with regular customers. traffic.

Oestreich admits they are going to just see how things go. He hopes they can keep the programming go through the spring. And of course in the new year things get busy with preparations for the film festival

"I don't see anything slowing down in the film festival word. Probably another 150 titles to come up for April," he says with a smile.

Yes, against all odds, it's going to be a busy year at Minnesota Film Arts.

You can listen to our conversation here: Listen

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Remembering Rachel Corrie

Posted at 10:08 AM on September 9, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: People, Theater

In the years since the 23 year old's death attempting to stand down an Israeli bulldozer, Rachel Corrie has been called both a martyr and a fool. But what she was is something much more complex - an intelligent, compassionate and imperfect human being.

The play "My Name is Rachel Corrie" - opening Friday at Open Eye Figure Theater - is compiled from her journal entries and her e-mails, spanning her childhood right up to the final days before her death. It takes you into the head of a bright and idealistic young woman who keeps a messy room, loves to write, and can't stand the inequities she sees in the world.

Last night I paid a visit to a final rehearsal of "Rachel Corrie." Director Jess Finney says she's staging the play not as a platform for political discussion (although it does deal heavily with the Israel-Palestine conflict) but more as an exploration of American identity.

"Rachel Corrie's story is so emblematic of the American ideal , with her desire to save the world," said Finney.

Emily Gunyou Halaas takes on the part of Rachel Corrie. She says she feels both daunted and fortunate to be playing the role of someone who lived so recently. She's seen videos of Corrie, but says just trying to mimic her would be insult to her memory.

"What makes this play work is that her writing is so beautiful," said Gunyou Halaas. Indeed - here's an excerpt:

Nothing could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can't imagine it unless you see it. And even then your experience is not at all the reality: what with the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed US citizen, the fact that I have money to buy water when the army destroys wells and, of course, the fact that I have the option of leaving. I am allowed to see the ocean.

If I feel outrage at entering briefly into the world in which these children exist, I wonder how it would be for them to arrive in my world. Once you have seen the ocean and lived in a silent place where water is taken for granted and not stolen in the night by bulldozers, spent an evening when you didn't wonder if the walls of your home might fall suddenly inward, aren't surrounded by towers, tanks and now a giant metal wall, I wonder if you can forgive the world for all the years spent existing - just existing - in resistance to the constant attempt to erase you from your home. That is something I wonder about these children. I wonder what would happen if they really knew.

Rachel Corrie died less than two months after arriving in Israel to work as a "human shield" and do what she saw as her part to save the world. While a bulldozer cut short her life, her story is now known around the world, and her idealist spirit shines even brighter than before.

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Advice for art organizations in crisis: make more art

Posted at 2:54 PM on August 25, 2009 by Marianne Combs (3 Comments)
Filed under: Funding, People

Michael Kaiser, President of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, spoke this morning to a group of arts leaders at the Ordway in St. Paul. His message? Don't panic.

Kaiser is a bit of a golden boy in the world of arts management and fundraising; he successfully dug the Royal Opera House out of several million dollars in debt. He performed similar miracles on the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and the American Ballet Theatre.

Kaiser says the last thing an arts organization should do in hard economic times is cut back on its programming. If anything, Kaiser says, this is the time to be even more creative, to challenge and excite audiences.

And Kaiser says, the last thing audiences want to hear from their favorite theaters or dance companies is how tough things are:

People come to us to be entertained, to be inspired, for solace, for refuge and yet we're talking so much about how bad it is, how we have no money, how bankrupt we're becoming - and we're pushing them away because we're talking so much externally about our internal problems. I don't believe in talking publicly about my problems - that's what my family's for.

Kaiser's remarks may have come across as a bit idealistic to managers gathered this morning. They're dealing with immediate issues of 10% budget cuts and disillusioned boards. And when Kaiser said "whatever you do, don't cut programming," I could almost see the bubble clouds above audience heads saying "But there's nothing else left to cut!"

Still, there's plenty of evidence that "If you create it, they will come." Just a look at this summer's Minnesota Fringe Festival shows that people are still interested in seeing new work, even if it's a financial risk.

Kaiser also underscored the importance of organizations collaborating with one another, something the Twin Cities arts organizations are already quite good at. Small theaters regularly perform on larger theater stages, thus cross-pollinating audiences. Dance companies commission musicians... and musicians commission dancers.

Kaiser ended on an optimistic note, despite the obvious tension in the room.

We are such an incredibly creative and resilient industry. You know there was a statistic earlier this year - Americans for the Arts suggested that 10,000 arts organizations would go out of business. It's not anywhere near that number. We're so creative - we find ways to make do with nothing, we find ways to bounce back. It's just a remarkable fraternity to be a part of.

The question I came away with is, do artists have the energy they need to continue to creative and resilient under increasingly trying circumstances? How much is too much to take?

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Character actor returns home

Posted at 1:53 PM on August 21, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

Image courtesy of imdb.com

He's the Chinese good guy - or bad guy - in about every Hollywood film made in the past 60 years. From "The New Adventures of Charlie Chan" in the 1950s (he was Barry Chan, "Number One Son") to Kung Fu Panda (as the voice of Mr. Ping).

Inbetween, he's graced the sets of "Dragnet," "Zorro," "Bonanza," "Wagon Train," "Perry Mason," "The Fugitive," "I Dream of Jeannie," "I Spy," "Mission Impossible," "Kung Fu," "Hawaii Five-O," "The Rockford Files," "Baa Baa Black Sheep," "Starsky and Hutch," "Bionic Woman," "Wonder Woman," "Charlie's Angels," "Lou Grant," "Taxi," "Different Strokes," "Fantasy Island," "Chinatown," "The Two Jakes," "Bladerunner" ...in total, imdb.com has him down for 341 different roles in television and film. Impressive, no?

It turns out James Hong was born in Minneapolis and was part of Central High School's Class of 1947. Hong will be returning for a class reunion (billed as the "Everyone is 80 (or almost) Celebration!") on Wednesday, September 9. So the question is, will his classmates recognize him? Or will they say "I swear I know you but I can't place a name with the face..."

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Playwriting is a blood sport

Posted at 11:24 AM on August 21, 2009 by Marianne Combs (6 Comments)
Filed under: People, Theater

Image courtesy of The Playwrights' Center

The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis is a nationally recognized incubator for new plays, and its existence has compelled many playwrights to move to Minnesota. This week Producing Artistic Director Polly Carl is leaving the Twin Cities for a new job (Director of Artistic Development) at Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago. Before leaving town I asked her to take a moments for an "exit interview," and she was kind enough to oblige.

Why are you leaving the Playwrights' Center?

PC: The decision to leave the PWC was incredibly difficult. I've said for many years I have the best job in the American theater, and when Steppenwolf called me my first response was "no" because I couldn't imagine a better job than Producing Artistic Director at the Playwrights' Center. After a visit to Steppenwolf, I realized that I would have a learning opportunity as an artist and administrator that I couldn't pass up. Learning is my highest value.

What's the most important thing you learned while at the Playwrights' Center?

PC: This may sound a bit philosophical but the PWC has taught me the importance of taking the long view of my work. I'm terribly impatient about every thing. When I was given the opportunity to run the Playwrights' Center I had a million ideas that I wanted realized immediately. This impatience can make me hard to work with and at times unreasonable. As I look at the evolution of this organization over eleven years I recognize that despite my impatience, my willingness to hang in over the long-term has allowed me to see what happens when you commit, when you persist and pursue. This experience has given me an entirely new approach to my work. This is an organization all about process and I have come to respect process and relish it.

What was the biggest challenge heading up the Playwrights' Center?

PC: History. Every playwright who had a history with the Playwrights' Center had an idea of how it should be run. My challenge was to harness their passions and make it into a positive. People's passions and emotions aren't always logical or properly targeted but as a leader you have to listen and respond AND trust your instincts even if they run counter to popular opinion.

What do you think of the health of the Twin Cities theater scene?

PC: I think the scene here has a lot going for it. I'm amazed at the talent pool--playwrights, directors, dramaturges, actors--they bring so much excellence to this community.

My biggest disappointment is that the commitment to new plays lives primarily with the smallest of companies with the smallest of budgets. I think this problem impacts how Minnesota theater is perceived nationally and I hear about it a lot when I travel. We have not done enough to build a broad audience in this town to love new plays, to crave risk, and to believe in their hearts that theater is much more than entertainment.

What would you do to change it?

PC: There's a lot of Minnesota nice in the theater scene here. I say less nice, more excellence.

If you could impart one thing to all playwrights, what would it be?

PC: Playwriting is a blood sport.

Anything else you want the Twin Cities arts scene to know?

PC: This town is the best. It's an artist friendly nirvana with amazing foundations who believe wholeheartedly that the arts are a necessity not an extra. It's been a privilege to work here and I'll miss it.

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Where did Dylan get his twang?

Posted at 9:35 PM on August 20, 2009 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

On assignment for The Atlantic, correspondant Graeme Wood travels to Hibbing, thinking he might discover the origins of Bob Dylan's particular accent. What he gets is an earful, but not of what you might think.

In truth, Sarah Palin has more of a Minnesota accent than Dylan does.

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Eric Friesen remembers Michael Steinberg

Posted at 11:44 AM on August 19, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

Classical broadcaster Eric Friesen was host of "The Music Room" and the Minnesota Orchestra on Classical Minnesota Public Radio from 1991-97, during which time he got to know musicologist Michael Steinberg quite well. He shared his thoughts on Steinberg's passing with MPR's classical music service.

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Painting with sand

Posted at 4:01 PM on August 19, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, Painting, People

Red Wing native Michael Augustin has been practicing the art of sand painting for nearly thirty years. While Augustin himself is not Native American he studied with Hopi and Navajo medicine men for five years.

"It was so fascinating to me and I saw a means of perhaps to dabble in it myself not as they do but as an expression of art. So I lifted it out of their tradition - any spiritual attachment I may make to it is my own. My purpose has never been to do an expose on sand painting and Native Americans. I look at the art as something that is mine."

Augustin grinds the sand himself, and uses very simple tools to execute his paintings. "Your hands are your paintbrush," he said in a recent phone conversation.

Augustin's usually asked to do a sand painting in conjunction with an event such as a seminar or conference. Once the work is done, he dismantles it. But in an unusual turn, Augustin has created a series of paintings which are on display at River Falls Public Library through September 4th.

While Augustin describes himself as a lover of computers and technology, you will have a hard time finding much information about him on the web. In fact, the images on this blog may be the only ones you find. He has purposely avoided creating a website, because, he says, his work is more about a certain time and place than about a lasting image.

In fact Augustin complains that people have become too dependent on technology as a sort of external memory storage, so that they don't take the time to truly study what's in front of them. He says if you find something beautiful, "Use your mind - hold it for a while."

Michael Augustin will give a free formal presentation, with a demonstration and talk on the spiritual significance of his paintings tomorrow (Thursday, August 20) at 7 p.m. in the River Falls Public Library's lower level community room.

Images courtesy of River Falls Public Library

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Art by outsiders

Posted at 11:55 AM on August 13, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: People, Public Art

Andrew Moore is what many academics would call an "outsider artist." He doesn't have traditional training in art, but he feels compelled to express himself using whatever means he has at his disposal. Reporter Nikki Tundel put together a compelling look at his work, and what it means to him.

Outsider artists often make the rest of us feel uncomfortable. Their work is raw, and they don't just hang it on clean gallery walls. Art is their life, and it seeps out everywhere.

Take outsider artist Mari Newman. Like Moore, Newman builds large installations in her front yard in Minneapolis, which inspired some complaints to the city. While some neighbors love the bright colors and creativity of her work, others thought it ruined the resale value of their homes.

While outsider artists may sometimes be difficult to live with, their work often has great value and prestige in the art market. There are collectors who specialize in buying work by such "non-trained" artists, and they do a good business.

Unfortunately outsider artists often don't get the full benefit of the popularity of their work. Local artist Donovan Durham learned that when he discovered that work he made as a child was being sold at a high-profile art show, and he wasn't getting any of the proceeds.

Some work by outsider artists end up becoming cultural monuments. Take Watts Towers in Los Angeles.

Watts Towers was built by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia. Over his lifetime Rodia made a complex of seventeen sculptures, using simple tools. The towers are constructed of steel and mortar, and decorated with bits of broken glass, pottery and see shells. Now people come from all over to visit Rodia's creation.

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'Africa's Denzel Washington' to visit the Twin Cities on Sunday

Posted at 2:14 PM on August 11, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Events, Film, People

The name Van Vicker might not set your pulse racing, but apparently in Ghana, indeed in Africa, Van is the man. Now the Twin Cities Black Film Festival is bringing him the the Twin Cities for the local premier of his new film "Raj the Dancer."

Van Vicker (Image courtesy VanVickerLive.com)

Van Vicker (he has dropped his first name Joseph) is a 32 year old star of the up-and-coming Ghanaian movie industry. He has made 50 movies, usually playing the romantic lead. You can get a sense of how his fans feel by visiting his web site.

"He's the Denzel Washington of Africa," says the TCBFF's Natalie Morrow, shortly after admitting she hadn't heard of him until recently either. This is Vicker's second trip to the Twin Cities. He was here two years ago to promote his movie "American Boy." Apparently fans spotted him shortly after he arrived at the airport.

"He was pretty much mobbed," said Morrow. "He's a good actor - and he's a good-looking actor. I think that's what's the draw." She says his fan base is overwhelmingly female, but not just African. She says his visits to the US have earned him fans from all over.

Morrow says she has been dealing with Vicker personally as they organize the screening. "He's such a nice guy," she said.

The screening of "Raj the Dancer" will be at 7pm at the Earl Brown Community Center in Brooklyn Center on Sunday evening. There will then be a meet and greet at the Blue Nile restaurant on Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis from 10 until 2 am.

The Van Vicker event is just a warm up for the TCBFF, which is set for September 18th-20th. The event will open with a special showing of "The Wiz," the Michael Jackson Diana Ross reworking of "The Wizard of Oz."

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Pecha Kucha MSP lives and learns for next event

Posted at 3:24 PM on August 7, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Design, Events, People

It's been four months, but Jonas Schaefer (left, with colleague Josh Pepper on right) is still pretty pumped about the first Minneapolis St Paul Pecha Kucha Night.

Some 350 people turned up at Intermedia Arts for the first one in April and the event sold out.

"The reception was amazing. People really got into it," Schaefer says. Pecha Kucha is a community event where presenters are allowed to show 20 slides as part of a presentation on whatever topic they want. The twist is each slide is only shown for 20 seconds and then the next one pops up. Presentations can only last for six minutes and 40 seconds total. The original Pecha Kucha was in Japan, but the event has spread like wildfire all over the world.

Schaefer says the first evening had a great variety of presentations ranging from map making, urban photography, bringing youth into the wilderness, film making, bike freedom, architecture, and innovative approaches to problem solving.

Schaefer and his co-producer Josh Pepper needed to do a little problem solving of their own. There were so many people they filled the auditorium and some audience members had to watch over a video link from the gallery next door.

Schaefer says it's clear they needed a bigger venue "We realized that right away," he says. So the next event on Wednesday August 12th will be at the Theater Lab in the Warehouse District of Minneapolis. The fun begins at 7pm.

They have 12 people lined up with presentations on jewelry, theoretical physics, futurism, and soar car racing among other things.

They also learned they could do with some help. "We are just two guys that wanted to do something. So there is a lot we learned." So they have expanded and Megan Baxter and Rachel Rydbeck have been added to the Pecha Kucha Night MSP Team.

They are also already looking for future venues. "The event at its core is about new ideas." And that includes cool locations

"We found a local airport that has a hanger that we thought would be a great place for an event," says Schaefer. It looks like the third Pecha Kucha MSP Night will be held there, although Schaefer says they are always open to suggestions.

"The idea is every time you come, you get something new. You get something different, something interesting, and that it doesn't feel like you have done this before."

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'80s film icon John Hughes dies

Posted at 9:10 PM on August 6, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Film, People

"The Breakfast Club." "Sixteen Candles." "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Writer and director John Hughes was known best for creating films that connected with young people and defined popular culture in the 1980s.

Hughes' reputation faded in the 1990s and he remained a private figure, penning many scripts under the name 'Edmond Dantès.' He assisted most recently on the scripts for "Drillbit Taylor," "Beethoven's 5th" and "Maid in Manhattan."

According to the Associated Press, Hughes died of a heart attack while on a walk this morning in Manhattan. He was 59.

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Minnesota wedding party raises the bar

Posted at 9:10 AM on July 24, 2009 by Euan Kerr (3 Comments)
Filed under: Dance, Events, People

Update: All Things Considered is going to do an interview with the mother of the bride and the pastor involved in the big dance number. They are as shocked as anyone about the popularity of the video, and have some theories to share. If all goes to plan it will air sometime after 6pm Central time.

It's always fun to see what becomes a viral success. This one is popping up repeatedly in my e-mail, and if you read the comments on YouTube and other sites it's doing the same for a lot of people.

Now, several people we know in the vicinity of State of the Arts are planning nuptials right now, and it's hard to avoid the thought that J and K have thrown down a gauntlet...

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Junky Art or Arty 'Junque?'

Posted at 3:02 PM on July 10, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Culture, People

Sara Aeikens and her husband Leo have been walking the same path around Fountain Lake in Albert Lea for close to 15 years. For the last three of those years, Aeikens has been picking up the discarded objects she finds along the way and taking them home. She estimates she now has over two thousand objects, many of which are currently on display at the Albert Lea Art Center. She's grouped them together to create sculptural pieces. Others she's put out for people to mix and match into their own creations.

Aeikens show, titled "Junky Art or Arty Junque?" is on display in connection with another exhibition on sustainable art. Aeikens says she's given her ritual of picking up other people's trash a lot of thought. Here's what she says she's learned:

Our little actions do make a difference- negative or positive.

When we toss a tiny thing, it becomes many things.

Our little contributions affect our environment- right in our own neighborhood.

We could improve on noticing our little actions- by keeping our eyes to the ground and also by being aware of our larger surroundings and how we impact our space.

Junk can be colorful, unique, artistic and can be turned into "JUNQUE ART."

Junk can create humorous situations and spaces.

In my junque journey I enjoyed putting together numerous pieces that magically fit together after locating a frame or foundation to contain it or serve as a cohesive unit.

Junk to Junque can have a spiritual component.

Aeikens says she's noticed that some people coming into her gallery space have almost immediately turned around and walked out, or have simply said out loud "I don't get it," and she respects that. But she says she also believes what we throw away says as much about ourselves as what we keep. Taking a long hard look at our junk may be difficult for some, because it reveals things we may not be comfortable with.

(Images by Marie DeGennaro, courtesy of Sara Aeikens)

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An eternal moonwalk for Michael Jackson

Posted at 12:18 PM on July 8, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: People

Chech Check out this spirited and fun tribute to the music legend, in which people around the world create an eternal moonwalk.

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Children's Theatre Company hires new education director

Posted at 5:40 PM on June 30, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: People, Theater

Children's Theatre Company (CTC) today announced the addition of Debra Baron to its education department. Baron fills the role of director of CTC's Theatre Arts Training (TAT) program, which serves more than 1,500 youth annually.

Baron most recently served as the director of education for Westport Country Playhouse, in Westport, Conn. Her experience includes the development of arts education curricula, student instruction, staff development as well as an extensive list of directing credits.

"Debra is a great addition to CTC," said Gabriella Calicchio, managing director for CTC. "Her experience couples creativity and artistic vision with the prerequisite management skills needed to energize and expand our TAT program."

Prior to Westport Country Playhouse and CTC, Baron served as the director of education for BlackRock Center for the Arts, in Germantown, Md., and the BoarsHead Theater in Lansing, Mich. She also served as the artistic and managing director for Manatee Players located in Bradenton, Fla.

Baron has more than 120 directing credits, including "Peter Pan," "Into the Woods," "Fiddler on the Roof" and "The Crucible." She is a member of the Actors' Equity Association, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Baron received her jurist doctorate at Howard University in Washington DC.

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St. Paul artist killed by garbage truck

Posted at 9:12 PM on June 26, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Craft, People

St. Paul-based artist Jean Matzke was walking her dog in lowertown St. Paul early this morning when she was hit by a garbage truck turning the corner. 70-year-old Matzke was a fiber artist, showing her work locally at Grand Hand Gallery, and teaching both at the College of St. Benedict and the Textile Center of Minnesota. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, St.John's University, and the College of St. Benedict, and has been featured on HGTV.

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Memories of Michael Jackson

Posted at 2:29 PM on June 26, 2009 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

People are sharing their memories of MJ. Johannah Marcott in River Falls, Wisconsin writes:

I was a fan of the man back in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s - after that he seemed to get more eccentric and all the weirdness was in full fledge. I grew up watching Thriller, Moonwalker, listening to the Bad record, and Dangerous.

He was a big musical influence when I was a kid in the 80s. I also wanted nothing more than to go to Neverland ranch and go on the rides and meet him as a kid - it would have been an honor.

And Jeff Achen in Apple Valley, Minnesota writes:

I remember getting out of school, riding home in the car with my sisters. It was our first day in a new elementary school in the eighties in a new town and our mother was excited to share with us a new record she bought for us: Michael Jackson, Thriller.

We grew to love his music and one of my fondest Michael Jackson memories was creating a silly dance to the song "Thriller" that we did for our parents in our living room. My sisters were in Kindergarten and second grade. I was in fourth grade. Since then I've grown up with Michael Jackson's music, his antics and his influence. It's a sad day to lose such a nice man and a generous entertainer.

Online, Pete comments:

In 1983 I was in Jr high at Folwell in Minneapolis. We had a "video" dance which was a traditional school dance with a big screen tv to play videos. When MJ came on, every boy in the room lost their girl to the screaming crowds by the big screen.

Interested in sharing your memories of Michael Jackson? Post a comment below or submit them here.

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Remembering Michael Jackson

Posted at 9:29 AM on June 26, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

As people around the world are waking up to the news that music legend Michael Jackson has died, memorials and memories are pouring forth.

Here in Minnesota, bells will ring at 11am in Minneapolis in Jackson's honor.

People in Harlem are gathering outside the Apollo Theater, where he performed as a child.

LA Times music critic Ann Powers compared the impact of the death of Michael Jackson to that of Elvis.

Meanwhile, people are still looking for answers surrounding the details of Jackson's death.

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Roseville resident makes Barbershop Harmony Hall of Fame

Posted at 11:00 AM on June 24, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

84 year-old Jim Richards has been singing with barbershop choruses for over half a century. The international singing organization, Barbershop Harmony Society, recently welcomed Richards into its Hall of Fame, not just because of his tenure as a singer, but also his role as a teacher. Richards has used his PhD in Physics to teach barbershop singers about the physics of sound.

For those of us who are music theory novices, Richards explains that a "tuned" piano is actually slightly out of tune, in order to divide up the notes into a 12 key scale. Singers can actually hit the "pure" or "true" notes, which he says is much more satisfying to the ear:

When you hear it sung and sung in tune, it is magic. It is pure magic and being part of that, it feeds the soul. That's why it's not a hobby for me, but an obsession.

Richards will be heading to Anaheim, California in the next few days for the Barbershop Singers annual international convention. Two local groups will be performing there - the Minneapolis Commodores (in which Richards sings) and the Great Northern Union.

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Neil Gaiman: Author turned interviewer

Posted at 3:04 PM on June 23, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, People

Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, Anansi Boys, The Sandman and so many other wonderfully creepy tales, is sitting in one of the MPR News studios at this moment. Except he's not here to be interviewed. Instead he's interviewing British character actor Martin Jarvis about the art of voicing audiobooks. Word has it he's doing a series of interviews for National Public Radio, which should air on Morning Edition in the next few weeks.

Gaiman actually lives not far outside the Twin Cities. MPR's Euan Kerr interviewed him earlier this year when Gaiman won the Newbery honor with his work "The Graveyard Book."

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Three artists, three enduring visions

Posted at 6:58 AM on June 16, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Funding, People

Last night the Bush Foundation announced this year's recipients of its Enduring Vision Awards. They are (from left to right above) flutist and hoop-dancer Kevin Locke, storyteller Mary Louise Defender Wilson, and local showman and puppeteer, Michael Sommers. They'll each receive $100,000 spread out over the next three to five years.

I sat down with each of the award winners after the ceremony to talk about what exactly they plan to do with the money. What sets this award apart is that it's given to artists with at least 25 years of working experience. It's a late career boost for people who are, as Defender Wilson said, often viewed as ready to "be put back on the shelf."

Kevin Locke said the money will allow him to document and archive Native American flute music that he's learned over the years from elders. Locke also spends a great deal of his time teaching traditional hoop-dancing to children in schools. He's also concerned with what it means to be a citizen in a global age, and how his own Lakota culture can contribute.

Mary Louise Defender Wilson will use the award to help her continue the work she's already doing, learning bits and pieces of old stories from different tribal elders, and piecing them together. Her work is not just about preserving Dakota heritage, but also about honoring those elders who are often living in poverty and poor health.

Michael Sommers feels a pull to go deeper with his puppetry and theater; to create darker, more intimate work. But he's also interested in creating moments of pure joy. He's just back from China where he performed puppet theater out of a suitcase all over Beijing. At one point he was completely surrounded by children fascinated with what he was doing, pressing in on him and the puppets. Sommers started laughing at the situation. He looked around and saw that the children and the adults standing behind them were all laughing too. Sommers says he wants more of that.

Images courtesy of Ixtlan Artists Group, Preston Wright and Larry Lamb

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Jorja Fleezanis bids farewell to Minnesota Orchestra

Posted at 10:19 PM on June 11, 2009 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

I've just returned from Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis where the Minnesota Orchestra performed Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis." Tonight was the first of three concerts which mark Jorja Fleezanis' last performances as concertmaster. It was a bittersweet night, in which conductor Osmo Vanska started off by saying he couldn't imagine the orchestra without Fleezanis. He said the only thing consoling him was knowing how many students would now benefit from her teaching (she's taking a post as professor at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music).

As I sat up in the nosebleed section, watching Fleezanis' violin flash in the stage lights, a thought suddenly occurred to me. Who gets to keep the violin? The instrument, which was made in 1700, was given to the orchestra for Fleezanis to play. When it comes to 300 year old instruments, I'm guessing it might not be a matter of flipping a coin. (FYI I've put out some calls and I'll let you know what I find out.)

So how was the concert, you ask? You can listen for yourself when MPR's classical network broadcasts it live Friday night. And if you'd like to hear Fleezanis talk about her 20 year tenure at the Minnesota Orchestra, she was on Midmorning earlier this week.

Image courtesy of the Minnesota Orchestra

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Kushner unapologetic about his "feverish" new play

Posted at 10:54 PM on June 8, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: People, Theater

Playwright Tony Kushner spoke at the Guthrie Theater tonight in conversation with artistic director Joe Dowling. Over the course of two hours, Kushner managed to do everything from condemn Ayn Rand ("put your hand in a blender, it's faster") to flirt with the entire Twin City Gay Men's Chorus ("you're all really hot, if I wasn't already married, etc").

While Dowling avoided any mention of recent critical reviews of Kushner's new play The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Sciptures , Kushner himself took a moment to address questions about the plays "readiness:"

There's this sort of snarky stuff that's been out there in mutterers' corners and the unlit places surrounding what has mostly been a pretty fun time here. That the play... that something was sort of awful and wrong because the play was written under these "circumstances" - I mean screw you! - the play was written in a kind of fever and it produced a really interesting feverish play. The next version of it will be somewhat different than this version, but the... big challenge for me is going to be to preserve what I think is the most exciting thing about the play, which is it's feverishness, and not to clean it up and make it all tidy so that drama critics say "ooh, it's tidy now!"

If you detected a note of animosity toward critics, you're right. Kushner also shared a poem he wrote years ago, which lays bare the sentiments playwrights feel for critics who pan their work. It was too good not to post, so I've done my best to transcribe it here:

A Song for Playwrights in self-defense:

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
the drama critic's in a stew
He holds his breath 'til he turns blue,
He doesn't like the work we do.

Tell us critic, tell us true
Whence oh whence your bilious spew?
Is it some trauma's residue?
What did your parents do to you?

You carp and pick and misconstrue,
besmirch the world with critic poo,
less welcome than the spanish flu,
the sort that decent folk eschew,
and you're reactionary, too.

Perhaps it's time that you withdrew,
doffed your cap and bid adieu,
defenestrate or swallowed glue,
take up a knife - your breast imbrue.

We wish for you a passepartout
Transport yourself to Ougadou-
gou, Honolulu or Corfu,
Say Tally-ho and Toodaloo!
We promise we will not pursue.

You will not do, you will not do
Your "mein kampf" love of rack and screw
Your brute brute newsprint heart, ach du,
We are no longer reading you,
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, etc.

Note: this poem refers exclusively to those drama critics who fail to appreciate my work. All others are enthusiastically exempted.

Finally, Kushner ended with a gushing thank you to the Guthrie and to Minneapolis for hosting the Tony Kushner Festival:

Please know, that this has been a soul-changing and life-changing experience for me. There's that line from the Tempest: "Gentle breath of yours my sails must fill or else my project fails." I feel like I've been given so much from the last five weeks - it will carry me through the rest of my career, I'll never forget this and I'll never ever stop being enormously grateful for it so thank you very much.

If you missed the talk, not to worry - Midday plans to rebroadcast it this Friday, barring any major breaking news.

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St. Paul songwriter dies in his prime

Posted at 9:13 AM on June 6, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People

31-year old singer/songwriter Jeff Hanson was found dead in his apartment, likely from a fall. By all accounts his career was heading places and his sweet voice was capturing people's imaginations. Give his music a listen and send caring thoughts to his family and friends.

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Kushner: Give "Intelligent Homosexual" another week to get better.

Posted at 10:36 AM on May 24, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: People, Theater

This weekend I bumped into Tony Kushner at the Guthrie. We were both watching "Tiny Kushner," a series of one-acts. He raved about the actors and then continued to laud the local actors in "The Intelligent Homosexual." I said I hadn't seen it yet. His response: "Give it a week."

Kushner's frank advice made me feel that much more pity for the people I ran across as I left the Guthrie at 10pm. Bleary-eyed, they were in their second intermission for the new play, and had still another hour to go. Many of these people paid hundreds of dollars for the opportunity to be among the first to see the play.

The critics this weekend were not as optimistic as Kushner in their reviews. Pioneer Press critic (and MPR commentator) Dominic Papatola described it as "overwheening... pedantic... and needlessly junked up ...with out-of-place manifestos." The Star Tribune's Graydon Royce says "[Kushner's] operatic cacophony at times skates precipitously close to the razor's edge of incoherence."

So while Kushner claimed last week that making major changes even in previews is part of his creative process, it sounds like he didn't give himself enough time to get the play where it needed to be. I'll be giving it at least a week.

Photo credit: 2009 © Michal Daniel

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