by REBECCA HALAT and ADAM SCHENCK. Christmastime is a reminder that our best stories are not new. The Guthrie’s annual production of A Christmas Carol is just such a story. How then to make the old familiar story new? The Guthrie celebrates its 40th year of A Christmas Carol this year, and this classic production…
BY TAMAR NEUMANN: ‘Twas two weeks before Thanksgiving and all through the cities each holiday show began their stirrings. Each cast and director were fully prepared in the hopes that audiences soon would be there. The children were excited for they already knew, the Grinch would soon be back to steak Christmas anew. I’ll spare…
Open Eye Figure Theater’s adaptation of The Juniper Tree uses an innovative blend of live actors, beautiful stage design, and amazing puppetry to bring to life one of the Grimm Brothers’ more gruesome tales. This is no children’s tale, as it brings together love, loss, murder, and cannibalism, while still leaving room for a happy…
BY CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Recently, Aisle Say Twin Cities lost the second of its two founding members as life pulled them in different directions. Sophie Kerman announced that she was moving on in her last post, a review of the Ivey Awards. Anna Rosensweig left us in 2012 to complete her Ph.D. and begin postdoctoral…
by MICHAEL J. OPPERMAN The Minnesota Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel is a great introduction to opera for friends and family who are intimidated or reluctant to give the form a try. The story is familiar, the music is approachable (and lovely), and the staging is fantastic – in all definitions of the word. …
BY TAMAR NEUMANN: After I saw The Classical Actors Ensemble’s production of John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi all my memories of my Renaissance English Literature class came crashing back. I went home, dusted off my copy of the play, and started flipping through my notes about the tragic themes present in this story. I…
By LIZ BYRON. Haven’t you ever wondered what happened to Sleeping Beauty after she married her Prince Charming? I mean, let’s think about this for a second. She was supposed to have fallen into her “death-like sleep” at the age of 16, right? And then Princely McPerfect comes along and kisses her, she wakes up,…
By LIZ BYRON. Before I tell you what I thought of the opening production of Gadfly Theatre‘s fifth season, a little disclosure: I didn’t seek out a cast list when I agreed to review this play, and so it wasn’t until I sat down in my seat on Friday night and looked at the program that…
By LIZ BYRON. I was sitting in a German class a couple of years ago when my teacher, demonstrating a new grammar concept, used the example character “Frau Blücher”. Without thinking, I neighed like a horse, much to the alarm of my classmates — most of whom were a good ten years younger than me…
By REBECCA HALAT. Mixed Blood’s production of Colossal dealt with the difficulty of loss. Most simply, it is the story of a young football player and a game injury that leaves him in a wheelchair. The loss of the full use of his legs, however, is not the most painful one we see him suffer…
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