by SOPHIE KERMAN At the beginning of The Veterans Play Project, two would-be filmmakers and a community chorus are all asking the same question: “Where are all the vets?” In the fictional town of Smedley, MN – just like the Twin Cities – veterans are everywhere, but for a variety of personal and political reasons,…
by LIZ BYRON Brahman/i: A One-Hijra Stand-Up Comedy Show is one of a trilogy of plays by local playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil being premiered by Mixed Blood Theatre. The series is called Displaced Hindu Gods, and also includes pieces The Chronicles of Kalki and Shiv; all three plays are based around the concept of the…
Like Liz, I felt the need to try something a bit different today. There were some highs and some lows of tonight’s selections, but it was an interesting smorgasbord! I first went to the Southern Theater to see Gray Matter, a dance performance choreographed by Zoé Emilie Henrot. I usually shy away from dance – not because I…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Want to pair a night at the theater with a tasty meal beforehand? Josh Page over at I Like Food, Food Tastes Good and I are doing the legwork for you. Check out Josh’s site for his take on Chimborazo, where the unexpected combinations of sweet and savory Ecuadorian flavors will put you…
By MIRA REINBERG As spectators of television or theater we are lured by the sheer possibilities of delectation that are accessible to the very rich, even as we scoff at the disproportionate luxury surrounding them and ridicule their lifestyle of pampered oblivion. Molly Smith Metzler’s “class war” play, Elemeno Pea, inserts us into the emblematic…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Next to Normal, winner of three Tony Awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is a rousing rock musical that explores mental illness, bipolar disorder, teenage angst, grief and suburban family dysfunction. Set to powerful lyrics and music, the musical balances these difficult and often uncomfortable topics with humor, humanity and raw honesty. Standout vocals…
By CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Learn to be Latina at the Mixed Blood Theatre throws political correctness out of the window and presents the notion of “palatably ethnic” entertainment to post-9/11 audiences. In the hysterical comedy written by Enrique Urueta and directed by Mark Valdez, the Lebanese-American heroine, Hanan Mashalani, played charmingly by Jaime Elvey in…
by SOPHIE KERMAN For those of you with Mexican heritage – or for those of you who, like me, are ashamed of knowing so little about the Twin Cities’ sizable Mexican population – the Mixed Blood Theatre has brought an expanded production of Joe Minjares‘s Minnecanos to the Parkway Theater in South Minneapolis. Minnecanos has, in fact,…
by ANNA ROSENSWEIG What happens when two over-privileged adult children throw a birthday party for their wealthy father? This is the premise of Crashing the Party, a new play by Josh Tobiessen that wonders whether the tenacity needed to achieve the “American Dream” can be passed from one generation to another. Once one generation has…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Over the past few days, Anna and I have explored the three very different plays on offer at the Mixed Blood Theatre‘s Center of the Margins festival, which celebrates the often-neglected perspectives of individuals with disabilities. We have to commend the Mixed Blood for undertaking such a project to begin with: there…
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