Author: Danielle Kurtzleben

  • Shining City

    Along with Sarah Ruhl (see here), Minneapolis is also conducting alove affair with Irish playwrights. There was Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman at Frank Theatre in September and Brian Friel’s tragic The Home Place,currently on stage at the Guthrie; now the Jungle Theater adds to thebleak themes put forth by Irishmen with Conor McPherson’s Shining City.…

  • Joe Sacco

    The comic book has come a long way since Superman,with graphic novels now (rightfully) garnering literary cred andoccupying their own constantly expanding section at the local Barnes& Noble. But with his unique brand of “cartoon journalism,” Joe Sacco has put his influential stamp on the medium. When Sacco applies his “comic book” treatment to subjects…

  • Running Against Type

    The idea of a footrace in North Minneapolis seems to inspire two reactions from residents of other neighborhoods: incredulity and concern. “Do you want to get mugged?” “Are you wearing a flak jacket?” And, of course, the simplest question: “Why?”   It is no secret that North Minneapolis has a reputation as one of the…

  • The Deception

    Its 2006-07 season was chock full of chestnuts, but now, finally, Theatre de la Jeune Lune opens its new season with an original production. The Deception is an adaptation of Pierre de Marivaux’s La Fausse Suivante, a dark eighteenth-century French comedy in which a young woman disguises herself as a man so that she can…

  • Alan Weisman

    Now, here’s fodder for daydreams and late-night speculation: What would happen to the earth—and, more pointedly, to our massive infrastructure of buildings, bridges, subways, and sculptures—if the human race were to disappear? Author and University of Arizona journalism professor Alan Weisman has asked the question of everyone from geologists and paleontologists to art conservators and…

  • Mina Agossi

    Calling Mina Agossi a jazz singer is like calling Michael Jordan a basketball player; it’s technically true but woefully understated. Like the best singers, Agossi makes it abundantly clear that her voice is an instrument, whether she’s working with her own compositions, Ella Fitzgerald standards, or Jimi Hendrix covers (which she renders complete with raucous…