Danielle Kurtzleben

File this one under “can’t miss.” Zadie Smith asked a bunch of literary cohorts to contribute to her latest project. Her only rule: Each story must bear the name of a person, and be about that person. The result is a broad-ranging collection of characters (a giant, a judge, and a monster, to name a … Read more

Black Label Movement received a hearty welcome with its debut 2006–07 season, garnering praise both for its evocative choreography and athletic, hyperkinetic dancers. The company repays that kindness by opening its sophomore season with the ambitious Wreck, artistic director Carl Flink’s first evening-length piece. Claustrophobics beware: Wreck depicts ten sailors trapped inside the last watertight … Read more

America may have spent decades fighting the evils of communism, but with The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein shows us the scary side of the free market. “Disaster capitalism,” the idea at the center of Klein’s new book, employs a simple yet sinister formula: disaster strikes, the public panics, and the … Read more

For the arts patron in search of a new holiday production: Consider the world premiere of All is Calm. Peripatetic director Peter Rothstein and his resident company, Theater Latté Da, have teamed up with the acclaimed men’s vocal group Cantus to stage this radio drama (which will be broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio). All is … Read more

“The American theater’s in a shitload of trouble.” So reads the opening line in the latest offering from the small St. Paul-based troupe Starting Gate Productions. As both poison-pen letter and love note to the theater, this play is directed by a woman with no small opinions on the matter: Leah Cooper, former executive director … Read more

Minneapolis takes on shades of Paris for a week this fall, courtesy of Ballet of the Dolls.The company has been working its inventive and often wacky brand ofdance theater for twenty-one years now, most recently with a take onthe outer-space sex odyssey Barbarella. Artistic director andformer Parisian Myron Johnson choreographed this latest show as aseries … Read more

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. … Read more

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 … Read more