Jill Yablonski photo courtesy Associated Press Feeling like a half-pint, seeing Guthrie’s Little House on the Prairie with my Pa, nostalgia was sure to abound. "Don’t be such a Nellie," he’d chastise me as a young girl whenever I took on the role of brazen tattle-teller. Tonight, though, a comparison to Nellie would be no disparagement. Sara … Read more
After a flamboyantly successful run at the Bedlam Theatre earlier this spring, You’re No Fun has been whittled down for a Fringe staging. The play centers around a present-day hobo who comes back to town, and finds that his ex-girlfriend has written a musical about his life. It is a tale of star-crossed lovers that, … Read more
With their previous entries into the Minnesota Fringe all selling out by the end of their respective festivals, the Four Humors troupe has become something of an August favorite in Minnesota theater. This will be their fourth year participating in the Fringe, and the group is affiliated with three shows that will be playing around … Read more
I was excited to be able to catch up with Rachel Teagle and Ben Egerman, two friends of mine and veterans of the Carleton College theater scene. As newcomers to the Fringe, they were kind enough to lend some of their perspective, caffeine induced hysteria, and details about their new show, Orange. The Rake: How … Read more
Rake photographer Denis Jeong is set loose in Detroit Lakes and tells us all he sees and hears. See the slideshows (Part 1 and Part 2) chronicalling his weekend, nudity and all. Boom-bam-bop-tap! Boom-bam-bam-pop-pop-pop! Is this what a drum circle sounds like? Maybe not, but that’s the sound I was hearing as I drifted in … Read more
Local celebs in attendance tonight include Brenda Langton and some guy who’s supposed to be the funniest in the cities, whom I did see open at Acme for a genuinely funny (but non-local) guy. We three, and several others, were taking in the Fringe Festival Preview: Out-of-Towners’ Showcase at the West Bank’s Bedlam Theater. While … Read more
Through August 3, A Guthrie Experience for Actors in Training is presenting Caviar on Credit at the Dowling Studio. For the past 12 years, the Guthrie has taken pride in offering continuing education programs to young actors from institutions throughout the country and hosting a stage upon which they exhibit all they’ve learned. In return, … Read more
Thirty seconds is my guess. The generation of 20-something over-stimulated technophiles has notoriously short attention spans, fitting snugly within the confines of rapidly flashing images in 30-second commercials, mind-numbing YouTube videos, maniacal iPod shuffling and ever shifting favoritism to "bands of the hour." But some musicians have managed to cash in on our generational ADD. … Read more
DAY ONE The warnings start off nicely enough, with the Basilica Block Party MC kindly asking people to stand further away from the stage, you know, for fear of electrocution or something. Then it is, "Ladies and gentlemen, if you’re worried about getting wet, you can go in the parking lot or go in the … Read more
It’s been one week and we have already discovered who runs the circus–I mean house. Is it Louie, the English Bulldog? My husband has always loved English Bulldogs, so when our son turned 10 he convinced the whole family that we should have one for the son’s sake. We ended up with the "stud" of … Read more