Art Hounds

Susana di Palma of Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre is planning to attend the world premiere this weekend of “Shaamya — Of Equality.” The performance by Katha Dance Theatre is a coming-together of music, dance and poetry, inspired by the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s visions of equality across gender, race and religion.

Choreographed by Katha Artistic Director Rita Mustaphi, the show incorporates ballet, hiphop and flamenco along with the rhythmically complex kathak dance from northern India.

The show features music by J.D. Steele and poetry by Somali-American performer Ifrah Mansour. Taken together, di Palma says, this original work is “going to provoke thought and feeling in a beautiful way that we can all examine” on a universal topic. The show runs Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul.

Michael Murnane, a lighting director and head electrician at the Minnesota Orchestra, is a huge fan of the rock band Annie and the Bang Bang. They have a new record — available in both vinyl and digital — called “Walkie Talkie.” Murnane says it's the kind of music that makes you both want to move around and sit and focus on its thoughtful lyrics.

“They're like a garage band but with 30 years of experience,” said Murnane. “It looks like they're in it for the fun, but they're saying really interesting things.”

Artist Janine Holter of Montrose drove to Lanesboro when Commonweal Theatre Company opened its first in-person show this spring. She’ll be there for the close of the 2021 season with its production of “A Christmas Carol,” which opens Friday and runs through Dec. 19. It’s the classic ghost-filled story based on the work of Charles Dickens, complete with the heartfelt transformation of miserly Scrooge.

Commonweal’s twist is to cast Scrooge and the three ghost characters as women. “[Commonweal Associate Artistic Director] Adrienne Sweeney is just a delightful actress,” Holter said, “and I know she’s going to play one heck of a nasty Scrooge.”

It’s not the first time women have played Scrooge. In 2018, the Guthrie cast both a male and a female lead, with Nathaniel Fuller playing the role 43 times and Charity Jones, in male dress, starring in 13 shows.

Sweeney developed this version of the show as she thought about how a female Scrooge might fit historically and resonate today.

Patrons are required to wear masks inside the theater. The show will also be available virtually.

The 22nd Sound Unseen Film + Music Festival in Minneapolis wraps up Saturday, with its annual focus on films and documentaries about music. Independent film critic Nick Kouhi recommends the final film of the event, “Being Bebe” about Minneapolis drag performer Bebe Zahara Benet.

Originally from Cameroon, Benet gained national attention as the first winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2009. The film draws upon approximately 15 years of archival footage shot by director Emily Branham, interspersed with commentary by a wryly witty Benet. It’s an intimate, contemplative film that is “also a really powerful testament to art and the value of art and how art can express oneself,” Kouhi said.

“Being Bebe” screens in-person at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis on Saturday at 7 p.m. There will be an onstage Q&A with Benet and Branham following the screening. Tickets are currently sold out, with an in-person, night-of waitlist starting an hour before the screening. The Walker Cinema requires masks and proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours.

Minneapolis actor and playwright Eric “Pogi” Sumangil is a fan of Qui Nguyen’s plays, and he’s happy to see that the University of Minnesota Theatre Arts & Dance department is kicking off its in-person season with Nguyen’s show “She Kills Monsters.”

It’s a comedy about being an outsider and finding your chosen family. The 10-year-old play, follows a young woman, Agnes, who is mourning the death of her younger sister. When Agnes finds her sister’s Dungeons and Dragons notebook, she decides to go on a D&D campaign in order to get to know her sister better.

The play is co-directed by Doug Scholz-Carlson and Annie Enneking, who Pogi says “are two really great fight choreographers and directors, so they're going to bring their brand of action and entertainment and adventure to a play that really supports that well.”

Nguyen lived for a time in the Twin Cities, and he’s known nationally for writing such works as “Vietgone” and Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon.” His “geek theater...blends theater with hip hop and martial arts and creates these worlds that are very grounded and fantastical at the same time,” Pogi said.

“She Kills Monsters” runs Thursday through Nov. 21 at the Rarig Center / Stoll Thrust Theatre on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.

Michael Whistler is a playwright and teaching artist at Interact Center for the Arts who sees as much theater as he can. Before the pandemic, he recalls being blown away by Mistress Ginger’s cabaret of Kurt Weill’s music. During the pandemic, the drag performer staged mini cabarets from her home that also featured vegan recipes.

Now Whistler is thrilled to see her back on stage this weekend to perform “Hollywood Blondes.” The show features stories of actresses including Mae West and Marilyn Monroe, with music. Jazz musician Rick Carlson is on piano.

“Mistress Ginger is a cabaret singer who brings warmth and depth to a lyric, and always lets the song shine through,” Whistler said “She moves easily from the steam of a torch song to the campy wink of a double entendre- always while holding up the classic composers and lyricists she loves.”

“Hollywood Blondes” is at Bryant Lake Bowl Theater in Minneapolis Saturday and Sunday at 7 p.m. both nights.

Dancer Molly Kay Stoltz of St. Peter has been looking forward to the winter show by Rhythmically Speaking at Amsterdam Bar and Hall in St. Paul Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

The dance group takes cues from jazz and American social dance, such as ballroom and line dancing. Stoltz appreciates how the groupimprovises and interacts with live musicians and the audience.

Thursday’s show is called “Riffin’: A Jazz-Danced Celebration of Human Interaction.” Hutchinson-based guitarist/composer Mike Lauer leads a live jazz combo for the performance. Amsterdam will be selling a special tap beer, a collaborative creation by Lauer and Hutchinson’s Bobbing Bobber Brewery.

Theater performer Shea Roberts Gyllen loves the work of Threads Dance Project, celebrating its 10th anniversary with in-person and virtual options at the Cowles Center in Minneapolis this weekend. Threads is a Black woman-owned company whose show “Awake. Alive. Anew.” marks a rising from the devastation of the pandemic.

The performance features new modern dance works by emerging choreographers Gabby Abram, Jennifer Pray and Elayna Waxse, as well as the premiere of the dance film “Out of the Ashes.” The dance film is about the events of 9/11, and Roberts Gyllen was struck by how the dance captures “that moment of transition from a normal day to the worst day … the things I have seen Threads produce have always gotten right behind my breast bone and made me feel.”

The show is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., with both in-person and livestream options available. The Cowles Center requires masks and proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test from within 72 hours.

Minneapolis theater maker Candy Simmons has followed the dance company Jagged Moves Dance Project since its formation in 2016.She saw the only performance of their show “Touch Code” in March 2020 before theaters went dark, and she’s looking forward to having that same show be her first in-person experience back. The themes of touch, boundaries and personal space may take on extra weight after our experiences with social distancing.

“Choreographer Jennifer Glaws' work is always exciting and adventurous,” said Simmons. “And she supports her dancers with innovative lighting, set and sound design. The piece also features Julie Johnson, a local flutist whose work is also always exciting and outside the bounds of what you expect out of her instrument.”

“TOUCH CODE: (Re) Claiming Space” runs Thursday through Sunday at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, with some livestream options. On-demand performances are available Nov. 6 to Nov. 14.

St. Paul poet and performance artist Hawona Sullivan Janzen has loved Ananya Dance Theatre ever since she watched them through a glass window this summer. The dancers performed inside their University Avenue studio but the audience was seated on the sidewalk outside while traffic and light rail trains rushed nearby. She remains moved by the experience.

Sullivan Janzen is planning to see Ananya Dance Theatre’s new show “Dastak: I Wish You Me” indoors this weekend. The dance performance is a collaboration with playwright Sharon Bridgforth and cellist Spirit McIntyre. Ananya is a contemporary dance theater company focused on global social justice. “Dastak” contemplates migration and loss through “four elemental journeys,” according to the dance company’s website. The Farsi term for knockings, dastak refers to the idea that global social injustice prompts a knocking at your door.

Ananya Dance Theatre’s show “Dastak: I Wish You Me” is Friday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday at 9 p.m. at The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. The theater requires masks as well as proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of the performance.

Teaching artist Maria Asp loves Z Puppets Rosenschnoz’s web series, “Say it, Sing it, Play it!” The three-part series is a hybrid of live-action, puppetry, animation and song, and is in Cherokee. Designed for ages 3 and up, the show follows best friends Turtle and Wabbit as they travel in their spaceship, unlocking clues to help save Grandma Turtle. Asp called it a delightful series whose pacing and repetition make it easy for all ages to learn some words in Cherokee.

It was created by Chris Griffith, an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, as a way to answer a 2019 state of emergency call to keep the Cherokee language from being lost. The show stars Griffith and Shari Aronson and is directed by Anishinabe artist Julie Boada.

The digital show streams through the Ordway Theater’s website for the month of November. Tribal members of any nation, as well as Native American schools or organizations, may sign up to see the show for free.

Artist Naomi RaMona Schleisman recommends a visit to the Kaddatz Galleries in Fergus Falls to see Lisa Bergh’s exhibit, “Dear Diary.” Based in New London, Minn., Bergh has worked with painting and sculptural installations. This new body ventures into textiles, using canvas and heavy plastic combined with embroidery and rivets to create a tension in each piece that invites viewers to look closer. Schleisman loves the vibrant colors of the pieces.

“It's like you're having this private conversation that Lisa has created with these forms,” said Schleisman.

“Dear Diary” runs through Nov. 18, both in-person and online, with a closing reception on the final evening.

Stan Takiela from Victoria, Minn., recommends an exhibition by fellow wildlife photographer Dudley Edmondson of Duluth. Edmondson has a passion for wild places and for getting people of color outdoors. This photography exhibit, “Northern Waters,” focused entirely on landscapes, captures the waters of Minnesota’s North Shore and its tributaries throughout the seasons.

“Dudley Edmondson’s eye for photography and videography is, I think, some of the best in the upper Midwest,” says Takiela, who admires Edmondson’s precision and eye for color and composition that allow him to capture images that tell a story.

Edmondson’s photography is on view in person and online at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona through Jan. 2.

Scot Froelich from New Hope recommends a one-man play that dives deep into the horror of being alone, surrounded by the unknown. “Brig” is written and performed by St. Paul actor Jeremy Motz, who often works in solo shows. He plays a boatswain who has locked himself away on his own ship to protect himself from the horror he has witnessed. Confined in a small space with the creak of footsteps above, he unfurls a ghost story that Froelich found himself discussing with friends long afterward.

“It's very masterfully crafted to make you keep questioning in your mind whether or not what you're seeing is reality,” says Froelich, “whether it's something that we should be fearing in our own lives, or if it's just this horror show that we're seeing in front of us.”

The 35-minute show is available for digital viewing through Halloween at papersoul.org.

Jill Chamberlain saw the theater production of “The Red Shoes” when it debuted at the Open Eye Theatre in 2017, and the show has stuck with her ever since. The one-act play takes its inspiration from the classic story of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen, adding a film noir mystery twist.

Chamberlain is curious to see how a show about a woman afraid to leave her apartment will take on new layers of meaning amid a pandemic. There are indeed haunted red shoes in the show, as well as manipulated objects in an intricate scene design that blur the lines of reality.

Delayed from its March 2020 reprise, the show is running Thursdays through Sundays at the Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis through Oct. 31. The theater requires masks as well as proof of full vaccination or a negative COVID test within 72 hours.

St Paul vocalist Jennifer Eckes is heading to the historic Sheldon Theatre of Performing Arts in Red Wing, Minn., on Saturday for a concert by Guns N’ Rosenkavalier. The group is led by Twin Cities opera singer Andrew Wilkowske on electric guitar, performing a lineup that is part classic art song recital, part rock concert.

Eckes appreciates Wilkowske’s musicianship as well as his sense of humor as he mashes genres together. “It's really fun and fascinating to hear a German art song with an electric guitar.”

“It's just as exciting to hear a Bruce Springsteen tune sung by a full voice baritone. A good song is a good song, whether it was written by Strauss or Van Halen,” Eckes said. “No matter where you come from on the spectrum of your musical knowledge, I think anyone can enjoy this concert because you probably will recognize something.”

The show starts at 7:30. Masks are required.

Adam Tervola-Hultberg is a music teacher in Pillager, in north-central Minnesota, looking forward to a performance by a cappella group Tonic Sol Fa on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The show, along with a performance by Minnesota musician Kat Perkins on Thursday, marks the grand opening of Pillager Public School’s new CTC Center for the Performing Arts.

The four-man a cappella group based in Minnesota performs arrangements of pop music fit for young and old. Tonic Sol Fa’s tour of Minnesota in October and November includes Brainerd, Bemidji, Alexandria and Rochester.

Brandon Henry, lead singer of the Twin Cities Americana band Art Vandalay, is thrilled that the Landmark Live concert series has returned after last year’s hiatus. The series brings top-notch musicians from across Minnesota and the country to perform on the third Friday of each month, now through December.

Friday’s show features indie singer-songwriter Mary Bue, who was named best songwriter in the Twin Cities for 2020 by City Pages. Henry loves the intimate feel of the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Auditorium in the historic Landmark Center in St. Paul, where he says “you can hear every pluck of the strings.”

Tickets include a cocktail hour at 7 p.m., where Henry appreciates the chance to hang out with other music fans and occasionally meet the performing artists. Music starts at 8. Masks are required inside the building.

Ann Etter of Northfield, Minn., recommends her favorite way to relax after a hard day of work: watching a performance by Northfield-based jazz ensemble Sweet Jazz. True to their name, the four-piece (sometimes five-piece) ensemble plays jazz standards, B-side jazz tunes that might be new for listeners and originals by pianist Peter Webb.

Etter loves the way the ensemble matches their set to the seasons: “You see them in the spring, and it’s going to feel more peppy. You see them in the fall, and it’s going to feel more crisp. It’s just an immersive experience.”

Sweet Jazz’s next live, outdoor performance is Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Contented Cow, overlooking the Cannon River in downtown Northfield.

Kasey Southwick danced ballet for years with Continental Ballet Co. in Bloomington, and now she’s looking forward to relaxing in the audience for its “Beer & Ballet” performance on Friday at 7 p.m. in the Schneider Theater at the Bloomington Center for the Arts.

Southwick says the one-night event is a chill atmosphere that makes for an excellent introduction for adults who are new to ballet. The evening features a mix of short dance numbers choreographed by the director and by members of the company, set to a mix of classical and contemporary music. And, yes, the ticket price includes one beer.

Masks are recommended by the ballet company, which has this COVID-19 protocol: “We request that if you are not vaccinated you test negative before attending the theater in consideration for the safety of those around you.”

Novelist and playwright Kathleen Anne Kenny shared about a fellow Winona artist who’s written for page and stage.

Margaret Shaw Johnson’s pandemic project was to transform her previous play “The Haunting of Potter’s Field” into an illustrated book of narrative poems by the same name. The inspiration arose from Johnson’s walks through Winona’s historic Woodlawn Cemetery and its potter’s field, where those who could not afford a burial plot were laid to rest. Based on historical research and supplemented with imagination, the poems tell a selection of stories about those whose lives ended in Winona.

There will be a book launch on Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Winona History Center, including a gallery show of the book’s illustrations by Twin Cities artist Jared Tuttle and a performance of some of the original music that was composed for the theatrical production.

Updated: 3:33 p.m.

Theater lover Katie Fetterly of St. Paul calls “Arla Mae’s Booyah Wagon,” a traveling musical comedy celebrating the joy of local food, “adorable” and “hilarious.” Booyah is a hearty stew —and a specialty of Arla Mae’s traveling food wagon.

The show is performed at different local farms, and most performances feature a booyah tasting. Sarah Agnew directed and performs in the show,and she also created the booyah recipe with culinary advice fromJames Beard award-winning chefAnn Kimof Young Joni and other restaurants in Minneapolis.

“Arla Mae” travels to Ferndale Market in Cannon Falls at 6 p.m Thursday and to Pleasant Grove Pizza Farm in Waseca on Friday. The production moves to Dream Acres Farm in Spring Valley on Saturday and Big Raven Farm in Spring Grove Sunday. The following week performances are scheduled in Oronoco, Red Wing and Northfield.

Musician Mischa Suemnig of Plymouth is excited for a quadruple album release concert by four Minnesota musicians Saturday. Justin Bell and the Lazy Susan Band, the Jonathan Earl band, Sarah VanValkenburg and Samuel J. DuBois all have albums coming out. Suemnig wants to hear new music performed live and “the pent-up anxiety and energy we all have from COVID directed in a positive way” by musicians he admires.

The show is Saturday at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall in St. Paul. The venue requires proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test from within 72 hours.

Comedian Emma Dahlenberg felt like she’d stumbled upon a real gem when she performed at the Club Underground of the Spring Street Tavern in Minneapolis a few months ago. She loves the lighting, the feeling of intimacy with the audience in the low ceiling space. The venue runs a regular Monday Night Comedy Show starting at 7 p.m.

In October, each comedy night will have a theme for the comedians to follow, starting Oct. 4 with “alien abduction night.” Upcoming themes include super villains and character night, as well as one night each of “clean” and “dirty” humor.

“I think it would be really fun as an audience member,” says Dahlenberg, “because you're seeing the comedians have fun in a way that they don't normally do,” as they try out new material to fit each theme.

Correction (Sept. 30, 2021): An earlier version of this story misstated Ann Kim's role in the production "Arla Mae's Booyah Wagon.” The article has been updated.