Mpls.St.Paul Magazine - Out + About

Countdown to ... The 90 Days of Summer!

Wed, 22 May 2013 14:34:37 GMT

Your Daily Don't-Miss Summer Guide is (Almost) Here!

Follow our editors' picks of where to shop, eat, and enjoy the cities all summer long, June 1-Aug. 31, at mspmag.com/90days.

+ Plus: Use our handy guides to food trucks, taprooms, minigolf guide, blow-dry bars, and more!

Follow the 90 Days of Summer

A New Take on Streetcar

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:22:31 GMT

Ten Thousand Things’ production of A Streetcar Named Desire is a radical reinterpretation of the Tennessee Williams play. It eliminates all but four of the characters and casts Blanche and Stella as African Americans (Austene Van and Elizabeth Grullon), Stanley as a European American (Kris L. Nelson), and Mitch as a Korean American (Kurt Kwan).

“This is a different take on Williams,” says director Randy Reyes. “I want to bring out the universal themes in the play, shine a light on it through the lens of a different culture.”

The production will not alter the play, other than cutting it. Reyes acknowledges certain dissonances between the text and the casting. For instance, the scene when Blanche is describing her life on a plantation could raise some eyebrows. “Lines might ring false for a second, but they’re small things. If the audience is invested in the characters, they’ll follow,” the director insists.

Still, Reyes admits that he’s not quite sure how people will react to his interpretation. “It’s a social, cultural, and theatrical experiment,” he says. “This is not how you expect Williams to be. I’m excited about it.” May 3–26. Various locations, 612-203-9502, tenthousandthings.org

Fit to Print

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:26:18 GMT

Each year for the past decade, Highpoint Center for Printmaking has hosted three Jerome residents. All Minnesota-based emerging artists, the fellows learn, create, get critiqued, and ultimately help curate a show of new work. Later this month, 2012–13 residents Caitlin Warner, David Frohlich, and Jonas Criscoe deliver on that last facet in the Jerome Emerging Printmakers Exhibition.

Warner and Frohlich, both graduates of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, share little in common besides their alma mater. Frohlich combines screenprinting and mixed media to illuminate the otherwise invisible (think processes within the body), while Warner takes a more whimsical approach. She is retrofitting vending machines that will dispense art—screenprints, miniature books, small boxes with secrets inside—to gallery visitors. Criscoe’s work is different from both of them; he explores assemblage and collage techniques (above) and playfully blends geometric and natural shapes.

Carla McGrath, Highpoint’s executive director, says that cross-pollination of distinct aesthetic and technical approaches is part of what makes the residency valuable. “Their work is all very different, but they do interface with each other and the 25 other artists who are here. . . . They end up benefitting from being around others and being exposed to new ideas.” Opens May 24. Highpoint Center for Printmaking, 912 W. Lake St., Mpls., 612-871-1326, highpointprintmaking.org

Rebellious Spirits

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:22:58 GMT

Minnesota Dance Theatre’s Nutcracker Fantasy is a holiday tradition for many Twin Cities families. But the venerable company, founded by Loyce Houlton in 1962, goes beyond classical ballet. Every spring, artistic director Lise Houlton says, “We have to find our way back to our dark side”—that is, to her mother’s legacy of adventurous dance.

This spring’s concert is Fierce/Feminine: Dance by Women Choreographers, a program that spans three generations of accomplished women. Dance is dominated by men—as company directors, choreographers, powerful dancers, and funders—so, Houlton says, on the day she and her staff needed to name the show, “We just felt a little rebellious.”

The rebellion starts from Loyce Houlton, whose groundbreaking “craziness and courage” still inspire her daughter and her company. This year, the younger Houlton is bringing back her mother’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, “a really beautiful piece,” a sweet world “seen through the eyes of a child.” Houlton digs into her mother’s rich archive as company depth and funds allow: “I try to bring back as much of her work as I can because I think she did some kick-ass work.”

Among the choreographers in Fierce/Feminine is Emery LeCrone, who is in her 20s but already an acclaimed ballet choreographer. Houlton is lucky to get LeCrone while she can and happy LeCrone “has opportunities to work with great dancers but is still interested in coming here.” In the male-dominated world of ballet choreography, LeCrone is a standout hope for a badly needed new future in ballet.

The show’s final piece comes from Joanie Smith (of Shapiro & Smith Dance) and is, Houlton says, “about as fierce and feminine as it gets.” May 16–19. The Cowles Center, 528 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-206-3636, thecowlescenter.org

Drastic Change

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:14:21 GMT

Playwright Ethan Boatner was in his early 60s when he began his gender transition. “I was a slow starter,” he jokes. Growing up in the late 1940s, “I didn’t have the vocabulary,” he says. “All I knew was that I didn’t want to be what I was.” He just always thought of himself as a “guy,” he says, then later in life as a “gay guy” who has “always gone around dressed as I am now.”

Boatner has transformed his history into three semiautobiographical one-act plays under the title of Changes in Time, which receives its world premiere this month by 20% Theatre Company. “Wishes” is the story of Rain, a 14-year-old tomboy that another girl at camp had a crush on. In “Dresses,” Lorraine, now in her mid-30s, is attending a wedding and argues with her mother about wearing a dress. And finally, in “Changes,” set in the present, Laurence confronts his father after the death of his mother.

“Wishes” won a contest sponsored by Stages, the National Transgender Theatre Festival, and was given a reading in NYC in 2003. “Every individual is inextricably bound to the context of his/her time and society,” Boatner explains. “I wanted to show a character who doesn’t know what’s going on in her/his own head. She/he’s just trying to get along.”

In the Twin Cities, Boatner was a fixture in the gay community for more than 10 years as a contributor and editor of Lavender, the GLBT newsmagazine. He retired in 2009. May 11–25. Minneapolis Theatre Garage, 711 Franklin Ave. W., Mpls., 612-870-0723, tctwentypercent.org

Finding Sugarman

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:59:59 GMT

Rodriguez

The surreal back-from-obscurity story of forgotten American folk singer Sixto Rodriguez is one of the most amazing second acts in American music history.

After recording two records in the early 1970s, Rodriguez pretty much quit the music business and settled down in Detroit, supporting himself with odd jobs and stints as a manual laborer.

That’s the last most people in the United States ever heard from him. But overseas, in Australia and especially South Africa, his stridently political songs about racial injustice and poverty struck a chord. In the 1980s and ’90s, while Rodriguez himself hammered nails and demolished buildings in Detroit, kids in South Africa were trading his songs and building a musical mythology around him—a mythology fueled by the mistaken idea that, among other things, he was dead.

In the late 1990s, two of Rodriguez’s fans set out to tell the story of their hero’s supposed suicide. Their search, and the discovery that he is still alive, was chronicled in this year’s Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man.

Suddenly popular again, Rodriguez is now touring the country, resurrecting the poetic folk-psychedelia that most of the world ignored the first time around. His show here sold out instantly. May 15. The Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul, 651-290-1200, fitzgeraldtheater.publicradio.org —T. S.

Minneapolis-St.Paul Minigolf Guide

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:22:26 GMT

INDOOR MINIGOLF

Big Bear Mini Putt at Golf Zone

825 Flying Cloud Dr., Chaska 952-445-1500
yourgolfzone.com
Open year-round
Hours: M 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Tu-Th 9 a.m.-9 p.m., F 9 a.m.-10 p.m., Sa-Su 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
Price: $7.50 for adults; $6.50 for kids under 14 $1 off per person for groups of 10 or more
While the kids practice putting through 18 holes of indoor pine trees and water hazards, you can work on your backswing at the driving range or grab some adult beverages at the bar. Great for birthday parties.

Burnsville Grand Slam

12425 River Ridge Blvd., Burnsville 952-224-0413
grandslammn.com
Open year-round
Hours: Su-Th 10 a.m.-10 p.m., F-Sa 10 a.m.-12 a.m.
Price: $4 per person
Cheap and pirate-themed, this 18-hole course offers the advantage of a host of other kid-friendly games on the premises. (Bumper car battle, anyone?)

Coon Rapids Grand Slam

2941 Coon Rapids Blvd, Coon Rapids 763-427-1959
grandslamcoonrapids.com
Open year-round
Hours: Su-Th 10 a.m.-10 p.m., F-Sa, 10 a.m.-12 a.m.
Price: $3.95 per person
It’s medieval-themed in Coon Rapids. Become queen or king of the course, then meander on over to the snack bar for some royal cheese curds.

Moose Mountain Adventure Golf at Nickelodeon Universe

(Mall of America) 5000 Center Court, Bloomington 952-883-8938
nickelodeonuniverse.com
Open year-round
Hours: M-Sa 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m., Su 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Price: $8 for adults; $26 for groups of four, each additional player up to 7 is an additional $6; 5 and under free
Strewn with imitation wildlife and kitschy old logging supplies, this 18-hole course will satisfy your penchant for putting and, incidentally, provide a definitive answer to that age-old question: “What’s the plural of ‘moose’?” (Just “moose,” btw).

Mother Knows Best

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:27:50 GMT

Grounds Beef

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:23:26 GMT

Festivities for the 25th anniversary of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden begin in May, and the way state and civic leaders talk about the Sculpture Garden—“Minneapolis’s crown jewel,” “a community treasure,” “a civic icon”—you’d think they spend a lot of time thinking about it.

But they don’t. Not really.

Since 2009, the Walker Art Center and Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board have been trying to convince the state legislature to approve funds for a much-needed $8.5 million renovation of the Sculpture Garden’s deteriorating infrastructure. The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization pledged $1.5 million to deal with water-related issues of the project, but requests for the remaining $7 million have been consistently denied.

So, instead of celebrating the quarter-century mark in all its refurbished glory—which was the original plan—the Sculpture Garden will host its visitors this summer showing clear signs of age and neglect. The stairs are worn and uneven; the hedges and trees are dying; the pond around Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s Spoonbridge and Cherry is an algae and scum factory; and the ground is so compacted that, after any decent rainstorm, the lawn and paths add a dozen or more lakes to the state total.

The renovation would fix all of these problems and update the Sculpture Garden’s infrastructure to make it more ecologically sustainable and cheaper to maintain. The Cowles Conservatory, which houses Frank Gehry’s popular Standing Glass Fish sculpture, would also receive a new, energy-friendly HVAC system, making it possible for high-school girls in skimpy prom dresses to dance there sans sweaters for generations to come.

As the Sculpture Garden’s 25th anniversary gets under way, yet another funding request is being submitted, and the legislature has until May 20 to decide if the project is worthy. (Because the city of Minneapolis technically owns the Sculpture Garden, the city’s park and recreation board must submit the $7 million request, and it’s part of the bonding bill because the project involves only the Sculpture Garden’s nuts-and-bolts infrastructure, not any of the art or sculptures.)

According to Christopher Stevens, the Walker Art Center’s chief of advancement, Gov. Dayton and several influential legislators are “strongly supportive of the request,” and he is hopeful that this may be the year, what with all the anniversary attention in influential magazines and other, lesser media.

Unfortunately, we’ve been here before, many times. Everyone is always “very supportive” of the Sculpture Garden, until they’re not. But it’s embarrassing to watch legislators react to this extraordinarily modest bonding request as if the red in our state’s favorite cherry symbolizes some kind of commie-liberal plot to turn patriotic Americans into namby-pamby art lovers. At this point, the cherry’s gleaming red symbolizes only one thing: our collective shame that in its finest hour, our “crown jewel” needs so much buffing and polishing.

Anthony Bourdain's Guts and Glory

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:15:04 GMT

In our Culture Meter, you'll find Anthony Bourdain’s Guts and Glory tour touted as a guilty pleasure. But some of us gave up guilt for 2013, so we’re showing our unabashed excitement for bad boy Bourdain’s stop at the State Theatre for a raucous evening of talk about food politics and culture. Bourdain invited a new guest to join him onstage for each leg of the tour, and his old pal Andrew Zimmern was the natural choice for the Twin Cities. We’re looking forward to hearing these globetrotting foodies riff off each other as they field questions from the audience. With our booming taproom, new Nordic, and fish farm scenes, there will be plenty to talk about. May 11. $45.50–$65.50, 805 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-339-7007, hennepintheatretrust.org

Your Guts and Glory homework: Read Andrew Zimmern’s Delta Sky Magazine Q&A with his old pal Tony Bourdain.