From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art. Their recommendations are lightly edited from the audio heard in the player above.
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A rarely staged musical comedy
Christine Sweet, a retired classical music radio host in St. Paul, is looking forward to seeing Minneapolis Musical Theatre’s production of "Grumpy Old Men," a musical adaptation of the 1993 romcom set in Wabasha.
The musical runs April 3–19 at the Conn Theater in Minneapolis.
Christine says: MMT brings us new and rarely performed musicals, digging deep to find forgotten gems and often presenting the local premieres of chosen works, which is the case with this production of “Grumpy Old Men.”
After a hard winter, we could use some belly laughs at the foibles of two lifelong rivals vying through snow and ice-fishing for the attention of their attractive new neighbor.
MMT draws on the Twin Cities' wealth of vocal, instrumental and theatrical talent, and I can’t wait to hear what they do with the soundtrack, which was commercially recorded just two years ago.”
— Christine Sweet
A poetic look at a scientific pioneer
Carolyn Pool, a writer and performer in St. Paul, recommends seeing “Ada Lovelace: Bride of Science,” a new play staged by nimbus theatre.
Daughter of the famed poet Lord Byron, Lovelace (1815-1852) was a mathematical genius who invented the Analytical Engine, a prototype for early computers. Carolyn says this play offers a great way to introduce children to an important historical figure in STEM. This show has sliding scale tickets. It runs April 4–19 at The Crane Theater in northeast Minneapolis.
The play is written by Twin Cities performer Nissa Nordland, who is also the head of the Twin Cities Horror Fest.
Carolyn says: [Nordlund] has a very, very big interest in both science and beauty and poetry. And so this is going to be, yes, a play about a woman in science, and it's going to be poetic, full of beautiful language and stellar performances.
— Carolyn Pool
Continuing a quiltmaker’s legacy
Brie Taralson owns Lykke Books, across the street from the Grand Center for Arts and Culture in New Ulm. She wants people to see the beautiful quiltwork on display in the Grand’s current exhibition, “Picking Up the Piecework: A Legacy of Creativity Through the Lens of Mary Hartten.”
After Hartten, an avid quilter, died, her family gave her fabric and unfinished piecework to be sold to benefit The Grand. This exhibit features quilts that have been made — in a variety of styles — using those pieces, thus continuing Hartten’s legacy. The exhibit runs through April 24.
On Sat. April 10 at 5 p.m., Mary’s son Randy Hartten will give a presentation about “An Unfinished Project,” a printed book of 54 of Mary’s quilt squares. Brie describes that project.
Brie says: What's really neat is you can actually see the “finished side” on one and flip the book over and see exactly how precise she was and how complicated the stitching was on the other side. And so you get a true behind-the-scenes look at how much math and geometry and and precision that was needed to do this well.
[Mary’s children] had this bound, and the the book itself is a piece of art. It's quite literally stitched together of her quilt pieces.
— Brie Taralson
