This week’s MN Shortlist features a great American novel adapted for the stage, music from a video game-turned-TV show and Parisian cafes, a new rural arts space and the regional premiere of a play that recounts part of the European migrant crisis.
“Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women” at the Guthrie Theater — Through June 21
High school students over the world are likely familiar with “Little Women”– whether that be in the form of assigned reading for 11th grade English class, or through the 2019 film starring Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet. This week, however, the Guthrie officially opened its own take on the coming-of-age classic, titled "Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women” (in case you were worried the story was authorless).
Adapted for the stage by Lauren M. Gunderson—who according to American Theatre Magazine is one of the most produced playwrights in America—this version of “Little Women” stars Isabella Star LaBlanc. LaBlanc is perhaps best known for playing opposite Jodie Foster in the fourth season of HBO’s “True Detective.” LaBlanc actually grew up in Minnesota and cut her teeth at local theaters, but this marks her debut at the Guthrie.
The Music of Fallout at Crooners Supper Club — April 24 at 7 p.m.
For lovers of the post-apocalyptic media franchise “Fallout,” its music is a key part of its identity. Its moody score is mixed in with jazz standards from musicians like Billie Holiday and the Ink Spots, creating a nostalgic but eerie soundscape for the retro-futuristic video games and TV show. On Friday at Crooners Supper Club, the Riffin’ Trio will present an evening show that features the music of “Fallout,” with their signature mix of saxophone, flute, guitar and upright bass.
The YES! House Grand Opening in Granite Falls — April 25 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
After years of elbow grease, renovations and a $1 million capital campaign, the arts nonprofit Department of Public Transformation is officially opening its first brick-and-mortar venue in a historic main street building in Granite Falls, a town of about 2,800 in southwest Minnesota.
“This building was in major disrepair, like holes in the ceiling, there was mold everywhere. It was a hard space,” says Ash Hanson, the creative executive officer of the Department of Public Transformation, an organization that supports artists in rural communities.
The YES! House now features a gallery, stage, climbing wall, creative workspaces, recording studio and two furnished apartments for visiting artists in residence.
“There should be spaces like this in every small town,” says Hanson.
The free grand opening will feature a tour, art show, live music, film screening and food and libations.
Winona Concert: Cafe Accordion Orchestra — April 25 at 7 p.m.
Minnesota band Cafe Accordion Orchestra, or CAO, plays music that you’d expect to hear in a comedic French film, with elements of Latin dance and Tin Pan Alley. Formed in the 1990s, CAO has performed across the country, as well as internationally. Their concert at the Winona Arts Center on April 25 will feature their signature repertory of Parisian valse musette—a kind of romantic French dance music—as well as American Jazz and Blues standards and other European styles.
The Jungle at Mixed Blood — Through May 3
In the mid-2010s, the European migrant crisis was at its peak, as people from countries like Iraq and Syria fled their homelands due to war. Then in 2017, theater makers Joe Robertson and Joe Murphy debuted “The Jungle,” a fictional retelling of a standoff in a refugee camp in France between migrants and government officials.
The play is something of a docudrama and was influenced by Robertson’s and Murphy’s own experience running a theater company for seven months inside a refugee camp during the crisis. “The Jungle” saw success in London and New York and is now making its regional debut at Mixed Blood in Minneapolis. It’s a timely play as Minnesota is still reeling from the surge of federal immigration agents in January.
