Monthly Archives: April 2011

Vote for your favorite Sculpture Walk piece, BSU Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band and Legacy Events for this coming week.

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We wish we had a dime for every time someone told us how lucky we are to live in a happenin’ town like Bemidji. For us, it was the public art that sold the city; our fascination with sculpture on and around the streets. The Bemidji Sculpture Walk was new then, probably the second year for that was in May of 2000. Since that time, just a short 10 years, this sleepy town has turned into a destination city for the arts, music, medical services and shopping. Who would have thought that there would be a Menards and Home Depot within “spitting” distance or a Target vying with a Super Wal-Mart? To add to the firsts in this fair city, The Bemidji Sculpture Walk is inviting the public, not just those who live here, but those who visit as tourists or are summer residents to vote on the “People’s Choice Award for 2010-11. The winner of the People’s Choice Award ($1,000) will receive their prize at the annual Bemidji Sculpture Walk Reception to be held, this year, at the Hampton Inn and Suites. Click here to see the choices and vote; you may click twice on a picture to increase the size for better viewing and then click the back arrow on your browser to return to the story. Click here to vote.

We’ll be looking for you at the Bemidji State University State University Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band spring concert at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 27 in the main theater of Bangsberg Fine and Performing Arts Complex, 14th St. and Birchmont Dr. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for seniors and free for all students. The Wind Ensemble will perform “Prayer” by Michael Schelle, for solo cello and chamber winds featuring retiring faculty member Patrick Riley on cello. The Symphonic Jazz Suite for jazz combo and concert band by Frank Bencriscutto will feature retiring faculty member Steve Konecne on saxophone with Del Lyren on trumpet, Pat Riley on bass and Greg Gaston on drums. The Wind Ensemble will also be performing Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Jesters,” “Celebration Overture” by Paul Creston and “Vesuvius” by Frank Ticheli. The Symphonic Band will be performing “Chorale and Alleluia” by Howard Hanson, “English Folk Song Suite” by Ralph Vaughan Williams and a medley of music from “the Wizard of Oz.” Both ensembles are under the direction of Erika Svanoe, Director of Bands at BSU.

Also, don’t forget that the Legacy Events coming up this week. The entire schedule can be seen on line, click here.

 



Out of the Blogosphere and onto Bemidji stages this weekend with “Out of the Hat,” “BSU Percussion Ensemble Concert and more on “I Am Anne Frank.”

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After listening to a thoroughly enjoyable choir concert at BSU, we looked at the back of the program and discovered that the BSU percussion ensemble will be in concert today, April 20 at 7:30 p.m., in Thompson Recital Hall of Bangsberg. Try to attend and show your support for these young percussionists. Some day, someone please tell me how they know when to brush and when to bang; how is the musical score written?

KG Entertainment and the Paul Bunyan Playhouse will present “Out of the Hat IV.” On Friday night, five writers (Roy C. Booth, Abbey Ferrier Lara Gerhardson, K D Howell and Jeremiah Liend) will put their hands into a hat and pick out the topic, names of their actors and set pieces and then return home to pen a 15 minute comedy. On Saturday morning, the directors (Al Berkowitz, Mitch Blessing, Mike Bredon, Caleb Fricke and
Derrick Houle) will get their scripts and then gather their actors (Brett Cease, Kevin Cease, Mark Fulton, Mike Hardin, Katie Houg, Mackenzie Lindahl, Jon Mansk, Ellie Munson, Eric Nelson, Ramae Nordby, Reed Olson and Amy Tichy) and rehearse the script for 12 hours. Techies Patty Byers and Cheryl Winnett will run around town collecting props and costumes. At 8 p.m., five very different and clever comedies will be performed for the enjoyment of the audience. Musicians Lance Benson, Caleb Fricke K D Howell and Matt Osberg will perform between the acts. Tickets are available now at Harmony Natural Foods Co-op and the Wild Hare Bistro. All seats are $10 and this is will be a production suited for adult audiences.

As an aside, last year’s “Dante’s Infernal Nursing Home: A Devilish Play in One Act” written by Roy C. Booth for “Out of the Hat” in May, 2010 will be published in fiction magazine “Tales of the Unanticipated.”

“I Am Anne Frank,” which is coming to Bemidji for the Destination Weekend is a drama/musical based on the dairy of Anne Frank. The original book, “Diary of a Young Girl” captured the imagination of generations of readers and holocaust survivors. The play “Diary of Anne Frank,” based upon the original book, opened on Broadway in 1955 and received the Tony Award with Susan Strasberg nominated as best actress, the “The Pulitzer Prize for Drama for writers Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich. In 1956 Susan Strasberg won the Theater World Award and the play won the New York Drama Critics Circle award for best play.

This newest adaptation of the original was written by Enid Futterman and composer Michael Cohen. The script uses spoken excerpts from the book juxtaposed with songs of young love, enduring faith in the goodness of people and the contradictions of adolescence. The director of the play Ben Krywosz of Nautilus Theater also designed the set. Vanessa Gamble has been playing Anne since the 2006 debut. At this point, I have not been able to interview the director but will do so in the next couple of days and amend this blog.

May our Jewish families and friends here and everywhere enjoy the blessings of this Passover which began last night.

Sondheim musical at Bagley High School this weekend, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood at the Firehall Theater in Grand Forks and the last weekend to see “Midsummer Night’s Dream” at BSU and eaglets on upstream tv webcam.

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Last Saturday afternoon, I drove to Grand Forks to see a performance by the Greater Grand Forks Community Theater of “Drood.” If possible, I would go back to see it again this weekend, all to prompt you to make the trip yourself. The only bridge open into Grand Forks is the Kennedy Bridge on Gateway (US 2 West) and then you can wind yourself around to downtown by turning left at Washington Ave. Just returned from ND last night and that’s a story in itself. The unfinished novel by Charles Dickens has been turned into a play where the audience gets to pick the villain and the end of the story. We are never disappointed with the productions of GGFCT and this is the last one for this season and then Crimson Creek takes over for the summer months. The staging, costumes, make-up, soloists, ensemble singers and staging are fantastic! Never been known for hyperbole (at least in the column and preview articles!), but in this case I don’t know where or how to begin to convince you to take the trip; it’s that good. The final performances are this coming weekend. Look at the Grand Forks Herald Website for times and ticket information. There is a new middle-eastern restaurant in GF, Babylon which serves a buffet on Saturday night. It is owned by Persians (I would guess from garb and hospitality) and the food was excellent and authentic.

Marilyn Hood and her students are in a production of “Into the Woods” with lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine which opens tomorrow at Bagley High School. The story, in a fairy tale setting, and with the help of a narrator on and off-stage, we meet familiar characters: Cinderella and her step-sisters, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack in the Beanstalk, Rapunzle and the Baker and his wife and find out what really happens after the fairytales end. It is considered a family friendly musical and the lyrics are the familiar Sondheim philosophical musing on living and human motivations for we hear the consequences of wishes and drives. In other words, be careful what you wish for, you might get it. I am going to drive back west again to pick up the grands (Melanie and Michael) to see this production. Again, anything that Hood directs is worth the trip! Tickets will also be available for purchase at the door 30 minutes prior to each performance. Prices are $7 for adults, $5 for students, and $4 for children under age 12.

This weekend will be the final performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at BSU. For more detail about the show, please see the preview on Bemidji Pioneer on-line or blog from last week.

Back to North Dakota: if you check out the Grand Forks Herald today, you will see an article about the flooding on I-29 this past Sunday. My daughter and I set out for Fargo to see an opera by the Fargo Opera Company because all the checking on-line gave us the “go ahead.” After almost five hours on the road, we made it back to Grand Forks just before I-29 was closed for flooding. Were we glad that we followed our own instincts, and not the advice of the police and transportation officials, and turned around in Fargo and headed back north! Driving through a lake with drowned cattle floating by was not the most pleasant experience. We saw large National Guard convoys traveling south as we headed north. The stories are interesting, take a look.

Thanks to Evan Hazard for the link to the Decorah bald eagle nest. Even if just for a moment, take a peek at the eaglets and their parents high in a next above a busy highway. Check it out—http://www.upstream.tv/decoraheagles. One can always count on Evan for the latest and greatest in nature sightings.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” opens at BSU, Confliction–recent works by Nicole Collins at the Ramsey Gallery and Blue Grass coming to the Historic Chief Theater on April 15.

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Patrick Carriere and Ellen Jones are going out with a bang—a bang-up production that is. The team of Patrick Carriere, Ellen Jones and BSU alum Chean (Alan) Young have created for the stage and theater goers in Bemidji the most professional production of this Shakespeare comedy that could be seen anywhere. If you think this is just an exaggeration, check it out for yourself for the play opens tomorrow Friday, April 8 in Bangsberg Hall. Carriere and Young were both students at BSU about 15 years ago and worked together on a production of “King Lear” with theater professor Bob Scriba. Young cited his mentors while at BSU, Scriba and Kay Robinson, and how he went on to study costume design on a graduate level. Now a professor at the University of West Georgia in Atlanta, Young has used his sabbatical this semester to team up with his old school mate Patrick and new associate Ellen Jones in a new version of the timeless classic in Steampunk. An up and coming genre of Science Fiction, Steampunk has devotees in all the literary arts including books, art and film and apparently some people are adapting this as a lifestyle as well. it is futuristic meanderings of the mind which are set in time period too early to have been models of the perceived technological advances. If that sounds complicated is just because it is rather difficult to describe what Steampunk actually is for all followers.

But for the threesome who conceived and executed this production, the emphasis is on the rigid moral codes of Victorian society (ancient Athenians transported there in this production) and the breaking out or breaking free from its strictures. The female leads Hermina and Helena and their supposed beaus are introduced to the audience in very proper upper and middle class garb of the era.  When the lovers are in the Fairie’s Forest, they are dressed in undergarments—corsets and men’s long underwear.  The costumes for the Victorian Era are primarily farcical  with overdrawn military garb and top coats. The only faithful rendition of a Victorian gown is worn by Liz McGregor as Hippolyta, the Amazonian bride-to-be in an arranged and political match. Hippolyta is a strong-willed independent woman and her attire gives credence to her strength.  There is so much more to say about the costuming which ranges from the up-tight, buttons on straight uniforms of the Athenians to the middle-earth look of the Rude Mechanics.  Eric Benson as Nick Bottom is portrayed as a  former high school football player well past his prime but still wearing the players garb. His over-the-top comedic antics are scattered throughout the production and I am still laughing at some of his prat falls and visuals.  The king and queen of the fairies are Jon Mansk and Ceara Dowell, their make-up and costumes are almost beyond description. So not wanting to spoil the effects, no hints. The costumes and make-up are exceptionally creative and imaginative rendering of what a fairy noble couple would wear, their entourage of fairies and, of course, Puck.  Puck (Dein Lawrence) fairly flies around the stage doing his mischief wearing a WWI pilot’s pants complete with white suspenders, a helmet and goggles. It is really not fair to mention just a few of the actors because they all work together so well in this creativity-gone-wild adaptation, so I apologize in advance for doing so. The scenic design and lighting effects are amazing for the play starts on a rather simple note and then magic happens again and again with the beautifully drawn and executed backdrop, a moon that advances and dims with night and sunrise and multi-colored LED’s peeking out of flowers and from magic eyewear and secret love potions. The make-up artists from a design class have outdone themselves in creating the personalities for the fairy folk. I can almost guarantee that this interpretation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be discussed by many for years to come for it sets a high bar for any future production.

While at Bangsberg (or even it it means a special stop) don’t pass by the exhibit in the Ramsey Gallery (ground floor) by Nicole Collins. The show will be up until May 5. Nicole has fabricated giant beetles–insects in their natural setting. Take the kids, expecially those who love bugs for they will cringe and be entranced at the same time.

Blue Grass is coming back to Bemidji on April  15 with the Minnensota Bluegrass community concert series. The double bill includes Telegraph Road which features the world’s fastest banjo player Johnny Butten and special guests The Blue Turtle Grass Band.  Tix are $12 in advance at Overbeek Electronids and Kelsey’s Jewelry. Night of the show: $15 for adults, $5 for teens and children under 12 free. The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 15 at the historic Chief Theater, 314 Beltrami Ave. in downtown Bemidji.

Flamenco at the Wild Rose Theater, “Snow White” at the historic Chief Theater and Lunar Funk Theory at Jammers–what else could you ask for?

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Deborah Elias Espanola Flamenco, Pure and Strong is coming to Bemidji under the auspices of Saarens Productions. The show will begin at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 2 at the Wild Rose Theater. If you have never seen a program of traditional Spanish Flamenco, do not pass up this opportunity. The dancers will be Deborah Elias and Colette Illarde; singers will be La Conja and Vincente Griego with guitarist Trevor May. If you would like to see a preview of Spanish Flamenco or to see dances, google “Paco de Lucia Carmen.” This movie was very popular a few years ago (quite a few now) and it is the opera “Carmen” staged in a flamenco dance studio. You will not regret seeing it for de Lucia is one of the most famous and talented classical guitarists around. YouTube also has some clips from Antonio Gades (lead dancer in Carmen) and the farruca by La Frascall. Tickets will go fast at $10, $8 and $5. Call 218-556-1777 to make a reservation. This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota Legislature from the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov. 4, 2008.

“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” opens on Friday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Historic Chief Theater. Due to an overwhelming request for tickets, Bemidji Community Theater and the Paul Bunyan Playhouse have added an additional show at 6:30 p.m., Sunday, April 3. Tickets will be on sale at the box office beginning at 1:30 p.m., Sunday and not at the usual outlets.

“Little Women” adapted for the stage by Elizabeth Lincoln Gould at the Minnesota Folklore Theater in Akeley. The play is set in Massachusetts during the Civil War when Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and their mother wait for the return of their father from the war. The performances will be at 7:30 p.m., on April 1. Matinee performances will be at 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday April 2 and 3 at the theater, 6 Broadway St., Akeley. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $8 for students. Call 652-2666 for tickets or more information.

“Seussical Jr., Musical, a production of Long Lake Theater will open on Friday, April 8. The delightful musical brings to life some of the favorite Dr. Seuss characters including Horton the Elephant, The Cat in the Hat, Gertrude McFuzz, lazy Mayzie and the little kid with a big imagination, Jojo. Performances will be at 7:30 p.m., Friday April 8 and at 2 and 7 p.m., on Saturday, April 9 at the Park Rapids High School auditorium. Tickets are $14 for adults, $7 for children 3-12 and free for children under and sitting on a parent’s lap. For tickets call 218-732-0099 or visit the website www.longlaketheater.com. Beagle Books in downtown Park Rapids is also a ticket outlet and any available tickets will be sold at the door. Long Lake Theater is known locally for good, solid productions so it will be worth the trip to Park Rapids for this production.

Reggae/funk/jamband “Luner Funk Theory” will make a stop in Bemidji on their promotional tour of new CD “Live from the Moon.” Jammers Blue Note Ballroom will host the group beginning at 9 p.m., Saturday, April 2. Check out their website at: www.lunarfunktheory.com/music for a preview. Jammers is located at 11328 Bemidji Rd. NE.

As you may know, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” opens next week (April 8) as a production of BSU’s Theater Department. Patrick Carriere, assistant professor and director of the production, and I are emailing back and forth about how to best showcase this forthcoming event. It is going to be a Steampunk Twist to a Shakespearean comedy which is also in the realm of suspended reality. Stay tuned for more information as I am also doing my homework (with the help of a UND librarian and student) to better explain this particular subset of SciFi genre.

For those who know, and especially for those who do not know, have been down with the flu (a strain the shot did not cover) for over a week now. Please excuse any omissions, deletions or outright mistakes as I try to play catch-up.