An art museum's permanent collection provides a window into its history, certainly, but also into where the institution assigns value. As it makes acquisitions over time, the museum is staking out territory, declaring what it deems worthy of inclusion in the art historical canon.

When a museum mounts large exhibitions of work from its permanent holdings, as the Walker Art Center has done with the newly opened "Benches and Binoculars" and "Event Horizon," the assemblage of art on view amounts to a nuanced declaration of institutional identity, an articulation of where the museum has been, but also where its current leadership would like to see it go from here.

"Event Horizon," the Walker's ambitious flagship show, offers a sweeping look into what director Olga Viso calls the "distinctive and defining core" of the museum's collection of artwork made since 1960 - the focus is largely on living artists, a number of them quite young, all of whom are pushing the boundaries of contemporary art.

This cross-disciplinary show — with selections of photography, sculpture, painting, film, video and performance — was organized in a collaborative fashion by curators working in all areas of the museum, led by chief curator Darsie Alexander and curator Betsy Carpenter.

"Event Horizon" features some 90 works and is a sophisticated showcase of the Walker's interdisciplinary focus. The show mixes pieces by the renowned — Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Joseph Cornell, Merce Cunningham, Trisha Brown — with those of lesser-known, emerging artists. The exhibition sprawls across three galleries and is conceptually organized around varying perspectives on "events" - public events, seen and remembered; the events surrounding an artist's life and practice; and the event of viewing, the intimate activity of seeing and experiencing artwork.

In the adjacent Perlman Gallery, you'll find the crowd-pleasing "Benches and Binoculars," an inviting salon-style exhibition that pays homage to the museum's roots and to its founder, T.B. Walker. To give the space a bit of Victorian charm, the gallery has been carpeted in royal purple and made comfortable with a scattering of matching benches (especially designed for the show by Walker designer Andrew Blauvelt), upon which sit binoculars through which viewers can spy details, even in the paintings occupying the highest reaches of the room.

"Benches and Binoculars" highlights several dozen pieces from the Walker's prestigious collection of paintings — 30 of which have either never been shown publicly, or not in the last 20 years. The varied works, some of which were part of T.B. Walker's personal collection, are installed cheek-by-jowl from floor to ceiling — much as they were in the founder's original salon. Rather than organizing the work formally, according to chronology or style, curators have installed the paintings into in an approximation of the loose, more idiosyncratic sorts of arrangements you'd find in someone's living room.

Alexander says, "We wanted to enable a dialogue between these pieces; and for the viewer, we wanted to create an experience of looking you don't normally find in a museum." As she points out, some of the rarely seen gems in the collection, she says, "There are some great hidden stories here, and we're still excavating them."

Some of the standout paintings are: Franz Marc’s "Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses)" (1911), Edward Hopper’s "Office at Night" (1940), Jim Dine’s "My Studio # One: The Vagaries of Painting 'These are sadder pictures' " (1978), Chuck Close’s "Big Self-Portrait" (1967-1968), Georgia O’Keeffe’s "Lake George Barns" (1926), Alice Neel’s "Charlotte Willard" (1967),Charles Sheeler’s "Midwest" (1954), Andy Warhol’s "Self-Portrait" (1978) and Carl L. Boeckman’s "Portrait of Thomas Barlow Walker" (circa 1915).

This marks the beginning of a long-term exhibition program at the museum, which will unfold over three years and bring large portions of the Walker's collection into public view. In addition to a revolving selection of visual artwork, certain "active" sections of the show will feature a rotation of performances and film screenings (the first up is Bruce Conner's avant-garde 1976 short film on the first U.S. nuclear test, "Crossroads").

"Event Horizon" and "Benches and Binoculars" will open tonight with the "Walker After Hours" preview party from 9 p.m. to midnight (tickets are $35). You can find a list of the upcoming programs and events affiliated with this long-term exhibition program on the Walker's website. For a virtual tour through some of the artwork in these two exhibitions, you can browse through an extensive online gallery guide/slideshow here.

T.J. Stiles has won the 2009 National Book Award in the non-fiction category for “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt,” his expansive biography of the early American railroad mogul.

Stiles grew up in Foley, Minn., and received a degree in history from Carleton College before heading to New York for a career in publishing and journalism. Winning the award was “an out-of-body experience,” he says. “I know I’m very fortunate to have been plucked out of so many excellent authors, not least the other finalists, but it’s nice to have this vindication for my collaborators, friends and audience. And, as my friend Colum McCann said in his acceptance speech, an award like this is a challenge, a call to meet the highest standards and try to do something important in the future.”

Although Stiles now lives with his family in California, Minnesota’s landscape and history is firmly lodged in his identity, and occasionally comes out in his writing; most notably in his first book, “Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War,” which visits Northfield, Minn., in its most infamous moments, when the James Gang cruised through town to rob a bank but exited minus a few key members.

“I'm drawn to writing historical biography for the same reason I think many readers enjoy it: It allows me to tell good stories and ask big questions. I want to understand how the modern world came into existence, but I also want to write a compelling narrative with rich, complex characters. A biography is a work of history that insists on the individual human being, which is, of course, the way we all experience the world,” says Stiles, who is accepting the prize today at a ceremony in New York City.

C-Span’s "BookTV" will broadcast the ceremony and Stiles acceptance speech at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Slug from Atmosphere will always own the throne as the rapper who most firmly put the Twin Cities on the hip-hop map. But when it comes to vintage, old-school, vocabulary versifying, the mating of a fat dictionary with profound novelistic narratives, all the locals take a back seat to Brother Ali.

Born Jason Newman in Madison, Wis., the 32-year old Ali doesn’t adorn his raps with silly pop filigree nor bastardize the riveting autobiography at the heart of his art with rhymes of convenience.

Longtime fans know of his roots as an albino drawn to the black culture of hip-hop, of his conversion to the Muslim religion after moving to Minneapolis, of the strife wrought by homelessness, the breakup of his first marriage and a custody fight for his son, and of his second marriage and relatively “settled” current life. It’s all been told in the most agile detail, goosed along by his longtime producer Ant (who is also Slug’s partner in Atmosphere).

As Ali explains, “If you follow my tapes/Then you know what I’m about/Whatever comes up then it must come out.”

Brother Ali prides himself on being part of hip-hop’s historical firmament and has tended to its roots. He can freestyle (spontaneously improvise) capably, and is as good or better in concert as he is in the studio. I’ve seen him thrive live in the great outdoors, at the 70th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” (commemorating the day striking Minneapolis truck drivers were killed and wounded in 1934), and at the annual Soundset gigs showcasing local talent.

But perhaps his most memorable performance was opening for Rakim and Ghostface Killah, a pair of rappers whose style and credentials make them hip-hop royalty. No one was more aware of their eminence than Ali, and he rose to the occasion and held his own at First Avenue a couple years back.

Now Ali returns home with his Fresh Air tour to the same First Avenue stage. To my ears, his latest, “Us,” doesn’t scale the heights of his 2007 opus, “The Undisputed Truth.” Then again, I haven’t heard all of its tunes delivered live yet.

Here is a happy Ali doing “Fresh Air” at Soundset 2009. Here is “The Preacher” done live earlier this year, also off the new disc, “Us.” And here is his a cappella ode to his son, “Faheem,” followed by his early “hit,” “Forest Whitiker.”

Brother Ali at First Avenue, at 8 tonight for the 18+ show, tickets $15, sold out. Saturday at 5 p.m., all ages, tickets $15.

Here’s a concert you may be able to squeeze in Sunday evening — and it’s free.

Kantorei, the professional chamber choir of about 40 voices that specializes in unaccompanied singing, is offering an “audience appreciation” performance at 7 p.m. Sunday that includes a wine-and-hors d’oeurves reception.

The program includes music by Bruckner, Eskil Hemberg, Kenneth Jennings, Mendelssohn (the 200th birthday bash continues!) and Jean Berger. It takes place at the Church of Christ the King in South Minneapolis.

Ondi Timoner knows something true and weird about the human condition circa 2009, and her film, “We Live in Public” is as important a piece of cultural history as has come down the pike in the last 10 years.

The documentary, which opens today at the Lagoon Cinema Landmark theater in Minneapolis, is ostensibly the story of Josh Harris, a whiz-kid who made a killing in the dot.com boom of the ‘90s and used his money to create a boho community in an underground bunker in New York where every bit of faux banality and bacchanalia was filmed, documented, spindled, mutilated and spat out for more viewing. But it’s more than that: It’s a film about you and me and Facebook and MySpace and the fast-morphing definitions of “ego,” “friend,” and the breakneck speed of life and human communication we’re currently undergoing.

“The thing that freaks me out is that there are only so many hours in a day, and it’s so easy to create volume online, of emails and messages and correspondence,” says Timoner from her home in Los Angeles. “So it’s like two lives we’re living at the same time, and the real one is getting more and more compromised by the virtual one. You have to ask yourself, `Why am I on here? Why am I posting this online? Why am I still on here after two hours?’ ”

Take Facebook (please), where extroverts, introverts, young and old alike join in the great big online high-school lunchroom. Depending on the day, users can feel like J.D. Salinger or Greta Garbo (make the world to go away); other days it’s a tool box, a canvas, a plaything to not be taken too seriously. It can also be a time-suck that finds users looking for something, anything, to engage us, entertain us, stroke us, validate us. All while we sit on our butts and get fatter.

Which is why the only thing Timoner can think of to compare “We Live in Public” to is “Wall-E,” the beautiful dystopian robot-love tale that makes the point that technology is making America lazy and threatens to mute human emotion itself. To be sure, until David Fincher’s “Facebook” hits screens next year, Timoner’s doc is the most sobering testament yet to the fact that in the last 10 years we’ve become a nation of fanboys and fangirls, sitting around watching and listening to ... ourselves.

“Life online is a new take on the 'If a tree falls in the forest and nobody’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?’ ” says Timoner. “Did I actually live it if I didn’t post it online? Did it actually happen? Does it matter, at all, if it wasn’t somehow recorded online? And more and more, the answer is `No.’ ”

Timoner laughs when she says this, but “We Live in Public” is the sort of harrowing mirror-to-the face that will make you want to take a post-viewing shower and turn back the hands of time to when everything didn’t revolve around the Internet: “The most meaningful times of our life,” asserts Timoner, a 36-year-old single mother of one, “is when we’re all in a room together. By far. By far.”

Ironically, as an independent artist, Facebook and Twitter has been an invaluable tool for Timoner as she gets the word out about “We Live in Public,” which won the documentary grand jury award at Sundance this year.

“I think it’s a really important film for people to see,” she says. “It’s a social reality that is redefining our identity, our relationships, everything. How we live. It’s an evolutionary process we’re living through, and the film is the beacon of all of that, the harkening of all to come, and it’s the one warning shot that’s out there right now in a very visually exciting and entertaining way, with an amazing soundtrack, but when you get to the end of your 90-minute session you’ve got an identity crisis on your hands.

“I’m happy to contribute to give you that crisis. You should have that reckoning with yourself, and hopefully some sort of consciousness will be installed that wasn’t there before. I did a film about mind control (“Join Us”), and you don’t know when you’re being brainwashed. It’s the same with the Internet: It feels like you’re connecting, but you’re not. You’re more isolated.”

Timoner is something of an expert on isolation, and outsiders. The director/producer did an early documentary on songwriter Paul Westerberg (“Seeing Through Paul”), and her most notorious work previous to “Public” was the rock documentary "Dig!"  which found The Brian Jonestown Massacre feuding with The Dandy Warhols. Clearly, she’s got a bead on the male ego, the underbelly of humanity, and outsiderdom.

“I’m like that, too,” she says. “I’m attracted to subjects that somehow operate outside of the system and push the boundaries. You know, I have a narrative film in development on Robert Mapplethorpe, and he’s a great example of that. I’m not a conventional [artist], and I think that’s why they’re attracted to me, too. I’m more of a gonzo journalist in a way; I live whatever I’m making.”

To that end, Harris is the online generation’s Andy Warhol, using the tools of the day — including real men and women as lab rats — to put Warhol’s ubiquitous “15 minutes of fame” bromide to the test.

“Josh is the poster boy for throwing spaghetti at the wall,” says Timoner. “Everything’s a game to him. Everything’s a show, and that’s good and bad. On one hand, that means everybody else is just a character in your show and there’s an emotionality missing. On the other hand, it can make for very interesting programming of your life.

“I think he was able to see how we would react to that technology because he himself sought fame so badly, and sought acknowledgement and attention — which is what he’s finally getting with this film, now. But not all of us want that. We really want connection. We really want to feel like we matter.

“There’s a deep human need for attention. Since cave paintings, we’ve been trying to leave a lasting mark, and we’ve always wanted to be remembered in some way. And now I think it’s not even about memory per se because our memories are so collectively short and it’s ADD time. It’s more about volume now. There’s just so much coming at us.”

“We Live in Public” gets to all of that through Harris, an uberexhibitionist who puts his life online in a variety of projects, the last of which ends poetically when his lover, sitting on his lap at the computer, tells him she doesn’t want to have sex with him because he’s gotten fat.

To be sure, there’s a little bit of Josh Harris in anyone who signs up to have his or her life posted and scrutinized by friends, family, and strangers. Near the end of the film, after engaging in an online diary that makes ana voog’s early webcam exploits www.anacam.com look positively Victorian, Harris escapes to Ethiopia, away from the technology and the cult of personality he created around him. He gets active, healthy, and connected to real live human beings.

Here in the social networking arena, we all have our Ethiopias: It’s called the “off” button on the computer. Try it now. Then go see yourself in “We Live in Public,” and see if you ever want to press “on” again.

The classical music season is in full swing, and that means you’ll have to make choices again this weekend. Here are some notable alternatives:

Saturday. Choose between the Minnesota Orchestra’s important “Future Classics” concert of new works by young composers and the Minnesota Chorale’s annual “Bridges” concert, which features a vocal collaboration with the Minneapolis Youth Chorus.

Either way you’re going to hear new music.

The Bridges concert features the first performance of a work by Minnesota’s own Stephen Paulus, titled “Wake Up in the Morning,” plus a song created by Youth Chorus members during an August workshop. The title of that work is perky: “The Music Moves Like We Do.” Saturday’s concert is titled “Sing With Me,” in recognition of a mentoring relationship that has developed between Minnesota Chorale members and the Minneapolis Youth Chorus. It’s billed as “family friendly.”

“Sing With Me” takes place at 7 p.m. at St. Olaf Catholic Church. Go here for information and here for tickets.

The Minnesota Orchestra’s Future Classics concert is the culmination of the annual Composer Institute sponsored by the St. Paul-based American Composers Forum and the American Music Center. For the past nine years, the two sponsors and the orchestra have collaborated to bring young professional composers to the Twin Cities for six days of seminars, tutoring sessions and other events.

Eighty-six composers have taken part in the program and its predecessor, called “Perfect Pitch,” that was first launched back in 1995. Seven composers are participating this year and each will have something performed — either as a premiere or as major first performance.

The “Future Classics” concert is 8 p.m. at Orchestra Hall. Here are the details. 

Sunday: Choices include two afternoon concerts, both at 4 p.m. The Oratorio Society of Minnesota opens its 30^th season with a performance of the beloved Mozart Requiem, and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra is headlining Osmo Vänskä as both a composer and a clarinet soloist.

The Oratorio Society’s concert features a collaboration with the Armstrong High School Chamber Singers, which will surely add a youthful timbre to the Requiem. Soloists are soprano Linh Kauffman, mezzo Adriana Zabale, tenor John DeHaan, and bass Seth Keeton. Matthew Mehaffey conducts the chorus, orchestra and soloists. Organist is Helen Jensen. The Oratorio Society performance takes place at Wayzata Community Church. For details, directions and tickets, go here.

In 2008, the Metropolitan Symphony commissioned and performed Vänskä’s “The Bridge,” a work inspired by the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis the previous summer. That work is being brought back for a second performance and Vänskä also is appearing as soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto.

The concert also includes music celebrating major anniversaries in the lives of four musicians — including MSO Music Director William Schrickel, who is marking his 10^th season with the orchestra. In recognition, the orchestra commissioned Illinois composer Stephen Heineman, who is one of Schrickel’s boyhood friends, to write a new work, titled “Metropassacaglia.” Other anniversary observations on the program include “Mutations From Bach” by Samuel Barber (born 100 years ago), the overture to “World on the Moon” by Josef Haydn (died 200 years ago) and the Symphony No. 1 by Felix Mendelssohn (born 200 years ago).

The Metropolitan Symphony performance is at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. The performance is free and no reservations are required. Go here for information.

So get out there.

Each week, as I attempt the thorny task of choosing upcoming jazz events to write about, I’m mindful of how much live music happens in the Twin Cities. No matter what type or style of jazz you like, or think you might like, it’s probably happening somewhere tonight, tomorrow or into next week — in a café or club, bar or concert hall. What do you want to hear? See if you’re on this list.

You want to hear a legend. Drummer Roy Haynes is to jazz what John Bonham is (was) to rock. Haynes’ career spans more than 50 years of playing with giants like Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Chick Corea. He has a long friendship with Artists’ Quarter owner Kenny Horst; he recorded his 2006 live release, “Whereas,” at the AQ and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. He returns with his original Fountain of Youth band: Martin Bejerano on piano, Marcus Strickland on saxophone, John Sullivan on bass. Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20 and 21, Artists’ Quarter ($30/$25). Buy tickets online. 

You want to hear a rising star in a cool venue. If the McGuire Theater at the Walker had a lobby, you could people-watch there. Except for that odd omission, it’s a fine place to hear live music, intimate and artsy. On Saturday, drummer Dafnis Prieto brings his next-generation Latin jazz to town. Prieto moved from Cuba to New York in 1999 and reportedly hit the music scene like an asteroid. His latest CD, “Taking the Soul for a Walk,” is by turns driving and romantic, fiery and tender. Here’s a preview. Prieto’s sextet includes Peter Apfelbaum and Felipe Lamoglia on saxophones, Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Manuel Valera on piano, and Charles Flores on bass. Bonus: Trisha Brown Dance Company member Judith Sanchez Ruiz and Prieto will perform a short dance/percussion duet. Co-presented with Northrop Music. Dafnis Prieto Sextet, 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, Walker Art Center, McGuire Theater ($29/$25 Walker members). Buy tickets online or call 612-375-7600.

You want to hear the foot-tapping, feel-good sounds of a big band. Featuring many of the Twin Cities’ finest musicians, the JazzMN Big Band is a Minnesota treasure, full of personality and chops. Saturday’s concert features our own Three Tenors: tenor saxophonists Dave Karr, Dale Mendenhall, and Pete Whitman. JazzMN always plays an exciting, satisfying show. Their concerts are held at the Hopkins High School Performing Arts Center, a comfy, state-of-the-art venue with ample free parking. JazzMN Big Band, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, Hopkins High School Performing Arts Center, 2400 Lindberg Drive, Minnetonka ($29 door/$27 advance/$17 student). Buy tickets online or call 1-866-811-4111.

You want to hear the latest from area artists, and you’re willing to take a chance as long as it doesn’t cost too much. Fair enough. This Saturday, you can attend one, two, or three CD releases. Singer Nancy Harms celebrates “In the Indigo” at the Jungle. Read more about that here.   Later that day, Vital Organ — Jason Craft on Hammond B-3, Zacc Harris on guitar, Pete Hennig on drums — launches its first disc, “Exact Change,” at Hell’s Kitchen. Their music includes jazz, funk and R&B, originals and standards. I especially enjoy their antic arrangement of “Girl From Ipanema.” The Latin languor is gone, replaced by a mad dash to the beach and a run across hot sand. End your night (and start Sunday) at the Dakota with Ingo Bethke, the trumpet-sax-tuba-fronted sextet that goes all kinds of places on its self-titled debut, from straight-ahead to avant-garde. Ingo Bethke is Steve Gilbertson (piano), Stefan Kac (tuba), Matt Peterson (bass), Shilad Sen (saxophone), Geoff Senn (trumpet) and Nick Zielinski (drums). At each event you can, as Craig Eichhorn likes to say, “bring the band home in a box,” with autographs. Saturday, Nov. 21: Nancy Harms at the Jungle, 2 p.m. ($8); Vital Organ at Hell’s Kitchen, 8 p.m. (no cover); Ingo Bethke at the Dakota, 11:30 p.m. ($5).

You want to dance. On Sundays at the Cinema Ballroom, you can take free dance lessons starting at 6:15 and then swing, tango, and rumba the night away to the sounds of the Jerry O’Hagan Orchestra with sweet singer Charmin Michelle. On Tuesdays, head to Jun Bo’s big bamboo dance floor for Vic Volare and the Bella Galla Big Band. On Wednesdays, it’s the Wolverines at Hell’s Kitchen. Sundays, Cinema Ballroom, 1560 St. Clair Ave., St. Paul, 6:15 p.m. lessons, 7 p.m. social dance ($12/$8 students); Tuesdays, Jun Bo,  494 and Nicollet, Richfield, 7 p.m. ($5); Wednesdays, Hell’s Kitchen, 8 p.m. (no cover).

You want to hang out with friends, eat and drink in a nice place with live music. No shortage of options here. Crave in the Galleria features jazz on Fridays. This week, you can hear singer Patty Peterson and her trio. And I’m delighted to say that the Benny Weinbeck Trio, formerly a mainstay at D’Amico Cucina, is back with a regular gig at the new D’Amico Kitchen in the Chambers Hotel. Classy guys, classy music. Fridays, Crave in the Galleria, 8:30 p.m. (no cover); Fridays and Saturdays, D’Amico Kitchen, 7:30 p.m. (no cover).

Pamela Espeland keeps a Twin Cities live jazz calendar, blogs about jazz at Bebopified and tweets about jazz on Twitter.

As a founder of Theatre de la Juene Lune, Barbra Berlovitz spent decades presenting thrilling and challenging work in the Twin Cities. This weekend, audiences will get a chance to see her most recent efforts on stage.

“Stories as Told in a Bed,” described as a work in progress, will be presented this weekend at the Bedlam Theatre. Inspired her own grandparents' immigrant tales, Berlovitz explores a life’s journey through multiple voices and recollections. The piece is directed by fellow Juene Lune alum Robert Rosen.

“Stories as Told in a Bed” runs today through Sunday at the Bedlam Theatre, 1501 S. Sixth St., Minneapolis. Tickets are $12 and $15. For information, call 612-341-1038 or visit online.

Walking Shadow Theatre presents the regional premiere of the new play by modern-theater bad-boy Neil LaBute this weekend at the Pillsbury House Theater in Minneapolis.

In “Some Girl(s),” a man decides to check up on four former girlfriends in advance of getting married, for reasons that aren’t immediately clear. That a history of his past romantic encounters has just been published doesn’t help matters at all. The cast features Clarence Wethern as bridegroom-to-be Guy, along with Jennifer J. Phillips, Mo Perry, Jean Salo and Anna Sundberg. Brian Balcom directs the show.

“Some Girl(s)” runs Friday through Dec. 5 at Pillsbury House Theater, 3501 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis. Tickets are $18 and $15. For information, call 612-375-0300 or visit online.

No matter what the current ad campaign may intimate, adaptor Barbara Field and director Gary Gisselman didn’t set out to create “A Christmas Carol” running about the length of an average movie. The new lean and mean version of the Guthrie mainstay runs 90 minutes and is told in one act. For Gisselman, it’s the later part of the equation that’s most important.

“I had the idea of doing it as a one-act — there’s no reason to be a break after the Ghost of Christmas Past,” he says.

Doing it as a one-act keeps the story flowing, and focused on the core of the story: Scrooge’s journey. Drawing the piece over two acts forces some parts to be expanded when they may not be so drawn out. “The Fezziwig scene had grown to be very long,” Field notes.

“A Christmas Carol” first played on the Guthrie stage in 1975. Through the 35 years, the show has gone through numerous versions, interpretations and refinements. Part of the pressure, Field notes, is keeping the show focused. Each year, directors and actors will add a bit here or there, until the show started to take on too much weight.

The changes go deeper than the script and the staging. The casting has also gone through a shake-up, with veteran performer Peter Michael Goetz taking on the role as Scrooge and former Juene Luner Steven Epp playing Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

For Field, whose work on the play for the Guthrie dates back decades, this means going back from time to time to pare the piece back. This year, the focus returned to Scrooge and the art of telling Dickens’ classic tale.

What make Scrooge such an intriguing character — and what showcases Dickens’ skill as a storyteller — is that he doesn’t transform. Instead, he remains the same character — but one who has had his heart opened by what he has seen, Gisselman says.

“We’re faithful to the book,” Gisselman says. “If we’re doing ‘A Christmas Carol,’ we have a responsibility to do the story. If you change it too much, you might as well write your own Christmas story.”

“A Christmas Carol” runs through Dec. 31 on the Wurtele Thrust Stage, the Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2^nd St., Minneapolis. Tickets are $29 to $79. For information, call 612.377.2224 or visit online.