In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the presidency in a landslide election. With unemployment rising, investment banks collapsing and the stock market plummeting (sound familiar?), he promised a New Deal for America. Like now, our government resolved to deficit-spend its way out of the economic crisis. But rather than bail out the big boys, America invested in its workers.

Anna Lee attracts so much attention when she's riding her bicycle. As she pedaled her light-blue Kona along Lake Calhoun Sunday, her long, flowing black skirt blew aside to reveal the blood-red crinoline she wore underneath. Lee wore her dark red hair in pigtails and took care to reapply lipstick on multiple occasions.

A big announcement from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts earlier today:  The museum will host an exhibition called "The Louvre and the Masterpiece" from Oct. 18, 2009, to Jan. 10, 2010.

One of my favorite things about the Minnesota Fringe Festival is the aggressive manner in which theatergoers generate and seek out buzz. An outtake: While standing in line to see Bedlam Theatre's production of "You're No Fun" on Saturday evening, I saw Kevin Bitterman, an old friend who now works for the Bush Foundation, who, in passing, shouted through the noisy crowd: "Go see the Four Humors show — it's hilarious." The woman who was standing in line behind me (a complete stranger, no less) overheard his endorsement. "I agree," she offered. "It was excellent."

For nearly 30 years, Theatre de la Jeune Lune was Minnesota's pre-eminent practitioner of physical theater, an art form that combines elements of circus, clown, dance, mime and occasionally puppetry. Read more...

By Christy DeSmith

When the Brave New Workshop this Friday premieres its 2008 election show — with its characteristically long title, “The Lion, The Witch, and the War Hero; Or Is McCain Able?” — the troupe will engage, as usual, in equal-opportunity skewering. Read more...

By Christy DeSmith

Playwright and comedienne Shanan Wexler remembers Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" making the rounds in her sixth-grade class for its, ahem, scandalous passages. Read more...

By Christy DeSmith 

A quick look around In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, just before 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening, found every inch of the Minneapolis building covered: art materials, puppets and other works of art in progress, people of varying color, shape, and age dressed in frumpy, paint-splattered clothes. Read more...

By Christy DeSmith