There’s something about these dark days of January that feels nurturing for creativity. Maybe it’s the new year, maybe it’s the lack of stimulation from the sky or sun. In any case, this time of year turns out to be a great time to check out works in progress and new works seeing audiences for the first time. Among them, Janaki Ranpura (who has long been a part of the puppetry community in the Twin Cities and in other capacities within the theater scene here), will be sharing her play, “Cyranoid,” at the Playwrights’ Center. The History Theatre, meanwhile, is putting on its “Raw Stages” festival this week, with staged readings of new plays. Speaking of new work, Zeitgeist and another new music ensemble based in Cleveland called No Exit team up for a show of experimental music and film. Meanwhile, Alexa Horochowski’s new exhibition at Dreamsong calls to the ocean waters. Also this week, celebrated cellist Amit Peled performs with Minnesota Sinfonia, and Lisa Bergh’s art is on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Lisa Bergh: ‘Topography’
New London artist Lisa Bergh brings viewers on a tour of rural America in unexpected and colorful ways in “Topography.” It’s in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program gallery on the museum’s second floor, which you’ll pass right before you get to the traveling exhibit, “In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now,” which closes at the end of this weekend. (Read more about that show here.)
My favorite piece in “Topography” is a sculptural work called “Marker,” where an orange stake rests on a white platform, surrounded with vinyl that creates a glittery light effect on the wall. The abstract piece evokes the desolate beauty of winter, especially in isolated places. It reminded me of the Emily Dickinson poem, whose first lines read, “There’s a certain Slant of light/Winter Afternoons – /That oppresses, like the Heft/ Of Cathedral Tunes –…” Bergh employs vinyl in a number of the pieces in the show, and uses bright oranges, pinks, blues and greens. The work both feels instantly recognizable as a recollection of rural landscapes, and also freshly innovative and even subversive in its presentation of that world. The exhibition runs through Feb. 25 at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, with an artist talk on Thursday, Jan. 25, at 6:30 p.m. (free). More information here.
[image_credit]Supplied[/image_credit][image_caption]“Secret Warriors,” from playwright Rick Shiomi, above, is one not to miss.[/image_caption]Raw Stages: New Works Festival
The History Theatre’s Raw Stages festival brings fresh ideas and stories to the stage, offering audiences a chance to weigh in the process of creating new plays. Among this year’s scripts, Rick Shiomi’s latest play, “Secret Warriors,” is one not to miss. Shiomi’s career as a playwright, director and arts leader spans decades, having burst onto the scene in 1982 with his award-winning “Yellow Fever.” His most recent project tells the story of two Nisei translators/interrogators in the U.S. armed forces during War II. That reading, directed by Lily Tung Crystal, takes place Saturday, Jan.13, at 2 p.m. Another promising new work comes from playwright Joseph Evans, an artist who skillfully blends music and zany comedy through storytelling. Laura Leffler directs (Sunday, Jan. 14, at 2 p.m.). Other readings explore second-wave feminist writer Kate Millett and Dayton’s eighth-floor holiday displays of yesteryear. “Ms. Millett,” by Jenna Zark, performs Thursday, Jan. 11, at 7:30 p.m., and “8th Floor” by Bob Beverage and Denise Prosek, performs Friday, Jan. 12, at 7:30 p.m. ($15). More information here.
[image_credit]Supplied[/image_credit][image_caption]Cellist Amit Peled[/image_caption]Amit Peled plays with Minnesota Sinfonia
The Minnesota Sinfonia welcomes guest cellist Amit Peled for a performance of Robert Schumann’s “Concerto in A minor,” part of an evening of work that spans 19th- and 20th-century music. An Israeli-American musician and educator, Peled has performed internationally, and at top U.S. venues like Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and has earned praise from the New York Times and The Strad magazine. Besides the Schumann work, Minnesota Sinfonia will perform works by Carl Maria von Weber, Johannes Brahms, and a piece by 20th-century composer Sergei Prokofiev that nods to classical works by Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Friday, Jan. 12, at 7 p.m. at Metropolitan State University and Sunday, Jan. 14, at 2 p.m. at the Basilica of St. Mary (free). More information here.
‘Cyranoid’
The story of Cyrano de Bergerac gets a new spin by Janaki Ranpura, an affiliated writer with the Playwrights’ Center. Edmond Rostand’s original play is a fictional retelling of the real Cyrano’s life. Rostand’s Cyrano is an eloquent poet, artist and swordsman who gets tongue-tied when speaking his feelings for the beautiful Roxane. Embarrassed by his appearance, he relies on anonymous letters to her, and later tasks the charming Christian, a young cadette, to become the embodiment of his feelings. Ranpura infuses the story with a modern twist, incorporating ChatGPT and artificial intelligence into the mix. Professional actors will be reading Ranpura’s new script as part of the Playwrights’ Center’s “In the Lab” series. Friday, Jan. 12, at 7 p.m. (free). More information here.
The Unconscious: Between ‘Here and There’ and Dreams on Film
Instruments made of bicycle spokes, plastic cretaceous animals and more make up a dreamy new world concocted by new music chamber group Zeitgeist in their new piece, “Here and There,” created in collaboration with composer and instrument maker Philip Blackburn. The new sound and visual piece traversing subliminal journeys and ancestral revelations performs this weekend in a concert with Zeitgeist and the Cleveland-based No Exit New Music Ensemble. The latter will show one silent film by Timothy Beyer, and films by James Praznik and Luke Haaksma accompanied by world premiere live music. Thursday, Jan. 11, at 7 p.m. at The Anderson Center in Red Wing, and Friday, Jan. 12, and Saturday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. at Studio Z in St. Paul ($25). More information here.
[image_credit]Courtesy of Dreamsong[/image_credit][image_caption]Minnesota artist Alexa Horochowski’s “Under the Sea-wind” ventures into the vast ecology of the world’s ocean.[/image_caption]Alexa Horochowski: ‘Under The Sea-wind’
In 1941, a marine biologist named Rachel Carson published a book called “Under the Sea-wind.” With captivating prose, Carson brought the creatures of the ocean to life, personifying their existences in poetic language all while staying true to utmost scientific accuracy. This week, Minnesota artist Alexa Horochowski borrows Carson’s title for an exhibition that similarly ventures into the vast ecology of the world’s ocean. The exhibition layers sculpture and video in a projected imagining of the future. The magic of the sea is something Horochowski has visited previously. Her memorable “Cochayuyo” three-channel video installation, part of a larger 2014 exhibition called “Club Disminución,” mesmerized with its meditation on the movement of kelp beds, for example. With “Under the Sea-wind,” the artist employs art to meditate on time, by looking at the past and future of life forms beneath the surface. The opening reception takes place Friday, Jan. 12, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Dreamsong in Minneapolis, with the exhibition running through Feb. 23 (free). More information here.
[image_credit]Courtesy of the artists[/image_credit][image_caption]JC Sanford and Asuka Kakitani[/image_caption]Inatnas Orchestra
Asuka Kakitani and JC Sanford’s Inatnas Orchestra is not quite like any other music group in the Twin Cities. Kakitani went to the Berklee School of Music, where she was influenced by cutting-edge artists like Kenny Wheeler, and gained experience at the prestigious BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. Sanford, meanwhile, studied with Bob Brookmeyer at the New England Conservatory, and has long been drawn to a wide range of music that is sometimes hard to define. At this weekend’s show, expect modern, colorful music with an edgy twist to a big-band sound. They’ll perform Saturday, Jan. 13, at 8 p.m. at kj’s hideaway ($20). More information here.
