As the weather warms, we’ve set our sites on the summer. We’re anxious to bring back the picnic operetta, this year with TALL TALES of HOFFMANN, our vision of Jacques Offenbachs 1851 masterpiece of impossible love, sinister villains and the poet’s search for inspiration.
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve received the St. Louis Park Arts and Culture Grant, our first grant of 2010. With this money will be able to host weekday school performances in September! And we’re holding auditions this weekend!
And I wrote an article about site specific performance for Minnesota Playlist. READ IT HERE.
WHAT:Mpls Autotelic: An Evening of Symbolism and Decadence
WHO: Mixed Precipitation and Nightpath Theatre presents the work of directors Terry Hempleman, Maggie Scanlan, performance artists Jennifer Arave, choreographer April Sellers and singer Erik Pearson, currated by Scotty Reynolds
WHEN: Thursday through Saturday March 4, 5 and 6 and March 11, 12 and 13 at 7:30.
WHERE: Interact Center / Colonial Warehouse Building, 212 3rd Avenue North. Please enter through the Inside Out Gallery on North 2nd Street; the performance will unfold throughout the building from there. Promenade style will require audience movement through various configurations in the Colonial Warehouse.
TICKETS and INFORMATION: Please call 612.619.2112 for reservations. The building is 100% accessible. Seating is very limited, please call ahead for reservations. Visit www.mixedprecipitation.wordpress.com for additional information.
(Minneapolis, MN) Five creators join forces to bring you a traveling evening of live performance! In this evening of drama, dance, music and short form performance we examine the symbolist arts and the decadent movement–literary movements driven by the artists desire to explore the self, the conscious world and darkness beneath our reality. Autotelic (au·to·te·lic) is an adjective used to describe the “inner-directed” and “self motivated” process of creation.
Our line-up includes Sage Award winning Choreographer April Sellers and many fresh names in the world of performance.
Director Maggie Scanlan takes on Madame Rachilde’s The Crystal Spider and Paul Margriette’s Pierrot: Assasin of His Wife. Actor Terry Hempleman returns to the directors chair with Wallace Steven’s Carlos Among the Candles and Jennifer Arave creates an original solo titled Expect theUnexpected: A Study in Entropy and April Sellers creates a duet with dancer Kay Krischt, titled Acceptable Doses. Eric Pearson will perform a cycle of songs by Claude Debussey and Francis Poulenc.
Jennifer Arave's Expect the Unexpected: A Study in EntropyKay Kirscht and April Sellers in Reasonable Doses
Mixed Precipitation is new performance group committed to exploring text, space and dramatic form. The company was founded in 2009 by Scotty Reynolds with an eye to create events of distinctive social interaction with a commitment to building relationships among independent artists and communities. Previous projects have included MPLS Pinter Studies and Orpheus and Eurydice: A Picnic Operetta. Maggie Scanlan’s Nightpath Theatre has presented work for the European cannon, including The Balcony by Jean Genet and The Devils by John Whiting. Her 2008 production of How I Learned to Drive was named in Lavender Magazine’s top 10 of 2008.
MPLS PINTER STUDIES
Performance Calendar
Presented at the Interact Center / Colonial Warehouse Building
The Ensemble sings "He gave her a good whack..." Jeff Gillooly pleads with Tonya
We got the crowd pumped up for the Olympics and pumped up for our performances in February!
We’re bringing the fun to BOTH sides of the river next month. There will be a chance to cheer on the opera, a chance to cheer on your favorite figure skaters and a chance to compete in our figure skating trivia competition!
TONYA and NANCY: The Opera
Performance Calendar
Tuesday February 23rd at 6:30 and 8:30 at the Bedlam Theatre (1501 South 6th Street, Minneapolis)
Figure skating broadcast, demonstrations and trivia occur between performances
Thursday, February 25th at 6:30 and 8:30 at Camp Bar (490 Robert Street North, St. Paul)
Figure skating broadcast, demonstrations and figure skating trivia occur between performances–There’s even a Medal Ceremony!
Thanks to Ty Sassaman and Mark Bimson for taking photos and Video of our performance at the Art Shanties!
That’s right, Mixed Precipitation and the Dead Composers Society are teaming up to present TONYA and NANCY: THE OPERA.
Music by Abigail Al-Doory Cross, Libretto by Elizabeth Searle
The events of the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics and the knee clubbing scandle come to life as Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan become duelling American singing divas!
Lead Reddy and Meredith Cain-Nielsen
We’ll be previewing the show with brief interludes at the Art Shanties. Here is a link to directions (it’s about 15 minutes from downtown Mpls).
Look for us Saturday January 30th at 11:30 and 12:30 and Sunday January 31st at 1:30 and 2:30.
Look for the shanty with the stocking cap!
Thanks to Julie Kesti and her partners at the Art Swap Shanty for offering to be our hosts! Bring some art to share as well, and you can swap it for a fresh piece for your home. To read about their awesome art sharing project, check out their blog.
Meredith Cain-Nielsen returns to take on the role of tough girl Tonya Harding. She’ll contend with Leah Reddy as the prim Nancy Kerrigan.
Lauren Drasler, Jacob LaSota, Kitten Stoekler and Jason Vogen are featured in the cast.
Mike Meyer is our music director. Scotty Reynolds is directing.
Thanks to Ty Sassman for these great photos.
Mike Meyer and Leah Reddy examine the complicate score by Abigail Al-Doory Cross
The picnic operetta will take it’s final bow this Saturday, October 17th at the Mill City Farmers’ Market (in the shadow of the Guthrie Theatre, stepping distance from the Mississippi River)
Thanks for your support of the Orpheus and Eurydice: A Picnic Operetta!
We have wrapped up our community garden tour, and we are planting
seeds for next season! Please let us know if you’d like to be
involved.
We will be closing the curtain on Orpheus and Eurydice with an
informal performance at the Mill City Farmer’s Market at 11:30.
We’ll be in the train station, near the food demo area).
We’ll be serving a few small courses and dishing up some musical
delights with Roland Hawkins II, Meredith Cain-Nielsen and others from
our fabulous company. As usual the food will be prepared by Nick
Schneider of Cafe Brenda. Tell your friends and come say hello!
(you can also see a food demo by Tim McKee and dance with the Wild
Goose Chase Cloggers)
This opera was the project of a small, emerging performance company,
Mixed Precipitation. Our mission is to explore text, space and
dramatic form. With this project we sought to bring ancient myth and
a cornucopia of musical styles to bring classical traditions to the
dirt and grim and sweat of urban farms and gardens.
We hope that “picnic operetta” created opportunities for music to come
alive in beautiful natural settings, we hope that these important
gardens and sites of urban agriculture can grow relationships and
stories as well as flowers and vegetables.
(if you have pictures from a performance, I would love to share them
with the cast)
For directions to the Mill City Farmers’ Market, check their web-site.
Due to snow spoilage of the APPLE CROP at the WOMEN’S ENVIRONMENTAL INSTITUTE, there will be no Apple Festival.
BUMMER!
We very glad to be invited to performance the opera one last time—this time in the Apple Orchard at the Women’s Environmental Institute in North Branch, MN.
October 17th at 1:00
We’re keeping our voices warm for this special performance among their heirloom orchard.
On October 17th, the days activities will include apple picking, apple pressing–and a picnic operetta!
Please tell your friends about this great opportunity to enjoy the harvest and experience the musical delight!
Here are some directions:
WEI is located approximately 70 miles from the Twin Cities between North Branch and Almelund, MN. From the Twin Cities, take 35W north to the Cambridge/North Branch exit. Turn right (east) at the light, traveling through North Branch on Hwy 95, all the way to the town of Almelund (approximately 11 miles.) Turn left (north) off of Hwy 95 at Almelund onto Hwy 12 going towards Wild River State Park. After about two miles you’ll come to a stop sign near the park entrance. Turn left there on to Hwy 81 until it takes a sharp left. Do not turn left at the stop sign. Keep going straight on River Road (now a dirt road) that runs along side Wild River State Park. Drive for about two more miles past Nelson Road. You’ll see the Amador Hill Orchard Barn, an old Swedish log barn on your left. WEI is the next driveway on your left after the barn. Look for the WEI sign.
Please call if you need any more information: 612.619.2112
We have concluded the community garden tour of the picnic operetta 2009! With a thrilling final performance on September 27th, as the wind blew the away the summer to herald the fall, Orpheus and Eurydice were re-united in St. Paul.
Many thanks to the Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation for their financial support, as well as our garden hosts, Gardening Matters, our advisory committee, the Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts (our fiscal agent), the Bedlam Theatre and our amazing and generous audiences.
And of course, thanks to the cast and crew for embarking on this totally unique journey! We’re already laying the groundwork for next year!
There are only five shows left. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback and big crowds! Make sure you make reservations!
REMEMBER, all performances are FREE and open to the public, but tax deductible donations are gladly accepted.
This weekend we’ll be at the Columbus Community Garden (33rd and Columbus in South Minneapolis) and the Celeste’s Dream Community Garden on the grounds of the Sisters of St. Joseph Carondelet (next to St. Kate’s at Randolph and Howell in St. Paul)… see the side bar for a map!
So far our audience has had great things to say about our show!
Here are few testimonials!
“It felt adventurous and communal… I’m too busy thinking about all I just saw and heard and tasted to think of anything else, thank you!”
“I don’t live here, but I’d make the trip from Missouri to see another!”
“This was an incredible melange of the senses.”
“You brought opera down to earth and to life for me. I loved it. AND you introduced me to a new part of the city and a new venue for theatre.”
“I thought it integrated music, community and local food beautifully. I was completely engrossed by the performances, as was my 5 year old daughter.”
“I felt like a perfect to experience opera this way. The Beauty of the voice couple with the beauty of the sensed we engaged.”
“It is unique to have audience members experience the story in a way that pushes our expectations and including in the story itself.”
We’d like to again extend thanks to our Chef Nick Schneider of Cafe Brenda. This weekend we’ll have the talents of a new chef, Phil Werst of Common Roots Cafe! Both of these gents are avid gardeners, event planners and experts in local cuisine. We used linen and tablecloths as well as chair covers for our wedding, if you want to invest in your next event we recommend to visit cvlinens.com.
The audience at JD Rivers’ enjoys a wedding toast of watermelon and mint!The audience enjoys the deconstructed BLT as Orpheus escorts them on a soulful journey to the underworld!
