Performing Arts

Blood on the Wall has joined the Black Dice/13 & God lineup for the September show. They’re the brother/sister team of Courtney and Brand Shanks, with Miggy Littleton (of White Magic and Ida) on drums. It’ll be interesting to see how this all goes down in the McGuire. I have high hopes that people will appreciate really getting to hear the music, experience it in a different way.

Back to work with all of you.

Last week I was the lucky recipient of my favorite recurring piece of Performing Arts Junk Mail. It has a photograph of a rather large smoke-and-mirrors style set-up, with beautiful women in "ta-daa!" poses flanking a blushing, yet proud, CEO on a large motorcycle. Apparently, for Your Corporate Event, you can "dazzle audiences with state-of-the-art illusions or magically produce your CEO on a Harley Davidson motorcycle® or in a NASCAR®!"

It's days like these that I not only get a good laugh because their booking managers obviously either don't know or don't care what kind of performing arts the Walker programs (otherwise they'd save some money on printing and postage), but also because I am so, SO happy I work here. In these days of rampant fiscal mismanagement, I can't imagine any employee of any company anywhere finding joy in seeing their boss "magically produced" on a Harley Davidson motorcycle® or in a NASCAR®.

Viva la arts non-profit!

From Brian Stokes:

I kid you not. My beloved San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild is under investigation by Homeland Security. According to their latest newsletter, its assets have been frozen ever since my friend and Treasurer Pam Brown resigned after 20 years and passed the miniscule nestegg to a new bank account a few months ago. The bank apologizes but legally can’t do anything until Homeland Security determines this group of puppet fans and professionals is not planning to attack our country.

This is the Guild where Jim Henson met a young Frank Oz and Jerry Juhl back in the 1960’s. Not long ago, I was President, and before that, Secretary. But now our government thinks it’s harboring terrorists.

(Via BoingBoing.)

Argh, we almost made it through a full evening of Music & Movies on Monday, but sadly were rained out after the first reel of the film, Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place. Incredibly bad luck, especially considering all the film fanatics out there were salivating over the fact that Joe and Dean were able to find a 35MM print of the film on full Cinemascope. Thunder in the Valley made it through, though. And apparently worked their witchy magic so deep it called their namesake down. See this clip from mnstories .com for a little flashback to the way it was then.

Glad to say that Wes Winship of Burlesque Design will be creating a limited edition poster for the Black Dice/13 & God show on Sept. 24. Feel bad for our in-house design team, as they would all no doubt kill for the opportunity to work on a fun project like this one, but alas, each has a catalog or three they’re working on, plus an insane number of other pieces. So we went outside for this one. Looking forward to seeing what he might come up with. We did a similar deal with Aesthetic Apparatus for the Christian Marclay/Andrew Broder/George Cartwright gig last year and it seemed to go over real well. I’m guessing they’ll be for sale at some point.

So we’ve gotten through three weeks of Summer Music & Movies in Loring Park. Folks probably heard by now the craziness surrounding the first week, Mali’s Issa Bagayogo. That wasn’t my show, and for this I am grateful. Issa was delayed for hours by customs, making it touch and go for hours on this end as well. Audience members showed incredible patience with the interminable delays, and we were definitely feeling the heat. What to do in a situation like this? Cancel? Disappoint all the hundreds of people waiting to hear this legend that traveled from half a world a way? Or keep everyone waiting until the last possible minute and throw him up on stage the second he arrives? We chose the latter, and clearly the audience felt it was the right decision, judging from the crowd reaction as he played (though incredibly exhausted and likely cranky as hell).

The split-second decision making around this one was a political minefield. Of course we want to respect city noise ordinances. Of course we want to respect the people that live around the park. Of course we want to deliver the show we’ve been promising for weeks. Of course we want to give this artist the chance to play after months of planning and what seemed like a never-ending series of flight and customs nightmares. What to do? But since we were told by the powers that be (or who we thought were the being powers) to go ahead despite the lateness of the hour, we went for it. And those thousand people that were there, and the hundreds of thousands more that count Minneapolis as home and as an important cultural outpost, I hope got what they came for and were grateful to see all of us welcoming an international artist with the respect and dignity he deserves. And to those few people who were outraged by the “noise”….sorry. I really mean that.

Just finished reading Lightsey Darst’s review of Momentum. Whether or not I agree with her assessment is neither here nor there. Beautifully written. Someone give this woman a permanent gig as a dance critic, please.

Just a quick one to let all choreographers and dancers out there know that we’ve just released two calls:

1. The Momentum: New Dance Works 2006 Request For Proposals will go out on Monday. Due date is September 23. If any of you caught this year’s concert at the Southern this year (in July), you know it’s a great opportunity for emerging choreographers in Minnesota. For complete details, check out performingarts.walkerart.org or mnartists.org. The complete RFP should be up by the end of the day. We’ll also be mailing the application to everyone on our current dance list, but get in touch if you don’t get one.

2. We’ve announced audition dates for the 33rd Annual Choreographers’ Evening. Yeah, it’s back and it’s going to be different from years past, since we’re in the McGuire and it’s all good. Curating this year is Mathew Janczewski, one of my favorite people. Auditions take place Friday-Saturday, August 26-27, 4-10 pm, at Hennepin Centre for the Arts. Call the audition line at 612.253.3550 to set up a time. The line should be live by end of day as well.

You heard it here first. Actually, I guess you heard it first on Dana Holstad’s weekly dance email newsletter. Oh, and if you got that email, disregard the phone number. Marshall Field’s jacked a bunch of our numbers and it’ll go to toddler fashions or some such nonsense.

Seems like you can’t turn around at the Walker without bumping into an artist. From gallery monitors to department heads, front-desk staff to the installation crews, everybody seems to be a writer, actor, painter, sculptor, puppetmaker, dancer, or rock star. The Minnesota Fringe Festival, August 4-14, doubtless includes plenty of performers with Walker connections, but two staff members are pitching in to be the voice of the Fringe. Performing Arts assistant Leigha Horton (an actor-comedienne who apparently has a fan club for her work with the Ministry of Cultural Warfare) gets the title officially: as podcast narrator, her resume will actually say “Voice of the Fringe.” Reggie Prim, of the Walker’s Community Programs department, assumes the persona Blak_Bloggah to add a little color to the Fringe’s blogs.