February 2, 2006 - Theatergoers tend to show up for plays with certain expectations. There will be actors, there will be a set. And there will be a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end. But Theatre de la Jeune Lune's most recent production is challenging one of those assumptions. Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs has this look at the theater's adaptation of a novel by 20th-century Czech writer Franz Kafka.
January 31, 2006 - One night a year, three Twin Cities musicians come together to perform before a live audience. The three men come from different generations and musical backgrounds, but they have two things in common; they all play keyboard instruments, and they all resist attempts to pigeonhole their music. MPR’s Marianne Combs talks with the the three pianists about their annual concert creation, Keys Please!
December 7, 2005 - The Twin Cities are home to two of the nation's preeminent ethnic theaters. Voices of Minnesota profiles Lou Bellamy, director of the African American Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul; and Rick Shiomi, director of Minneapolis' Mu Performing Arts, which presents Asian-American theater and traditional Japanese Daiko drumming.
December 1, 2005 - While some of the finest paintings in the world can be found on display in museums, there are many that reside in private collections, decorating people's homes and offices, available only to the eyes of friends and colleagues. This weekend the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is opening an exhibition of paintings that until this year, have never been seen together in public. They all belong to one Minneapolis native who has a passion - and a talent - for collecting. Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs reports.
October 26, 2005 - A new play that makes its regional debut in the Twin Cities later this week examines the War in Iraq, the Patriot Act, and the political strategies of the Bush administration. The play is called "The God of Hell" and is done by playwright Sam Shepard. It looks at what could happen if those in power became a little too comfortable.
September 16, 2005 - Voices of Minnesota pays a visit to two of the state's foremost architects. Ralph Rapson, who designed the original Guthrie Theater, shaped two generations of architects as the dean of the University of Minnesota's school of architecture. Rapson also did a stint at MIT, where he mentored his future colleague Leonard Parker, who created the Minneapolis Convention Center, the Humphrey Institute and Minnesota Public Radio's St. Paul studios.
August 26, 2005 - With the announcement of a terminal disease by playwright August Wilson, an excerpt of Wilson speaking to the University of Minnesota Alumni Association back in 1992 is aired.
August 2, 2005 - MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles painter, and now composer, Matthew Smith. Combs talks with Smith about the physical and mental transition from painting to composing. Combs also interviews other artists about Smith’s work.
July 13, 2005 - MPR’s Marianne Combs reports that The MacPhail Center for Music is building a new home in Minneapolis…and a new future while breaking down old walls. MacPhail unveiled the design for an expanded music education center in the Mill District, in what's becoming a new cultural corridor.
June 9, 2005 - What would you do if you woke up one morning, and didn't recognize where you were? Not only that, you didn't know WHO you were? A new Lee Blessing play at the Guthrie Lab in Minneapolis explores the fluid nature of memory.