As an immigrant or a refugee, where does your allegiance belong?   Photo by Dan Norman Should you forget where you were born? Should you bide your time until you can return again? Should you try to assimilate where you have moved if you never intended to live there in

When is the last time you indulged your inner rebel?   Photo by Matthew Murphy You know the one – the one that told you not to come into work today, or to sleep in a little later, or to skip the pleasantries and really be honest about how you

What if I were to tell you…   Graphic by Ten Thousand Things …That there is a show penned by a local female playwright that is set entirely in a car wash, features a highly eclectic spectrum of characters, and it’s totally fabulous? I would be describing Park and Lake,

The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company brings precision and sass to this timely piece. Photo by Stephen Hage How much do you know about Gilbert & Sullivan? If you’re a fan of musicals you’ve likely seen the Pirates of Penzance at some point in your life, but did

LISTEN.   Photo courtesy of the Guthrie Theater Just, listen. That is all I can say after seeing Ifrah Mansour’s magnificent one-woman show How to Have Fun in a Civil War. In a taut, gripping 60-minute performance, Mansour tells the story of fleeing Somalia during the 1990s civil war from

Sacred cows of the theater be warned: your days of being untouchable are careening towards a swift end.   Photo by Petronella Ytsma And what great news that is! Seriously, I’ve been advocating for years, ad nauseam (#sorrynotsorry), that we need to really feel comfortable revising things for the modern

Who doesn’t need more opportunities to laugh?   I have to say, I am absolutely loving all of the terrific comedies cycling through Twin Cities theaters lately. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good drama – but with the currently contentious state of American politics let’s be honest: we

There’s been a lot made in the last year or so of people who have been left behind.  Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes Call them Trumpeters, or rednecks, or MAGAs, or hillbillies, or whatever you will – the stories of lower class white folks have been blowing up on screens, on

For one of my favorite annual roundups (books, duh), look no further. This #shelfie of goodies from my time interning at Graywolf Press is a regular fave. If you’ve never read any of their books, what are you waiting for?!  Devoted Compendium readers may remember my post halfway through last

This late in the season, I generally think it unlikely to find something so fresh and powerful and amazing that it blows my socks off.   Photos by Petronella J. Ytsma But I can happily testify that that is the case after seeing Dot, a new work at Park Square