February 2013 Arts Calendar

What you need to do, see, and hear this month

Theater

Or • The fair-warning list of adult language in this comedy reads like a Chris Kluwe letter. But it’s all in good fun: cross-dressing, a bisexual pursued by multiple lovers, a plot to murder the king, enacted by the sexiest threesome you’ll find on a stage all year: Mo Perry, Emily Gunyou Halaas, and Matt Guidry. • 2/22–3/17, parksquaretheatre.org

[THE RUNNERS-UP]

Other Desert Cities • Sally Wingert stars in this dramedy about family, wealth, and politics from a former West Wing writer. • 2/9–3/24, guthrietheater.org

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow • The Headless Horseman at Red Eye Theatre. • 2/9–3/2, walkingshadowcompany.org

The Seven • A retelling of Aeschylus’s Greek classic, hip-hop style. • 2/15–3/10, tenthousandthings.org
 

Music

Ice Music • The music of Terje Isungset, from Norway, is winter incarnate. He makes all of his instruments—marimbas, harps, horns, and chimes—from ice for the ultimate in ephemeral performance. Isungset will play the Cedar, in a thick white coat, with Mari Kvien Brunvoll, whose singing casts a soothing timelessness over the experiment. • 2/25, thecedar.org

[THE RUNNERS-UP]

Sarah Kirkland Snider, Shara Worden, and yMusic • Post-genre pop stars play new chamber music and cabaret in the SPCO Center. • 2/26–27, thespco.org

Lucinda Williams • The Twin Cities’ favorite folk-rocker plays two shows at the Dakota. • 2/1–2, dakotacooks.com

Accordo • Steven Copes and other SPCO and Minnesota Orchestra musicians perform. • 2/4, schubert.org/accordo
 

Film

Consuming Spirits • Chris Sullivan, the experimental animator and MCAD grad, has landed his 15-year labor of love on the Walker’s screen. Drawings and collages, painstakingly shot on old-school 16-mm film, depict the absurd intricacies of the human condition through a clutch of characters more than up to the task: the staff of a small-town newspaper. • 2/8–9, walkerart.org

[THE RUNNERS-UP]

Nordic Lights Film Festival • Experience the Scando zeitgeist through new Nordic films at St. Anthony Main. • 2/8–14, nordiclightsfilmfestival.org

An Evening with Luther Price • Price paints on found film, to beautiful effect. • 2/1, walkerart.org

Bogie Fest • Humphrey Bogart noir flicks, including Dead Reckoning. • 2/11–18, heightstheater.com
 

Dance

Joffrey Ballet • The renowned ballet company, in a one-night stand at the Orpheum Theatre, revisits Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, a century after its infamous debut. That the dissonant music and avant-garde dance moves (said to have made the ballerinas giggle) could incite a riot now adds to its enjoyment, art history come alive. When was the last fist-fight over a ballet?   • 2/26, northrop.umn.edu

[THE RUNNERS-UP]

Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater • The troupe brings its poetic storytelling back home. • 2/15–17, thecowlescenter.org

Bebe Miller Company • The “cartographer of human emotions” presents. • 2/12, oshaughnessy.stkate.edu

Saint Paul City Ballet • Iceland’s impossibly cool Sigur Rós pairs nicely with contemporary moves. • 2/8–10, thecowlescenter.org
 

Visual Arts

After the Storm
Photo by Clara Ueland

Painter Painter • Forget high concepts and fancy narratives. It’s all about the paint for these 15 artists from Europe and America, who have turned their attention inward, to the studio and its possibilities for rich, experimental, and even eccentric productions. A little old-fashioned artistry goes a long way in the hands of virtuoso materialists.  • 2/2–8/11, walkerart.org

[THE RUNNERS-UP]

North Shore • Seven artists showcase the landscape of Lake Superior. • 1/26–3/9, grovelandgallery.com

Straight Trippin’ • Local artists blur reality  with distorted imagery. • 2/28–3/28, alteredesthetics.com

Dialogue in Place, Vol. II • A decade of e-mails between a St. Paul artist and British painter inspires an exploration of home. • 2/9–3/17, formandcontent.org
 

Events

America’s Got Talent Live • The television equivalent of a velvet Elvis painting is now touring, with singers, comedians, pet tricks, magicians, the legitimately talented jazz vocalist Landau Eugene Murphy, and Jerry Springer as your smirking host at the State Theatre. This could be your greatest Valentine’s Day ever—or  an exceedingly awkward one. • 2/14, hennepintheatretrust.org

[THE RUNNERS-UP]

John Denver: A Rocky Mountain High Concert • The singer lives again, through videos and his former band, at the State Theatre. • 2/17, hennepintheatretrust.org

Carnaval Brasileiro • A party at the Fine Line with samba, masks, and body painting. • 2/15–17, finelinemusic.com

Ely Winter Festival • The wild haven hosts dog-sledding and other wintry activities. • 2/1–10, elywinterfestival.com