October 2012 Arts Calendar

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


Theater

Company • What makes a marriage a marriage is the question of the year, and Theater Latté Da is casting its vote with Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award–winning musical from 1970. Watching eternal-bachelor Bobby sift out his thoughts on matrimony suggests it’s never less than complicated. • 10/25–11/18, ordway.org
 

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Next to Normal • An honest, emotional journey through the battlefield of mental illness. • 10/5–11/11, mixedblood.com

Photograph 51 • DNA’s discovery was just as complex as the stuff itself—and controversial. • 10/13–11/4, mnjewishtheatre.org

King Lear • Raye Birk stars in Shakespeare’s monumental tale of distrust at Park Square Theatre. • 10/19–11/11, parksquaretheatre.org
 

Music

An Evening in Austria-Hungary • Accordo, the dream team of chamber music, just got even better, expanding to an octet with three new members (including Minnesota Orchestra concertmaster Erin Keefe). Their season starts with a melodic tour of Vienna, the mecca of classical music, at Christ Church Lutheran. • 10/15, schubert.org/accordo
 

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Cassandra Wilson • The Grammy Award–winning singer brings her deep, smoky sound to the Dakota. • 10/14–15, dakotacooks.com

Music in the Park • The top-flight series opens with the celebrated Philharmonia Quartette Berlin. • 10/7, schubert.org

Lila Downs • What can you do after studying anthropology at the U (and joining Salma Hayek in Frida )? Two words: Latin Grammy. • 10/17, ordway.org
 

Film

Feast for the Eyes: A Food and Wine Film Festival • Everyone loves food. Everyone loves film. Put them together, like Coke and popcorn, and you get this first-ever foodie film fest, with more than 15 flicks—some new (like Now, Forager), some classic, some by Minnesota filmmakers—and, of course, food. • 10/25–28, mspfilmsociety.org
 

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Twin Cities Film Fest • Some of the best films in the world, screened in St. Louis Park (an homage to the Coen brothers?). • 10/12–20, twincitiesfilmfest.org

Highway 61 Film Festival • Pine City hosts a new, intriguing film fest. • 10/10–14, highway61filmfestival.org

Minnesota StoriesThe Emigrants, City Girl, and Purple Rain round out this Minnesota-inspired festival. • 10/7–11/3, zeitgeistarts.com
 

Dance

Voices of Strength • Buried by plastic water bottles? The five female choreographers from Africa who conceived and star in this two-part performance at the Walker Art Center (different each night) pull no punches, inventively surveying the issues facing the continent, from gender to race to sustainability. • 10/10–11, walkerart.org
 

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The Enchantment: 12 Dancing Princesses • The Grimm bros’ tale of haunting riddles and dangerous beauty, as staged by the Minnesota Dance Theatre. • 10/5–14, thecowlescenter.org

Beatnik Giselle • Sandbox Theatre uses beat poetry and ballet to conjure the 1950s. • 10/19–21, southerntheater.org

Ballet Macabre • Three twisted tales from the James Sewell Ballet. Boo. • 10/26–11/4, thecowlescenter.org
 

Visual Arts

Dance Works III • When avant-garde designer Rei Kawakubo used down-filled padding to morph Merce Cunningham’s rail-thin dancers into something beastly, their altered movement reinvented dance. This final installment of the Walker’s Dance Works series revisits that landmark 1997 collaboration. • 10/4–3/24, walkerart.org
 

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Shadows Traces Undercurrents • Art meets social science as the histories of contested lands are mapped at the Nash Gallery. • 10/16–11/16, events.umn.edu

Young People’s Ofrendas • Local teens honor the dead, in the Mexican tradition, at the MIA. • 10/23–12/2, artsmia.org

The Walker Channel • Online art by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, commissioned for the Walker Channel, is “unveiled.” • 10/13–4/13, walkerart.org
 

Events

The Soap Factory’s Haunted Basement • Scared? You should be. This haunted basement is serious. Like sign-a-waiver-before-you-enter, check-IDs-at-the-front-door serious. Local artists conjure the sights, sounds, and even smells of your nightmares. However, lights-on ’Fraidy Cat tours are available. • 10/5–31, soapfactory.org
 

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Cambria Crush • Warning: grape-stomping is a known cause of purple feet. Crush with care. • 10/6, morgancreekvineyards.com

St. Paul Oktoberfest • German beer, food, and music, plus dachshund racing. • 10/12–13, saintpauloktoberfest.org

Historic Mounds Theater • One of the most haunted places in the Twin Cities?  Judge for yourself, on a “real haunted tour.” • 10/5–28, realhauntedtours.com