Creation Station, Actors decieved, Hip-Hop Joint, and A Hole

Oh, hi there- -------- Theater artist Rachel Petrie, along with a few other artists, has a new project taking place this Saturday called The Creation Station Here’s how the organizers describe the event: On Saturday, September 22nd from 12pm-4pm, Iris Park will host The Creation Station, a community gathering in which anyone and everyone is encouraged to create all kinds of art in a positive, nurturing, and educational setting. Experienced artists will be on hand at fully stocked art stations to help guide attendees through a multitude of art forms such as: mosaics, music, knitting, painting, drawing, performance, storytelling, beading, poetry, and puppetry, just to name several possibilities. The Creation Station will be presented by Rachel Petrie, Margot Olsen, and Jessica Gunzburger and is supported by Irrigate, an artist-led, creative placemaking initiative spanning the six miles of the Central Corridor Light Rail line in Saint Paul during the years of its construction Sounds like a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon and good place to play with the tools of theater. -------- ‘The Innocence of Muslims’ is the movie cited as the catalyst for the riots surrounding the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Stories have surfaced that many of the actors involved in the making of this movie did not know they were making what was ultimately anti-Islam propaganda film. Writer Neil Gaiman recently shared a letter on his blog from an actress who had a part in the incendiary movie -A letter from a scared actress One of the things the letter writer, Anna Gurji, talks about is that the actors were given only their own pages, never seeing the full script. Gurji also says a large amount of alternate dialogue was dubbed by other people after the scenes were all shot. I imagine a great many people would hear those details and wonder how an actor would see those as red flags and perhaps bow out of the production. I think a great many actors, though, would have similar experiences from their own careers that could easily have put them in this kind of situation. I know that, especially when I was starting to make work and hungry for anything, I said yes to more than one project without know much about the people involved or even a full idea of what the play or movie was. I’ve said yes to shows knowing only one other person already attached without finding out if they knew anything more than I did. This can’t be uncommon for actors and artists of all kinds. Have you ever been a part of a project without having a full sense or idea of what the project would be overall? Having you even done work on a project and then had your work used in ways you didn’t expect and perhaps weren’t comfortable with? -------- If you appreciate break dancing in the Twin Cities at all or just like the idea of powerful and talented women showing girls how to become powerful in their own right you probably already know that dancer, teacher, and choreographer Amy Sackett is phenomenal. Sackett has something new and exciting starting this Thursday and running through the weekend. As part of the Catalyst Series at Intermedia Arts Sackett has put together The Joint Project It’s a collaborate project between numerous artists who don’t normally collaborate with the goal of pushing hip-hop and it’s surrounding art forms in new and innovative directions. The list of artists involved is long and impressive. And if there’s anyone who thinks there’s boldness or risk-taking in Twin Cities dance this is the event to head if you’d like to check your math. And if you haven’t yet, make sure and check out Sackett’s choreography and performance in Brother Ali’s Mourning in America video. It’s moving, powerful, and just plain awesome. -------- Would you like to see Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland through the eyes and mind of Open Eye Figure theatre’s resident madman/artistic director Michael Sommers? Starting this weekend, Open Eye presents A Hole. They describe the production thusly: “Sommers explores the unknown and the unknowable, wandering into thoughts and questions that manifest in a miniature world from curiouser and curiouser. A HOLE invites the audience to 'Go down the Rabbit Hole' into a world of wonder, chaos, and discovery, where "nothing but out-of-the way things happen." Be reassured - it has nothing to do with the real world.” I’ve never felt that Sommers was wholly tied to the real world in any work I’ve seen by him so I’m very curious to see what comes out of his exploring a world that is intentionally not real. -------- Are you guys all going to the Ivey’s on Monday, September 24th? With one of my favorite funny people, Shanan Custer, hosting, it promises to be an entertaining event. I’ll be live tweeting on the Minnesota Playlist feed so if you’re inclined to see my somewhat comedic view of the evenings proceedings please do head to twitter and follow @MinnesotaPlays And have a creative week! -Levi