From food sharing to organic composting, systems are being put in place to tackle issues of food waste, and they’re working. Stocking up on bulk goods at a wholesale warehouse […]
Colleen Kennedy
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘Les Misérables’ — An Iowa City favorite returns to the Hancher stage
‘Les Misérables,’ the epic musical based on Victor Hugo’s expansive 1862 novel, returns to Hancher this week. The play has a long and popular history in Iowa City. Now, after almost 18 years (just shy of Jean Valjean’s 19 year imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread), ‘Les Miz’ is back.
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Brash and jocular, ‘Rotten Eggnog’ is the perfect play for Christmas malcontents
Set in a dive karaoke bar adorned with tacky decorations on Christmas Eve, ‘Rotten Eggnog’ opens on Tori as she awaits her two best friends, Rebecca and Addie. For the last ten years, the three women have met on the holiday to exchange gifts, tell their worst Christmas stories and share intimate details of their lives to each other.
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FilmScene at five: Origin story and future projections
There was a hole left in the downtown Iowa City culture when, in 1999, the twin movie screens of Englert Theatre closed for the large scale renovation and reopening of the Englert Theatre that we enjoy today. This was made worse when the University of Iowa bought and closed the sole remaining theatre, Campus 3 in the Old Capitol Mall, in 2007 to convert into UI offices and, after the flood, to house the UI School of Music. Iowa City was left without a permanent downtown movie theatre for the first time in almost 100 years.
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FilmScene at five: Celebrating a milestone with Iowa City’s iconic art house theater
FilmScene is turning five on Thanksgiving of this year, just a wee kindergartner compared to many established theaters throughout Iowa. Yet, in that short time FilmScene has proved itself integral to the larger Iowa City arts community and has developed an impressive national profile.
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Riverside Theatre’s new director plans to take risks and reach new audiences
The new artistic director of Riverside Theatre, Adam Knight, moved to Iowa City just over a month ago, bringing only an antique bed frame with him. Currently, he is directing Arthur Miller’s 1968 play The Price.
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Guadagnino’s ‘Suspiria’ a psychoanalytic playground with uncertain feminist cred
‘Suspiria’ is polarizing, as reflected on Rotten Tomatoes (currently 62 percent approval rating) with critics either praising Guadagnino’s bold and heady filmmaking or deriding the movie as pretentious and boring. Many critics, including this one, find it to be both at the same time.
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Puddles Pity Party — the golden-voiced, vegan, Kevin Costner-lovin’ clown — will headline Witching Hour
Puddles Pity Party, the enigmatic, reticent 6’8” clown best known for his cover of Lorde’s “Royals” and his appearance on America’s Got Talent (season 12), recently offered a rare interview for Little Village. Puddles explains that he is taciturn because there is “too much talking in the world today.” “I always seem to say the wrong thing anyway,” he wrote. “I notice the less I talk, the more I hear.”
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‘We Might Fall Apart’ aims to bring people together
There is a theory that by looking into someone’s eyes for four minutes even perfect strangers can empathize with each other, listening, acknowledging and communicating more openly.
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Brilliant and bold performances anchor ‘Much Ado’
Inspired by childhood memories of free Shakespeare in the Park at Delacorte Theatre in Manhattan, Riverside Theatre’s artistic director Sean Christopher Lewis has created a free, accessible and giddy production of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved romantic comedies, Much Ado About Nothing.
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Moving, not mawkish: Iconic Iowa tale ‘Bridges of Madison County’ comes to Eastern Iowa
This weekend, the musical version of The Bridges of Madison County makes its Eastern Iowa premiere at Revival Theatre Company at Coe College, Dows Theatre in Cedar Rapids. It runs through June 3; tickets are $20-40.
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‘Kinky Boots’ struts its stuff into Hancher, courtesy of the nimble Jos N. Banks
Based on a BBC documentary series that featured the true story of a struggling heir of a failing shoe-manufacturing company that rebooted itself by designing footwear for drag performers and the fetish market, Kinky Boots was adapted into a Broadway musical by a trifecta of talent, with multi-Tony winning Harvey Fierstein writing the book, lyrics by Grammy-winner Cyndi Lauper and Tony-nominated Jerry Mitchell as choreographer and director.
