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Weekend Arts Roundup: Conceptual and Cool

  Play Now [8:15]

by Luke Taylor and Marianne Combs

June 20, 2013

Evel Knievel, Jim Peitzman
Jim Peitzman as Evel Knievel in FTF Works' production of 'Herocycle'.
© 2008 Linda Passon-McNally

MPR News Arts Reporter Marianne Combs joins The Current's Steve Seel and Jill Riley to talk about Bertold Brecht, Galileo, Joseph Campbell, Evel Knievel, the power of happy Tweets -- and what they all have to do with the arts this weekend.

Rehearsing Failure: Part of the New Works 4 Weeks series, Rehearsing Failure is a conceptual work that centers on Bertolt Brecht as he rehearses his final show, a remount of The Life of Galileo. A "staged concept album" featuring music by Annie Enneking, this show opens tonight and runs until June 23 at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis.

Herocycle: This production -- featuring plenty of aerialists and onstage crashes -- looks at the life of daredevil Evel Knievel through the prism of Joseph Campbell's archetypal work to ask: Is Evel Knievel a mythic hero? Herocycle is an action-packed aerial musical presented by FTF Works, and it stages at the Old Arizona Cafe in Minneapolis June 21 to June 29.

Secret City -- A Festival for the Imagination: Described by Marianne as an "early-evening Northern Spark," this festival takes place in downtown Minneapolis and along the Midtown Greenway from 6 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, June 22. It features musicians, roving video artists, dancers on bikes, ping pong players, actors and the MIMMI (Minneapolis Interactive Macro-Mood Installation), a large cloud-like sculpture at the Convention Center Plaza that changes color, shape and climatic behavior depending on the collective mood of the city's residents -- extrapolated from the words Minneapolitans are using on Twitter.

Marianne Combs joins The Current's Morning Show for the Weekend Arts Roundup every Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Read about all the latest arts news at the State of the Arts blog at mprnews.org.