Weekend Arts Roundup: Three New Stage Productions

MPR News' Arts Reporter Marianne Combs joins Steve Seel and Jill Riley Marianne Combs joins Steve Seel and Jill Riley to talk about three new stage productions in Minneapolis.

Driving Miss Daisy — Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which spawned the Oscar-winning film, is set in Atlanta, Ga., from 1948 to 1973 and is the story of Daisy Werthen, a widow who reluctantly surrenders her car to hired driver Hoke Colburn. Directed by Bain Boehlke, this Jungle Theater production is a thoughtful look at race relations in America.

An Outopia for Pigeons — Martha Washington is a passenger pigeon on a mission: build an outopia and save her species. What she doesn't know is she's the last one. As she labors away on her existential non-place in a defunct natural history museum in Ohio she is joined by a motley crew of assistants. This production by the Swandive Theatre company is described as a "funny, weird, provocative look at salvation and the lengths we'll go to achieve it." It stages at The People's Center Theater in Minneapolis.

Enter the R.T. Rybak — Less than a week after the election to choose his replacement, Minneapolis's outgoing mayor will join The Theater of Public Policy for a This is Your Life retrospective. We'll dig into the political highs and lows of eleven years in office and open it up for the audience to ask about what's next for the soon-to-be former mayor. This show happens Monday, Nov. 11, at 6:30 p.m., at the HUGE Theater in Minneapolis.

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.

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• Rybak to focus on achievement gap Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak will become the executive director of Generation Next -- an advocacy group focused on closing the achievement gap in education. He'll also teach some courses at the University of Minnesota. MPR's Cathy Wurzer spoke with Rybak about life after the mayor's office.