NORTHERN LIGHTS/ SOUTHERN CROSS Opens at the Guthrie 10/24

The Guthrie will present Northern Lights/Southern Cross: Tales from the Other Side of the World, an international collaboration between Interact Theater and Australia's Tutti Ensemble, companies both comprised largely of artists with disabilities. An epic tale spanning cultures and hemispheres, acclaimed actor/playwright/storyteller Kevin Kling shares his story of personal growth and rebirth, in the production directed by Interact artistic director Jeanne Calvit, with original music by Tutti Ensemble's Pat Rix. Northern Lights/Southern Cross: Tales from the Other Side of the World runs October 22 - November 8 in the Dowling Studio. Single tickets are priced from $18 to $30, with a limited number of premium tickets available for opening night.

Northern Lights/Southern Cross: Tales from the Other Side of the World begins the moment Kling goes boots over helmet from his motorcycle. When his startled soul flies from his brain-injured body, Kling discovers himself on the other side of the world trying to put things back together. Throughout his dream-world journey, it is the Native American heyoke (the wise fools) and their Australian larrikin cousins that goad and guide him to understanding and healing. Kling describes, "If there is the unseen wind and the visible water, then this play takes place on the waves." In the end, as he is accepted into the world of the sacred clowns, he discovers that his reason for being on this earth is to heal through the powerful medicine of his humor.

Northern Lights/Southern Cross: Tales from the Other Side of the World received Australia's 2007 Oscart award for Best New Musical (recognition similar to a Twin Cities' Ivey Award), and was developed through an ongoing collaboration between Interact and the Tutti Ensemble. Artists from both companies spent time in each others' countries, mining the riches of cultural intersection, returning as an international company to tell this tale through music, wit and down to earth story telling. Written and performed by Kling, the production will also features Larry Yazzie's Native Pride Dancers, Aboriginal artists Steve and Jamie Goldsmith, and members of RoBert Robinson's Twin Cities Community Gospel Choir.

The production team also includes Karin Olson (Lights), Brad Dahlgaard (Set) and Caitlin Schaeffer (Production/Stage Manager).

The 2008 Ivey Award recipient for innovation, Interact has produced over two dozen original, company-created plays at home in Minneapolis, and has toured throughout the U.S. and Scandinavia, as well as to Canada, England and Australia. Interact Theater is part of the larger Interact Center for the Visual & Performing Arts, a center for artists with disabilities. Since 1996, it has offered the community a broad-reaching vision of radical inclusion, a philosophy in which every voice and every ability comes together in a continually enriching stream of human potential and creative achievement. For more information on Interact, visit www.interactcenter.com or call 612.339.5145.

Located in Southern Australia, the Tutti Ensemble is a recognized leader in community cultural development and disability culture, offering opportunities to both disabled and non-disabled people of all ages to become involved in a range of concerts and music-theater events through its socially inclusive choral program. In addition, Tutti offers full-time professional training in a broad range of artistic disciplines for talented and emerging artists with a disability. For more information on Tutti Ensemble, visit www.tutti.org.au.

The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. The Guthrie is dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature, developing the work of contemporary playwrights and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. Led by Director Joe Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie opened a new three-theater home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in June 2006.

The Guthrie is located at 818 South 2nd Street (at Chicago Avenue), in downtown Minneapolis. To purchase tickets or season subscriptions call the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224 or toll-free 877.44.STAGE.

For more information, or to purchase tickets online, visit www.guthrietheater.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.