“Cold Feet, Warm Hearts: A Night of Song, Story, and Love”
featuring Kevin Kling and friends Dan Chouinard, Bradley Greenwald, Prudence Johnson, Simone Perrin and Claudia Schmidt celebrate Valentine’s Day with songs, poems and stories about the many sides of love. Whether it’s family, friend or soul-mate, a little heat on a February night is never a bad idea!

Sold Out in 2010!

Saturday, February 11th, 2012 at 7:00PM
Tickets: $28

FOR TICKETS & MORE INFO!

Kevin Kling & Simone Perrin
Winterfest Weekend
Saturday, February 4,  7:30 p.m.
Quilt Raffle Fundraiser
Adults $12 Students $5
General Admission Tickets on Sale: January 26

Dawson-Boyd Arts Association
601 9th Street
Dawson MN 56232

Call 320.769.2955 Ext. 246 to request tickets

“Kevin Kling brings his unique blend of storytelling to the Dawson-Boyd Arts Association on Saturday, February 4th at 7:30 p.m., with assistance from accordionista Simone Perrin. Kling, a lifetime Minnesotan who never let a birth defect or severe motorcycle accident slow him down, takes listeners on a journey through his life that is no less poignant for the humor Kling’s telling imparts.

Kling is best-known for his commentaries on NPR’s All Things Considered. He also is the author of three books, Big Little Brother being the most recent.

Joining Kling will be Minneapolis-based theater actress, composer, vocalist and accordionista Simone Perrin, who has been featured on A Prairie Home Companion. During her five years in New York City, this Winona native helped form an east village sketch comedy group. She learned to play the accordion in order to accompany herself as a love-scorned vampire.”

Directions to Memorial Auditorium:

Memorial Auditorium is located on the west side of the Dawson-Boyd School campus with its entrance at 601 9th Street. Parking is available in two lots near the school and on surrounding streets. Dawson is located on US Highway 212 17 miles west of Montevideo, MN; 60 miles east of Watertown, SD; 45 miles northwest of Marshall, MN; 60 miles southwest of Willmar, MN.

Directions from Highway 212:
South on 6th Street (also County Road 23) to Chestnut Street; west three blocks to 9th Street. North on 9th Street to Memorial Auditorium.

Uniting the new music of Zeitgeist with the verbal creativity of humorist and writer Kevin Kling and the music of composer Victor Zupanc, For the Birds is truly a show for everyone.

This tour de force joins storytelling with musical interludes, songs and poetry in a one-hour musical and theatrical event. “Crow” delves into family relations. “Canadian Geese” explores marriage and loss. “Rooster” reveals our less noble tendencies. And “Hummingbirds” reminds us not to forget to live.

Through the combination of Kling’s insightful words, Zupanc’s colorful musical setting and Zeitgeist’s exuberant performance, For the Birds illuminates our human need for inspiration and imagination, and it offers a space to contemplate ourselves as individuals, families, communities and a species.

For more information on bringing For the Birds to your venue, please contact Heather Barringer at 651-755-1600 or heather[at]zeitgesitnewmusic.org.

Tuesday, January 31 — Presented by the Northern Lakes Arts Association, Ely
7 p.m.
Ely School’s Washington Auditorium
600 East Harvey Street
Ely, MN 55731
218-365-5070

Wednesday, February 1 — Presented by the Sacred Heart Music Center, Duluth
1 p.m. Conversation with Kevin Kling
Duluth Public Library
20 West Superior St.
Duluth, MN 55802
Phone: 218-730-4200

7 p.m.
Sacred Heart Music Center
201 West 4th St.
Duluth, MN
218-723-1895

Thursday, February 2 – Presented by the Grand Marais Playhouse, Grand Marais
Noon:  Conversation with Kevin Kling
7 p.m.
Arrowhead Center for the Arts
51 West Fifth Street
Grand Marais, MN 55604
218-387-1284

Friday, January 6, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, January 7, 7:30 p.m.

Click & scroll down to buy tickets

Adult – $16.00 per ticket
senior – $14.00 per ticket
Student – $9.00 per ticket

123 West Omaha Street
Washburn, WI 54891
715-373-1194

Directions

Click for Link!

Ten years ago, Kevin Kling was nearly killed when his vintage motorcycle collided with a car in Minneapolis.

This month, he’s celebrating publication of two new books and the debut of a holiday show he wrote as Minnesota Public Radio’s writer in residence. He’s performing with Interact Theater, and on Monday, he presented a one-man show at the Guthrie.

What a difference a decade has made in the life of this slender, bespectacled Minnesotan with a national reputation as a playwright, humorist, actor, storyteller, author and National Public Radio commentator.

“Every year I get a bit stronger, and a few more brain cells seem to flow back,” Kling says, recalling the aftermath of his life-altering accident on a muggy August day in 2001.

“My memory is getting stronger, but my thoughts are different. Before the accident, they were much more linear. Although people might not believe this, I’ve moved to more poetic thinking.”

Kling’s new books are “Big Little Brother,” his first for children, and “Come and Get It,” the Minnesota Center for Book Arts Winter Book. His holiday show, “Of Mirth and Mischief,” is his first collaboration with his friend Steve Kramer, former leader of the band the Wallets.

Kling’s busy December is astonishing, considering how severely he was injured in the accident. His face was crushed, and the nerves of his right arm were torn from their sockets. Since he was born with a defect that caused his leftarm to be shorter than his right, the accident nearly destroyed his “good” arm.He went through many months of pain, surgeries and physical rehabilitation before he put his life together.

Kling, a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College, lives in South Minneapolis with his girlfriend, Mary Ludington, who he credits with “being crucial” to keeping his busy schedule on track.

Kling says Ludington, his family and friends pulled him through those dark days after the accident. So, it’s not surprising that loved ones and hospital experiences provided inspiration for his recent work.

“OF MIRTH AND MISCHIEF”

Kling drew on his childhood stay in a hospital to write this fairy tale about a 4-year-old boy surrounded by doctors, nurses and other children who take on personas of mythical beings.

“Most fairy tales start with a kid being separated from parents and faced with a journey,” Kling explains. “A hospital is an alternative world, like the forest in ‘Hansel and Gretel.’ In my fairy tale, there are challenges and good and evil. This is a Jungian idea, the way fairy tales work. They not only guide us with morals but take us to places we most fear and let us come back safely.”

Kling says Kramer’s music for the show, ranging from bluesy piano to a Latin beat, “is just short of genius.” (A free download of the soundtrack is available at mpr.org/mirth.)

Kramer and Kling have known each other for 30 years, so they were able to “do everything at once,” as Kling puts it. He says this was an inspirational way to work: “The music informed me on a whole section I wouldn’t have written without it.”

“BIG LITTLE BROTHER”

One of the sweetest songs in “Of Mirth and Mischief” is “Nighty Night to Brother.” Kling sang a version of it his brother Steve, who’s a year and a half younger and the inspiration for this story.

“Big Little Brother” is narrated by a boy whose younger sibling grows taller and stronger and is always clutching doughnuts.

“People thought Steve had anger issues, but he really had doughnuts curled in his hand,” Kling says with a laugh.

Steve, who “gets a kick out of the book,” lives in the Maple Grove house where the brothers grew up. Their mother, Dora, lives in northern Wisconsin. Older sister Laura is in Osseo.

“Big Little Brother” ($17.95) is Kling’s third book for Borealis Books. “The Dog Says How” and “Holiday Inn” were big sellers for this division of Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Kling says “the beautiful part” about the new book is the hilarious illustrations by Duluth-based painter/cartoonist Chris Monroe, creator of the popular “Monkey With a Toolbelt” books.

“I was blown away by Chris’ artwork,” Kling says. “My writing relies on subversion, and she is more subversive than I am.”

Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews praised the book, and Kirkus also raved about the iPad app: “Kling and…Monroe combine their talent to create nothing short of a modern children’s classic…at last, an iPad storybook so good it doesn’t need additional narrative options or games or technological wizardry to distract from its flaws. Because there are none.”

“COME AND GET IT”

Kling admits to having a “pinch-myself moment” when the Minnesota Center for Book Arts asked him to write the annual Winter Book. Many of the state’s most distinguished authors have created Winter Books, which are produced by hand, and it’s an honor to receive the commission.

“Come and Get It” is made up of a story and three poems based on a play Kling did three years ago at Open Eye Theatre.

“It’s about a farm kid who is not me but goes through this process,” he says. “When you are born with a disability, you grow from it. But when you have a disability experience later in life, you have to grow toward it. You are still the person you were, but physically you aren’t. You have to transform into this new person.”

Kling describes the artwork by his friend Michael Sommers, Open Eye co-founder, as “bringing the story to a whole new level.”

As Kling looks at his busy month, he says he wouldn’t change a thing: “I’m loving it.”

Mary Ann Grossmann can be reached at 651-228-5574.

What: Kevin Kling doing just about everything

When/where: Kling and Eriq Nelson with Interact Theater performers in “Joy: A Holiday Cabaret”; 7:30 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday; Lab Theater, 700 N. First St., Mpls.; $22-$18; 612-333-3377 or thelabtheater.org.

Publication party for Kling’s Minnesota Center for Book Arts Winter Book, “Come and Get It.” 6 p.m. reception, 7:30 p.m. reading Saturday; MCBA, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls.; free; mnbookarts.org/winterbook.

Kling and Chris Monroe sign copies of “Big Little Brother”; noon Dec. 17; Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

Kling and Steve Kramer in “Of Mirth and Mischief”; 8 p.m. Dec. 16-17, 2 p.m. Dec. 18; Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul; $29-$20; 651-290-1200 or FitzgeraldTheater.org.

Special Guests include Dan Chouinard, Peter Ostroushko, Simone Perrin and the Brass Messengers.

Monday, December 5, 2011
7:30 p.m.

For Ticket and More Info

Zeigeist New Music’s “For the Birds”, featuring Kevin Kling

Wednesday, October 19, 2011
7:30pm
Tickets: Adults $20, Seniors $18, Students $10

A high-flying combination of new-music and verbal artistry, “For the Birds” is a musical journey through dreams and fantasies depicting portraits of our feathered friends. It is a brand-new chamber work, which highlights the poetry of humorist, Kevin Kling and new-music champions, Zeitgeist, a group composed of percussion, piano and woodwinds based out of St. Paul.

Directions

Come celebrate, explore and feel the JOY of the season in this all original show filled with music and dance – including some of the best of Interact from the last 15 years.

*Performances November 18th – December 10th 3 p.m. Matinee featuring Kevin Kling and Eriq Nelson

*Performances December 10th evening – December 17 featuring Tod Petersen and Eriq Nelson

Tickets and performance calendar: www.thelabtheater.org /   612.616.1727

Interact Theater performs at The Lab Theater, 700 First St. North in the Minneapolis Warehouse District.

About Interact Theater

Interact Theater produces two original, fully staged theater productions each year, created and performed by the entire company; along with more informal works-in-process that attract a wide, eclectic audience; and a season of shorter works designed for special events such as school shows, industry events, and conferences. Our ensemble-generated creation and developmental process means that artists with disabilities fully participate in conceiving new work, developing the original material, writing scripts, and incorporating everyone’s ideas through improvisation and other ensemble-building techniques. All artists are paid for their performance work. Collaborating with major guest artists such as Kevin Kling, Larry Yazzie, J. Otis Powell! and others, Interact Theater artists with disabilities have become an integral part of the Twin Cities and regional arts community.

May 26, 2011
6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
2720 W 43rd St, #101
Minneapolis MN 55410
612-920-4249

Tickets:  $40 General Seating, $100 VIP Seating