Rock the Cradle

The Current presents Rock the Cradle, a free day of family fun, held at two of the state’s premier arts and culture institutions, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Children’s Theatre Company. Our annual kids event brings together families and social groups from all over the Twin Cities to enjoy music, art, books, puppetry, theater and the community for a fun, entertaining and engaging day. Check the Web site for updates, and plan to join us!

Kevin will be reading his new book, “Big Little Brother”.

“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

MORE INFO!

Sun Ray Branch

Saint Paul 55119

© Copyright 2012 Southeast Missourian. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  

Two nationally acclaimed storytellers, Bil Lepp and Kevin Kling, are headlining Cape Girardeau’s first humorous storytelling night, the third such event in the year.

Cape Girardeau welcomes storytellers and story lovers in April for a three-day festival and in October for a night of ghost stories. The Afternoon and Evening of Humorous Storytelling will take place at 2 and 7 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Rose Theatre, inside the Graul Building on Southeast Missouri State University’s campus.

Kling is an author, playwright and storyteller, as well as a regular commentator on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” His stories are nostalgic and autobiographical. He had already graduated from college with a degree in theater and was a playwright by trade when fate stepped in with some changes.

“I was at a party at someone’s house … I was in the kitchen just talking to some people, telling a story, and one of them, who happened to be a theater producer, asked me if I wanted to do this for an audience,” Kling said.

That was 30 years ago, and he’s been telling his stories across the country ever since.

Kling and Lepp met in 2003 at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro, Tenn.

“It was like I’d met a kindred spirit,” Kling said.

Telling stories is a family tradition for Lepp, a five-time champion of the West Virginia Liars Contest, who grew up listening to his grandfather, father and brother weave tall tales at the dinner table.

“The truth in my family is a very fluid event,” he said. “My grosspapa — that’s grandfather in German — had a fascinating American story, but the way he told it was always a little bit different.”

Lepp’s brother Paul has won the West Virginia Liars Contest six times. Lepp’s son has won the under 17 division three times, and his daughter has won the division twice. As a professional storyteller, Lepp is no longer eligible to enter the contest but still participates as a master of ceremonies and judge.

He also has plenty of other opportunities.

“I’m doing a show for Comedy Central in March in Hollywood,” Lepp said. “Comedy Central has theaters where they bring in 100 people as audience members and Comedy Central films it professionally. The performers don’t get paid and the audience doesn’t pay admission, but if the audience seems to like it my show gets passed along to the next person in the decision-making process, so I guess we’ll see what happens.”

The storytelling festival in April celebrates its fifth anniversary this year, and the ghost storytelling event in October turns four. The humorous storytelling event was added to “keep storytelling fresh in people’s minds,” according to Stacy Lane, public relations director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“If you’ve never been to a storytelling event, this is the one to go to,” Lane said. “These guys are hilarious, and it’s a great opportunity to see both of them at the same time for such an affordable price. I wouldn’t miss it.”

Dr. Joel Rhodes, a board member of the CVB, called Lepp and Kling “giants in the storytelling community” and said they excel at telling 30- to 40-minute stories.

“And their stories are more narrative than going to see a comedian,” he said. “It’s storytelling with a humorous focus.”

Rhodes said the stories appeal to families but also more mature audiences.

“They’re not really for elementary-age kids,” he said. “I would say middle school and up would get them, but they’re not little-kid stories.”

Rhodes has been instrumental in bringing much of the talent to the CVB storytelling events and said he believes the art of storytelling is getting a lot of interest nationally.

“There’s something of a renaissance for storytelling going on in this generation,” he said. “People are becoming turned on by this ancient art form.”

Tickets for the two shows are available at the CVB, at 400 Broadway, by calling 335-1631 or at www.visitcape.com. Matinee tickets are $7.50 in advance and $10 at the door. Admission to the evening performance is $10 in advance or $12.50 at the door.

Shuttles will travel from the Centenary United Methodist Church lot, at 300 North Ellis St., and at the university parking lot at the intersection of Broadway and Pacific Street. Shuttles will run from 1:15 to 4:45 p.m. and again from 6:15 to 9:30 p.m.
© Copyright 2012 Southeast Missourian. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1804045.html?response=no

All day tickets $30.

Link to Pike Piddlers

“An Evening of Humorous Storytelling:
Where the River Turns a Thousand Hilarious Tales.”

Times: 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

Details: National Humorous Storytellers, Bil Lepp and Kevin Kling will be performing at the Rose Theater.  Tickets are on sale now, and seats are filling up, so give us a call or stop by the CVB to get your hands on tickets!

Admission: The 2 p.m. matinee is $7.50 in advance and $10 at the door, and the 7 p.m. evening show is $10 in advance and $12.50 at the door.

Where: Rose Theatre at Southeast Missouri State University.

For more information: Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau – (573) 335-1631

www.visitcape.com or www.capestorytelling.com

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 here for Great Review with Live Links

Recently, playwright and raconteur Kevin Kling was named “artist in residence” for Minnesota Public Radio. It’s a three-year position, for which he’ll develop original live programming, write some commentary for broadcast and host storytelling workshops around the state.

His first commission for MPR is “Of Mirth and Mischief,” a staged musical-theater production, which premiered at St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theater this past weekend. If you missed the live version, the show will also air a couple of times over Christmas weekend on local public radio stations (one broadcast version will be edited around Kling’s narration and the other, which will air on The Current, will showcase the production’s memorable soundtrack).

For the music in “Mirth,” Kling turned to his longtime friend Steve Kramer — an accordionist and composer best known, in these parts, for his stint with the Wallets, a well-regarded punk polka outfit from the late ‘80s. Kramer enlisted a terrific assortment of acclaimed local musicians to perform, notable among them vocalists Haley Bonar, James Diers (Halloween, Alaska), Aby Wolf and Jennifer Armour and guitarist Jacob Hanson.

The tale at the show’s center is set in the ‘60s: A 4-year-old boy is spending the holiday season in the hospital, away from his family and awaiting surgery. He copes with fear and homesickness by conjuring an imaginative wonderland for the kids in the children’s ward, re-imagining their clinical surroundings as realms filled with magic and legendary heroes, populated by elves, tricksters and fairies, kings, wise fools and wayward princesses. Kling spins yarns that are wry and heartfelt and perceptive, stories as rich and engaging as his fans have come to expect of him — he makes it all look effortless, joyful in the telling.

And Kramer has held his own with Kling’s marvelous stories; the music in the show marries with them beautifully. The songs are a catchy, varied mix — raucous, ethereal or toe-tapping swing — as the narrative demands. You can listen to these tracks now, even download them if you like; it’s worth giving them a measure of studied attention. Kramer and his fellow musicians put together an infectious set of tunes, worth listening to on their own. (I had “Nighty-Night to Brother” running through my head for hours after the show). Bonar, in particular, deserves a mention; she assumes a number of roles and pulls all of them off with aplomb, her vocals by turns seductive and poignant.

Don’t pass up the opportunity to listen to “Of Mirth and Mischief” this weekend — streaming online or in one of its broadcast iterations — it’s just delightful.

While the stage show at the Fitz has come and gone already, you can hear “Of Mirth and Mischief” broadcast this weekend on Minnesota Public Radio, on 91.1 Dec. 23 and on 89.3 The Current, Christmas Day. If you prefer, after they air, you can also stream the show online at www.mpr.org.