September 2020
Toy Story 4: Friday, September 25 | 7:30 PM
Free-Will donations to the Reif Arts Council Encouraged.
REMINDER: Only families who reside together at home should be in a vehicle together
THANK YOU to AMERICAN BANK for allowing us to make this a FREE community event!
Advanced tickets required (One per car). 40 car limit.
In order to experience this event, your vehicle must be equipped with an FM radio.
Drive-in Movie Rules
- If a patron feels sick or has COVID-19 symptoms they must turn around and go home
- Cars must be parked 6’ from each other
- Only patrons that reside together at home should be in a vehicle together
- Restroom facilities are limited
Purchase TicketsOctober 2020
Hocus Pocus: Friday, October 30 | 7PM
Free-Will donations to the Reif Arts Council Encouraged.
THANK YOU to RANGE WATER for allowing us to make this a FREE community event!
Advanced tickets required (One per car). 40 car limit.
In order to experience this event, your vehicle must be equipped with an FM radio.
Drive-in Movie Rules
- If a patron feels sick or has COVID-19 symptoms they must turn around and go home
- Cars must be parked 6’ from each other
- Only patrons that reside together at home should be in a vehicle together
- Restroom facilities are limited
November 2020
Best Suited for Middle School, High School, and College Students
The Accidental Hero is a multi-media one-man show about a WWII American officer who miraculously liberates the Czech villages of his grandparents. It's a true story, written and performed by his grandson.
Patrick Dewane's grandfather refused to talk about his service in the war. Yet when he died, his basement yielded a treasure trove of typewritten accounts, photos and rare film footage.
Dewane brings this archival material to glowing life as an enthralling, humorous and heartwarming tale of miraculous escapes and astonishing coincidences. This touching show runs from belly laughs to tears.
Dewane takes on a dozen different roles as he powerfully recounts his grandfather's journey from Omaha Beach, the Battle of the Bulge, and the end of WWII. In the last week of the war, the story turns away from a soldier's survival tale to something from mythology. He discovers his lost identity, embraced by the tribe he never knew.
THANK YOU TO SPONSOR
December 2020
Don't let COVID-19 put a damper on your holiday tradition of experiencing The Nutcracker, performed by Reif dancers! This special Video On-Demand performance was recorded in 2019.
Recreated from the classical ballet by Tchaikovsky, and performed by the superb Reif Dancers, The Nutcracker tells the enchanting story of young Clara who dreams that her nutcracker doll is transformed into a valiant prince. After defeating the evil Mouse King and his army, they are transported to the fantastical Land of Sweets where they are welcomed by a host of delectable characters. A Reif holiday tradition.
THANK YOU TO SPONSORS
THANK YOU TO SPONSOR
Two remarkable Christmas stories from World War Two point to the possibility that more is going on that what we might see. In the first story, a Christmas Eve celebration in a frozen cellar brings a soothing peace to a group of weary soldiers. While the other features Americans bringing joy to the children of a battered European village. In the third story, the narrator tells of his hilarious tour of Minnesota as the Grinch, but the story turns on him as he falls into a situation where his own heart needed to grow several sizes. What the three stories have in common is the angels appear in unlikely situations. Like the Christmas story itself -- which took place in a barn -- difficulties transform us to more than what we can imagine. In our Covid Christmas, this message is particularly timely. A soldier can’t leave the battlefield any more than any of us can escape the pandemic. But acts of kindness, particularly toward children, can open a door to something larger. When Christmas is stripped of the presents and what usually happens, as it was in Whoville when the Grinch stole everything, there is an opportunity to connect more deeply. In Whoville, they sang anyway. Christmas is, after all, a story with a happy ending and a choir of angels. In “Waiting for the Angels” the human spirit rises in spite of very difficult circumstances. In fact, those circumstances seem to open the door for the angels.
Waiting for the Angels is a multi-media one-man show about Christmas on the road featuring actor and writer Patrick Dewane, creator of the popular show The Accidential Hero. Audiences across the US and the Czech Republic have thrilled to his remarkable stories.
REIF DONATIONS ENCOURAGED AT CHECKOUT
THANK YOU TO SPONSOR
Recorded live at St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis, MN.
December, 2020
Kevin Kling has performed his "Tales from the Charred Underbelly of the Yule Log” since 1995, starting at the Jungle Theater and then on to the Guthrie Theater for his annual December show there. It’s a bit of good cheer, stuffed with humor and based on a childhood memory of Christmas surrounded by dogs, relatives, and an unruly gasoline powered toy airplane. Talented musicians Dan Chouinard and Simone Perrin joined the celebration many years ago making the evening one of Minnesota's favorite holiday show traditions.
KEVIN KLING
A renowned playwright and storyteller, Minnesota's own Kevin Kling is known for his commentaries on NPR's All Things Considered. He has entertained audiences with his off-kilter stories that express humor, heart, and thoughtful philosophizing. Kevin has been awarded arts grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the McKnight Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board, among others. In 2014, Mayor RT Rybak named Kevin the "Minneapolis Story Laureate". He continues to write plays and stories in a rigorous fashion and travels around the globe to storytelling festivals, residencies, and frequently performs at the acclaimed National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
SIMONE PERRIN
Musician and songwriter Simone Perrin grew up on the banks of the upper Mississippi in beautiful Winona, MN. After some time in New York City, and then Minneapolis, where she met and started working with Kevin Kling, Simone moved rural Wisconsin, where she lives today with her family. In between trips to the garden and snuggles with her little guys, Simone travels to towns around the Upper Midwest to sing songs and tell stories. She has appeared on the Prairie Home Companion and has performed with many regional theaters including The Guthrie, Theater Latte Da, Open Eye Figure Theatre, The Cincinnati Playhouse and The Seattle Repertory Theater, where she and Kevin developed two original plays, How? How? Why? Why? Why? and Breakin' Hearts and Takin' Names. In 2009, Simone released her first album Hummingbird available online at CDbaby.com.
DAN CHOUINARD
Dan Chouinard is a St. Paul-based honky-tonk pianist, concert soloist and accompanist, street accordionist, sing-along enabler, Italian and French teacher and bicycling vagabond, frequent lucky collaborator with Kevin Kling. With Grand Rapids native Peter Rothstein, co-creator in 2013 of Steerage Song, an immigration documentary-musical. Writer and host of many live music-and-history variety shows for broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio and Twin Cities Public Television. Performer on a dozen live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion. Recording artist with Peter Ostroushko, Prudence Johnson, Maria Jette and dozens of others. Founder of Lush Country, a classic country band made up of Prairie Home Companion veterans. More at danchouinard.com
Bill & Kate Isles are an acoustic singer/songwriter duo based in Duluth, Minnesota. Using a wide variety of musical styles, their performances carry audiences through a broad landscape of experiences from metaphorical worlds to small town family stories and to zany comedy. Consummate performers, they are known for their catchy melodies and memorable songs. They have a deep-seated love for the audience, and each other, and it shines before, during, and after the performance. They tour nationally, presenting their profound songs for audiences large and small, from house concerts to festival stages and everything in between. Words like 'Mesmerizing, 'Transcendent', and even, 'Hysterical' are common descriptions from audience reviews and audiences members feel that they are listening to stories of their own lives, told by two of their best friends.
Bill Isles (Born and raised in Duluth, MN) performed his first show of original songs, after a twenty-five year hiatus, in February of 2000. Since that time, he has become one of the most well known singer/songwriters in the Minnesota acoustic scene and has been getting national and international attention. Bill's love of life has strong roots in his childhood, but his urgency to tell these stories comes from an experience in 1993 when, with just enough warning to drive himself to the hospital, he experienced a Sudden Cardiac Arrest. He arrived with just ten minutes to spare. After being defibrillated, and before the doctors had time to detect and open a blocked artery in his heart, he made a commitment to himself that, if he survived, he would begin to write again. Those paddles restarted more than just his heart…
Kate Isles (Born in Tecumseh, NE, raised in Rochester, MN) came to the CD release concert for Bill's first CD, “Weightless” after hearing a public radio interview. She bought the CD and signed up on his e-mail list. ('Grounds for marriage!' quips Bill). Their song, 'Public Radio (A True Story)' is a delightful duet that chronicles these beginnings.
Their relationship began in the ensuing months as they enjoyed afternoon sessions with guitars, harmonies and coffee. They've been together ever since, marrying in May of 2004. They have toured nationally as a duo, full-time, since early 2007, performing 100-150 shows per year. Their late-2011 duo album, 'Still Beneath the Stars and Moon', includes ten new original songs, and showcases their respective songwriting with several of Kate’s songs as well as a few they’ve co-written. The response has been very positive with many comments such as 'We’re wearing out your CD, we listen to it all the time!'; and 'It’s the perfect blend of two voices'.
She released her debut solo album, "From Home" in November of 2015.
January 2021
In-Person Tickets Available by calling the Box Office
Mon, Wed, Fri Noon - 5PM
(218) 327-5780
Hello, my name is Larry Yazzie a proud member of the Meskwaki Nation near Tama, Iowa. We are of the Algonquin speaking dialect of the eastern woodland region. We are centrally located in the great state of Iowa. Back in 1857 our forefathers snuck up to Iowa from Oklahoma and Kansas and purchased our first 80 acres. With the help of local farmers and the Governor of Iowa at the time granted us the Meskwaki citizens of Iowa
I’m honored to share my stories and culture with you through music and dance. We are made up of several tribes and promise to bring you the best experience possible!
As I play my flute I play in prayer for all who are going through hard times especially during this pandemic we will get through this together. We all need to pray together I too have experienced hardships in my life, especially in my community on the Meskwaki Indian Settlement near Tama, Iowa. Earlier this summer we were hit with a Derecho storm a land hurricane with winds up to 130 mph with devastation everywhere! But we prevailed and came together through prayers and help pouring in from everywhere! So thank you! ...”
Featuring:
VIDEO ON DEMAND
In-Person Tickets Available by calling the Box Office
Mon, Wed, Fri Noon – 5PM
(218) 327-5780
This adaptation, written by Reif Education Director Katie E. Smith, brings together Reif Dance ballet students and Theater Education students in grades 3-12, and has been created with social distancing in mind. It is an adaptation of the 1903 operetta by Glen McDonough and Victor Herbert and is the first joint production of the two Reif Education programs. Original choreography has been created by Dance Director Deirdre Murnane and the Reif Dance staff. The music has been adapted by Grand Rapids native and Ely Band Director, Sarah Mason.
THANK YOU TO SPONSORS
February 2021
The Power of Good Manners!
Educates. Inspires. Entertains.
Kenny Ahern has performed for thousands of school children worldwide!
The POWER of Good Manners! A 45-minute K-5 edutainment presentation, that heralds the importance of good manners in school and life! Character virtues are not just words—they are a call to action!
“I’m all about creating an honest message and a fun, relevant presentation.”
This presentation was developed through consultation with educational professionals. Students learn the main points of Kenny's show: Respect for All; The Importance of Asking for Help; Making Good Choices; and Pleases & Thank Yous are Important.
TESTIMONIALS
“ Your emphasis on pleases, thank yous, and the ability to ask for help was a natural progression for development of the "B.O.A.T. Rules" The teachers from Pre-K through 5th grade have each expressed admiration for the quality of your skills, ability to interact with the students, and the near magical manner that you communicate with a participant . You are, indeed, a teacher at heart!”
Craig Oliver, Teacher
Brandon Elementary School
"The kids were very engaged in the program, and understood the importance of good manners by the end of the show. The kids absolutely loved the way you got them involved with the show. Three weeks after the show, I am still hearing students talk about "The Power of Good Manners."
Chris Sadler, Principal
Humke Elementary School
"Kenny Ahern is a wonderful performer and really engaged our students Kindergarten through grade 6 in his performance. His program may well be the best I’ve personally seen. It would be nice if all lyceums were as educational, fun and entertaining as this was."
Dennis Geissler, Principal
Colfax Elementary School
“Kenny absolutely tops my list of favorites. He's professional and easy to work with, and most importantly, the kids think he's a blast. He just knows exactly what to do to make them laugh. I always look forward to his visits!"
Shelly–Collins Fuerbringer, Childrens Director
LE Phillips Memorial Public Library
"Your performance captivated the audience, students and teachers alike, Your positive message made a deep impression on the students. Thank you for your generosity, It was greatly appreciated by all of us.”
Joyce A Olson, Principal
Moundview Elementary School