June 2019
From Gershwin to Garland puts the spotlight on two of the greatest figures in American Popular Song: composer George Gershwin and singing star Judy Garland.
The multi-media show combines music written by Gershwin and his contemporaries, songs made famous by Garland on the stage and screen and rare video footage including Gershwin home movies, stills and movie clips.
Songs include:
“The Trolley Song”
“Over the Rainbow”
“The Man That Got Away”
“But Not for Me”
The solo piano version of
“Rhapsody in Blue”
Pianist and host Richard Glazier won multiple Telly awards for his three nationally broadcast PBS specials. Vocalist Joan Ellison stars in a one-woman Judy Garland show in theaters and with symphony orchestras across the U.S., and has been called a “rare combination of artist, archivist, and arranger” by Michael Feinstein. Glazier is delighted to be back with Ms. Ellison in a unique and thoroughly entertaining show celebrating unforgettable music.
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The Great Northern Radio Show with Aaron Brown is a live radio variety show produced for Northern Community Radio. The show features music, sketches, performance and storytelling celebrating the talent and culture of northern Minnesota. No matter if you have seen it before – it is new every year with excellent featured artists and imaginative sketches.
The show is a live radio variety show produced for 91.7 KAXE/90.5 KBXE, Northern Community Radio. The show starts at 5 p.m. sharp. Audience members are asked to be seated by 4:30 p.m.
Save 10% on this show when you bundle it with two more. Your Series lets you create your own package. Purchases tickets for THREE or more unique Reif shows at a time and save 10 percent on each ticket by using the code YOURSERIES at check out.
THANK YOU TO SPONSORS
Presented by the Grand Rapids Players!
This long running Off Broadway absurdist comedy places Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso in a Parisian cafe in 1904, just before the renowned scientist transformed physics with his theory of relativity and the celebrated painter set the art world afire with cubism. In his first comedy for the stage, the popular actor and screenwriter plays fast and loose with fact, fame, and fortune as these two geniuses muse on the century’s achievements and prospects, as well as other fanciful topics, with infectious dizziness.
Friday, June 28 | 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 29 | 2 & 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 30 | 2 p.m.
July 2019
TICKETS ARE NOT REQUIRED FOR THIS EVENT
In Colombia two illegal groups battle over a strategic mountain while legitimate armed forces unsuccessfully try to penetrate this enemy stronghold. This is the fascinating true story of how the most unlikely confusion lead to lasting peace between sworn enemies in one of Colombia’s most hostile, war-stricken areas.
Writer and producer, Lisa Stendahl, will be on hand along with two actors from the film. A Question and answer session will follow.
Films in this series are intended for mature audiences.
TICKETS ARE NOT REQUIRED FOR THIS EVENT
Tomoaki Shigemori is a lawyer tasked with defending a client (Misumi), who faces the death penalty if found guilty, in a murder trial. Misumi has previous convictions for murder and has confessed to the crime, but evidence in the case leads to Shigemori having doubts about what really happened.
Films in this series are intended for mature audiences.
TICKETS ARE NOT REQUIRED FOR THIS EVENT
Following a banal incident in her local village, 8-year old girl Shula is accused of witchcraft. After a short trial she is found guilty, taken into state custody and exiled to a witch camp. At the camp she takes part in an initiation ceremony where she is shown the rules surrounding her new life as a witch. Like the other residents, Shula is tied to a ribbon which is attached to a coil that perches on a large truck. She is told that should she ever cut the ribbon, she’ll be cursed and transformed into a goat.
Films in this series are intended for mature audiences.
Buy tickets to all three shows for just $40!
Call or visit the Reif Center Box Office to take advantage of special 3-show pricing.
(218) 327-5780
Bonfire Chamber Music Festival 2019 will enjoy its third season at the Myles Reif Performing Arts Center with three concerts at the end of July (Wednesday the 24th – Friday the 26th). This year’s chamber music festival will feature the artistry of acclaimed ARTARIA STRING QUARTET, as well as a premiere performance of the newly-formed 2 SISTERS TRIO (Kristina Gullion – violin, Monika Sutherland – cello, and Mary Ellen Haupert – piano).
In addition to festival evening concerts at the Reif, there are daily “Bonfire Extras” (free, family-friendly events around town), making Grand Rapids, Minnesota a vacation destination for all ages!
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 @ 7:00pm – Artaria String Quartet
- Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3
- Ludwig van Beethoven – Große Fuge in B-flat Major, Op. 133
- Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1
Thursday, July 25, 2019 @ 7:00pm – Artaria String Quartet
- Franz Joseph Haydn – String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2
- George Rochberg – String Quartet No. 3 (1971)
Friday, July 26, 2019 @ 7:00pm – 2 Sisters Trio
- Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 17 by Clara Schumann (1819 – 1896)
- Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
About Artaria
Described as an “exceptional ensemble with impressive confidence in its interpretations” and “Minnesota’s foremost teaching and performing string quartet”, the Artaria String Quartet recently celebrated its 30 year of chamber music concerts. Winners of the 2004 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, and named 2013-14 Minnesota Public Radio Artists-in-Residence, Artaria was also featured on Twin Cities Public Television as part of the “Minnesota Originals” series.
Artaria’s refined and thoughtful playing has brought them to major venues throughout the United States and Europe, on national television and public radio stations, and at top summer festivals including the Banff Centre in Canada, Festival de L’Epau in France, and the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA.
Artaria has earned numerous awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and the Minnesota State Arts Board for excellence in performance and educational outreach. Directors of the Artaria Chamber Music School, a premiere weekly string chamber music program in Saint Paul; and Stringwood Chamber Music Festival, featuring the ASQ and renowned guest artists every June in Lanesboro, MN; they are founders of the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition, which showcases the nation’s top high school age string quartets each April.
Jasper Jones is a coming of age story about Charlie Bucktin, a bookish boy of 14. On the night that Jasper Jones, the town’s mixed race outcast shows him the dead body of young Laura Wishart, Charlie’s life is changed forever. Entrusted with this secret and believing Jasper to be innocent, Charlie embarks on a dangerous journey to find the true killer. Set over the scorching summer holidays of 1969, Charlie defeats the local racists, faces the breakup of his parents and falls head over heels in love as he discovers what it means to be truly courageous.
TICKETS ARE NOT REQUIRED FOR THIS EVENT
Films in this series are intended for mature audiences.
September 2019
Acting Black
Demystifying Racism
Preregistration required: alicem@kootasca.org or call 218-999-5883
Part spoken word, part stand-up comedy, part TED Talk, Acting Black is a critically acclaimed 60-minute solo show created to inspire open and honest conversations about race and diversity.
Using the power of art to investigate difficult concepts Acting Black takes us to the roots of American racism and its consequences for all of us by exploring the evolution of the Black stereotype, tracing the birth of its beginning from a single individual on a specific night in Louisville, Kentucky in 1828 to the racial conflicts we still endure to this day.
Writer/performer Carlyle Brown is a playwright-artist-thinker whose body of work through the years continues to bring fresh and riveting insights into the experience of race in America. Carlyle guides audience discussion following this powerful theatrical solo performance where he encourages personal and actionable solutions.
“Acting Black investigates the social construct of race and provides a way to talk about issues in a context in which it is safe to be uncomfortable. This experience is not about guilt but about understanding.” -Audience Member
“Acting Black is not really a play. The prolific Brown has written and performed in plays for one actor, in which he takes on characters and puts himself in a narrative context. Not this time. In the first half of Acting Black, Brown appears as a lecturer, using a PowerPoint presentation to explain the notion of “acting black,” its origins, as framed by the entertainment industry, and the scars it has caused and continues to inflect on American society. His lecture is performed without notes, very polished, laced with humor, anecdotes and descriptive imagery, but the man on stage is not playing a character—he is quite himself, speaking directly to us, the audience.” -Arthur Dorman, Talkin’ Broadway
Based in Minnesota, but with roots in Tennessee, Chastity grew up surrounded by country and soul music. In the full gospel church of her childhood, she played saxophone and drums and found her singing voice and a passion for music. Her first show was in Knoxville, TN, and then it was on to Minneapolis. Since then, she’s been featured on NPR’s “Favorite Sessions,” CMT, American Songwriter, the London Times, Paste Magazine and others.
THANK YOU TO SPONSOR
