When the Guthrie Theatre announced the inclusion of classic farce Noises Off in its 2018 season, the artistic director Joseph Haj could not have anticipated how vital the power of laughter would be in the face of everything going on in the world today. Noises Off provides exactly that: a welcome pause from reality to…
Arts
Play Preview: “Dirk and Others Still With Us”
Last year, as senior theatre major Anna Brujin ’18 was thinking about potential subjects for her capstone, the theme of family kept coming back to her. She knew she would be curating a play for the stage, so she considered the relationships and connections within families and storytelling. The resulting piece, “Dirk and Others Still…
Home, Senior Spotlight
Taking center stage with a rising Macalester star
The Mac Weekly: Can you give me your playbill bio off the top of your head for any readers that might not know who you are or what you’re about? Michael Karadsheh: My name is Michael Karadsheh. I am a 21-year-old actor from Holland, Michigan, which is a small beach town in Michigan near Grand…
Arts, Home
Review: There’s Magic in Guthrie 43rd Christmas Carol
Remember the moment in The Sorcerer’s Stone when 11-year-old Harry Potter steps through a brick entrance at the back of the Leaky Cauldron pub, and finds himself in the marvellous Diagon Alley? Magic fills his eyes as he wanders, mesmerized, along the eccentric shops and colorful façades that border the avenue. As I walked into…
Features
Professor discusses Walking Dead star Danai Gurira ’01 as undergrad
Most know commencement speaker Danai Gurira ’01 from her role as Michonne on AMC’s The Walking Dead. Before she was fending off zombies and disagreeable humans, she was a psychology major at Macalester with passions for theater and activism. Danai was born in Grinnell, Iowa and lived there until she was five. When Zimbabwe gained…
Arts
Family Fragility: Review on The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams came back to life for a short time in Macalester’s production of The Glass Menagerie. From a platform elevated above the other characters, Williams sat at his desk and commented solemnly on his own play. The Macalester Theater Department describes this added text as the “readers’ version,” which was a bold stylistic choice…
News
Danai Gurira ’01 to be 2016 grad speaker
Actress and playwright Danai Gurira ’01 will speak at the class of 2016 Commencement for Macalester College on May 14. Gurira graduated from Macalester with a degree in psychology before earning an MFA at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Macalester announced on March 25 that Gurira will appear alongside Gary Hines ’74…
Arts
“The Clean House” Review
To put on a show is an exercise in world-building and empathy and The Clean House, performed this past weekend on Macalester’s Mainstage, has both in spades. Written by Sarah Ruhl, The Clean House tells the story of four women as they navigate their experiences living up to the expectations set by their partners, parents…
Arts
Theater Major // Charlotte Lastra
This week’s senior arts profile is of Charlotte Lastra, a design track theatre major. She is from Chicago and does set building and design. How did you first get interested in theatre? I did theatre sort of on a whim in high school and I was like, “This is great. I don’t know what else…
Arts
A Mid-Christmas night’s dream// Review of A Christmas Carol at Guthrie Theater
It is often said art lives a long life, but it cannot be truer for this Christmas tale that has kept its popularity for more than hundred years. A Christmas Carol, originally written by Charles Dickens in 1843, is yet again brought into a new life on stage at Guthrie Theater. This year marks the…