Art Hounds: Politics, Mozart, improv and Haitian dance

'Don Giovanni in Cornlandia'
Mixed Precipitation presents 'Donald Giovanni in Cornlandia,' a mash-up of Mozart's Don Giovanni and modern-day politics.
Courtesy of Mixed Precipitation

This week on Art Hounds: Politics meet Mozart in "Donald Giovanni in Cornlandia"

Mixed Precipitation's "Donald Giovanni in Cornlandia"

Theater geek and violinist Barbara Beresford is looking forward to Mixed Precipitation's latest production "Donald Giovanni in Cornlandia."

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Mixed Precipitation is a theater company known for creating "picnic operettas" that combine traditional opera with contemporary music. "Donald Giovanni in Cornlandia" takes themes and music from Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and mixes them up with this year's presidential race.

Performances take place on farms, in community gardens, in orchards and elsewhere; this year the show is going on tour to communities in Wykoff, Virginia and Oronoco, Minn., and run from Aug. 14 through Sept. 18.

Afoutayi Seventh Annual Haitian Dance, Music and Arts festival

Occupational therapist Chris Fury said she's enjoying the Afoutayi Seventh Annual Haitian Dance, Music and Arts Festival.

The festival includes classes and performances in Minneapolis and St. Paul, featuring drumming, storytelling, dancing and folk singing. It all culminates in a community celebration this Sunday in the Bush Ballroom Center on the campus of Hamline University in St. Paul.

Improv-grams

Painter Michael Johnson is already anticipating Aug. 19, when 50 improv artists will take to the streets of St. Paul delivering "improv-grams."

Johnson has ordered two improv-grams: You can have them delivered to/r performed for a friend, or just send them to a specific place and time, and see what happens.

You provide the prompt; the actors provide the improv.