MN Shortlist Sept. 11-17: Voyageurs star party, Wakpa and JazzFest return, a musical marks 9/11 and more
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MN Shortlist is the MPR News weekly roundup of arts and culture recommendations. This week’s picks include a monarch festival at Lake Nokomis, the Selby Avenue JazzFest in St. Paul, a new all-female tap dance company in Crystal and more.
‘Come From Away’ at the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson — Sept. 11-27
Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Perhaps the best-known theatrical production inspired by the aftermath of the tragedy is the musical “Come From Away,” which ran on Broadway for more than five years. This summer, the Guthrie sold out its performances of the musical.
“Come From Away” is set in the tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland, where 38 planes carrying about 7,000 passengers were rerouted when New York’s airspace was closed following the attacks. Due to the timeliness of the show and to production rights becoming more widely available, “Come From Away” was the most-produced play of the 2025-26 season, according to American Theatre.
On the anniversary, the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson, Wisconsin, is opening its season with its own production of “Come From Away, which runs through Sept. 27. Executive director Joe Thietje said they counted on the Guthrie’s production to increase local awareness of the show. The cast in this community production worked with a vocal coach to fine-tune the distinctive Gander accent, which Thietje said “feels like a cousin to the accent you’ll often hear in and around the Twin Cities.” (Emily Bright)
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The sixth annual Star Party at Voyageurs National Park — Sept. 11-12
Voyageurs National Park invites the public of all ages to discover the wonder of the night sky this weekend, rain or shine, at its sixth annual Voyageurs Star Party. The event starts Friday at Rainy Lake Visitor Center in International Falls and continues Saturday at Kabetogama Lake Visitor Center in Kabetogama. The astronomy celebration features speakers, a film screening, nighttime canoe paddles, telescope sessions and guided constellation tours.
Jesse Gates, an education and dark-sky specialist with Voyageurs National Park, says the party aims to not only reconnect people with the night sky but also to address light pollution. Skies above the U.S. have been getting increasingly bright — by about 10 percent per year.
“Many people have never seen the Milky Way in their life,” Gates said. “My favorite thing is just hearing people's visceral reaction to seeing something so amazingly beautiful.” (Chandra Colvin)
‘Waiting for Godot’ at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis — Sept. 12-Oct. 11
Previews start Sept. 12 (tickets are cheaper for previews!) at the Guthrie for the classic existentialist two-hander “Waiting for Godot” by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. It’s the first time the theater has mounted “Godot” since 1973, then under the tutelage of the Guthrie’s third artistic director, Michael Langham. This time Joseph Haj is at the helm, and the play has been on his bucket list for a “very, very long time.”
“For theatermakers, of course, it's one of the most important plays of the 20th century,” Haj told MPR News. The tragicomedy centers on two vagabond friends, Vladimir and Estragon, as they wait endlessly, haplessly and somewhat shoelessly (Estragon’s darn boots!) under a tree for a man who promised to turn their lives around.
This will also be the Guthrie debut for David Strathairn (as Vladimir), known for his roles in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” “Lincoln,” and my personal favorites: “Big Girls Don’t Cry… They Get Even,” “A League of Their Own” and “The River Wild.” Opening night is Thursday, Sept. 17, which will be followed by a celebration in the lobby. (Alex V. Cipolle)
The 18th annual Monarch Festival/Festival de la Monarca in Minneapolis — Sept. 12
The free, bilingual, family-friendly environmental and cross-cultural festival returns 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday to the Lake Nokomis parklands for a celebration of the annual 2,300-mile migration between Minnesota and Mexico. Look for monarch stilt walkers, kids and dogs in butterfly wings, art activities, educational booths and performances by Ballet Folklorico Mexico Azteca, Kapulli Ketzal Coatlicue and more. (Alex V. Cipolle)
Selby Avenue JazzFest in St. Paul — Sept. 12-13
It’s the 25th anniversary of the Selby Avenue JazzFest, where free, live jazz shows take over the street in St Paul for the better part of a day. Staged in conjunction with Walker|West Music Academy of St. Paul, the Saturday event kicks off at 11 a.m. with a New Orleans-style brass parade down Selby Avenue with more performances scheduled through 7:30 p.m. Musicians who bring their instruments along will have two chances to jam: in a flash mob band immediately after the parade, and after the final concert, in an official JazzFest jam session that runs from 8 to 10 p.m.
Sunday’s event, a sold-out master class led by Stokely, is also part of the festival. (Emily Bright)
SoleArte Tap at Elision Playhouse in Crystal — Sept. 12
SoleArte Tap is a new, all-female professional tap dance company. There are two opportunities to see the company’s debut full production, “The Sound of Color,” Saturday, Sept. 12, at 3 and 7 p.m. at the Elision Playhouse in Crystal.
Annalise Maiers, a dance major at Gustavus Adolphus College, has been following the company since the start and says she enjoys “that the company combines concert-style tap with classic entertainment, and weaves storytelling into the show to create a memorable experience.”
Maiers adds: “In the tap world, typically men are held high and respected as ‘the greats,’ and as an all-women group, they challenge that notion with their incredible technical skill and performance quality.” (Emily Bright)
Wakpa Triennial Art Festival in St. Paul — Sept. 12-Oct. 11
Wakpa is Dakota for “river,” and the festival that bears its name returns to the Mississippi after its debut in 2023. A project of the nonprofit Public Art St. Paul, the 2026 triennial will use wheat paste (a flour-and-water mixture often used for poster art in the streets) to attach the work of nearly 50 artists along the East 2nd Street underpass in St. Paul, near the Union Depot.
Co-curator Angela Two Stars said the event is an opportunity to uplift both emerging and established Native and Minnesota artists. This year’s theme is “A Moment to Pause,” which co-curator Bob Cozzolino said is apt amid the federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota.
“There’s just so much artists and everybody in the Twin Cities have been carrying for years and years and years and years,” Cozzolino said. “Artists are always, to me, the people who show us the way forward.”
At 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, the wheatpasting begins: 47 4-by-4-foot posters featuring unique artworks (by Cole Redhorse Taylor, Hend Al-Mansour, Mai Tran, Piotr Szyhalski and dozens more artists) will go up on the underpass. An opening ceremony and musical performance are set for 11 a.m., and the festivities will continue until all work is installed. There will be another celebration on Raspberry Island from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, with a poetry reading, live music and more. (Alex V. Cipolle)
