Today in the ArtZany! Radio studio Paula Granquist welcomes actress Esme’ Elzi and actor Russ Paladin from the Arts Guild production of The Philadelphia Story in the first segment and then author Nathan Hill, The Nix, in the second half of the show.
Click here to listen to the show! ArtZany! – Radio for the Imagination 09/23/2016
The Philadelphia Story
by Philip Barry
directed by Justin Cervantes
September 30 – October 9, 2016
Northfield Arts Guild Theater
411 Third Street West, Northfield
Tickets: $17.00 adults, $12.00 seniors/students
northfieldartsguild.org
On the eve of heiress Tracy’s second marriage, a steady stream of visitors — including her ex-husband and the paparazzi — create a most unwelcome guest list. With manners running high — and expectations low — the big question is whether Tracy will make it to the altar at all. In our era of tabloid journalism and growing class-consciousness, Philip Barry’s classic romantic comedy is as potent and incisive as ever. The Philadelphia Story is a fascinating peek into the mixed-up lives of the rich and famous who seemingly “have it all.”
Tracy Lord – played by Esme’ Elzi
Mac, Thomas and Edward – played by Russ Paladin
Justin Cervantes, whose production of the holiday comedy Winter Wonderettes last December was enthusiastically received by Northfield audiences as well as by performers and artistic staff, will return to direct Philip Barry’s romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story. His energetic, upbeat style is a great match for this witty classic of American Broadway theater.
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Nathan Hill’s short stories have appeared in The Iowa Review, AGNI, Gulf Coast, The Denver Quarterly, Fugue, The Gettysburg Review, and many other journals. He was the winner of the annual Fiction Prize from the journal Fiction for his story “The Bottle.” The Iowa Review nominated his story “SuperAngel” for a Pushcart Prize. He was also a finalist for the Donald Barthelme Prize in Short Prose, and is the recipient of an Artist Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. He is an Associate Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he has taught creative writing & literature courses. He is currently on leave from St. Thomas in order to focus exclusively on writing for a while.
Before joining the faculty at St. Thomas, he taught writing at Florida Gulf Coast University, worked at the Academy of American Poets, editing and designing the website Poets.org. He has a BA in English and Journalism from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He now makes his home in Naples, Florida.
nathanhill.net
You can also find Nathan Hill on Goodreads, where he keeps a Nix-related blog, on Facebook, and on Twitter, under the username @nathanreads.
Northfield, Minnesota
October 10
Content Bookstore
7:00 pm
St. Paul, Minnesota
October 11
University of St. Thomas
O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library, Room 108
7:30 pm
Minneapolis, Minnesota
October 12
Magers & Quinn Booksellers
7:00 pm
A Nix can take many forms. In Norwegian folklore, it is a spirit who sometimes appears as a white horse that steals children away. In Nathan Hill’s remarkable first novel, a Nix is anything you love that one day disappears, taking with it a piece of your heart.
It’s 2011, and Samuel Andresen-Anderson—college professor, stalled writer—has a Nix of his own: his mother, Faye. He hasn’t seen her in decades, not since she abandoned the family when he was a boy. Now she’s reappeared, having committed an absurd crime that electrifies the nightly news, beguiles the internet, and inflames a politically divided country. The media paints Faye as a radical hippie with a sordid past, but as far as Samuel knows, his mother was an ordinary girl, who married her high-school sweetheart. Which version of his mother is true? Two facts are certain: she’s facing some serious charges, and she needs Samuel’s help.
To save her, Samuel will have to embark on his own journey, uncovering long-buried secrets about the woman he thought he knew, secrets that take him across generations and countries, and stretch all the way back to Norway, the original home of the mysterious Nix. In doing so, Samuel will not only confront Faye’s losses, but also his own lost love, and relearn everything he thought he knew about his mother, and himself.
From the suburban Midwest to New York City to the 1968 riots that rocked Chicago, and beyond, The Nix explores—with sharp humor and a fierce tenderness—the resilience of love and home, even in times of radical change.
