4/15/2010 Fresh Fruit

*Tonight’s Guests*
Michael Korie, librettest
Ricky Ian Gordon, composer
Leigh Fondakowski, playwright
Tanya Miller, U of M student
Leanne Pooley, film director
Jake Yuzna, film director
Kelly Gilpatrick, film producer

*Michael Korie, librettest Ricky Ian Gordon, composer*

World Premiere of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis based on the novel by Giorgio Bassani, by the creative team of The Grapes of Wrath (2007): Ricky Ian Gordon (composer), Michael Korie (librettist)
Directed by Academy Award-winning director Eric Simonson, this thrilling drama of unrequited love in war-time Italy stars Kelly Kaduce opposite Eric Margiore in his Minnesota Opera:http://www.mnopera.org/ debut.

*Leigh Fondakowski, playwright*

Leigh Fondakowski was the Head Writer of The Laramie Project and has been a member of Tectonic Theatre Project:http://tectonictheaterproject.org/Tectonic.html since 1995. She is an Emmy nominated co-screenwriter for the adaptation ofThe Laramie Project for HBO. Her latest work, The People’s Temple, has been performed under her direction at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Perseverance Theater, and The Guthrie Theater, and received the Glickman Award for best new play in 2005. Another original play, I Think I Like Girls, premiered at Encore Theater in San Francisco under her direction and was voted one of the top 10 plays of 2002 by The Advocate. Leigh is currently developing a play about 19th century actress Charlotte Cushman with Tectonic Theatre Project and About Face Theatre.

*Tanya Miller*, Queer Student Cultural Center, University of Minnesota:http://www.qscc.org

Spring Pride – April 19 – May 1, 2010

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Fest (MSPIFF):http://www.mspfilmfest.org

*Leanne Pooley, Film Director (New Zealand)*

Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
Lynda Jools Topp:http://topptwins.com/

A documentary about NZ's most idiosyncratic entertainers who are twins, lesbians, yodelers and along with their humor are human rights activists

Originally a native of Winnipeg, Canada, Leanne Pooley has plied her craft as a documentary filmmaker all over the world, from productions with the BBC to award winning NZ features. Leanne serves as a judge for The International Academy of Television Arts Sciences; EMMY Award, has taught documentary at the University of Auckland’s School for Creative and Performing Arts and is on the executive of the New Zealand Director’s Guild. Leanne lives in Auckland with her husband and two children.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Fest
Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls:http://www.mspfilmfest.org/MMX/content/topp-twins-untouchable-girls
Thursday, April 22nd at 7:00 pm (Leeanne Pooley present)
Wednesday, April 28th at 8:30 pm

*Jake Yuzna, film director*(Minneapolis)
*Kelly Gilpatrick, film producer*, Werc Werk Works:http://www.wercwerkworks.com/ (Minneapolis)

OPEN, 2010 Winner of the Teddy Jury Award:http:www.teddyaward.tv/2010/index2.asp?KategorieID=1076InhaltID=1983
This film combines a wide variety of gender crossing permutations in a story that uniquely weaves together the tales of a young hermaphrodite’s journey through the lesser know world of Minneapolis, a couple merging themselves into one entity through plastic surgery, and the effects of hormone use on sex, love and the new family structure.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Fest
OPEN:http://www.mspfilmfest.org/MMX/content/open
Monday April 19th, 2010 at 7.00pm