Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion® at the Kimmel Center
January 12, 2007
Waking Up Tillie to Perform Free in the Plaza Concert in the Commonwealth Plaza at 3:30pm
Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion® and its pretty good brand of Minnesota wholesomeness comes to the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall on Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 5:45 pm for a live national radio broadcast. Host Garrison Keillor takes audiences on a journey of his radio show memories, entrenched in his parents’ 1940’s Minnesota home with a floor-model Zenith radio, to his development of A Prairie Home Companion®, the celebrated nationwide broadcast radio show now traveling through the United States. Oscar™ Winner Robert Altman directed A Prairie Home Companion® motion picture, which was released to a phenomenal success in June 2006.
The Kimmel Center live performance of A Prairie Home Companion can be heard locally on WHYY-FM as well as on more than 550 radio stations nationwide with such segments as “The News from Lake Wobegon,” “Guy Noir, Private Eye,” and surprise local and national guest performers.
This is the ninth performance in the Verizon World Pop Mix. Upcoming events include Jerry Blavat’s Musical Extravaganza featuring 2007 Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Ronnie Spector in Verizon Hall on Sunday, January 28, 2007 at 7:30pm, and Soweto Gospel Choir in Verizon Hall on Sunday, February 25, 2007 at 7:30pm.
Tickets for A Prairie Home Companion® on Saturday January 27, 2007 are priced at $72, $65, $50, $40, $30 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office, open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-893-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for every Kimmel Center Presents performance at the Kimmel Center. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office beginning 2.5 hours prior to curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Now in its 32nd year of production, A Prairie Home Companion® broadcasts live on Saturday nights, and is heard by over four million listeners each week on over 558 public radio stations. The radio show not only includes music, but also comedy sketches and host Garrison Keillor’s signature monologue, “The News From Lake Wobegon.” The first live broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion® was July 6, 1974 at the Janet Wallace Auditorium at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Tickets to the event were priced at $1 for adults and 50 cents for children, and with an audience of 12, approximately $8 was collected.
Within the first 10 years, A Prairie Home Companion® held 477 live shows. On March 4, 1978, A Prairie Home Companion® moved into the World Theater in St. Paul, now renovated and known as the Fitzgerald Theater, where the show presently resides. The production ran for another 13 years, when it took a two year hiatus, before reopening in New York City at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1989 as The American Radio Company of the Air. During this time, the show grew with over 200 radio stations carrying the show. In 1992, the show returned to Minnesota and in 1993 resumed using the name A Prairie Home Companion®. Today, A Prairie Home Companion® is heard by over four million listeners on over 508 public radio stations, as well as on America One and the Armed Forces Network in Europe.
Garrison Keillor, the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion® was born in Anoka, Minnesota in 1942. He graduated from the University of Minnesota where he began his broadcasting career on the student run radio station. In 1969, he began work for Minnesota Public Radio on the 6-9am shift where A Prairie Home Companion® was born. It was only after completing an article on “The Grand Ole Opry” for the New Yorker, that Keillor had the idea for a live show with musical guests. Keillor still hosts the show, and gives his “News from Lake Wobegon” monologue both at home in St. Paul and on the road. He is a published author with over 12 books and articles in The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly. Today, he is a member for the Academy of Arts & Letters.
As a Free in the Plaza event, Waking Up Tillie will perform on the Commonwealth Plaza stage on Saturday, January 27 at 3:30pm prior to the sold-out Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion® live broadcast in Verizon Hall. Waking Up Tillie features three award-winning old-time singers and musicians notorious for their soaring two- and three-part vocal harmonies and hot fiddle tunes. Randy Johnson (Fiddle), Pete Peterson (Banjo), and Kellie Allen (Guitar) love to get folks singing and shouting and up on their feet for a dance!
Kimmel Center Presents' 2006/2007 season is supported by: Mellon Financial Corporation, University of Pennsylvania Health System, National Endowment for the Arts, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, ARC Wheeler, The William Penn Foundation, Verizon Foundation, The Presser Foundation, Philadelphia Music Project and Dance Advance, Initiatives of The Pew Charitable Trust administered by The University of the Arts. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents. Toyota is the Official Vehicle of Kimmel Center Presents Jazz and World Pop programming. NBC-10 is a Media Partner for Kimmel Center Presents. The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com are media sponsors for the Great Orchestras on Tour series.
KIMMEL CENTER PRESENTS
Saturday, January 27, 2007 | 5:45pm
Verizon Hall
A Prairie Home Companion®
Garrison Keillor, Host
The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band
Richard Dworsky, music director
Pat Donohue, guitar
Gary Raynor, bass
Arnie Kinsella, percussion
Tim Russsell, actor
Sue Scott, actor
Fred Newman, sound effects
*******
FREE AT THE KIMMEL EVENT
Saturday, January 27, 2007 | 3:30pm
Commonwealth Plaza
Waking Up Tillie
Waking Up Tillie features three award-winning old-time singers and musicians. Already notorious for their soaring two- and three-part vocal harmonies and hot fiddle tunes, Randy Johnson (Fiddle), Pete Peterson (Banjo), and Kellie Allen (Guitar) love to get folks singing and shouting and up on their feet for a dance! Prior to the sold-out Garrison Keillor A Prairie Home Companion® broadcast in Verizon Hall.
OTHER FREE AT THE KIMMEL EVENTS
Sunday, January 28, 2007 | 6pm and post-show
Commonwealth Plaza
Geator Dance Parties
Dance the night away before and after the ticketed Jerry Blavat concert in Verizon Hall.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007 | 6pm
Commonwealth Plaza
Grande Winds
Temple students Maureen Ong (flute), Erin Svoboda (clarinet), and Natalya Rose Vrbsky (bassoon) will perform a medley of woodwind sounds.
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