Theater

The chair of the National Endowment for the Arts dropped what might be considered a bombshell to theater-lovers during a private site visit to the St. Paul’s History Theatre on Friday.

“I’m wondering if there are too many theaters,” Rocco Landesman said in a Q&A session with the press.

“If there were fewer theaters, they’d have the resources to pay their artists more,” he explained.

What: “Roman Holiday”

When: Now through August 19

Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2^nd St.

Cost: $35-80

Run time: 2 hours and 35 minutes including intermission

WHAT: The War Within/All’s Fair

WHERE: The Southern Theater, 1420 S. Washington Ave.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Sunday, June 7-June 10

COST: $28 (two for $28 for students)

They say war is hell. On the stage at The Southern Theater, the war certainly is hellish and uncomfortable, but it’s also bizarre and laugh-out-loud funny.

Anyone who has attended elementary school since the mid-’90s has probably had “The Giver” assigned as homework. Whether or not they actually read it depends on their level of academic prowess.

But whether you read it or not, the Newbery Medal winning story of a dystopian future society intentionally devoid of emotion and a boy’s journey out of it was, and is, a ubiquitous one for anyone in their later grade school years.

“Time Stands Still” was written by a man who teaches at Yale in his free time — when he’s not winning the Pulitzer Prize. Understandably, the main characters are hyper intelligent to the point of snobbery, and based on the audience’s response to jokes, there were more than a few mental heavyweights in the crowd as well.