Volunteering at Doors Open

Sunday, May 19, 2024

My friend, Carla, and I decided to volunteer at Doors Open, because I thought it was such a great opportunity for people to explore their community when Keith and I went last year. We said we would go to any location, and we were assigned to The Capri Theater in north Minneapolis. Keith rented the Capri about ten years ago for a very good Metro Brass concert. At the time, they said they were going to be remodeling and adding on. When I hear that, I just think that that will take a long time and may never happen.

Well, it happened. They put a beautiful addition on, including a black box space, a workshop for set building, a commercial kitchen, and a room for costume making. There is a dance studio upstairs that is exactly the same size as the stage, so people planning a performance can block/practice things without having to be on stage. There is an amazing teen lab upstairs as well, with podcast, recording, and video recording equipment. They do middle school camps with art and performance during the summer. All the kid stuff is free for the kids, with registration. Fifty people came today (we were only there in the afternoon), which isn’t nearly as many as were in the line before the Star Tribune even opened this morning, but I think it is even more of a win, because NONE of the people who came knew about all the programs the Capri has or had seen the theater before (claim to fame: Prince performed his first ever concert there).

Carla and I had time to go to the Pillsbury Urban Garden (they do a meal program at the church next door and use the produce in house; they also help expand the Horticulture Society “Garden in a Box” program). The main organizer was extremely charming and knowledgeable and was really excited that Carla volunteers with the Horticulture Society.

We also stopped at the Plymouth Avenue Art Society – a place that does art classes, after school art, and rental artist space. Literally next door, the Homewood Studios has a graffiti art program, as well as artist spaces. The art on the walls was beautiful. We go to try our hand at spray painting art with stencils. I have always been interested in graffiti – some of it is beautiful, but nearly all of it confounds me as to how someone got to that spot to paint…with spray paint. We each made a picture and it was GREAT fun, but neither of us managed a masterpiece. The teenager who was helping us definitely thought we were insane, because we attacked the project with gusto and delight.

We met Kathryn, the volunteer, who moved to Minneapolis from Kalamazoo ten months ago to make a fresh start. She brought her WFH job with her and is really glad she did. She has six friends, has had no luck dating, loves her Loring Park neighborhood, and is sad we didn’t get more snow this winter.

On a separate note, Sophie and Colby have both been busy licking all the plastic bags in the house – and post travels there were quite a few ziploc bags around. Today, I heard a tiny crunching sound in the hall bathroom while getting ready to go this morning. I peeked in the shower and Sophie was busily biting the shower curtain. Oooooh plastic! You know we are crazy cat people when my first thought was to just leave her alone to enjoy her chomping, but I did entice her out and close the door. Mean old gramma.

Keith played a chamber orchestra concert this afternoon in Eau Claire. I suggested when I left at 10am that he go out and pull a few thistles. Yesterday when we pooled was my first trip to the backyard in 2024 and I saw the massive amount of weeding that needs to be done. That is the problem when you are busy or gone in early May. The thistles were raging out of control. There were some over two feet high. He dug into the suggestion and pulled 311 thistles and started the first use of the new Monster Yard bag. Woohoo!