Guthrie Theater

HUMORIST KEVIN KLING RETURNS TO THE GUTHRIE
FOR ANNUAL HOLIDAY LAUGHS IN
TALES FROM THE CHARRED UNDERBELLY OF THE YULE LOG
ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 7 AT 7:30 P.M.

Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn book signing event to follow performance

(Minneapolis/St. Paul) The Guthrie today announced that the nationally celebrated humorist, actor and playwright Kevin Kling - on the heels of his performance in Interact Theater's sold-out Dowling Studio run of his international collaboration Northern Lights/Southern Cross: Tales from the Other Side of the World - will return to the Guthrie in his celebrated one-man show Tales from the Charred Underbelly of the Yule Log, spinning his hilarious yarn of family traditions and holiday merriment on Monday, December 7. Following the performance, Kling will greet fans and sign copies of his recently released book Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn, now available for purchase in the Guthrie Store. Single tickets are $23 (students/seniors) and $28 (adults) and are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at http://www.guthrietheater.org/.

Best known for his popular commentaries on National Public Radio's All Things Considered and his storytelling stage shows like Yule Log, Kling delivers hilarious, often tender stories, which have delighted audiences around the country. As a playwright, Kling has authored 21A, Home and Away, Fear and Loving in Minneapolis, The Ice Fishing Play, Lloyd's Prayer, in addition to his co-adaptations of Goldoni's The Venetian Twins and The Canterbury Tales for the Guthrie. In 2005, the Guthrie launched an eight-week regional tour of Kling's Freezing Paradise: An evening with Kevin Kling, which visited more than 20 Minnesota communities and performed in Iowa, Michigan, and North and South Dakota.

In addition to having released a number of compact disc collections of his stories, Kling's first book, The Dog Says How, brought readers into his wonderful world of the skewed and significant mundane. He does it again in Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn, a romp through a year of holidays and a lifetime of gathering material. A wiener dog with an amazing capacity for destruction impresses the whole family and contributes to their collection of favorite disastrous Christmas stories. A Choctaw and a nun go trick-or-treating on Halloween. A boy makes a frightening decision every year when he chooses which classmate gets the "Be Mine" Valentine. Kevin takes his mom to a Fourth of July demolition derby-and then he takes an epic trip around the bases at a ball game on Memorial Day. From tomfoolery with his brother in the backseat of their dad's car through his carefully considered instructions for ice fishing, Kling never loses the spirit of his story or holds back on its humor.

Kling describes his zodiac sign as "Minnesota with Iowa rising..." He grew up in Osseo, a Minneapolis suburb, and graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater. His storytelling started when a friend from the now defunct Brass Tacks Theatre asked him to perform his stories. Since then, he has been awarded numerous arts grants and fellowships. The National Endowment for the Arts, The McKnight Foundation, The Minnesota State Arts Board, The Bush Foundation, The Jerome Foundation and others have recognized Kling's artistry.

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