Minnesota Public Radio, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Public Insight Network present SCIENCE NIGHT MINNESOTA - MISSION TO MARS at The Fitzgerald Theater on Tuesday, May 21st, at 7:00 p.m. Space geeks of Minnesota unite! John Grotzinger, the head of NASA’s Mars Curiosity mission, is coming to Saint Paul to share the latest research and a behind the scenes look at the red planet’s robot rover. The Daily Circuit’s Tom Weber will ask Grotzinger about new discoveries, the potential for the building blocks of life on Mars, and how it felt when Curiosity touched down after the so-called seven minutes of terror. They’ll be joined by Boing Boing science editor Maggie Koerth-Baker, who’ll help explore the world of space and scientific discovery.

John Grotzinger is the chief scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory rover mission, which riveted the country with its daredevil landing in August 2012. A geologist, his work focuses on the chemical and physical interactions between life and the environment. With the hypothesis that the early history of the red planet is similar to that of the Earth, Grotzinger hopes to gain more understanding of Earth’s evolution through the study of Mars.

Science Night Minnesota is your chance to learn a little something during a night on the town. You’ll hear music from Curiosity’s playlist, be able to enjoy a beverage, and have the chance to interact with the show and the audience via Twitter. You can also join MPR’s Public Insight Network for a chance to meet Grotzinger after the show.

This event is SOLD OUT.

The Fitzgerald Theater is hosting three Minnesota Meeting events as part of The Minneapolis Foundation’s “RESET Education” public awareness campaign. Featured speakers include Grammy award winner and education reform advocate John Legend, school principal and CNN contributor Dr. Steve Perry, and Minnesota native and graduate school Dean Mayme Hostetter. The events will focus on what’s working in schools around the country to close the achievement gap, exploring principles and practices of strong leadership, effective teaching and bold expectations.

On Wednesday, May 22nd, at 7:00 p.m. RESET Education presents: An Evening with John Legend. In addition to recording platinum R&B albums and performing worldwide, nine-time Grammy® Award winner John Legend is an outspoken proponent for improving the quality of and access to American education. He considers delivering a high-quality education to all of our children to be the predominant civil rights issue of our time. Over the course of this hour, Legend will share his views on the importance of effective teaching and strong school leadership, and his experiences working with high-poverty schools that are getting great results for kids. Legend will take questions from the audience and will close the evening by performing a few songs.

John Legend is an R&B singer celebrated around the world. In addition to his outstanding artistic achievements, Mr. Legend has received numerous awards and accolades for his humanitarian work, including being named as one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people. He serves on the boards of Teach for America, Stand for Children and the Harlem Village Academies and in 2007 launched the Show Me Campaign (ShowMeCampaign.org), an initiative that uses education to break the cycle of poverty. Mr. Legend also supports international development and relief, and efforts to develop the next generation of minority business leaders, among other initiatives. Mr. Legend has had a string of Top 10 platinum-selling albums and has collaborated with and written for other top artists including Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Kanye West, and The Roots. In 2012, Mr. Legend released the hit single, "Tonight (Best You Ever Had)," which spent six consecutive weeks at the top of the Urban AC radio chart. Mr. Legend has just completed work on his forthcoming album Love in the Future; the album - executive produced by Kanye West and Dave Tozer - will be released in June of this year.

Packages are available for $75.00 for tickets to all three events. Single tickets to this event are $40.00.

Wits™ is a new weekly national public radio show from American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio that brings world-class comedians, actors and musicians to the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater, where host John Moe gives them and the audience the time of their lives.

You might know Colin Hanks from his roles in TV’s Roswell, Dexter, Mad Men and films like The Guilt Trip, Orange County, King Kong and The House Bunny. Colin is currently directing a documentary about Tower Records and can be seen in the upcoming film Parkland.

Muscle Shoals, Alabama, native Jason Isbell has been honing his much touted songwriting craft for several years now. Jason has released three studio albums and a live album all highlighting his Southern roots, effortlessly smooth and impressive guitar tone and style, and classic songwriting.

Acclaimed singer, songwriter and performer Har Mar Superstar (aka Sean Tillmann) named his flamboyant alter ego after the Har Mar mall in suburban St. Paul, Minn., where he spent his youth watching movies and writing songs about passersby in the food court. "Har Mar Superstar used to be a different person," he says. "It used to be my excuse to get away with the more fantastic things in life. ... I guess the confidence I got from being Har Mar Superstar translated into my real life, so now we're one and the same."

Show starts at 8:00 p.m., but the party starts early. Come at 7:00 for the tweet-up happy hour. Drinks are half-price until 7:30. A Current DJ will be spinning tunes, barter box bargainers will be ready to make an unexpected trade, and we'll have Twitter tutors helping out anyone who needs a little digital support.

Reserved Main Floor single tickets are $42.00 and Reserved Main Floor Season Packages (purchase seats to 5 or more shows) are $37.00 per ticket. General Admission Balconies single tickets are $32.00 and General Admission Season Packages (purchase seats to 5 or more shows) are $27.00 per ticket.

Wits™ is a new weekly national public radio show from American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio that brings world-class comedians, actors and musicians to the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater, where host John Moe gives them and the audience the time of their lives.

Hannibal Buress has made prime-time appearances on Louie and on 30 Rock, and he’s worked as a writer for 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live. Chris Rock says Hannibal is “the funniest young comic [he’s] seen in years.” Hannibal released his debut comedy album, My Name Is Hannibal, in 2010. His latest Comedy Central special is Hannibal Buress: Animal Furnace.

The LA Times calls Open Mike Eagle “one of LA’s smartest young voices.” He has released three albums and has collaborated with P.O.S. and MC Paul Barman. Mike has also bridged rap and comedy, rapping at shows by some of our favorite comedians, including Paul F. Tompkins and Hannibal Buress.

P.O.S., aka Stefon Alexander, is a co-founder of the Minneapolis hip hop collective Doomtree, a punk philosopher and a lyrical bomb-thrower. He has four albums to date: Ipecac Neat (2004), Audition (2006), Never Better (2009) and We Don’t Even Live Here (2012). Stefon hosts a new show on 89.3 The Current, called P.O.S. is Ruining The Current, which airs Saturdays at 11 p.m. He'll make a special two-song appearance on Wits.

Show starts at 8:00 p.m., but the party starts early. Come at 7:00 for the tweet-up happy hour. Drinks are half-price until 7:30. A Current DJ will be spinning tunes, barter box bargainers will be ready to make an unexpected trade, and we'll have Twitter tutors helping out anyone who needs a little digital support.

Reserved Main Floor single tickets are $42.00 and Reserved Main Floor Season Packages (purchase seats to 5 or more shows) are $37.00 per ticket. General Admission Balconies single tickets are $32.00 and General Admission Season Packages (purchase seats to 5 or more shows) are $27.00 per ticket.

Wits™ is a new weekly national public radio show from American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio that brings world-class comedians, actors and musicians to the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater, where host John Moe gives them and the audience the time of their lives.

David Koechner, an alumnus of Chicago’s Second City Theater, got his first break as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, and since has become an instantly recognizable face appearing in more than 100 film and television productions. He is best known as Champ Kind from Anchorman and as Todd Packer on NBC’s The Office.

Metric are Emily Haines, Jimmy Shaw (and Joshua Winstead and Joules Scott Key, unable to attend this evening). An independent and innovative rock band, Metric self-released their last two albums, including 2012’s Synthetica, which was listed in Spin magazine’s Top 50 Albums of 2012. With “Help I’m Alive” from 2009’s Fantasies, Metric became the first artist to achieve their first-ever top-20 hit on U.S. commercial radio without the backing of a traditional l abel. The group has earned Grammy nominations for their score work on the films Twilight: Eclipse and Cronenberg's Cosmopolis.

Show starts at 8:00 p.m., but the party starts early. Come at 7:00 for the tweet-up happy hour. Drinks are half-price until 7:30. A Current DJ will be spinning tunes, barter box bargainers will be ready to make an unexpected trade, and we'll have Twitter tutors helping out anyone who needs a little digital support.

Reserved Main Floor single tickets are $42.00 and Reserved Main Floor Season Packages (purchase seats to 5 or more shows) are $37.00 per ticket. General Admission Balconies single tickets are $32.00 and General Admission Season Packages (purchase seats to 5 or more shows) are $27.00 per ticket.

The Fitzgerald Theater is hosting three Minnesota Meeting events as part of The Minneapolis Foundation’s “RESET Education” public awareness campaign. Featured speakers include Grammy award winner and education reform advocate John Legend, school principal and CNN contributor Dr. Steve Perry, and Minnesota native and graduate school Dean Mayme Hostetter. The events will focus on what’s working in schools around the country to close the achievement gap, exploring principles and practices of strong leadership, effective teaching and bold expectations.

On Monday, June 17th, at 7:00p.m., Mayme Hostetter will lead a discussion on the craft of teaching, sharing her experiences as both an educator and a trainer of teachers. This event will highlight current teaching techniques and, through panel discussion and audience Q&A, explore the thinking of Minnesota teachers and students about how to get the best results in the classroom.

Mayme Hostetter is Dean of the Relay Graduate School of Education in New York City, which trains teachers in the most effective instructional techniques and shares those same proven strategies with other district and charter schools seeking to close the achievement gap. Mayme previously taught 8th grade English in the South Bronx (where she also started several school sports teams). Her students scored in the top 10% of New York City students for English and the vast majority of those students are now in college. She has also been a fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and researched reading development and disabilities at MIT. She began her teaching career at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. Mayme is a native Minnesotan.

Packages are available for $75.00 for tickets to all three events. Single tickets to this event are $25.00.

Sue McLean and Associates present the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Fitzgerald Theater on Wednesday, June 19th at 7:30 p.m. Tedeschi Trucks Band, the 11-piece ensemble led by husband-wife team Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, have proven themselves one of the hottest, most uplifting acts on the road today. Formed in 2010 when Derek and Susan decided to set aside their successful solo careers and join forces, Tedeschi Trucks Band has since been touring the globe - and accruing fans and accolades in the process. Fronted by Trucks' signature slide-guitar sound and Tedeschi's pliant, honey-to-husk voice, TTB -- as their fans know them -- delivers a hearty roots-rich musical mix with the power to renew faith in live music. The band is currently touring in advance of the release of their second studio album, slated for release in late summer. Their debut album, Revelator, was praised as a 4-star masterpiece by Rolling Stone and won a GRAMMY for Best Blues Album of the Year.

Tickets go on sale on Friday, May 3rd at noon. Tickets are available fo $75.00 and $59.00. A $2.50 facility fee will be added to the price of each ticket.

89.3 The Current presents Dessa at the Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, June 22nd at 8:00p.m. This special show will celebrate the record release of Parts of Speech Dessa's eagerly anticipated follow up to A Badly Broken Code and Castor, the Twin. Doomtree Records will release the album on June 25th; Dessa will perform two release shows to present the new material. The Current Sessions at the Fitz series will be the first of these two (different second show at First Avenue on June 29th). On June 22nd, she'll stage a dramatic show at the Fitzgerald Theater, where fans will have the chance to pick up a copy of the new record before it becomes available in stores. She'll be joined by her touring ensemble (Dustin Kiel, Sean McPherson, Joey Van Phillips, Aby Wolf) and some special guests including cellists Becca Arons (MN Opera) and Nick Takénobu Ogawa (Atlanta).

Dessa is an inveterate wordsmith—having proved her mettle in the fields of creative non-fiction, spoken-word and hip-hop—and she jettisons all genre expectations with her new album, Parts of Speech. Dessa's performance at the Fitzgerald will take advantage of the venue's elegance, ambiance and theatrical resources to put on a show that crosses genres and disciplines. Dessa has honed an ability to move her audiences very swiftly from laughter to a solemn hush; her June 22nd show to unveil Parts of Speech will showcase her dynamic range and unveil her best work to date. Dessa will be available for photos, signings and fan interaction in the Fitz lobby post-show.

This event is SOLD OUT.

The Current Sessions at the Fitz with Dessa is supported, in part, by the Legacy Amendment for Arts and Cultural Heritage.

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor kicks off its new season at the Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, September 14th at 4:45 p.m. Join Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home gang for two hours of live radio fun, followed by our annual Street Dance and Meatloaf Supper out on Exchange Street. This show's guest will be announced soon. A limited number of Rush Seats will go on sale on the day of the show at 4:00 p.m.

Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, July 30th at noon. Tickets are available for $48.00, $38.00, and $32.00. A $2.50 facility fee is included in the price of each ticket. There is a limit of 4 tickets per order. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a $2 discount. A limited number of rush tickets will be available on the day of the show at the Fitzgerald Theater Box Office, on a first-come, first-served basis. Patrons will collect a number at 2:00 p.m., then return with that number at 4:00 p.m. to purchase rush tickets. Limit 2 tickets per number. All rush tickets are $15.00 each, cash only.

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor continues its new season at the Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, September 21st at 4:45 p.m. Join Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home gang for two hours of live radio fun. This show's guest will be announced soon. A limited number of Rush Seats will go on sale on the day of the show at 4:00 p.m.

Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, July 30th at noon. Tickets are available for $48.00, $38.00, and $32.00. A $2.50 facility fee is included in the price of each ticket. There is a limit of 4 tickets per order. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a $2 discount. A limited number of rush tickets will be available on the day of the show at the Fitzgerald Theater Box Office, on a first-come, first-served basis. Patrons will collect a number at 2:00 p.m., then return with that number at 4:00 p.m. to purchase rush tickets. Limit 2 tickets per number. All rush tickets are $15.00 each, cash only.

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor continues its new season at the Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, September 28th at 4:45 p.m. Join Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home gang for two hours of live radio fun. This show's guest will be announced soon. A limited number of Rush Seats will go on sale on the day of the show at 4:00 p.m.

Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, July 30th at noon. Tickets are available for $48.00, $38.00, and $32.00. A $2.50 facility fee is included in the price of each ticket. There is a limit of 4 tickets per order. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a $2 discount. A limited number of rush tickets will be available on the day of the show at the Fitzgerald Theater Box Office, on a first-come, first-served basis. Patrons will collect a number at 2:00 p.m., then return with that number at 4:00 p.m. to purchase rush tickets. Limit 2 tickets per number. All rush tickets are $15.00 each, cash only.

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor continues its new season at the Fitzgerald Theater on Saturday, October 5th at 4:45 p.m. Join Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home gang for two hours of live radio fun. This show's guest will be announced soon. A limited number of Rush Seats will go on sale on the day of the show at 4:00 p.m.

Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, July 30th at noon. Tickets are available for $48.00, $38.00, and $32.00. A $2.50 facility fee is included in the price of each ticket. There is a limit of 4 tickets per order. Minnesota Public Radio members receive a $2 discount. A limited number of rush tickets will be available on the day of the show at the Fitzgerald Theater Box Office, on a first-come, first-served basis. Patrons will collect a number at 2:00 p.m., then return with that number at 4:00 p.m. to purchase rush tickets. Limit 2 tickets per number. All rush tickets are $15.00 each, cash only.