State Theatre Presents Garrison Keillor

Best-selling author, consummate story teller, and radio personality Garrison Keillor will share his renowned wit and wisdom at New Brunswick's State Theatre on Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 8pm. The lecture is part of the State Theatre's winter festival, Hub City Carnivale, three weeks of performances, activities, and attractions for children 1-100 sponsored by PSE&G. Ticket prices for Garrison Keillor range from $30-60 (group, college student, and senior discounts available).

Keillor is the host and writer of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer's Almanac heard on public radio stations across the country. Keillor is also the author of more than a dozen books, including Lake Wobegon Days, The Book of Guys, Love Me, and Homegrown Democrat. A humorist whose name is synonymous with public radio and casual Mid-western charm, Keillor is a frequent contributor to Time magazine, and the online magazine, Salon.

Born in 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota, Keillor began his radio career as a freshman at the University of Minnesota, from which he graduated in 1966. He went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969 and on July 6, 1974, he hosted the first broadcast of,A Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul. The show ended in 1987, resumed in 1989 in New York as The American Radio Company, returned to Minnesota, and in 1993 resumed the name A Prairie Home Companion. Over three million listeners on more than 450 public radio stations now hear the show each week.

Keillor's most recent role included playing himself in Robert Altman's 2006 movie adaptation of his show, A Prairie Home Companion. The movie features Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin as the singing Johnson sisters, Lindsay Lohan as Streep's daughter, Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly as singing cowboys Lefty and Dusty, and Tommy Lee Jones as the Axman, who is dispatched by the radio station's new corporate owners in Texas to shut down the show.

Keillor has received numerous awards, including a Grammy® Award for his recording of Lake Wobegon Days. He has also received two Cable ACE Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and recently was presented with a National Humanities Medal by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1994, he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications.

For tickets (or a brochure), call the State Theatre box office at 732-246-SHOW (7469), or visit us online at www.StateTheatreNJ.org for a complete Hub City Carnivale schedule and ticket information. The State Theatre box office, located at 15 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick NJ, is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 10am to 6pm; Wednesday 11am to 7pm and at least one hour prior to curtain on performance dates (summer hours may vary). -- www.statetheatrenj.org