New Guthrie Theater leader Joe Haj has been listening to voices of Minnesota

Star Tribune: Joe Haj is getting familiar with Minnesota’s winding roads.

In an endeavor that is rare for a new arts leader, Haj is exercising his knack for using theater to bring communities together and to reinscribe the Guthrie Theater’s importance as Minnesota’s flagship playhouse.

Since he became the Guthrie’s artistic director in July, Haj has logged hundreds of miles crisscrossing the state — from Duluth to Rochester, Mankato to Winona.

“I have this tremendous responsibility to take good care of the Guthrie,” he said at a recent event in Northfield. “My task is not to [mess] it up.”