A Crash Course In Fringing

They have a class in that? I can get credit for that?

Indeed you can.

This year, the University of Minnesota is trying out a Compleat Scholar course in the Fringe Festival and how to do the Fringe.

This evening, the class will be treated to Leah Cooper, Executive Director of the Fringe Festival, and the most eloquent and fun public speaker who exists on all thing Fringey.

On Saturday, the class has a schedule of back to back Fringe shows all afternoon and evening:

1:00pm - Women! Live on Stage! at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage - gotta have a new play & a local/feminist theatre

2:30pm - The Funeral Director's Wife at Illusion Theatre - gotta have a solo show

4:00pm - Whoppers at the Woman's Club of Minneapolis (click on the title for their Fringe page and click here for my writeup of this show) - gotta have some Kevin Kling

5:30pm - dinner break, but if you want extra credit, their instructor has suggested they try Sherlock Holmes: Murder at the Abbey Grange at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage - another local playwright and theatre

7:00pm - back on schedule for all with Tasteless at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage - gotta have some nudity

8:30pm - they round out their evening with my play, Dandelion Snow at the MCTC Whitney Mainstage - gotta have a gay play

Now, after that, the instructor hasn't scheduled anything required, but for extra, extra credit, might I suggest going all the way and catching a 10:00pm show. Here are some that I was considering for my own schedule at 10:00pm on Saturday:

Vision's Tale: Curse of the Machine/Cycles of Social Haunting/Birth of Vision at CalibanCo Theatre (click on the title for their Fringe page and click here for my writeup of this show) - sci-fi from a combo of out of towners and a local boy returned home to Minneapolis

Assassins at Minneapolis Theatre Garage - a Sondheim musical about presidential assassins (successful and failed) - see, history - educational (click on the title for their Fringe page and click here for my writeup of this show)

MacBlank at Hennepin Stages [formerly Hey City] upstairs (click on the title for their Fringe page and click here for my writeup of this show) - a modern twist on Shakespeare

Jack & Ben's 10th Annual Bar Crawl and Moveable Feast at Brave New Workshop Theatre (click on the title for their Fringe page and click here for my writeup of this show) - soon to be yet another wildly popular and funny Scrimshaw show from brother Joseph?

Dix at the Woman's Club of Minneapolis (its second and final performance) (click on the title for their Fringe page and click here for my writeup of this show) - out of towners with a fascinating play, and sadly, scheduling challenges - you could be among the only in your class to catch such a thing

and then really cap off your evening with a vanishing Fringe tradition at 11:20pm

Look Ma, No Pants: The Last One at the Loring Playhouse (click on the title for their Fringe page and click here for my writeup of this show) - what's the Fringe if you don't take off your pants and watch a show in your underwear? (just make sure you put on a clean pair before you go)

Hey, if you're gonna Fringe Binge, you might as well go all the way.

Then next Wednesday, it's that performing monkey time I spoke of a day or so ago, where I and fellow playwright and friend Anne Bertram (of Women Live On Stage!) join instructor Roy Close for a free-form discussion of the backstage triumphs, tragedies, and of course gossip, about putting together a Fringe show.

The Fringe - it's not just entertaining, it's educational.

(For more of my writing - plays, past blog entries and more - visit www.matthewaeverett.com)