We have bunch of mirror images in the Fringe this year for some reason. As an example, here’s another two-fer, built around the idea of directing.
One has the same director for every performance, but a different script and a different cast, all working together to create a scene on the spot through the collaborative director/actor relationship.
One has the same two actors for every performance, but a different director each time, and it’s all built off of improvisation.
In both instances, it will be wildly different for every performance, but one is digging into the guts of the creative rehearsal process, and the other is just taking random suggestions and creating a play out of thin air.
In both cases, it could end up being great, or a train wreck, or a combination of the two. (Live theater!)
I find both ideas fascinating, so I’m recommending them both. Your own level of interest and entertainment may vary, as is true with this entire list of suggestions…
#10A – Director’s Cut: Where Play Becomes Magic
Deconstructing Directing (Andrew Roblyer)
Venue: Rarig Arena
Show Description:
Director's Cut pulls back the curtain on live theatre with bold choices, raw moments, and real-time directing.
See the sparks fly as scenes transform before your eyes.
No script is safe!
A Visionary Director
A Dynamo Cast
A Scene Picked By You
One Hour To Make It Unforgettable
It’s not improv. It’s not a play. It’s something else.
Improv is made up on the spot. We start with a real script (chosen by the audience), then break it apart, rebuild it, and find something new.
A director. A cast. A single scene.
Cut. Rework. Blow it up. Try again. Brilliant or disastrous? You decide. Every night, a different show. No do-overs.
It’s theatre on the operating table - mid-surgery.
You think you know how theatre is made? Think again.
This isn’t a rehearsal. This is the art of directing, unleashed.
Director’s Cut is raw, high-stakes theatre in real time.
Watch a director and cast rip apart a real script and rebuild it live: bold choices, wild risks, no safety net.
Each night is a one-of-a-kind dive into the creative chaos behind the scenes.
Genre & Content:
Comedy, Drama, Improv, Storytelling, Audience Participation
Warnings: Adult Language
For a bit more context:
Produced by Deconstructing Directing, a free resource for artists and educators in community and educational theatre.
This is the rehearsal room like you’ve never seen it before.
Deconstructing Directing was launched in 2024 by Andrew Roblyer, a queer, nonbinary, and neurodivergent storyteller and theatre artist based in Houston, TX. Andrew first began acting in 1995 and (if you don’t count the neighborhood “play” he organized in second grade) began directing, coaching, and teaching in 2005. Over the years Andrew has developed a penchant for creating new theatrical opportunities and organizations that are based in accessibility, kindness, and innovation. Andrew has produced, directed, and/or designed for over 50 full-length shows, including musicals, plays, and immersive theatre, covering almost every staging configuration possible, casts ranging in size from 1 to 50+, and budgets ranging from $0 to over $35,000.
#10B – Final Dress
MDV Productions
Created by Michael DallaValle & Sean Dillon
Venue: Open Eye Theatre
Show Description:
"Actors" Sean and Michael are opening their show tomorrow. Tonight is their final dress rehearsal, under the skillful directorial eye of a TC legend. Surely nothing will go wrong. Absolutely nothing. *improv
Final Dress is a completely improvised play, based on the vision of our guest director.
Each show will feature a guest director, who will give us the name of a fake play they wrote and will be directing.
Sean Dillon and Michael DallaValle will act out this play, with the director interrupting them (and the actors interrupting each other) with notes and criticism, so we can do the scene "correctly".
The show photo has a number of post-its on it, some saying:
Guys – wtf, new headshots PLEASE??
You hired 5 directors??? Are you out of your minds??
Those five directors are, in order of listed performance:
Shanan Custer, Isabella Dunsieth, John Heimbuch, Mike Fotis, and Duck Washington.
Genre & Content: Comedy, Improv
Warnings: Adult Language, Crude Humor
Michael DallaValle, among other things, teaches and serves as Education Director at Strike Theater.
Sean Dillon, among other things, is the founder of Oncoming Productions, co-founder of the Improv Movement Project, co-director of Off Book (which is a lot of fun, I’ve had a couple of scenes from plays of mine used as part of it in the past), and on the Board of the Twin Cities Horror Festival.
So these guys know their improv, and theater in general.
If you’re looking for a pair to pull off something as nutty as this, I’d go with these two.
And their guest directors are all people I’d love to watch doing this, so any performance will also be a winner on that score.
So, directing and “directing.”
Scripts and script-less.
I’m am, unsurprisingly, a huge theater nerd, so shows like this are fun for me from whichever angle they choose to tackle it.
Here’s some handy links to my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, as well as all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.
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