Fringe Archive - 2004 - Community

Some posts related in tangential ways to the 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival during the time I was covering it include the following...

Support Your Local Theater Hosts

Theater by Women, Stories for Everyone

Audience Reviews

Best of the Fringe? - a little post festival gossip pops up in an unexpected place...

Fringe Archive - 2004 - My pre-Fringe Top 10

If You Held A Gun To My Head...

...or, if I could only see ten Fringe shows, what would they be and why?

A complete rundown on all ten, which are...

1. Chamleon Theatre Circle - Death Penalty Puppetry

2. Claire Simonson - The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

3. The Mayasphere Project - Metamorphoses

4. Brown Bee Productions - Philosophy: The Music of Ben Folds

5. Aspect I Studios - The Judas Cradle

6. Theatre Latte Da - Knock!

7. Ammala Dance & Music - On The Beaded Fringe 2: Traveling In Hip Circles

8. Five Man Job - Improv A Go-Go: Deathmatch

9. Tim Uren - 10,000 Comic Books

10. The Artsy Guy - Patrick and James: A Love Story


Plus a list of the shows that would be next in line, including...

1. Ari Hoptman - Delware and Other Lies

2. Ferrari McSpeedy - Punk Rock Awesome

3. Outward Spiral Theatre - The Valets

4. Tom Cassidy - Osama Kincaid, Painter of Terror

5. Skewed Visions - Pipes

6. Maximum Verbosity - Lokasena

7. Gaydar Productions - EAT! A Generous Buffet of the Karen Carpenter Songbook

8. Teatro del Pueblo - Tequila

9. Infinity Star Productions - VISION'S TALE: Curse of the Machine / Cycles of Social Haunting / Birth of Vision

10. Big Empty Barn Productions - Whiskey Bars

11. Heidi Arneson - The Queen of Block E

12. The Scrimshaw Brothers - Look Ma, No Pants, The Last One

13. Joseph Scrimshaw - Jack and Ben's 10th Annual Bar Crawl and Moveable Feast

14. Anne Dimmock - The Swimmer

15. Illusion Theatre/Brent Doyle - Six Steps Part Deux

16. Unitard - KBYE Now News Hour

17. Two Time Theatre Company - A Superhero Story

Plus some Hidden Gems, shows that might not be on your radar but should be, including...

1. Topsy-Turvy Theatre - Mary Kelley Sunshine Box

2. Terra Icognita - Dix

3. Inept Productions - This Love Train Is Unstoppable and I Am the Conductor

4. Illusion Theatre - Funeral Director's Wife

5. Alan Berks - Goats

6. Walking Shadow - Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen

7. Lost In The Cove Productions - Sonata Blue

8. Rough Magic Performance Company - Spoonface Steinberg

And a Guilty Pleasure I probably shouldn't be attracted to, but can't help myself...

U Betcha! eX-posed! - Hamel Road Theatre Project

Also, there were some welcome returnees from the 2003 pre-Fringe Top 10 list, including Mom, and the early buzz on these sure things...

Plants and Animals - Scot Augustson of Seattle, WA

In Defense of Sin (My Friends' Best Stories) - Ministry of Cultural Warfare

Whoppers - Kevin Kling

Fringe Archive - 2004 - Life of a Blogger (and Mom)...

The 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival was a weird one for me because in addition to the usual blogging work, I also had a play of mine being produced (Dandelion Snow), and was helping to produce a two-slot showcase of short plays called Fast Fringe. Juggling all that made for an interesting Fringe experience...

Minnesota Fringe Festival - A Love Story

Early Buzz - Honorable Mentions - since I wrote Dandelion Snow, and was producing Fast Fringe 1 and 2, I didn't feel right putting them in my Top 10 list for the whole festival, but of course I needed to mention them...

Dandelion Snow - The Readthrough

Dandelion Snow - The Interview

The Next Generation

Brush Up Your Shakespeare

Sax and Violins Revisited

Live Nude Fringe Revisited

Dandelion Snow - the first week of rehearsals

The Fringe's Bitch

I Feel A Song Coming On

Dandelion Snow in Lavender Magazine

Random Suggestions

The Amazing Fringe Race

A Crash Course In Fringing

Fast Fringe in the Wall Street Journal

Save These Shows From Their Titles

To All The Shows I've Loved Before

Fringe Time Management and Other Stories

Stuck In Traffic

Out of Order

4-1/2 Reasons I'm Seeing The 7 Project

Dandelion Snow - The Review

Piece of Sh*t

Number Crunching

Fringe Archive - 2004 - Fringe Snapshots

Since I can't type all day and see theater at the same time, here are some quick and dirty overviews of some of my Fringe days as they went flying by...

For some reason, Days 1 and 3 didn't get a snapshot. Hmmmm...

Day 2

Day 4

Day 5

Half-Way Point Summary

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Fringe Archive - 2004 - 5 Stars - Life-Altering Experience

Productions in the 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival that I rated...

5 Stars - Life-Altering Experience

Death Penalty Puppetry - Chameleon Theatre Circle

Jack and Ben’s 10th Annual Bar Crawl and Moveable Feast - Joseph Scrimshaw

Knock! - Theater Latte Da

The Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen - Walking Shadow

Look Ma, No Pants - The Last One - The Scrimshaw Brothers

The Origin of Consciouness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind - Claire Simonson

Philosophy - The Music of Ben Folds - went back a second time - Brown Bee Productions

Pipes - Skewed Visions

Plants and Animals - went back to see it a second time - Der Stamen Spielers

Punk Rock Awesome - Ferrari McSpeedy

Fringe Archive - 2004 - 4-1/2 Stars - Damn Near Perfect

Productions in the 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival that I rated...

4-1/2 Stars - Damn Near Perfect

Before Dark - Live Action Set

This Love Train Is Unstoppable and I Am The Conductor - Inept Productions

Metamorphoses - The Mayasphere Project

Osama Kincaid, Painter of Terrorism - Tom Cassidy

Patrick and James: A Love Story - went back and saw it a second time - The Artsy Guy

Vision’s Tale: Curse of the Machine/Cycles of Social Haunting/Birth of Vision - Infinity Star Productions

Whiskey Bars - Big Empty Barn Productions

Fringe Archive - 2004 - 4 Stars - Excellent

Productions in the 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival that I rated...

4 Stars - Excellent

10,000 Comic Books - Tim Uren

Feeling Faust - CalibanCo Theatre

From The Diary of Virginia Woolf - Nautilus Music-Theater

Goats - Alan Berks

ImprovAGoGo - Deathmatch - Five Man Job

In Defense of Sin (My Friends’ Best Stories) - Ministry of Cultural Warfare

John and Jen: Part One - Nautilus Music-Theater

Murderers - Illusion Theatre

The Swimmer - Anne Dimock

Women! Live On Stage! - Theatre Unbound

Fringe Archive - 2004 - 3-1/2 Stars - Good Job Plus

Productions in the 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival that I rated...

3-1/2 Stars - Good Job Plus

Agog - Spoken Word Productions

Dix - Terra Icognita

The Judas Cradle - Aspect I Studios

Lokasenna - Maximum Verbosity

Mary Kelly Sunshine Box - Topsy-Turvy Theater

Six Steps Part Deux - Illusion Theater

The 7 Project - Red Dilemma

U Betcha! eX-posed! - Hamel Road Theatre Project

The Valets - Outward Spiral Theatre Company

Fringe Archive - 2004 - 1 Star to 3 Stars - Life's Too Short up to Good Job

Productions in the 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival that I rated...

1 Star - Life's Too Short

1-1/2 Stars - Life's Still Too Short

2 Stars - Not Bad, Needs Some Work

2-1/2 Stars - Not Bad, Still Needs Some Work

3 Stars - Good Job

uh... none...

Fringe Archive - 2004 - 0 Stars - Run For It

Productions in the 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival that I rated...

0 stars - Run For It

Everything And Nothing All At The Same Time - Theatre Transcendare