Minnesota Fringe Festival - Bidgood to BidGREAT: Bumps and Blunders on the Boulevard to Brilliance - What Happened?! Productions - Laura goes solo

There are three good options in the Loring area for shows for the last slot (10pm, Thursday 8/1) on opening night of Fringe as we make our way back home for the night.

We could stop off at the Theater Garage and see my friend Nick James in the cast of Consequences of Kissing Dragons.

The mischievous Fringe-goer in me almost convinced mom to try out Professor Hotrail and the Time-Traveling Meth Lab at the Music Box because, well, c'mon, there's a puppet, a time-traveling meth lab, and Jesus all in the same show.  That's like a Fringe triple play.  (Fun Fringe Fact: when I typed "meth" into the search engine on the Fringe website, 12 shows came up.)

But we decided to stick a little closer to home at the Women's Club and catch the opening night of our perennial Fringe favorite Laura Bidgood (going solo this year) with Bidgood to BidGREAT: Bumps and Blunders on the Boulevard to Brilliance.

Where's her other half Curt Lund?  She addresses that (amusingly, of course) in her Fringe-For-All preview video (hint: school).



I got to see Laura do a variation on the scared little girl story at both Fringe-For-All and Tim Uren's Ghoulish Delights Fringe preview showcase.  I know the Fringe-For-All has time limits for a super good reason (we artists do go on if someone doesn't stop us), but I missed the loosey-goosey atmosphere at Ghoulish Delights.  The story actually didn't last that much longer, and Laura, as always, knows how to work a crowd, so it was fun to watch her work her spoken word/storytelling magic.  It's why mom and I are looking forward to her show, and why it's a perfect way to cap off our first day of Fringing.

Minnesota Fringe Festival - The Concept of Anxiety - Maximum Verbosity - 1 of 4 options for your phillip andrew bennett low fix this year

One of mom's Fringe buddies we always have to see in action each year is phillip low, and this year it's super easy: he's acting in two shows and he wrote three.  There's a little overlap, so he only has a total of four with his stamp on them, but that seems like plenty. 

The Concept of Anxiety at HUGE is the Maximum Verbosity offering for the year - which means it's phillip performing his own material, which seems like the full "low combo pack," so we opted for seeing that first, since it was happening opening night and we're at HUGE for the first part of the night anyway.  The stars aligned.  Here's their video trailer...



phillip's not going solo this time.  He has his partner in crime Elizabeth Byrd performing with him this year.  I saw them do a preview bit at Tim Uren's Ghoulish Delights Fringe preview evening and it was just the kind of word-playing neurotic fun I anticipated.  phillip's mind is always running a mile or so ahead of mine, but it keeps my brain limber to have a show I need to work a little to keep up with, even while I'm giggling at the jokes.  Macabre jokes, but jokes all the same.  And anyone that can somehow meld together the Da Da art movement with the shark theme from the movie Jaws is always OK in my book. 

His other shows are as follows - he wrote and directed a scene for Fringe Orphans 2: Electric Boogaloo, he's acting in The Diamond Lens for Hardcover Theater, and he wrote Launcelot and Guenever for Six Elements Theater.  Phew.

Minnesota Fringe Festival - The Unknown Matters - Broken Boot Theater - Who doesn't like a good sci-fi musical?

What's not to like about "Two physicists race to solve the mysteries of our time, but end up waiting around and eating snacks. A musical about dark matter, exoplanets and a grapefruit."

The Unknown Matters is labeled as Musical Theater with tags for physical theater/clowning, sci-fi/mystery/horror, and (speaking of horror) audience participation (just kidding, screw the fourth wall, bring it on).

Honestly, my pal Mark Sweeney is the brains behind this one, so I was sold on that alone.  He's got Katie Bradley and Izzy Waid involved as well, and I've liked a lot of things I've seen them in as well over the years, in and out of the Fringe.

Plus, their preview at the second Fringe For All this year was utterly charming (and ballsy).  Seriously, to walk out on stage with a ukelele and just stand there and sing a quirky little ballad for three minutes, completely out of context, and trust that it's gonna sell people, that takes guts.  And the lyrics intrigued me -
"We are not lost, we are not found" 
"Write this all down and hope that it stays/Someone's going to read this one of these days" 
"Time isn't after us, time isn't over us"  

Check out the video for yourself.



Mom and I saw Mark's Robo-Homa! in the Fringe a  couple of years back, and even though this musical doesn't promise robots singing show tunes, I'm still sure we'll have a good time. 7pm, HUGE Theater, Thursday, August 1

Minnesota Fringe Festival - A Certain Age -Theatre du Bon Chien - Coming At A Show Sideways

Opening night of Fringe, Thursday, August 1st, 5:30pm...

First slot in the Fringe is hard, particularly for a new play.  The fact that A Certain Age has music helps but since it's labeled a comedy and not a musical people could miss that selling point.  I have to admit I don't know either of the two ladies at the center of this play or even the playwright.  Neither mom nor I is even technically a middle-aged woman, so the subject matter of the evening is not the draw.

What brings me (and mom) to this one is the director, Elena Giannetti.  Elena as an actor was part of one of the early public readings of my very first script to get produced here in Minneapolis (we won't go into how long ago that was - I was not yet a middle-aged woman then).

Elena and her husband (also part of that early reading) have always been loyal supporters of my work, and in return I go and see as many of Elena's plays as I can.  She's recently branched out into directing, and from the way she describes the process on this project, it seems like it's been a great collaborative process and they're very proud of the end result.

So, a series of vignettes with original songs thrown in, and I see just now on perusing their show page, they've drafted another talented fellow I do know - Richard Weber, who was part of the ensemble for the latest Project 515 tour I scripted.  Yet another reason to feel we're in good hands here.

I had to look up Bon Chien of course, because I'm a philistine.  It's French for "good dog." Take that how you will.

And as luck would have it, this show is at HUGE Theater in Uptown and the next two shows at HUGE are also ones mom and I would very much like to see, so we get to stay put.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2013 - First Rule: Don't Kill Mom

Though she may not look it or act it, my mom is 75 years old.  She is also a hardcore Fringer who wants to get the most out of her UltraPass.  And her son (that'd be me) has a show of his own in the Fringe this year.  All of which makes mom's annual Fringe pilgrimage out to visit me in the Minnesota just a bit more logistically tricky than it was last year.

As much as I'd like to think that I can just drag mom around behind me wherever I go, I vividly remember a time a few years back when we were hoofing it from the Rarig Center over to one of the stages at Augsburg and I was more than a little afraid that she might keel over on me.  So, if mom wants to get in her usual 30 shows in six days and still remain standing, I need to get creative in plotting out how we get around, or rather how to see a bunch of good shows without moving around all that much.  Thankfully, it looks like there's a ton of good Fringe shows this year (as usual), so we've got options.

My play, How To Date A Werewolf (or, Lonesome, Wild and Blue), has three shows crammed into opening weekend of the Fringe (Friday at 10pm, Saturday and Sunday both at 4pm).  We're at TRP (Theater in the Round Players), so that's going to tie us down to the West Bank hub of theaters for much of those three days.  I'm helping with load in and load out.  While that's not entirely necessary, since the show's simple, I like to have an extra set of hands at the ready, in case they're needed.  And if it makes settling in easier, so the actors have some more time to get into character (perhaps even relax), so much the better.

Besides, mom wants to see the show as much as she can, and so do I, and there's no late seating, even for us on my own show, so there you are.

That also means that Thursday, Monday and Tuesday when she's also here, we are free to roam over to Uptown or Downtown or Loring instead.  Loring is kind of perfect because that's where I live.  So we could literally just walk to the Women's Club or Red Eye or the Music Box and not have to worry about driving about or parking.

First up, opening night, this Thursday, August 1st…

$10,000 Matching Grant for Marriage Equality Tour

A marriage equality theater piece I’m working on currently has a matching grant offer from the Pohlad Foundation.  They’ll match any individual gift up to $500, up to a total of $10,000.  It’s in conjunction with a fundraising performance that happens on Monday, April 22 at 6:30pm (6:30-7:30pm is mingling time, 7:30 is a performance of the current touring production).  Even in you’re unable to attend the performance (and I realize it's very last minute I'm posting this), you can still take advantage of the matching grant.

Here’s the facebook event listing

Here’s where you officially sign up to attend the event if you like

Here’s the link where you can take advantage of the matching grant

Here’s information on the Project 515 tour

Those of you who follow this blog, or my writing in general, know that I’ve been hip deep in the whole marriage equality messaging for a couple of years now.  My marriage comedy But Not For Love hit the stage last October thanks to Workhouse Theatre Company and The Flower Shop Project (originally commissioned by Allegheny College back in 2006, it got picked up again in 2011 out in Los Angeles before landing here in Minnesota).  But I’ve also been working with the group Project 515 to help spread the word in a slightly different theatrical way. 

Flower Shop linked me up with Project 515 originally in 2010 when they brought me in as one of the contributors to a cabaret-style production around the marriage equality issue, which also included song and dance as well as the scripts of other writers.  Project 515 gets its name from the 515 laws in Minnesota which treat same-sex couples and their families differently from heterosexual couples who are able to be legally married.

After the Flower Shop production, Project 515 decided they wanted to take a similar idea on tour around the state of Minnesota in the ramp-up to the big vote on the marriage amendment in November 2012.  They asked me to write scenes that would illustrate some of the ways in which the current laws discriminate against same-sex couples and their families, as well as put the Minnesota fight in the larger context of the gay civil rights movement.

We did a dry-run to several Twin Cities area college campuses in the fall of 2011.  Then a few months later we did a rewrite and took the tour out to Greater Minnesota in the spring of 2012, hoping to spread the word about Voting No on the marriage amendment. 

Now that the November election is behind us, and they’re now debating marriage equality legislation at the State Capitol leading up to another big vote, the first leg of the 2013 tour is out around the state, this time urging people to contact their legislators and let them know how they feel on the issue.

Once that vote happens, one way or the other, the aim of the tour will change yet again.

This fundraiser is to help fund the future of the tour, and keep the conversation going.

Since every gift counts twice as much with the Pohlad Foundation match, I figured it couldn’t hurt to put the word out.

If you feel so inclined, and this sounds like something you’d like to support, by all means click on over and do so.

While I’m looking forward to the day we don’t need tours to help foster better understanding between people, we unfortunately aren’t there yet.  The tour actors in all the iterations of this project have been working tirelessly to spread the message.  This grant is a way we can turn ten bucks into twenty, fifteen into thirty, twenty into forty, and so on.  So if this is the kind of story you want to help tell, pitch in as you’re able.  Thanks!

Review - Rabbit Hole - Theatre in the Round Players - 5 stars

A dog runs into the street.  A child runs after the dog.  A car swerves to avoid the dog and ends up hitting the child by accident instead, killing them.

How do you deal with that - if you're the child's mother, or father, or aunt, or grandmother?  Or the person driving the car?

Some people tell jokes.  Some people write.  Some try to relate it to their own experience.  Some reach out to others.  Some shut other people out.  Everyone finds a way to blame themselves while at the same time reassuring everyone else trying to take the blame that the accident is nobody's fault.  Ultimately you have to hold onto something or you go crazy.

That's Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama (with a big dose of unexpected laughter), currently running as Theatre In The Round Players' 500th production.  I'm always pleasantly surprised by Rabbit Hole.  Even on nights when I wonder whether I'll be in the mood for a tale like this, I've always forgotten just enough from the last time I saw it to find myself getting drawn in all over again.  The humor and the humanity and the open-ended question of "what happens next?" grab me every time.

"All those good-looking people falling out of the sky like that."

It's eight months after the accident and parents Becca (Elena Giannetti) and Howie (Ron Ravensborg) are trying their best to adjust to life without their young son Danny.  The dog has been shipped off to live with Becca's peculiar mother Nat (Linda Sue Anderson), not your normal kindly grandmother figure by a long shot.  The dog's getting fat, and not in a good way, which is working Howie's last nerve.  Meanwhile, Becca's flighty sister Izzy (Rachel Finch) has discovered she's pregnant, between jobs, and the prospective father is a musician.  And Jason (Kenny Martin II), the young man behind the wheel of the car that hit Danny, keeps trying to contact the family, first by mail, and then by showing up on their doorstep.

"Maybe he eats too much because he feels punished.  That's what I do."

Performances are everything with a production of Rabbit Hole and director David Coral has gotten five great ones out of this cast.  A production can go too wacky or go too dark.  It's hard to walk that fine line that's a mix of the two, particularly when the script offers up some characters that lean hard one way (Becca and Howie and Jason, dramatic) and some that lean hard in the opposite direction (Izzy and Nat, more toward the comedic end of the scale).  Here we've got the right mix of actors, all holding hands and walking that fine line together.

"Quick and clean like a band-aid, otherwise we'll never get through it."

It's the little things that get you in Rabbit Hole, and this production of Rabbit Hole in particular.  Little choices about character, like the way Becca always rinses things in the sink before she puts them in the dishwasher but Howie puts everything right in the machine.  For Becca, if everything is done just so, life won't slip off the rails any more than it already has.  For Howie, there are more important things in life than spotless household precision.  It's never spoken about, but seeing it happen over and over again still worms its way into your brain.

Little moments of sound in Inna Skogerboe's design - like the noise of a buzzer on a the dryer offstage, signaling the clothes are done.  The way it's positioned, the way it's muffled, the truth of the sound makes the rest of house out in the dark offstage seem more real.  I almost thought I'd imagined it, until Becca left to get the load of clothes. 

"Only people who don't have kids give gifts like this."

Little things about the environment on stage designed by Peter W. Mitchell - like the way Danny's childhood bedroom has a floor that's a starry sky, and the way the indigo blue of the night sky leaks into the normal floor of the rest of the house.  Also, how the configuration of the space requires half the audience to walk through Danny's bedroom to get to their seats.  It gave me the willies immediately.  By intermission, everyone was in on the significance, many of them walking gingerly past the bed to get refreshments.

Little bursts of light like the tiny pool of illumination at the end, the finishing touch on A. Camille Holthaus' design, forcing us to watch two characters take hands - tentatively, uncertainly, hopefully.  It takes until the final seconds, but we get the happy ending for which none of us dared hope.

"No one knows me there.  I'm normal."

Little things that end up being huge, like the fact that there are no traditional scene shifts.  A scene ends, but characters remain and continue with their day as music plays and lights transform the space.  The things that need to change from one scene to the next happen almost completely in full view of the audience.  So we don't get a chance to check out of the story.  These characters are always present with us.  They remove a child's drawings from the refrigerator door and pack them away in a plastic bag.  We can't take our eyes off of them because we don't have any idea what they're going to do next, where the story is heading.  The new scene emerges from the remnants of the old.   It's not rushed or forced.  The story has no desire to hide from us.  It wants us to keep watching.  The cumulative effect of that is quite powerful.

"Even the most unlikely events have to take place somewhere."

Elena Gianetti and Ron Ravensborg are extremely compelling as two parents grieving in very different ways.  Ravensborg's Howie is a man trying to hold it together but unable to completely master his emotions.  Frustration at being unable to reach his wife at the same time the last vestiges of his son feel like they're slipping away means that Howie will often blurt out exactly what he's thinking.  This may, of course, be the last thing anyone wants to hear.  In contrast, Gianetti's Becca has shut down.  The only way to not let the grief destroy her is to clamp down on emotion altogether.  Where Howie attends grieving parent support groups, Becca simply doesn't want to talk about it to anyone, and often that includes her husband.  Becca may be the center around which the rest of the play turns, but she's not an easy character to cuddle up to.  But there's a big heart breaking underneath the surface.  Just when you're about to forget that, Gianetti lets the mask fall, just for a moment, as in a scene with her mother while they clean out Danny's bedroom.  She isn't unfeeling.   She feels too much.  The question of the play is if this couple - one of whom has to find comfort outside the home, the other of whom can't seem to find comfort anywhere - can salvage what's left of their family and move forward together.  Because of Gianetti and Ravensborg, the audience is very invested in the answer to this question.

"You have to stop erasing him.  You have to stop."

Rachel Finch as Izzy and Linda Sue Anderson as Nat provide much-needed comic relief from the very start of the play until almost the very end.  And as with all good clowns, because they give us relief by allowing us to laugh, in the moments when Izzy and Nat get serious, you know something significant is happening.  Finch's Izzy seems as bewildered as anyone when she finds herself becoming the voice of common sense in the play.  And though Anderson's Nat is constantly blundering her way through conversations, she does it because a good mother never quits trying.  And even a broken clock is right twice a day.

"At some point, it becomes bearable.  You can get out from under and carry it around in your pocket, like a brick.  It's what you have instead of your son, so you can't let go of it."

Just like the character of Jason, Kenny Martin II is also a senior in high school, making the young man's dilemma seem that much more real.  Jason keeps coming back to Becca and Howie not because he expects to be forgiven.  He couldn't accept forgiveness any more than he could ask for it.  Nor is he looking for punishment.  He's reaching out to them because they're the only other people who understand what he's lived through.  They can hardly speak of it, but just being in the presence of people who know, people who were there, makes every conversation, no matter how awkward, an enormous relief - even a blessing.  It will be intriguing to watch this new actor grow up on stage in the years ahead.

"Don't pretend he isn't there!"

Rabbit Hole is a wonderful play.  It's very simple.  It doesn't shout or run around.  It's got an oddball sense of humor sometimes, but that just seems to bring it closer to the truth.  It's about the small steps that people take to find their way back to each other after they've been lost.  Theatre In The Round is doing a great job bringing this story to life.

Very Highly Recommended

Fringe 2012 - Random Moments in Blogging Life

Here's some handy links to a grab bag of random postings around the edges of my blogging life at Fringe time...

Fringe Invitation - Want To Tag Along With Mom For Free? - 8/4/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Fringe - Backdoor Blog - 8/4/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Fringe 2012 - 4 Star reviews - Excellent

Here's a bunch of handy links to all the 4 star reviews of shows in this year's Fringe. 4 stars - Excellent, Class of 2012 would be...

Evil Dicks - Mumble Mumble Productions - 8/6/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

The Love Show - ORL Productions - 8/6/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Fringe 2012 - 3 Star Reviews - Good Job

Here's a bunch of handy links to all the 3 star reviews of shows in this year's Fringe. 3 stars - Good Job, Class of 2012 would be...

Christopher Street - The Musical - Silver Slipper Productions - 8/7/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Serif Punglasses - Raven Timberlake - 8/7/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Fringe 2012 - 4-1/2 Star Reviews - Damn Near Perfect

Here's a bunch of handy links to all the 4-1/2 star reviews of shows in this year's Fringe. 4-1/2 stars - Damn Near Perfect, Class of 2012 would be...

Nightmare Without Pants - Joking Envelope - 8/11/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Fringe 2012 - 5 Star Reviews - Life-Altering Experience

Here's a bunch of handy links to all the 5 star reviews of shows in this year's Fringe. 5 stars - Life-Altering Experience, Class of 2012 would be...

An Agony of Fools - Ben San Del - 8/7/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Ash Land - Transatlantic Love Affair - 8/4/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

The Gay Banditos - Mechanical Division - 8/4/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Happy Hour - Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw - 8/11/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Rip - Dovetail Theatre Company - 8/5/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Sin Eater - Present State Movement - 8/5/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Their Century - Lucky Break Productions - 8/10/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

TROY! The Musical - Burnt Nightingale Productions - 8/6/2012
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Interregnum 2012-2013 - Blog of the Time Between - But Not For Love

The theater community really stepped up in helping to the defeat the marriage amendment on the Minnesota ballot in the November 2012 election. The Flower Shop Project and Workhouse Theatre joining forces to co-produce my play about gay marriage, "But Not For Love," the month before the election was but a small part, but a contribution to the dialogue around the issue that we were happy and proud to make...

10/17/12 - Minnesota Marriage Amendment: Voting no is the least we can do
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/5/12 - Is your theater not gay enough? Theater for a month before Election Day
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Interregnum 2012-2013 - Blog of the Time Between - The Short List

Even if I can't get to show myself, I sometimes give a little shout out to help other know it's out there, so maybe they can go in my stead...

11/20/12 - Suggest Secret Ingredients for the Smackdown
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/25/12 - Two Times 8 For A Good Cause
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/25/12 - Days To Come (or, Theater I'm Bummed I'm Missing, part 3)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/19/12 - Want to get some of the politics out of your theater...?
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/16/12 - Indefinite Articles - Debate Night Entertainment, one night only (tonight, 10/16/12)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/16/12 - Beatnik Giselle - Oct 19-21 only (or, Theater I'm Bummed I'm Missing, part 2)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/16/12 - Engaged (or, Theater I'm Bummed I'm Missing, part 1)
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Interregnum 2012-2013 - Blog of the Time Between - Reviews

The Twin Cities Daily Planet has given me my own little byline page, and has me reviewing shows outside the confines of the blog, too, these days. Like anyone in the Twin Cities, I still miss more theater than I end up seeing. But here's the write-ups on the things I managed to catch since last Fringe...

11/17/12 - zAmya Theater Project - There's No Place Like Home - Theater about homelessness finds a home at St. Stephen's Human Services - 3-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

11/11/12 - Theatre Coup d'Etat - Romeo and Juliet - Being Two Girls In Love Is The Least of Their Problems - 3 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

11/10/12 - blank slate theatre - Spring Awakening - Extreme Intimacy - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

11/6/12 - Workhaus Collective - Kill Me Don't Go - Four Great Performances and a Great Idea Trying To Get Out - 2-1/2 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

11/6/12 - Jungle Theater - In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) - So Much Fun To Watch, You'll Resent The Intermission - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/14/12 - Mixed Blood Theater - Next To Normal - All Kinds of Reasons You Should Go, and Not A Single Reason You Shouldn't - 4 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

10/1/12 - Theatre Unbound - The Good Fight - Theatre Unbound's Jujitsu Suffragettes Fight "The Good Fight" - 5 stars
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

Two Times 8 For A Good Cause

This is the kind of thing that makes me giddy about the Twin Cities theater community.

We have not one but two readings of Dustin Lance Black's play 8 about California's fight over Proposition 8, which overturned the law allowing same-sex marriage in that state.  The readings are being done to raise money for Minnesotans United for All Families, the organization leading the charge against the marriage amendment on the Minnesota ballot for the election nearly upon us in less than two weeks.  There are numerous readings of this play taking place around the country, under the auspices of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact, during these election year battles over marriage equality - we get two made available to us in less than 48 hours.

Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 4pm at Our Savior's Lutheran Church (2315 Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis)

Prospero Theatre Company has gathered the following local actors for the occasion - Ann Carroll, Matthew Cerar, Rich Davenport, Tina Frederickson, Ankur Garg, Per Halaas, Ashley Halbach, Rebekah Henrickson, Becky Iverson, Jim Larson, Kristen Mathisen, Marylynn Mennicke, Paul Modderman, Jack Neveaux, Donn Saylor, Joel Thingvall, and Franklin Wagner; directed by Mary Wulf.

Admission is FREE, post-show discussion to follow, and all donations collected at the event will benefit Minnesotans United for All Families.

Then, the very next day...

Monday, October 29, 2012 at 7:30pm at the Varsity Theater (1308 4th Street SE in Minneapolis)

Producer Michelle Pett and director Peter Rothstein have assembled: Sasha Andreev, Patrick Bailey, Mark Benninghofen, Jennifer Blagen, Zach Curtis, Bob Davis, Beth Gilleland, Shawn Hamilton, Jeffrey Hatcher, Aditi Kapil, Linda Kelsey, Eli Newell, Tod Petersen, Raul Ramos, Mac Rasmus, Don Shelby, Brian Skellenger, John Skelley, Brian Sostek, and Sally Wingert

Everyone's new favorite football player Chris Kluwe will be in attendance.

You need tickets for this one, and they are, understandably, a little pricier.   Limited on-stage and general admission seating for $25 to $50, premier seating for $100, table seating starting at $400.  Tickets available here.

A little on the play...

"8 is an account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by AFER to overturn Proposition 8, which stripped gay and lesbian Californians of the fundamental freedom to marry.

Black, who penned the Academy Award-winning feature film Milk and the film J. Edgar, based 8 on the actual words of the trial transcripts, first-hand observations of the courtroom drama and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families.

Take a seat in the middle of the landmark Prop 8 trial that may decide the constitutionality of marriage equality. Experience both sides of this historic debate with staging that places the actors in the audience, and the audience in the midst of the courtroom."

I just want to take a moment to thank all the artists involved in these two readings, many of them giving up their one night off from other productions in which they are currently performing in order to do this.  It's great that so many are doing so much to put some more positive energy out there in the conversation in these last two weeks when things can get a little testy.  Many thanks to you all.

Days To Come (or, Theater I'm Bummed I'm Missing, part 3)

John Townsend, the critic for Lavender Magazine, has been very supportive of my plays, so I thought I'd return the favor.

Last weekend, a play opened which he directed for Lex-Ham Community Theater (a group which provided Mom and me with a great Fringe experience a couple of years back).

This weekend is their closing weekend - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, October 25 to 27, at 7:30pm.

The play is Lillian Hellman's Days To Come, about a labor strike in the 1930s.  Wow, a hostile environment against union workers - thank God it's just a period piece and all those problems are solved, huh?  Of course, I'm being silly.  There's a reason they're doing this play now.  It is sadly just as timely now as it was when it was first produced.

Performances are, fittingly, at the Wellstone Center in St. Paul (179 Robie Street East).

Lillian Hellman is a playwright best known for her scripts The Little Foxes, The Children's Hour, and Watch on the Rhine.  She was also one of the artists on the right side of history, refusing to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee and getting blacklisted by Joseph McCarthy.

If you like your political drama served with a side of righteous anger to get you all fired up for the coming election, this is your show.

Thursday, October 25th they also have a post-show discussion on labor in the Twin Cities in the 1930s with Peter Rachleff - a specialist in labor history who has taught at Macalester College for thirty years.

Want to get some of the politics out of your theater...?

Theater isn't all about politics and gay people this month.  I know, shocking, but true.  While I've been tied up in theater over on that end of the spectrum, there's tons of stuff going on in the coming weeks for folks who want their entertainment to have nothing to do with the election, the marriage amendment or the voter ID issue.  For example…

Of the productions currently running, I have to give a special shout-out to the one I've actually managed to see...

Next To Normal, running over at Mixed Blood now through November 11, 2012 - a tricky production of a fantastic Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical that's very much worth your time - and it's free - my review can be found here.

Also going on right now, closing this weekend…

- Shakespeare's drama/comedy (comedy/drama?) of morality and hypocrisy Measure for Measure from Ten Thousand Things now through October 21, 2012
- Bucaneers, a show a friend of mine just raved about, over at the Children's Theater Company now through October 21, 2012
- The Diary of Anne Frank at Yellow Tree Theatre now through October 21, 2012
- Off Leash Area is finishing up their annual garage tour now October 20, 2012
- A Mighty Fortress Is Our Basement at Plymouth Playhouse now through October 21, 2012

Hitting the stage this weekend…

- Sandbox Theatre's latest ensemble-created work, Beatnik Giselle, at the Southern Theater - which I've already gone on at length about here.
- Newly minted Fringe favorite The Complete Works of William Shatner (Abridged) is revived on the Bryant Lake Bowl stage - October 19th to 27th, 2012
- Old time Fringe favorite The Lives of the Most Notorious Highwaymen gets the Six Elements Theatre treatment - October 20th to November 3rd, 2012
- One night only the Encyclopedia Show hits Kierans Irish Pub with The Zodiac Show on October 21st at 7:30pm
- HUGE Theater has the visiting Bassprov this weekend, as well as local improv comedy acts Free Association, The Bearded Men, Splendid Things, the regular Submarine Adventure Show, Saturday Late Night Mix, Improv-A-Go-Go, and Show X
- The Hobbit goes to the Far East thanks to Green T Productions - October 20th to November 4th, 2012
- Open Eye Figure Theatre trots out Episode 2 of The Learning Fairy - October 19th to November 11th, 2012
- The Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Sunday in the Park With George out at Bloomington Civic Theater - October 19th to November 17th, 2012
- SteppingStone Theatre is presenting the Adventures of Tom Sawyer - October 19th to November 4th, 2012
- Skewed Visions has the latest in their ongoing series of Three Principles workshops for those interested in developing the skills they use in their own site-specific works of theater - Saturday October 20th, 10am to noon
- One weekend only Teatro del Pueblo presents Long Island Iced Latina - October 19th to 21st, 2012
- Also coming up Monday and Tuesday October 22 and 23 at 7pm is Pillsbury House Theater's award-winning Chicago Avenue Project - this time around with the young theater artists writing the scripts to be directed and performed by a who's who of local theater professionals.  Always a great time.

Currently running and closing next weekend...

- The classic ghost story Turn of the Screw from Torch Theater now through October 27, 2012
- The Kurt Vonnegut play Happy Birthday, Wanda June - Nimbus now through October 28, 2012 (can't go wrong with Vonnegut)
- A memory play, or a play about memory colliding with modern technology, Meronymy at Red Eye now through October 28, 2012
- Embers, the third play in the Guthrie Theater's Christopher Hampton celebration now through October 27, 2012

Opening next weekend…

- We Are Theatre (and So Can You) - a 24-hour letter reading extravaganza from the minds of George McConnell and Samantha Johns, the folks who brought us Snowf*ck - in the garage at 2209 East 33rd Street. Minneapolis MN - from 11pm on October 26th all the way to 11pm on October 27th, 2012 (stop by for a little or a lot)
- Just for the scary season - the Twin Cities Horror Fest at the Southern Theater - October 25th to November 3rd, 2012
- HUGE Theater has the improv comedy acts Theater of Public Policy, Space Jam, Free Association, The Bearded Men, Splendid Things, and the regular HUGE Wednesdays, Submarine Adventure Show, Saturday Late Night Mix, Improv-A-Go-Go, and Show X
- The Stephen Sondheim 70s classic Company gets a Theatre Latte Da makeover - October 25th to November 18th, 2012
- Open Eye Figure Theatre presents another Full Moon Puppet Show - October 27th at 9pm

For Halloween...
- Blacula: Young, Black and Undead at the Bryant Lake Bowl - October 31st, 2012
- HUGE Theater's Halloween Double Feature - October 31st, 2012

Special event for the following weekend…

- Public readings and feedback sessions for Savage Umbrella's new work in development, Rapture at Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts on November 2 and 3, 2012 only

And three more currently running shows draw to a close…
- Photograph 51, about the woman who helped discover the structure of DNA (and the reasons we don't know that), at Minnesota Jewish Theatre now through November 4, 2012
- Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke at Theatre in the Round Players now through November 4, 2012
- Lombardi at the History Theatre now through November 4, 2012

Meanwhile…
- HUGE Theater has the improv comedy acts Theater of Public Policy, Space Jam, The Bearded Men, and the regular Submarine Adventure Show, Saturday Late Night Mix, Improv-A-Go-Go, and Show X

******* Please remember to VOTE on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 *********

And one more Fringe favorite currently enjoying a popular revival in the heart of the downtown Minneapolis theater district…

2 Sugars Room For Cream at the New Century Theater now through November 11th, 2012

**********

Things I've already missed during this election season…

Lovers and Executioners - Theatre Pro Rata
Mean - Youth Performance Company

Indefinite Articles - Debate Night Entertainment, one night only (tonight, 10/16/12)

It's the night of the 2nd big Presidential debate, but I think I might just allow the machine to record the debate for me, and enjoy a warm-up act from my favorite Libertarian first (no, not Ron Paul - *shudder*) before diving into the campaign spin cycle again.

One night only, tonight, Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 8pm

$12, $10 with a Fringe button discount

It's phillip andrew bennett low so it takes place in, where else?, a bar

Kieran's Irish Pub in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, to be exact (601 North 1st Avenue)

INDEFINITE ARTICLES: A LIBERTARIAN RAGE

"Use your aggressive feelings, boy.
Let the hate flow through you!"
-Emperor Palpatine, Return of the Jedi

It's a Federal election year -- just the time for a collection of classic jokes, stories, and rants by libertarian activist and internationally touring storyteller phillip andrew bennett low! Pull up a chair, down some whiskey, laugh, get angry, and tip your servers*. He'll be here one night.

*not necessarily in this order

WARNING: This show contains profanity, graphic language, and other reckless exploitation of the First Amendment.

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS POLITICAL PERFORMANCES BY PHILLIP LOW

"Angry common sense was never dripping with such tasty snake oil. This guy's got his tricorne hat on sideways, and he's menacingly waving his fife at you!"
-Lee Brennise, State Chair of the Libertarian Party

"...a scream (sometimes literally) for critical thought and intellectual clarity...surely not lacking in original, brainy tones."
-Quinton Skinner, City Pages

"Writer phillip low is a talented man with a gift for caustic monologues. But he also has a crazed sense of humor... "
-Kansas City Star

Beatnik Giselle - Oct 19-21 only (or, Theater I'm Bummed I'm Missing, part 2)

Mom's in town this weekend, visiting to see my play But Not For Love, so my time this weekend is spoken for.

Sadly this is the very same (and only) weekend that Sandbox Theatre is unveiling their lucky 13th ensemble-created production - Beatnik Giselle (Friday, October 19 to Sunday, October 21, 2012).

Now, with pretty much anyone else, the words Beatnik and Giselle side by side would have me rolling my eyes so strenuously they'd be in danger of popping out of my head.  But when you put the name Sandbox Theatre in front of the title, I immediately assume they know what the heck they're doing, and I'm gonna love the thing.  (After all, I worried about the same "pretentious theater" red flags with .faust - and I needn't have worried there either.  And The Mad Trapper Of Rat River was so much fun it easily earned a berth on my list of top 10 theater experiences in 2011.)

Then you hit me with a cast of characters including:

Kate Guentzel as Giselle
Ryan Hill as Allen Ginsberg
Derek Meyer as Neal Cassady
Derek Lee Miller as Jack Kerouac

and I'm well beyond being fully onboard with the idea.

(This is likely about 75 percent the actors involved, and 25 percent a happy gay love hangover from seeing the movie Howl but most theatergoing decisions are based on such strange equations.)

Also, live music conceived by designer Tim Donahue - which was a huge part of the fun in Mad Trapper; music created and performed by Greg Schutte, and Jacqueline Ultan

The ensemble also includes Katie Bradley, Nicole Devereaux, Evelyn Digirolamo, Erika Hansen, Theo Langason, Zainab Musa, and of course Heather Stone (what would a Sandbox piece be without Heather Stone?)

Sandbox's website further says the following...

Sandbox Theatre brings its highly stylized brand of movement-based storytelling to the uneasy, shifting America of the 1950s with Beatnik Giselle. Intersecting worlds of the Beats and the classic romantic ballet Giselle will dance and clash through issues of gender, sexuality, race and entitlement. A powerful, provocative piece, Beatnik Giselle features live music, dance, and Sandbox’s signature transformative set design, guaranteeing a Southern Theater like you’ve never seen.

Beatnik Giselle is currently in its creation process, and is proving to be Sandbox’s most provocative production to date. Gritty, stark and heavy; Beatnik Giselle is sizzling with sex, drug use and the raw language of the Beats. This show is intended for mature audiences.

Beatnik Giselle is Sandbox Theatre's first production at Minneapolis' historic Southern Theater, and runs just four performances.

(Arrggh!  Have I mentioned enough times how much I hate missing this one?  Thankfully, you don't have to...)

Location:
Southern Theater - 1420 Washington Avenue South in Minneapolis

Showtimes:
Friday, October 19th 8:00pm – Post Show Reception
Saturday, October 20th 2:00pm
Saturday, October 20th 8:00pm
Sunday, October 21st 2:00pm

Tickets: $15-$30
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/236478

Photo by Richard Fleischman Photography - Ryan Hill as Allen Ginsberg, Kate Guentzel as Giselle in Beatnik Giselle

Engaged (or, Theater I'm Bummed I'm Missing, part 1)

With so many theater companies addressing the issue of the marriage amendment, a few of us were bound to overlap, in some cases completely.  Since I can't be there myself because my own play But Not For Love is going on at the same time, I wanted to help spread the word about another new play by a local playwright (and a new theater company) diving into similar territory.

Playwright Gemma Irish wrote Engaged.  Mom and I still recall her Fringe show Yvette quite fondly.

Christine Karki, who was such much fun in The Gay Banditos in this summer's Fringe, is directing.

I even know five of the six actors in the cast, all of whom I love watching ply their craft onstage - Joe Bombard, Jaime Kleiman, Patrick Kozicky (also in Gay Banditos), Amy Schweickhardt, and Mark Sweeney (along with Song Kim, who I'm sure is equally good).

Hence I am kicking myself for having to miss it because of my own play.  But the rest of you don't have this conflict, so by all means, you should go.  It's going to be good theater.  Sight unseen, because of all the great people involved, this comes highly recommended.

Here's the basics from their website...

BOOM! Theater makes its debut with the play Engaged, a world premiere drama by local playwright Gemma Irish.


Over dinner with friends, longtime couple Ben and Josh agree to help raise awareness about an upcoming marriage amendment. But they become entangled in more than just a political issue. Misunderstandings and insecurities surface, friends new and old are pulled into the fray, insults and food get thrown, and the very institution of marriage is called into question as these two men fight for the right to love who they love.



Actor and BOOM! Theater co-founder Patrick Kozicky says “My personal hope is that someday, my partner and I can have a discussion about why we should get married, instead of why we should be allowed to get married.  This play takes on both conversations which, in turn, become a discussion around the immediate fact that, legally and emotionally, marriage is not for everyone.” 



BOOM! Theater was created by four friends, Gemma Irish, Patrick Kozicky, David Ahlvers, and Shane Raatz. They wanted to create original shows with social relevancy, and work with artists who inspire them.   BOOM! Theater also wants to make theater approachable and accessible for everyone. 


Irish and Kozicky knew they wanted to create a show around the upcoming marriage amendment, and enlisted their friend and fellow actor Joe Bombard to play one half of the couple, opposite Kozicky, whose story is at the center of Engaged.



Bombard says of the play, “At its heart, Engaged is a relationship play, not just an amendment play. We dispel any myths that same-sex relationships are any different than heterosexual relationships; both have ups and downs, triumphs and struggles, consensus and dissent. The difference is in the politics.”



Director Christine Karki agrees: “Although it uses the marriage amendment as a talking point, a springboard for conversation, the play itself is not about the marriage amendment. This is a play about relationships. It just so happens that the three couples in the story are all in 'non-traditional' relationships, which adds yet another layer of complication.”



Playwright and BOOM! Theater co-founder Gemma Irish explains: “I wanted to explore the internal vs. the external. What does it mean that the government has an opinion on who I'm in love with? How do I reconcile my private life with my civic life?”



Engaged plays October 19 – 27 at the Cedar Riverside Peoples' Center - 425 20th Avenue South in Minneapolis.



Production Team:


Writer – Gemma Irish


Director – Christine Karki


Stage Manager – Callie Meiners



Cast:


Joe Bombard


Song Kim

Jaime Kleiman


Patrick Kozicky


Amy Schweickhardt

Mark Sweeney




Show Dates/Times:



Friday 10/19 – 7:30pm


Saturday 10/20 – 7:30pm


Sunday 10/21 – 2:00pm


Monday 10/22 – 7:30pm (Pay What You Can Night)



Friday 10/26 – 7:30pm


Saturday 10/27 – 7:30pm

photo by Kim Pettengill - Patrick Kozicky and Joe Bombard in Engaged

Is Your Theater Not Gay Enough? - Theater For a Month Before Election Day

If you just want to see the list of theater offerings you should consider seeing the rest of this week and in the weeks to come, skip down to the line of asterisks.  If you want to know the reasons behind my suggestions, read on...

It's strange how sanguine I'm feeling about the whole marriage amendment nonsense.  Not confident, not by any means.  Just ready.  There's going to be a vote.  It's coming. What are we doing in the meantime?

Part of the reason, of course, is that gay marriage is already illegal and unrecognized in Minnesota so… it's not like if we manage to vote the amendment down, gay marriage will suddenly become legal, or we'll recognize the gay marriages from other states.  We already have laws on the books.  They won't change.  There will still be 515-plus laws in Minnesota that treat gay and lesbian couples and their families different from other families.  There will still be over 1,100 laws and benefits that married couples have access to from the federal government that will be out of reach of lesbian and gay people in committed relationships. 

If the amendment passes, we get all this ridiculata inscribed in the state constitution, which will of course make it harder to undo, which is the point.  Laws can be overturned by courts or the legislature.  To undo an amendment to the constitution, we'd need to do this whole thing again in the opposite direction.  I need to do more research because some people have even told me there would be a waiting period to hold a vote to remove the amendment, if such a campaign were launched.  Someone also told me the vote to undo would need to clear a higher threshold than 51 percent of the vote.  (Feel free to correct me, I'd love those two data points to be wrong.)  Whatever way you look at it, the whole thing just calcifies if we put it in the state constitution, whether for a little or a long while.

Polls show the whole thing is really close, the people evenly split.  Tensions run high, opposing opinions are bandied about in public with regularity, from letters to the editor to blogs to lawn signs.

Theater probably needs to take the credit (or blame) for me not freaking out more.  Currently I have things I can do.  I scripted a touring production for Project 515 that traveled around the state this spring, trying to put a human face on the issue of those 515 Minnesota laws.  Right now, we're in the home stretch of rehearsals of my play But Not For Love, which The Flower Shop Project and Workhouse Theatre teamed up to co-produce.  There's characters in this play on both sides of the issue and they do battle it out, but at least everyone is talking to one another.  There's a double wedding and the possibility of a third romance blossoming.  Laughter and a happy ending.  My mom's even flying in for the second weekend to see the show.  Director Richard Jackson and our cast are so committed to telling this story, to digging into every little word of the text and mining out new information on the characters and plot that it's breathtaking to watch sometimes.

But there's so much theater going on right now dealing with this subject, I feel incredibly blessed to be in the middle of it all.

Unfortunately I've already missed Freshwater Theater's compendium of short works around the subject, Better (or) Worse, which was on stage last month.

But coming right up there are all kinds of offerings.  Just follow the links...

*************************************************************************

I've missed the opening performance of the latest offering from Thirst Theater, the No Round, but there are two more chances - Monday, October 8 and 15.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 3rd, there's the Amend This cabaret coordinated by Box Wine Theatre at the Southern Theater.  There's a little bit of comedy scripted by me that Box Wine co-founder and executive director Adam Sharp is performing alongside Kyler Chase, directed by co-founder and artistic director Bethany Simmons (phew, my little sketch is in very good hands).  In addition there's work on tap from, among others, Bedlam Theatre, Silver Slipper Productions, Table Salt Productions, improv duo Ferrari McSpeedy, comedian Ben San Del and storyteller Phillip Andrew Bennet Low.  Tickets here.

Also tomorrow (10/3), John Munger and Third Rabbit Dance offers another edition of their monthly dance showcase The Rabbit Show at the Bryant Lake Bowl.  This month, women dancing with women, and men dancing with men in "Same Sex Duets."

Also continuing its run tomorrow (10/3) is Theatre Unbound's The Good Fight, a world premiere production of Anne Bertram's latest play, about suffragettes who learn jujitsu in order to defend themselves in the fight for the right to vote.  That plays at the Lowry Lab through October 14th. 

Related on the subject of voting - Appomattox at the Guthrie, spending Act One at the end of the Civil War in 1865, Act Two in the thick of the voting rights fight in 1965.  Harry Groener in particular kicks butt as both Lincoln and LBJ, and Shawn Hamilton is positively spooky as Martin Luther King, Jr.  Considering all the voter ID aka voter suppression aka "voter fraud" nonsense also going on this political season, recommended viewing.

Fringe favorites Shanan Custer and Carolyn Pool of 2 Sugars Room for Cream fame are offering their talents to a fundraiser at the Ritz on Thursday, October 4th - 10 Reasons To Go, 1 Reason To Give.  (And 2 Sugars runs again from October 11 to November 11 in New Century Theater in the Hennepin Theatre District in downtown Minneapolis.)

Next week, October 6 and 7, Bedlam Theatre is offering Making Amends - some theater and some useful information if you want to get out there and do something in the weeks that remain.

The Illusion Theater is offering their own compendium of marriage-related shorts called Love and Marriage, running October 10 to October 27.

Then my own play But Not For Love hits the stage at the Warren, Workhouse Theatre's home base, from October 12 to 28.

BOOM! Theater also weighs in on the subject with Gemma Irish's new play Engaged, at the Cedar Riverside People's Center, October 19 to 27.

And to throw a little more politic theater on the pile, there's also Gadfly Theatre's production of Mitzi's Abortion: A Saint's Guide to Late Term Politics and Medicine in America (following The Good Fight's run) at the Lowry Lab, October 19 to 28.

Is it any wonder I'm not pulling my hair out, fretting as I wait for November 6th to arrive?  There's too much to do.  So much to see.

And each offering is like a steady drum beat saying, "Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote, Vote…"

There's also something else I'm hearing, "You are not alone."

Which is a nice thing to feel in an uncertain time.

See some theater.  Lend what aid you can to a good cause.  Talk to your friends and family.  Get out there and vote.

And thanks, my extended theater family, for being as invested in this issue as you are.

Regardless of the outcome, the support is appreciated.

(Photo by Mark Webb, Workhouse Theatre - left to right, Paul Rutledge, Jen Rand, Erica Fields, Jeremiah Stich, Foster Johns)

Fringe Review - Happy Hour - Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw - 5 stars

Tweet review - Happy Hour - as Mom says, "Happy Hour indeed! That was wonderful!" Joyous sexy all female dance - 5 stars #mnfringe

Mom and I both agreed on the high point of this performance.  Each of the five dance works that make up Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw's Happy Hour are, as the subtitle on the program says, Dances of Booze and Celebration.  Drink #3 of the Happy Hour specials was choreographed by Danielle Robinson-Prater, of DRP Dance.  Sara dances with Danielle's company frequently, and this long-time collaboration shows in their two person dance together here.  Can't say I know what an Argentinian Malbec is, but the title of the piece is "Opulent" and the dance certainly lives up to the name.  One lady has the bottle, the other the glasses they'll need to drink from later.  Both Sara and Danielle have long slinky dark dresses on, and the fabric moves as gracefully as the dancers do.  Both women are perfectly in sync with one another, and the resulting dance is hypnotic and sensual as you watch it unfold.  It's a great piece of work by two people who know one another's moves very well.  It's a treat to watch.  Mom kept bringing it up over and over again throughout the rest of the day after we saw it.

Another high point is the rousing closing number choreographed by Jeffrey Peterson for Champagne, entitled "11.6.2012" (the date of the upcoming election in which we're voting on an amendment to the Minnesota state constitution limiting the definition of marriage to one man and one woman - even though we already have laws on the books to this effect here in Minnesota.  The effect of the amendment would be to double down on making gay marriage illegal, the constitution being harder to undo than a law in the court system).  And what better way to negate all that constitutional silliness than with seven female dancers (Katherine Arndt, Hollie Edlund, Renee Guittar, Crystal Pelletier, Krista Ripperton, Erin Simon, and Rebecca Stuart) joyously coupling and uncoupling in purple outfits to the tune of George Michael's anthem "Somebody to Love," culminating in a pair of brides coming together at the end.  This being a Jeffrey Peterson piece, there was also much kissing.

We also get two comedic interludes from Sara herself, one a hymn to Whiskey played on a ukelele, with dance moves that became increasingly slurred the more whiskey she imbibed.  The other was for Beer, in the guise of a janitor forced to clean up after the striptease artist.

The striptease was called "Green Tease," in honor of Absinthe, and danced by choreographer Gina Louise.  There was also a whacked out, disjointed celebration of Vodka, entitled "Plunging Sirens, starring Happy, Sappy, Goofy and Grumpy."  These inebriated hobos (Stephanie Fellner, Heidi Kalweit, Christine Maginnis - also the choreographer, and Stephanie Narlock) were literally all over the place, as was their musical accompaniment - an assortment of songs from rap to Judy Garland to Alanis Morissette to Whitney Houston.  It was entertaining, if a bit confusing.

Overall, though, a really impressive gathering of different styles of music and dance under a surprisingly effective unifying theme.  This is one of Scrimshaw's best dance offerings yet.

5 stars - Very Highly Recommended

Fringe Review - Nightmare Without Pants - Joking Envelope - 4-1/2 stars

Tweet review - Nightmare W/out Pants - I'll blog anything you ask, just please don't send Anger Pony after me! - 4.5 stars ‪#mnfringe‬

"Release the Anger Pony."

Not to go all Jerry Maguire on Joseph Scrimshaw, but you had me at Anger Pony.

"You wanna make some paper, you gotta murder some trees."

Mom liked Nightmare Without Pants but not as much as I did for a reason we couldn't put our finger on, aside perhaps from the fact that it was unrepentantly weird.  The weirdness is half of what I loved about it, but made it a little hard for Mom to love like she has a lot of previous shows from Joking Envelope.  (Still, even Mom loved the Anger Pony.)  The other half of what I loved about Nightmare Without Pants is that it's *about* something.  Joking Envelope productions are always funny.  That's a given.  And it may be unfair to look like one is taking the laughs for granted.  I'm certainly not.  I realize, as they say, dying is easy but comedy is hard.  Comedy that provides laughs is rare.  Comedy that provides intelligent laughs even rarer.  Joseph Scrimshaw's work lives in this intelligent comedy realm.  It's just how scripts come out of his brain.  It's how he processes the world.  Scripts come out funny.  And thank God for that.  Then there's that blasted "tyranny of high expectations" thing.  Of course everyone who goes to a Scrimshaw show goes for the entertainment, and the vast majority aren't troubled with anything beyond that.  It's just us people who insist on writing about theater that start to poke and prod and ask, "But what does it MEAN?"  F**kers.

"Raise your hand if you're married and/or gay.  Great, all the responsible looking ones with hair."

This is the Joking Envelope production I've been waiting for at the Fringe since Die, Clowns! Die! (And it reminds me that I need to see more Joking Envelope stuff between Fringes when they offer it.  Other scripts like Nightmare may be cranking out of Joking Envelope all the time and I'm just missing them.)  This time, the crafty Mr. Scrimshaw has generated a production that seems like pure entertainment, and can be digested as such, but is also about a lot of really big things.  Why are people alone?  Why do some people live life perpetually happy, while others can't seem to allow themselves to be happy?  Why does love seem even more elusive the more painfully aware you are of time ticking by?  Now, none of these questions is ever stated that baldly.  But they're tucked away behind the characters' predicament.

"Welcome to Two Chairs and a Table from IKEA Arranged to Look like a Restaurant"

Special Agent Bob Jackass (Scrimshaw) has cornered Tracy (Shanan Custer) in a theater and brings her up on stage to do penance for having screwed up her taxes.  The price - she must fall in love with someone in 45 minutes or less, onstage, in front of an audience, or be confronted with… The Anger Pony.  After polling the audience for potential suitors, a Dream Man (John Riedlinger) appears.  Their relentlessly happy waitress (Anna Sundberg) is accidentally unhelpful in several ways.  Beer Can Mouth Man (John Middleton), a man with a beer can affixed to his mouth, keeps wandering through the proceedings, and has an unexpected connection to Tracy.  Tracy's bumbling quest for love on a deadline takes a number of peculiar twists and turns, including a full-cast game of Truth or Dare which ends up just getting poor Tracy further off track.

"Why can't you just have sex with me in front of all these people so I won't get in trouble for doing my taxes wrong?"

Everyone is going for broke here and are enormously funny doing it.  There are also several elements of recurring improv that everyone involved handles so deftly you could be forgiven for forgetting how easily something like even well-meaning audience participation can go off the rails.  Scrimshaw is a master at this sort of thing and it's pleasure to watch him at work.  The cast he's assembled matches him at every turn.  (How strange and wonderful - and exhausting - those rehearsals must have been.)

"He said I was a pinata full of candy and hate."

My only quibble is that, of course, I wanted to know more, to dig deeper.  In a 45 minute Fringe slot, that may not be possible.  There's a lot of balls in the air here and further character development may just not be in the cards.  Don't get me wrong, we get everything we need for both laughs and a satisfying ending with just a touch of sentiment - all well-earned.  As usual, this is top notch writing, directing and acting.  My mind kept wondering, "How did Tracy end up this way?"  I could understand the other characters getting painted with broader strokes.  But because Tracy is our central character and we're seeing her more than anyone else throughout the show, I felt like I wanted to know why she was so lonely and negative about love and life in general.  Whatever personal disasters befell her, she seems like more than a garden-variety neurotic who just *is* this way.  Both Scrimshaw's writing and Custer's performance lead me to believe there's more going on here.  Perhaps it's an entirely different play.  Dating disasters are things Scrimshaw has mined repeatedly for comedy gold before.  Tracy's hopeful moment of personal vulnerability at the end made me want more (again, this is a good thing).  I'm not asking for a happy ending.  Far from it.  One of the many things I appreciate about this production is its refusal to just lob a happy ending into our laps at the end that isn't justified.  There is hope, but not resolution, and that's as it should be.  I guess I'm just lobbying for seeing more of the complexity of Tracy's pre-Anger Pony journey revealed somehow.  Given how fast the jokes were flying, it's entirely possible I missed something.  But another thing I admired about the production was how it took the time to pause and reflect when it felt it was necessary.  It wasn't a relentless pace from beginning to end.  The story ebbed and flowed while always moving forward.  There was room for such moments.

"I won't be doing an improv scene, I just wanted to know what you have in your bedroom."

But honestly, the fact that I'm noodling like this over the character in a comedy script is a sign that Scrimshaw knows what he's doing.  He doesn't write disposable scripts.  Everything's got nuggets in it that are worth reconsidering, revisiting, and remounting.  Joking Envelope is always trying something new, even as they consistently give audiences what they want - a go-to destination to be entertained, whatever shape that entertainment takes.  They've earned our trust as an audience.  So leave it to me to say, you've earned our trust, now f**k with it.  We'll follow you anywhere.

4-1/2 stars - Very Highly Recommended