Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Fringe 2020 - Virtual Fringe - Nightly Fringe 9 - Friday, August 7

Taking us into the weekend, the Nightly Fringe has an evening of what promises to be a lot of manic testosterone and questionable life choices:

In the 7 to 7:30pm slot:

Confessional, from the improv comedy group Reservoir Frogs

"Three characters who will do whatever it takes to reach their goals. Ambition will collide with poor judgment as we take a peak into their inner thoughts. Presented live and improvised."

Since it's a show image with four people and cast list of eight (Adam Boutz, Amy Zajack, Rob Ward, Jennifer Benusa, Andy Christian, Heather Jo Raiter, Michael Deneen, Gina Slattery), I'm assuming three are the characters and some of the rest of them are the inner thoughts.  Guess we'll see.  There's so much improv in this town, this is a group I don't think I've seen yet.

Their facebook page says: "The Reservoir Frogs improvise tales at the darkly comic intersection of greed, ambition, poor judgment, and failure. They are stories about people who each want something bad enough they are willing to cross any line to get it."

Their profile on The Improv Network says: "Reservoir Frogs is a Minneapolis-based improv troupe who have performed around the Twin Cities and surrounding area. They initially bonded over a shared love of the role-playing game 'Fiasco' and set out to create a form that could allow an audience to experience the creation of a tale of high ambition and poor impulse control.  After a successful run at the Coulee Region Improv Festival in 2016, they decided to continue their collaboration. The addition of new cast members marks the beginning of an exciting time, and they look forward to creating many more stories celebrating the power of poor life choices."

(Warnings: Adult language, Crude humor; for ages 12 to 15 and up)

In the 8 to 8:30pm slot:

RIGHT NOW, from Martin Dockery

"Trapped in his home for months on end, animated solely by the glow of his devices, an otherwise world-traveling storyteller has lost the thread of his own narrative. Previous MN Fringe shows: Delirium, Inescapable, Moonlight After Midnight, The Exclusion Zone, The Surprise, Wanderlust."

As you can tell from the all caps title, Martin Dockery is known for his shy and retiring presence on-stage.  I'm kidding, of course.  He's very high energy, so strap in for the half hour.

The bio on his website says: "Brooklyn-based Martin Dockery spends the majority of the year touring his nine one-person shows through Canada, Australia, the UK, and the US. Seven of them are autobiographical (Wanderlust, The Surprise, the Bike Trip, The Holy Land Experience, The Exclusion Zone,  Delirium, and Forbidden City!) and two are fictional (Bursting Into Flames and The Dark Fantastic). He has won "Best of Fest" awards at theater festivals in Vancouver, Ottawa, New York, Orlando, London, Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Victoria, San Francisco, Calgary, and Adelaide. He's performed at The Melbourne Comedy Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and twice headlined the London Storytelling Festival in England. Dockery has also written and performed with his theater company Concrete Drops Theatre, touring with his partner Vanessa Quesnelle to Edinburgh, Adelaide, and across North America in their original two-person plays. (Oh, That Wily Snake!, The Pit, Moonlight After Midnight, Love Is A Battlefield, and with Jon Paterson in Inescapable). He has a BA in English from Kenyon College (where he won the Paul Newman Award for acting) and an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University."

So you can see staying home in quarantine is totally his thing.  I'm sure he's adapting just as well as the rest of us.

Oh, and he's got content over on the Digital Hub side as well.

(Warnings: none - but if you've seen one of his many previous Fringe shows prior to this, you know what you're in for; for ages 16 and up)


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