Fringe 2022 - Returning Favorites - The Shrieking Harpies

The Shrieking Harpies

The Shrieking Harpies are a musical improv trio featuring Lizzie Gardner, Taj Ruler, Hannah Wydeven, and with Justin Nellis on the keys. Our show blends musical genres into an improvised story, with a focus on feminism and friendship. No musical styling or genre is untouchable!

As someone who focuses (I will grant you) a little too obsessively on every peculiar wrinkle of the Fringe website when I’m doing my homework, I find humor in odd things sometimes.  For instance, that description above doesn’t fit on the Fringe website because it’s too long.  So, as I’m sure the Fringe site/publicity gurus probably warn all the artists, the description just gets cut off when it reaches the word limit.

So here, it suddenly ends with, “Our show blends musical genres into an improvised story, with a focus on…”

Yes?  A focus on what?  I don’t find that frustrating, I found it unintentionally very amusing.

And because the internet is full of information, I found their website, and what do you know?  There on the front page is their standard description of what they do, which is the same wording, only they don’t have a word limit on their own site, so they continue with…

“…a focus on feminism and friendship. No musical styling or genre is untouchable!”

Whoops, sorry feminism and friendship, you’re cut off!  And though “no musical styling or genre is untouchable,” apparently the standard synopsis is quite touchable and gets lopped off as well.  (See?  I do find amusement in the silliest minutiae sometimes.)

Mom and I really enjoyed the strangeness and inventive whimsy of a fully improvised musical both in 2017 (when they were on my pre-Fringe Top 20) and 2018 (her last two Fringes), so it will be nice to revisit this group again.  Improv comedy is already impressive when it’s done well.  Adding the musical degree of difficulty to the proceedings just makes it doubly impressive (and fun), when done well.  And The Shrieking Harpies do it very well.  You should check them out.

 

(You can click on the following links to see a set of links to the full Top 10 list, the Top 11-20 list, a list of returning favorites, and the full coverage of the 2022 Fringe on this blog.) 

(Side note: Also during Fringe season, Minnesota has a primary election coming up on August 9th.  Early voting options are currently available.  You can also check out what's on your ballot ahead of time on the Minnesota Secretary of State website, as well as other voting services and information.  In Minneapolis, not only do we have the Governor and Lt. Governor on the ballot, but there's our U.S. Congressional Rep., our MN State Senator, the MN Secretary of State and MN Attorney General, as well as our County Sheriff and County Attorney, and two members of the Minneapolis School Board.  These are the people who decide what laws we live under and how they get enforced.  These are the people who decide whether or not we have voting rights.  These are the people who decide how our kids learn.  This is how we change things.  Personally, I'm alternately furious and despairing that my goddaughter and her little sister now have fewer rights over their own bodies than they did a month ago - there are things we can do, voting in the primary (and the general election) is one of them - here's a place you can go to do more.)