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…

Fringe 2011 - Wait Listed

(photo from Thirst rehearsal by Eric G.Y. Petersen)

Well, we didn't get in outright, but we got the next best thing.

Urban Samurai Productions is #5 on the medium-size venue waiting list for the 2011 Minnesota Fringe Festival.

Those of you (like myself) who have languished in various spots on the wait list in the past know that anything inside the first 10 spots on the wait list is almost a guarantee of getting in.

Just need to be patient.

And wait for five other medium-size venue acts to drop out.

The cut off for pulling out of the Fringe and getting your money back is March 15, a little over a month. Most of the big shifts happen by then.

As my friend said to me, "Write that play."

Already on the way.

This time last year, courtesy of Thirst Theater, "Lonesome, Wild & Blue: or, How To Date A Werewolf" was getting a dry run in front of audiences at Joe's Garage. That first sequence seemed to go over really well.

"Terry has recently been diagnosed with latent lycanthropy - a carrier of the werewolf virus, which can be spread through sexual contact. In a restaurant, Terry’s date, Robin, reminds them of Terry’s doctor, and a memory of a recent medical appointment. When Robin steps off to the restroom, the waiter arrives. The waiter turns out to be Glenn, the zombie remains of Terry’s former lover, who has some unfinished personal business with Terry. But then, Terry has unfinished personal business with Glenn as well."

So where does an idea like that come from?

Well, to be honest, I wanted to write a romantic comedy about herpes and suicide that wasn't about herpes and suicide.

Yeah, the marketing campaign needs work.

Hence the werewolf. Hence the zombie.

If anyone can get "romantic and bittersweet" out of a werewolf and their now-zombie ex-lover, I'm guessing it's gonna be me.

Also, because it was for Thirst, I wrote it gender neutral. So once there's a director, and auditions, they can just choose the three best actors - all women, all men, or some combo of the two.

The werewolf's the werewolf. The zombie's the zombie. The third actor will play all the other roles swirling around them. It should be fun.

And in many ways a tribute to my late friend, Joe, who laughed at all sorts of inappropriate stuff, and got me to laugh along, and left us way too early.

My first Fringe show in three years (wait list permitting).

But hey, no pressure.

Actually, it's good to be in the thick of it all again. I spend so much time writing about other people's Fringe offerings, only seems fair to put myself out there, subject to the public gaze and judgments, too.

The seed of it started right after the 2009 Fringe. Right now, it starts with this scene, and this scene. There's a little video of it as part of a 3-Minute Egg profile on the Thirst site.

It's already gone to some other interesting places in other scenes I've been noodling around with over the past year or so. Time to start putting the pieces together.

Even if the Fringe wait list somehow doesn't come through, I'll still get a play out of it. Which is always a good thing.

Interregnum 2009-2010 - Blog of the Time Between - Lonesome, Wild and Blue

So, between Fringes, all sorts of things happen, like writing plays. This one started with a song lyric, picked up a werewolf and a zombie, got performed in a restaurant, and who knows? Might even be a Fringe script in 2011, if the ping pong balls are kind. I give you, the genesis of "Lonesome, Wild & Blue: or How To Date A Werewolf"...

8/20/09 - Incubator - Where Ideas Come From
Twin Cities Daily Planet version