$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!

Bowling and Running and Writing (Not Necessarily In That Order)

The 2010 Minnesota Fringe Festival is history.

I saw a show in every slot again this year, including the encore. 56 performances, 53 shows (Three I went back for a second look, one of those I even had a very odd cameo appearance in). 29 reviews down, 24 to go.

The day after the Fringe, an epic Fringe Decompression podcast with Josh Humphreys and Nick Decker for Twin Cities Theater Connection, which should be posting in the near future.

Back at the day jobs, a lot of catching up to do.

And of course there's a play to write (the first of a couple, actually, which is nice)

Tomorrow, I head down to Winona with two vanloads of teammates for the Ragnar Relay's Great River Run. It's a 24 hour run from Winona, up along the Mississippi River on the Wisconsin side, and back into Minnesota around Stillwater, running on back to Minneapolis. 192 miles. 12 runners, doing three legs of the relay each. I'm the 6th runner on my team, last in my van (Van 1)to go, handing off to the 2nd half of the team in Van 2 when I'm done. We got a late start time for our team (2pm), so I won't be starting my first leg til around 6pm. 8.3 miles. Then I've got a breather til around 3:30 in the morning Friday/Saturday, when I run another 7.1 miles. Then my last leg will hit around 11:15 in the morning Saturday, only 3.5 miles. That one's rated "Moderate," my first two are both rated "Very Hard" (gulp). 18.9 miles total. Needless to say, I scheduled myself off from pretty much everything on Sunday.

And because that's not quite enough to completely derail the blogging for a few days, how about we throw in a bowling night fundraiser for my new artistic home, Urban Samurai Productions?

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

8pm to closing time

$10 to bowl all night (it includes the shoe and ball rental)

Park Tavern Bowling and Entertainment Center
3401 Louisiana Ave S
St. Louis Park, MN

You can get your tickets online or at the door.

Also, they're raffling off three monster prize packages - $10 per raffle ticket, or you can get 3 for $25. Here, too, you can order raffle tix online now, or grab yourself some the night of the event. Better yet, why not do both?

The prizes...

Grand Prize - Ultimate Jackpot Getaway
A Weekend Stay at Mystic Lake Resort & Casino
Gift card for your choice of activity at Mystic Lake
Centerspace Pilates Gift Certificate
Urban Samurai Season 2011 Tickets (includes a new full-length version of my play "Leave")
Gift Basket from Caldrea
Bottle of Wine from Wine Time
Guthrie Theater Tickets


2nd Place - Theater Lover's Package
Urban Samurai Season 2011 Tickets
Theatre Unbound Tickets
Theatre Pro Rata Tickets
Crave Restaurant Gift Certificate


3rd Place - Comedy Lover's Package
Urban Samurai Season 2011 Tickets
Comedy Sportz Tickets
Brave New Workshop Tickets
Chipotle Restaurant Gift Card


So, you know, bowl, win stuff, support live theater, everybody feels good.


The Samurai website says...

"Urban Samurai Productions is celebrating Season 2010 by knocking down pins! Everyone's invited to the Park Tavern to join us for unlimited bowling, raffles, games, karaoke, and general merriment. Whether you're the King Pin or Gutterball Grand Poobah, it's sure to be a smashing good time, all supporting theater with Urban Samurai!

Bowling on the lanes with karaoke! A raffle with FABULOUS prizes and bowling challenges for awards! HILARIOUS entertainment! Drinks and food available in the restaurant and bar for purchase. Because this is a grown up event, Park Tavern requests that all guests be 21 or older.

What if you can't make it? It can't be true! Well, life happens, (sigh). But don't fret. You can still share in the fun by entering the raffle for fabulous prizes, or making a tax deductible donation to Urban Samurai. That way, you can be a part of making future productions possible."


And the day after all that, I turn 46.

Yikes. Where'd that year go?

Interregnum 2009-2010 - Blog of the Time Between - Project 515

This is a collection of the links related to my work with The Flowershop Project on their production related to Project 515 - a group working for equal civil rights for gay and lesbian couples in Minnesota...

6/24/10 - My Strategy For Being More Gay This Weekend
Twin Cities Daily Planet version

My Strategy for Being More Gay This Weekend

Each year as Gay Pride approaches, I wonder...

"You mean, I have to be *more* gay this weekend?"

Since I live near Loring Park, Gay Pride normally means it's just a little more difficult to get in and out of my neighborhood if I wish to get anything done. I feel like that cranky old man shouting, "Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn!"

I think the last time I went down to Loring Park deliberately during Gay Pride was, strangely enough, to help promote a Fringe show. By performing a scene in a pair of pajamas, with a guy wearing tights and a cape as my acting partner. But he was cute, and we got to kiss. So all things considered, pretty gay.

But that was 10 years ago. Pre-blog.

This year, there is no Fringe show. There is no man in tights.

In fact, I'm working most of Gay Pride over at the Guthrie in the box office. Which means I'm also missing most of the Twin Cities Improv Festival (which I actually regret missing more).

However, a bit of a script of mine will be at Gay Pride in my stead.

I'm working with The Flowershop Project on a production they're doing with Project 515 about civil rights for gay couples in Minnesota. Another writer, a choreographer, and a couple of musicians are creating material alongside me, all dealing with the long list of laws that treat gay couples differently than their straight counterparts here in our fair state.

The Flowershop crew will be on the Rainbow Stage in Loring Park (near the intersection of Grant and Willow Streets - close to the big dandelion-style water fountain on that side of the park).

3pm, this Sunday, June 27th

One of my scenes will be in the mix. Just keep an eye out for the gay cops. It's a comedy routine that involves a dead body.

You can check out the scene here if you like - along with some others.

So, enjoy Gay Pride, everybody. My writing will be there, even if I will not. So I'm thinking of you. And glad Pride exists, even if I don't feel compelled to participate.

I promise I'll continue to be gay the other 363 days of the year, just to balance things out.

The full Project 515 show will be hitting the stage at Patrick's Cabaret this fall. More on dates and times as autumn approaches.