“It’s a stupid meaningless contest! You’ll do fine!”
Beth Henley’s tough.
Don’t get me wrong. The woman has one more Pulitzer Prize and one more Academy Award nomination for her writing than I do. “Crimes of the Heart,” the play which got all the award love and for which she’s best known, is a fine piece of work which I quite like. As I was saying just the other day, Beth Henley’s sort of like Tennessee Williams without all the tragedy. Her plays are peopled by Southern eccentrics with dreams as big as their hearts. These characters just lack most of the essential skills to accomplish those dreams. But rather than descend into madness or kill themselves or be killed by others, Henley’s creations just keep on going. Like characters in a lot of Chekhov plays, it’s their determination to keep living, and keep striving, to one day make a better life for those who come after them if not themselves, that makes them noble. These are characters you can’t help rooting for, and caring about, often in spite of yourself, even as you’re laughing at the comedy which is their lives.
The problematic thing about Henley’s work, and the script for “The Miss Firecracker Contest” is a good example, is that it comes from a school of playwriting in the late 1970s/early 1980s that doesn’t hold up particularly well. The characters are frequently given peculiar names, like a woman named Popeye, and strange backstories to go along with them. Not for any good reason. Just because the playwright can, they do. This style of playwriting, while throwing off a lot of the musty conventions of plays that came before, nevertheless seems curiously straitjacketed by old ideas of how theater needs to be presented. For instance, you only have one set, with three walls surrounding it. If it must be changed, it happens at the act break, because wholesale environmental scene shifts are just too cumbersome. If something needs to happen outside this box, then someone’s just going to have to come in from offstage and report on it. It’s as if, for the space of about ten to twenty years, playwrights forgot that only TV and film need to be bound by literal reality. Theater has the imagination of the audience at its disposal. You are bound by nothing. You can do anything.
Another thing about a lot of plays written at this time is that they don’t really seem to be “about” anything. As if there aren’t any larger societal issues at play that put these characters in any context. As if their problems are just their problems and not symptomatic of anything beyond them. So, if you’re a straight white person in the world of these plays, the worst thing that can happen to you is a broken heart, a boring marriage, a bad reputation in a small town, a case of syphilis. But not tragic, Ibsen’s “Ghosts” syphilis. This is funny syphilis.
Starting Gate Productions’ current presentation of “The Miss Firecracker Contest” is a good production. There is good acting by the whole cast, good direction by David Coral, and some interesting design choices involved. But it strikes me the same way the Guthrie’s recent production of “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” did. It was a good production. But it was still a production of “The Two Gentleman of Verona,” which isn’t one of Shakespeare’s better, or even more coherent, plays. There’s a reason it’s not done very often. Other plays are better. If you choose to do a script like “The Miss Firecracker Contest,” the script is only going to allow you to be so good. All the good actors, directors and designers in the world can only do so much if the basics of the story aren’t giving them much raw material with which to work.
Carnelle (Bethany Ford) is determined to overcome her bad girl reputation and win respect via the unlikely avenue of a beauty pageant, specifically the 4th of July event, The Miss Firecracker Contest. She has enlisted the aid of Popeye (Heidi Jedlicka), her seamstress friend, and Elaine (Jean Salo), her cousin and a former Miss Firecracker herself, to help give her a competitive edge. Carnelle’s other cousin Delmount (Grant Henderson), recently released from a mental institution (as a plea bargain to avoid jail time after a bar fight), gets swept up in the whole thing as a source of moral support. Later on, two well-meaning stalkers and former love interests - one for Carnelle (Mac Sam, played by Dale Pfeilsticker), one for Delmount (Terry, played by Melissa Rutman) - appear to liven things up as the pageant gets underway. Elaine is using the pageant as an excuse to make a break from her husband, who apparently just loves her too much. We never meet Elaine’s husband - he just calls to check that she made it to her cousin’s home safely, and sends her flowers (gee, file a restraining order, honey, or better yet, send him to me instead.) Popeye decides she’s in love with Delmount, and pursues him in her own awkward way as aggressively as Carnelle courts that winner’s tiara.
There are hints of darker currents here and there underneath all the comedy - Delmount’s disturbing dreams, the fact that Carnelle has spent her life losing people she loves to early deaths, selling off the family home and possessions, racism, sexism, childhood trauma - but nothing really sticks, or cuts very deep. The script itself seems determined to adopt the relentless optimism of the characters - “Everything will be OK. Somehow. There are no other options.” Consequently, the director and his actors, all of whom have dug much deeper into darker territory in the past, aren’t allowed to unleash most of the weapons they have at their disposal. There are moments you can actually see them resisting the urge to go for it - mostly because there’s no “it” to go for. They’d merely end up going over the top, and they’re all too smart to fall into that trap. So laughs, not drama or melodrama, are the order of the day.
The set design by Todd Edwards makes more sense in reverse - once you’ve seen the look for Act Two, you understand the look for Act One. The reason is that the three large scenic elements - right, left and center - all rotate at the intermission. The three carnival tents for the pageant in Act Two were hidden on the back side of the home interior pieces of Carnelle’s house in Act One. The carnival setting comes off a little better. The house side of the set, because it’s doing double duty, ends up in a collection of odd shapes, particularly around the front door up center. The dark edges of the wall pieces seem to want to indicate that we’re getting a random cross section of the fuller wall - something that exists but which we don’t see completely. For me, it had the unfortunate effect of making me think the house had burned down around poor beleaguered Carnelle, and these chunks were all that remained. So the poor dear was putting on a brave face living in a home without walls. Not totally out of the question in a play of this period, but not what the production intended, I think.
One more nod has to go to the costume design by Emily Heaney. Her use of red, white, and/or blue across all the characters who shared the stage at any given moment was very clever. So clever that it only occurred to me as I thought back on the evening afterward. I appreciated the subtlety. It was there without banging you over the head visually the whole time. The pageant costumes were deliberately loud but the other clothing had the feeling of “just things the characters were wearing,” and that’s often hard to do well. Here, it’s done well.
“The Miss Firecracker Contest” is a funny play about a bunch of genial, well-meaning misfits who refuse to be beaten down by reality, or often even to live in it. It’s a pleasant way to pass an evening, by people who know what they’re doing. So, for that reason, despite the sometimes creaky script, the production is still...
Recommended.
“The Miss Firecracker Contest” runs through May 24, 2009 at Starting Gate’s home on the Mounds Theater stage - 1029 Hudson Road in St. Paul. Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $18, or $16 for Students & Seniors. For tickets and more information, call 651-645-3503 or visit www.startinggate.org
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Friday, May 01, 2009
Shameless Plug(s) of the Day - 2 Female Pulitzer Prize-Winners
Woke up this morning with my unconscious zipping around like a pinball machine. Sat there for a minute trying to get a handle on it and figure out what the heck I did, or ate, or was thinking about, that had my brain working overtime while I was asleep. Then I remembered.
I'd been trying to wrap my head around all the theater going on right now, seeing as I'd been out of the loop for a couple of weeks due to my play down in Iowa, and an unexpected jaunt out to Los Angeles in the middle of the run.
I know this isn't news but damn there's a lot of theater going on right now. Everyone and their sister has a production running, opening this weekend, or just about to open. The mind quite literally boggles.
Example for the day - a cage match between Paula Vogel and Beth Henley, two winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Vogel's play How I Learned To Drive is hitting the stage at Workhouse Theatre
Henley's play The Miss Firecracker Contest is bowing over at Starting Gate
Both open tonight
I remember seeing the production of How I Learned To Drive done by Eye of the Storm over at the Loring Playhouse a number of years ago. Wow. I miss Eye of the Storm. And the Loring Playhouse. And if you don't know what either of those things are, I'm obviously way too old to be on the internet. ...Drive just had a production over in St. Paul courtesy of Theatre Unbound. Now, thanks to Workhouse, northeast Minneapolis gets a shot. More royalties for Paula. All to the good.
The thing I remember most vividly about ...Drive is how full-on theatrical it is, playing with space and time, and the audience's preconceived notions, with abandon. And humor. And forgiveness. All of which seems pretty peculiar considering the play is about the inappropriate sexual relationship between an uncle and his teenage niece. But that, in a nutshell, is Paula Vogel - taking subject matter most people wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (ew, pardon the expression), and making even the most unforgivable people seem human, and someone we recognize. If you haven't seen the play, you should. It's funny, and heartwarming, and unsettling, sometimes all at once. It's the kind of thing I point to as the reason I still do theater.
I've read The Miss Firecracker Contest, but never seen a production. Beth Henley's work is sort of Tennessee Williams without all the tragedy. Quirky (sometimes sleazy) Southerners, most of them losers and misfits of one stripe or another, often related, just trying one more time for that brass ring. Actually reaching the dream isn't nearly as important as giving it your best shot. Characters you can't help rooting for, and feeling a bit close to.
I'm still kicking myself for being so caught up in rewrites on the Iowa production that I completely missed Starting Gate's Hot L Baltimore, because I love me some Lanford Wilson. And you just don't see large ensemble productions like that all that often anymore. Plus the cast of Firecracker has a lot of my favorites in it - Jean Salo (who came close to walking off with Starting Gate's production of The Sign In Sidney Brustein's Window), Bethany Ford (so great in Starting Gate's Anton In Show Business), Dale Pfeilsticker (good in pretty much anything he does), and Grant Henderson (who, in the interests of full disclosure, has acted in productions of two of my plays, and I would happily write roles for as long as he'll do them). And that's just the people I know going in. David Coral, the director, always does good work, too, so I'm looking forward to this one. Curious to see how the script holds up over time. And that's something Starting Gate does best, theatrical excavation. Even when the production or the script doesn't work, it's not for lack of trying.
Either way you go here, you can't go wrong. Just depends on what you're in the mood for.
How I Learned To Drive runs through May 16th at Workhouse's home in The Warren, 4400 Osseo Road in Minneapolis (no, it's not *in* Osseo) - for more information, visit www.workhousetheatre.org
The Miss Firecracker Contest runs through May 24th at Starting Gate's home on the Mounds Theatre stage, 1029 Hudson Road in St. Paul - for more information, visit www.startinggate.org
I'm sure they'd love to see you. And perhaps you'll see me there as well.
I'd been trying to wrap my head around all the theater going on right now, seeing as I'd been out of the loop for a couple of weeks due to my play down in Iowa, and an unexpected jaunt out to Los Angeles in the middle of the run.
I know this isn't news but damn there's a lot of theater going on right now. Everyone and their sister has a production running, opening this weekend, or just about to open. The mind quite literally boggles.
Example for the day - a cage match between Paula Vogel and Beth Henley, two winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Vogel's play How I Learned To Drive is hitting the stage at Workhouse Theatre
Henley's play The Miss Firecracker Contest is bowing over at Starting Gate
Both open tonight
I remember seeing the production of How I Learned To Drive done by Eye of the Storm over at the Loring Playhouse a number of years ago. Wow. I miss Eye of the Storm. And the Loring Playhouse. And if you don't know what either of those things are, I'm obviously way too old to be on the internet. ...Drive just had a production over in St. Paul courtesy of Theatre Unbound. Now, thanks to Workhouse, northeast Minneapolis gets a shot. More royalties for Paula. All to the good.
The thing I remember most vividly about ...Drive is how full-on theatrical it is, playing with space and time, and the audience's preconceived notions, with abandon. And humor. And forgiveness. All of which seems pretty peculiar considering the play is about the inappropriate sexual relationship between an uncle and his teenage niece. But that, in a nutshell, is Paula Vogel - taking subject matter most people wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole (ew, pardon the expression), and making even the most unforgivable people seem human, and someone we recognize. If you haven't seen the play, you should. It's funny, and heartwarming, and unsettling, sometimes all at once. It's the kind of thing I point to as the reason I still do theater.
I've read The Miss Firecracker Contest, but never seen a production. Beth Henley's work is sort of Tennessee Williams without all the tragedy. Quirky (sometimes sleazy) Southerners, most of them losers and misfits of one stripe or another, often related, just trying one more time for that brass ring. Actually reaching the dream isn't nearly as important as giving it your best shot. Characters you can't help rooting for, and feeling a bit close to.
I'm still kicking myself for being so caught up in rewrites on the Iowa production that I completely missed Starting Gate's Hot L Baltimore, because I love me some Lanford Wilson. And you just don't see large ensemble productions like that all that often anymore. Plus the cast of Firecracker has a lot of my favorites in it - Jean Salo (who came close to walking off with Starting Gate's production of The Sign In Sidney Brustein's Window), Bethany Ford (so great in Starting Gate's Anton In Show Business), Dale Pfeilsticker (good in pretty much anything he does), and Grant Henderson (who, in the interests of full disclosure, has acted in productions of two of my plays, and I would happily write roles for as long as he'll do them). And that's just the people I know going in. David Coral, the director, always does good work, too, so I'm looking forward to this one. Curious to see how the script holds up over time. And that's something Starting Gate does best, theatrical excavation. Even when the production or the script doesn't work, it's not for lack of trying.
Either way you go here, you can't go wrong. Just depends on what you're in the mood for.
How I Learned To Drive runs through May 16th at Workhouse's home in The Warren, 4400 Osseo Road in Minneapolis (no, it's not *in* Osseo) - for more information, visit www.workhousetheatre.org
The Miss Firecracker Contest runs through May 24th at Starting Gate's home on the Mounds Theatre stage, 1029 Hudson Road in St. Paul - for more information, visit www.startinggate.org
I'm sure they'd love to see you. And perhaps you'll see me there as well.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Shameless Plug of the Day - Ringtone (one weekend only)
Starting tonight (Thursday) and continuing the next two nights only, a new offering from Alan Berks and his latest batch of co-conspirators, called Ringtone. (There's a link to a trailer here and at the end of the post, if you're curious)
I'm mighty fond of Alan. His work is always funny, but that runs alongside whatever other subject matter he may be hunting at the moment. It's been alternately romantic (How To Cheat), creepy as hell (3 Parts Dead), and tragic (Everywhere Signs Fall). Plus, he's one of the three masterminds behind the scrappy instant theater experiment Thirst Theater, which was fun to both write for and be part of the audience.
So if Alan's gathering artistic friends of similar talent together for an experiment, it's definitely worth checking out. Here's his message with the details...
Hi Friends,
I want to invite you to this work-in-progress, Ringtone, about how technology is drawing us together and keeping us apart and there are only three performances (Thursday, April 30, Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2) and very limited seating. At 8 pm.
At the Rogue Buddha Gallery (next to the Ritz Theater). Space is limited to 40 per night.
Tickets are only $5-10
PLEASE CALL 612-886-2868 TO CONFIRM YOUR RESERVATION
Ringtone was created collaboratively with Katie Kaufmann, Lindsay Marcy, Ben McGinley, Matt Sciple, Anna Sundberg, and Adam Whisner -- incredible performers and generous to a fault. With sound design by Mike Hallenbeck.
It's a site-specific play with movement. Or a hodge-podge of dramatic event with cell phones and televisions and a dj. Or a funny new work with six actors in search of their identities in an art gallery even when they can't get their cell phones to stop ringing.
I really hope to have a friendly but discerning and engaged bunch of folks fill up the Buddha for this experiment with dialogue, movement, and technology that combines or plays with or teases out different structural or thematic aspects of the work (Thirst Theater, "How to Cheat," "3 Parts Dead") that I've been working on for the last four years. I promise you'll be amused at times; I'll bet you'll be confused at times -- but I'll look forward to hearing your honest reaction afterwords.
O, did I mention there will be wine and beer available for small donations?
You can check out a trailer that, I think, captures the spirit of the collaboration, at http://vimeo.com/4207808
Thank you,
Alan
I'm mighty fond of Alan. His work is always funny, but that runs alongside whatever other subject matter he may be hunting at the moment. It's been alternately romantic (How To Cheat), creepy as hell (3 Parts Dead), and tragic (Everywhere Signs Fall). Plus, he's one of the three masterminds behind the scrappy instant theater experiment Thirst Theater, which was fun to both write for and be part of the audience.
So if Alan's gathering artistic friends of similar talent together for an experiment, it's definitely worth checking out. Here's his message with the details...
Hi Friends,
I want to invite you to this work-in-progress, Ringtone, about how technology is drawing us together and keeping us apart and there are only three performances (Thursday, April 30, Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2) and very limited seating. At 8 pm.
At the Rogue Buddha Gallery (next to the Ritz Theater). Space is limited to 40 per night.
Tickets are only $5-10
PLEASE CALL 612-886-2868 TO CONFIRM YOUR RESERVATION
Ringtone was created collaboratively with Katie Kaufmann, Lindsay Marcy, Ben McGinley, Matt Sciple, Anna Sundberg, and Adam Whisner -- incredible performers and generous to a fault. With sound design by Mike Hallenbeck.
It's a site-specific play with movement. Or a hodge-podge of dramatic event with cell phones and televisions and a dj. Or a funny new work with six actors in search of their identities in an art gallery even when they can't get their cell phones to stop ringing.
I really hope to have a friendly but discerning and engaged bunch of folks fill up the Buddha for this experiment with dialogue, movement, and technology that combines or plays with or teases out different structural or thematic aspects of the work (Thirst Theater, "How to Cheat," "3 Parts Dead") that I've been working on for the last four years. I promise you'll be amused at times; I'll bet you'll be confused at times -- but I'll look forward to hearing your honest reaction afterwords.
O, did I mention there will be wine and beer available for small donations?
You can check out a trailer that, I think, captures the spirit of the collaboration, at http://vimeo.com/4207808
Thank you,
Alan
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Shameless Plug(s) of the Day - Jewblatt and April Fools
This is one of the many nights I wish I'd been cloned, or could astral project, or something. I'm working the second job tonight, but even if I weren't, there are two great "one night only" events floating around out there I'd love to see. Check 'em out. One or the other is bound to be your cup of tea...
Jewblatt - an evening of short films from Ben McGinley and company. I've liked Ben's work since I saw him in Forks at the 2007 Fringe, and this looks to be another amusing outing from him, and one he's largely been the driver behind, so I wanted to help get the word out.
It's an oddball private eye saga they tout as being a cross between 24, Airplane, and David Lynch, which, hey, sign me up.
"In this goofball-comedy-split-screen-thriller, a private investigator is sucked into a spiral of incidents that force him to choose between morality and love."
There's all kinds of teaser clips on their site - www.jewblatt.com, so you can get yourself a healthy preview before the big event tonight. It looks like a lot of fun.
Plus the messages getting sent out about this makes it sounds like they're working hard to turn it into an enjoyable unusual event, in addition to the film screening aspect.
Bryant Lake Bowl, tonight, April 1 (no fooling) - starts at 7pm, doors at 6pm - tickets are sliding scale from six to twelve bucks (ridiculously cheap) and you can drink in the BLB theater - unlike many movie theaters, so take advantage :)
Details at www.bryantlakebowl.com and the Jewblatt site.
Plus, how can you not love a group that thinks up the name RazorClown Enterprises?
Also on the docket this evening...
April Fools - an evening of foolish beauty from the guys at Four Humors Theater
This one's over at Bedlam Theater - dinner and festivities start at 6pm, show starts at 7:30pm.
It's a combo fundraiser and performance for the Four Humors crew (they do have at least a couple of things percolating for the Fringe this year, after all, and other outings in before and beyond). I've been pimping Nick Ryan's work lately (he's the anchor leg of my dream theater season conjured for MinnesotaPlaylist.com) so I thought I should continue the trend.
They describe it thusly...
"Join us once a year on April 1st, to celebrate foolishness in all its beauty.
Join the creators of "Mortem Capiendum" and "Deviled Eggs" in their annual, one night only April 1st performance! An hour-long show following four fools on a quest to capture laughter, April Fools was conceived, created and stars Four Humor's Artistic Directors Jason Ballweber, Brant Miller, Nick Ryan and Matt Spring.
Part show, part fundraiser, the evening will feature food, drink specials, music, as well as a raffle for fantastic prizes!
This is your only chance for 365 days to laugh with the Four Humors AND give them money!
We'll announce our 2009-2010 season!
Will you be King or Queen for the night?
Suggested donation $15 general, $10 students."
Their website is www.fourhumorstheater.com
Details also available at www.bedlamtheatre.org
And though the fundraising aspect is one night only, the April Fools show will also perform at 10:30pm on both Thursday and Friday, April 2nd and 3rd.
So, that might be a way to see both, if, like me, you can't quite decide because they both sound good (and of course, unlike me, you've got the night off).
This is original stuff, and a good way to end a foolish day, so go support either or both.
Jewblatt - an evening of short films from Ben McGinley and company. I've liked Ben's work since I saw him in Forks at the 2007 Fringe, and this looks to be another amusing outing from him, and one he's largely been the driver behind, so I wanted to help get the word out.
It's an oddball private eye saga they tout as being a cross between 24, Airplane, and David Lynch, which, hey, sign me up.
"In this goofball-comedy-split-screen-thriller, a private investigator is sucked into a spiral of incidents that force him to choose between morality and love."
There's all kinds of teaser clips on their site - www.jewblatt.com, so you can get yourself a healthy preview before the big event tonight. It looks like a lot of fun.
Plus the messages getting sent out about this makes it sounds like they're working hard to turn it into an enjoyable unusual event, in addition to the film screening aspect.
Bryant Lake Bowl, tonight, April 1 (no fooling) - starts at 7pm, doors at 6pm - tickets are sliding scale from six to twelve bucks (ridiculously cheap) and you can drink in the BLB theater - unlike many movie theaters, so take advantage :)
Details at www.bryantlakebowl.com and the Jewblatt site.
Plus, how can you not love a group that thinks up the name RazorClown Enterprises?
Also on the docket this evening...
April Fools - an evening of foolish beauty from the guys at Four Humors Theater
This one's over at Bedlam Theater - dinner and festivities start at 6pm, show starts at 7:30pm.
It's a combo fundraiser and performance for the Four Humors crew (they do have at least a couple of things percolating for the Fringe this year, after all, and other outings in before and beyond). I've been pimping Nick Ryan's work lately (he's the anchor leg of my dream theater season conjured for MinnesotaPlaylist.com) so I thought I should continue the trend.
They describe it thusly...
"Join us once a year on April 1st, to celebrate foolishness in all its beauty.
Join the creators of "Mortem Capiendum" and "Deviled Eggs" in their annual, one night only April 1st performance! An hour-long show following four fools on a quest to capture laughter, April Fools was conceived, created and stars Four Humor's Artistic Directors Jason Ballweber, Brant Miller, Nick Ryan and Matt Spring.
Part show, part fundraiser, the evening will feature food, drink specials, music, as well as a raffle for fantastic prizes!
This is your only chance for 365 days to laugh with the Four Humors AND give them money!
We'll announce our 2009-2010 season!
Will you be King or Queen for the night?
Suggested donation $15 general, $10 students."
Their website is www.fourhumorstheater.com
Details also available at www.bedlamtheatre.org
And though the fundraising aspect is one night only, the April Fools show will also perform at 10:30pm on both Thursday and Friday, April 2nd and 3rd.
So, that might be a way to see both, if, like me, you can't quite decide because they both sound good (and of course, unlike me, you've got the night off).
This is original stuff, and a good way to end a foolish day, so go support either or both.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Shameless Plug of the Day - Mo Perry as Hedda Gabbler (closing this weekend)
People frequently ask me, "What's playing that I should go see this weekend?"
This week, I'd have to say "Catch Mo Perry playing Hedda Gabbler"
Why?
It's Mo Perry playing Hedda Gabbler.
I was going through my archives and realize that every time I've reviewed Mo Perry in a production, she's been one of the best things in it. Often she's surrounded by equally talented actors, but I never find myself saying, "Hmmm. Mo could have been better." Mo throws herself so completely into each role, and performs around town so much, the woman must be exhausted. (There were three reviews I found with Mo in them from 2007 alone - and that wasn't all she did that year, that's just all I managed to see. She's impossible to keep up with. She seems to be everywhere.)
And now she's headlining. Playing one of the meatiest female roles in the canon.
Craig Johnson's adapting and directing Ibsen's classic (and he and Mo did such a lovely job collaborating on Uncle Vanya a while back, I can only imagine this is more of the same good stuff)
The woman's done Shakespeare both straight and silly. She's done Chekhov directly and indirectly. She's played men so convincingly you forget she's a woman. And she's wandered the territory in between.
She's just really, really good in everything she does.
So if you asked me what you should go see this weekend, I'd say
Go see Mo Perry as Hedda Gabbler.
The cast also includes Alisa Gingerich, Ryan Parker Knox, John Middleton, Donna Porfiri, Wade Vaughn, Amanda Whisner.
Performances remaining are Friday and Saturday, March 27 and 28 at 8pm, and Sunday, March 29 at 4pm at Gremlin Theatre's new home - 2400 University Avenue West, just East of 280 at Raymond in St. Paul. (Free parking for theater patrons in the US Bank parking lot kitty-corner from the theatre at Raymond and University.)
Tickets are $20.00 for adults, $18.00 for Seniors or patrons with a Fringe Button. Under 30? Pay half your age, every night! (That's a really smart idea, actually. Theaters should all steal that one.)
Read Fringe Famous chatting up Mo about the production for a little more info.
Past reviews of Mo's work lurk here, here, here, here and here (for starters)
For reservations and more information call (651) 228-7008 or visit www.gremlin-theatre.org.
This week, I'd have to say "Catch Mo Perry playing Hedda Gabbler"
Why?
It's Mo Perry playing Hedda Gabbler.
I was going through my archives and realize that every time I've reviewed Mo Perry in a production, she's been one of the best things in it. Often she's surrounded by equally talented actors, but I never find myself saying, "Hmmm. Mo could have been better." Mo throws herself so completely into each role, and performs around town so much, the woman must be exhausted. (There were three reviews I found with Mo in them from 2007 alone - and that wasn't all she did that year, that's just all I managed to see. She's impossible to keep up with. She seems to be everywhere.)
And now she's headlining. Playing one of the meatiest female roles in the canon.
Craig Johnson's adapting and directing Ibsen's classic (and he and Mo did such a lovely job collaborating on Uncle Vanya a while back, I can only imagine this is more of the same good stuff)
The woman's done Shakespeare both straight and silly. She's done Chekhov directly and indirectly. She's played men so convincingly you forget she's a woman. And she's wandered the territory in between.
She's just really, really good in everything she does.
So if you asked me what you should go see this weekend, I'd say
Go see Mo Perry as Hedda Gabbler.
The cast also includes Alisa Gingerich, Ryan Parker Knox, John Middleton, Donna Porfiri, Wade Vaughn, Amanda Whisner.
Performances remaining are Friday and Saturday, March 27 and 28 at 8pm, and Sunday, March 29 at 4pm at Gremlin Theatre's new home - 2400 University Avenue West, just East of 280 at Raymond in St. Paul. (Free parking for theater patrons in the US Bank parking lot kitty-corner from the theatre at Raymond and University.)
Tickets are $20.00 for adults, $18.00 for Seniors or patrons with a Fringe Button. Under 30? Pay half your age, every night! (That's a really smart idea, actually. Theaters should all steal that one.)
Read Fringe Famous chatting up Mo about the production for a little more info.
Past reviews of Mo's work lurk here, here, here, here and here (for starters)
For reservations and more information call (651) 228-7008 or visit www.gremlin-theatre.org.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Shameless Plug of the Day - The Cody Rivers Show (this weekend only)
The Cody Rivers Show is some of the best comedy you'll ever see. Period.
I haven't been this excited about a theater performance in months. Ever since I heard The Cody Rivers Show was coming back to town, I marked my calendar and counted the days. Finally, they are here, with their newest show, "Meanwhile, Everywhere"
One weekend only, tonight, Thursday, March 19; tomorrow, Friday, March 20; and Saturday, March 21 - all shows 8pm. Performances at Patrick's Cabaret, 3010 Minnehaha Avenue South in Minneapolis. Brought to us by the good folks at Walking Shadow Theatre Company. Tickets $12 - $15, which is a steal at twice the price, really. These guys are that good. If I could go all three nights, I would - but a guy's gotta earn a living and hours at the second job are leaner these days. I shall be there tonight to cheer their opening, however.
So just what is The Cody Rivers Show?
It's two guys - Andrew Connor and Mike Mathieu - and pretty much nothing else. When they first blew everyone away in the 2007 Fringe with their show "Flammable People," they were all done up in puke green jumpsuits and really bad wigs - and so well disguised that I didn't recognize them out of costume. With their return in Fringe 2008 with "Stick To Glue," they were in civilian clothes with peculiar face paint as the only nod to costuming. Andrew also had a solo show in 2008, "Boom," which was equally captivating.
They are so mind-bogglingly good that they almost defy description, but I gave it a go in 2007 and it comes as close as I've managed to explaining just why they're so wonderful, and everyone should see them, so here's what I said about "Flammable People." The Cody Rivers aesthetic described herein follows through from show to show, wildly different though they all be...
"Mom says they had her at the punctuation.
This is almost an impossible show to review. People warn you that explaining a joke just sucks all the funny right out of it and kills it. I’m not even sure how to explain The Cody Rivers Show - Flammable People, except to say they’re brilliant. Weird, and funny, and brilliant.
It’s just two guys in puke green jumpsuits and bad wigs, and that’s about it. How funny could it be?
You.
Have.
No.
Idea.
All the pieces of this marvelously Dickensian comic puzzle box of a show work independently of one another. They are funny in isolation. When you start to realize, though, about halfway through the performance that all of these things are interconnected, however tangentially, it truly begins to blow your mind.
The sequence where they captivated Mom was in a conversation between a parent and the school principle where air quotes for ironic effort ballooned into question marks, exclamation points, parentheses, and most amusingly, an ellipsis. Yeah, you had to be there, but you should.
A young boy’s speech in front of the class about a family vacation, which becomes a battle of wills with his father (an unintentional heckler), resurfaces later with unseen voices commenting on the wildlife in an aquarium, and resurfaces later still in the mind-bogglingly beautiful and absurd final image.
“I could actually see the hot air balloon,” said Mom.
These guys raise the comedy staple of “callbacks” to high art.
Another thing they do so tellingly is excavate the painful discomfort that often results from the relationships with people we allow ourselves to be vulnerable around - parents, children, friends, co-workers. This unsettling undercurrent makes the comedy that much more rich and fully human. The situations and personal interactions may be outlandish at times, in fact frequently, but they are also quite recognizably a part of our very real world as well.
Prop humor is also not beyond them. Though the performance is almost exclusively just the two men ping-ponging off one another for an hour, with just a couple of chairs and the stage curtain for backup, there is one sublimely silly moment where rag doll doppelgangers play up the idea of forced perspective and distance in an escalating sequence of goofiness. There is also a sequence with clipboards and audience surveys that defies description.
There’s a little song and dance to be had as well - mostly to let them transition between sequences, and cleverly play with time and space within one extremely peculiar section.
It’s another one I’m going to wedge into my schedule one more time before the Fringe is done. I know some people who have already gone back for a second helping. It’s the kind of show that rewards repeat viewings with new insights into the complex structure. But again, it’s a show where you can just go and enjoy the bits and pieces, without the larger picture coming into focus at all. Whatever level it grabs you on, it’s a hell of a ride.
You really shouldn’t miss this one.
And keep an eye on Cody Rivers - www.codyrivers.com. If we’re lucky, they’ll be back.
Very highly recommended."
They're back.
They're not doing the Fringe this year.
This is your only chance to see them in 2009.
You should see them.
Trust me. You'll be glad you did.
Those who've seen them in the past know what I'm talking about.
Those who haven't - you're in for a treat.
See you there.
For reservations visit www.walkingshadowcompany.org or call 612-375-0300
More information at www.codyrivers.com
I haven't been this excited about a theater performance in months. Ever since I heard The Cody Rivers Show was coming back to town, I marked my calendar and counted the days. Finally, they are here, with their newest show, "Meanwhile, Everywhere"
One weekend only, tonight, Thursday, March 19; tomorrow, Friday, March 20; and Saturday, March 21 - all shows 8pm. Performances at Patrick's Cabaret, 3010 Minnehaha Avenue South in Minneapolis. Brought to us by the good folks at Walking Shadow Theatre Company. Tickets $12 - $15, which is a steal at twice the price, really. These guys are that good. If I could go all three nights, I would - but a guy's gotta earn a living and hours at the second job are leaner these days. I shall be there tonight to cheer their opening, however.
So just what is The Cody Rivers Show?
It's two guys - Andrew Connor and Mike Mathieu - and pretty much nothing else. When they first blew everyone away in the 2007 Fringe with their show "Flammable People," they were all done up in puke green jumpsuits and really bad wigs - and so well disguised that I didn't recognize them out of costume. With their return in Fringe 2008 with "Stick To Glue," they were in civilian clothes with peculiar face paint as the only nod to costuming. Andrew also had a solo show in 2008, "Boom," which was equally captivating.
They are so mind-bogglingly good that they almost defy description, but I gave it a go in 2007 and it comes as close as I've managed to explaining just why they're so wonderful, and everyone should see them, so here's what I said about "Flammable People." The Cody Rivers aesthetic described herein follows through from show to show, wildly different though they all be...
"Mom says they had her at the punctuation.
This is almost an impossible show to review. People warn you that explaining a joke just sucks all the funny right out of it and kills it. I’m not even sure how to explain The Cody Rivers Show - Flammable People, except to say they’re brilliant. Weird, and funny, and brilliant.
It’s just two guys in puke green jumpsuits and bad wigs, and that’s about it. How funny could it be?
You.
Have.
No.
Idea.
All the pieces of this marvelously Dickensian comic puzzle box of a show work independently of one another. They are funny in isolation. When you start to realize, though, about halfway through the performance that all of these things are interconnected, however tangentially, it truly begins to blow your mind.
The sequence where they captivated Mom was in a conversation between a parent and the school principle where air quotes for ironic effort ballooned into question marks, exclamation points, parentheses, and most amusingly, an ellipsis. Yeah, you had to be there, but you should.
A young boy’s speech in front of the class about a family vacation, which becomes a battle of wills with his father (an unintentional heckler), resurfaces later with unseen voices commenting on the wildlife in an aquarium, and resurfaces later still in the mind-bogglingly beautiful and absurd final image.
“I could actually see the hot air balloon,” said Mom.
These guys raise the comedy staple of “callbacks” to high art.
Another thing they do so tellingly is excavate the painful discomfort that often results from the relationships with people we allow ourselves to be vulnerable around - parents, children, friends, co-workers. This unsettling undercurrent makes the comedy that much more rich and fully human. The situations and personal interactions may be outlandish at times, in fact frequently, but they are also quite recognizably a part of our very real world as well.
Prop humor is also not beyond them. Though the performance is almost exclusively just the two men ping-ponging off one another for an hour, with just a couple of chairs and the stage curtain for backup, there is one sublimely silly moment where rag doll doppelgangers play up the idea of forced perspective and distance in an escalating sequence of goofiness. There is also a sequence with clipboards and audience surveys that defies description.
There’s a little song and dance to be had as well - mostly to let them transition between sequences, and cleverly play with time and space within one extremely peculiar section.
It’s another one I’m going to wedge into my schedule one more time before the Fringe is done. I know some people who have already gone back for a second helping. It’s the kind of show that rewards repeat viewings with new insights into the complex structure. But again, it’s a show where you can just go and enjoy the bits and pieces, without the larger picture coming into focus at all. Whatever level it grabs you on, it’s a hell of a ride.
You really shouldn’t miss this one.
And keep an eye on Cody Rivers - www.codyrivers.com. If we’re lucky, they’ll be back.
Very highly recommended."
They're back.
They're not doing the Fringe this year.
This is your only chance to see them in 2009.
You should see them.
Trust me. You'll be glad you did.
Those who've seen them in the past know what I'm talking about.
Those who haven't - you're in for a treat.
See you there.
For reservations visit www.walkingshadowcompany.org or call 612-375-0300
More information at www.codyrivers.com
Monday, March 09, 2009
Fringe 2009 - When I Disappear...
It’s not that I don’t enjoy blogging. I do. Writing about theater, and in particular the Fringe Festival, is often great fun.
Sometimes when I disappear from this space it’s because I’m doing something over on MNArtists.org. Sometimes I’m doing something over on MinnesotaPlaylist.com
A lot of the time, I’m carving out time for my own playwriting.
Another chunk of the time, though, I’m working.
I don’t get paid for blogging. I only get paid for playwriting when someone produces or buys a script of mine.
Can’t live on that, unfortunately.
And right now, as you might imagine, the day job front is kind of scary.
My benefits and vacation time job (which makes Fringe Festival attendance and getting out of town for rehearsals and family time possible) is in fundraising for education. I know. Worthwhile, but a lot easier last year than this year. I’m in the development arm of a larger organization devoted to promoting higher education. Our fundraising year runs from July of one year through June of the next.
At the beginning of the campaign year, our grant writer and Greater Minnesota campaign manager made a lateral move to another part of the organization. Still in house, but no longer a full part of the fundraising team. So we started the campaign operating one person short.
Then halfway through our fundraising campaign, the bottom dropped out of the economy.
The election was a bright spot.
Then the president of our organization announced his retirement in December (for this coming December).
Which effectively froze all hiring. Insuring that we’d be continuing the rest of the campaign one person short.
Then last month my supervisor, the head of the fundraising team, announced she was leaving for another job.
Leading up to her departure, we were all cramming in as much campaign work as possible, to set things up well for the interim director who’d be taking the reins in the middle of the campaign.
Now the interim is on board, and I’m helping train in a new boss (third time since I’ve been here).
The person who ultimately takes over the president’s job could reconfigure the entire organization.
The person who takes over the fundraising campaign after the interim is a complete unknown at this point, and wouldn’t be hired until that new president is in place.
I coordinate the database, the gift processing and the mailings, so I’m in a pretty good position.
But everything’s essentially up in the air there. Out of my control. No sense worrying or borrowing trouble. Just gonna be a bumpy ride for a while, with the destination uncertain.
My part-time job - to help pay down my debt faster and keep me in paper and toner cartridges - is in the Guthrie Theater box office.
As theaters go, the Guthrie’s on a more solid footing than most. But we’re looking at significant cuts - of both money, and people.
The first round of people get let go at the end of this month, before the new fiscal year starts for the theater on - April Fool’s Day. Wish that were funnier.
The next round of people get cut sometime after the big Tony Kushner-fest that runs April through June.
The theater season, still a set of mysteries at the moment, will still be four productions on each of the big stages. But the proscenium will have two of those four as co-productions with other companies. Up in the blackbox space on the ninth floor, no in-house productions next year. All rentals and/or co-productions with other companies.
No more commissions for new plays beyond the ones already in the pipeline. Even though it’d be a mighty leap for me to reach that door someday, it still was awfully hard to hear that door for living playwrights slammed shut. And locked. For now.
And that means the BFA acting students won’t be working with living playwrights in the near future for their senior project. Which is a shame. The experience would do them good. And some of those plays the last couple of years have been quite lovely.
I’m pretty high up on the seniority list on the box office roster right now. But they’ve already started cutting back everyone’s hours. And more cuts may be in the offing.
Of course if no one has the expendable income to buy tickets, the phone doesn’t ring, and there’s less need for someone to be around to answer it.
Again, nothing I can do about it. Totally beyond my control. All I can do is just do my job to the best of my ability and hope that’s enough.
Of course, good work is no guarantee of an audience - just ask the company of “A Delicate Balance,” or “The Home Place.”
Fewer hands, heavier load. Less time for the mind and typing fingers to wander.
I thought I was handling the stress well. I’m exercising regularly, trying (not always succeeding) to get a decent night’s sleep, eating as well as I can on my schedule.
But then my face started breaking out over the weekend.
So clearly my body’s caught on to the situation.
New de-stressing strategies are in order.
Writing helps. That includes blogging.
So hopefully you’ll be seeing more, not less of me, in the weeks ahead.
But when I disappear, that’s the context we’re dealing with at the moment.
Hope you’re all doing well on the job and happiness front.
Thanks for reading.
Sometimes when I disappear from this space it’s because I’m doing something over on MNArtists.org. Sometimes I’m doing something over on MinnesotaPlaylist.com
A lot of the time, I’m carving out time for my own playwriting.
Another chunk of the time, though, I’m working.
I don’t get paid for blogging. I only get paid for playwriting when someone produces or buys a script of mine.
Can’t live on that, unfortunately.
And right now, as you might imagine, the day job front is kind of scary.
My benefits and vacation time job (which makes Fringe Festival attendance and getting out of town for rehearsals and family time possible) is in fundraising for education. I know. Worthwhile, but a lot easier last year than this year. I’m in the development arm of a larger organization devoted to promoting higher education. Our fundraising year runs from July of one year through June of the next.
At the beginning of the campaign year, our grant writer and Greater Minnesota campaign manager made a lateral move to another part of the organization. Still in house, but no longer a full part of the fundraising team. So we started the campaign operating one person short.
Then halfway through our fundraising campaign, the bottom dropped out of the economy.
The election was a bright spot.
Then the president of our organization announced his retirement in December (for this coming December).
Which effectively froze all hiring. Insuring that we’d be continuing the rest of the campaign one person short.
Then last month my supervisor, the head of the fundraising team, announced she was leaving for another job.
Leading up to her departure, we were all cramming in as much campaign work as possible, to set things up well for the interim director who’d be taking the reins in the middle of the campaign.
Now the interim is on board, and I’m helping train in a new boss (third time since I’ve been here).
The person who ultimately takes over the president’s job could reconfigure the entire organization.
The person who takes over the fundraising campaign after the interim is a complete unknown at this point, and wouldn’t be hired until that new president is in place.
I coordinate the database, the gift processing and the mailings, so I’m in a pretty good position.
But everything’s essentially up in the air there. Out of my control. No sense worrying or borrowing trouble. Just gonna be a bumpy ride for a while, with the destination uncertain.
My part-time job - to help pay down my debt faster and keep me in paper and toner cartridges - is in the Guthrie Theater box office.
As theaters go, the Guthrie’s on a more solid footing than most. But we’re looking at significant cuts - of both money, and people.
The first round of people get let go at the end of this month, before the new fiscal year starts for the theater on - April Fool’s Day. Wish that were funnier.
The next round of people get cut sometime after the big Tony Kushner-fest that runs April through June.
The theater season, still a set of mysteries at the moment, will still be four productions on each of the big stages. But the proscenium will have two of those four as co-productions with other companies. Up in the blackbox space on the ninth floor, no in-house productions next year. All rentals and/or co-productions with other companies.
No more commissions for new plays beyond the ones already in the pipeline. Even though it’d be a mighty leap for me to reach that door someday, it still was awfully hard to hear that door for living playwrights slammed shut. And locked. For now.
And that means the BFA acting students won’t be working with living playwrights in the near future for their senior project. Which is a shame. The experience would do them good. And some of those plays the last couple of years have been quite lovely.
I’m pretty high up on the seniority list on the box office roster right now. But they’ve already started cutting back everyone’s hours. And more cuts may be in the offing.
Of course if no one has the expendable income to buy tickets, the phone doesn’t ring, and there’s less need for someone to be around to answer it.
Again, nothing I can do about it. Totally beyond my control. All I can do is just do my job to the best of my ability and hope that’s enough.
Of course, good work is no guarantee of an audience - just ask the company of “A Delicate Balance,” or “The Home Place.”
Fewer hands, heavier load. Less time for the mind and typing fingers to wander.
I thought I was handling the stress well. I’m exercising regularly, trying (not always succeeding) to get a decent night’s sleep, eating as well as I can on my schedule.
But then my face started breaking out over the weekend.
So clearly my body’s caught on to the situation.
New de-stressing strategies are in order.
Writing helps. That includes blogging.
So hopefully you’ll be seeing more, not less of me, in the weeks ahead.
But when I disappear, that’s the context we’re dealing with at the moment.
Hope you’re all doing well on the job and happiness front.
Thanks for reading.
Labels:
Fringe Archives 2009,
Fringe blogging
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Review - Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children - Workhouse & Hardcover Theaters - 4-1/2 stars
It’s nice to know theater can still surprise me.
Workhouse Theatre & Hardcover Theater teamed up to adapt Dave Louapre & Dan Sweetman’s “Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children” (BSFUC) for the stage and the results are quite delightful - and often unexpected. A share of that delight certainly stems from the source material itself, a series of illustrated stories for an adult audience that grabbed the attention of the comic book/graphic novel crowd, even though BSFUC was neither. Just as the product itself defies easy genre labels, the stage adaptations defy expectation.
In “Beneath The Useless Universe,” adapted and directed by Paul Von Stoetzel, Death (Madison Olimb) comes to visit a woman (Corey de Danann) who is tired of life and ready to shuffle off her mortal coil. But Death just wants to hang out. And stays for days. I thought I knew where this was going. I was wrong.
The centerpiece of the evening is “I Am Paul’s Dog,” adapted by Jeff Redman and directed by Christopher McGahan. Buster the Dog (Redman) guides the audience through a stretch of days with his master Paul (Steven Bucko). Buster gamely tries to untangle the mysteries of Paul’s mating habits, and foreign human concepts such as television, alarm clocks, weekends, and beer, among other things. The uniquely dog’s eye view of the narrative is full of twists and turns. Bucko does quadruple duty, also taking on the role of Buster’s canine best friend and Paul’s beer buddies, as well as one of Paul’s girlfriends. I thought I knew where this was going. I was wrong.
In “By The Light of the Screaming Moon,” adapted and directed by Nathaniel Churchill, a community of lemmings prepares for the big jump. But first, these rodents living a suburbanite existence have one last school prom to enjoy. Mary (Olimb again) and her date Jack (Bucko again) ditch their fellow prom-goers and Mary’s parents (de Danann and Redman again) to see if they can escape the deadly communal plunge. I thought I knew where this was going. I was wrong.
I haven’t had such a good time being confounded by a theater production in a long time.
Each story is full of laughs both large and small, as well as sudden moments of bittersweet longing and grace. One diatribe by Death almost had me tuning out the “Useless Universe” but it turns out that wasn’t the “moral of the story” after all. The story’s true end point is one of the nicer gifts to lonely single people that I’ve heard in a very long time. Despite that one brief hiccup, the adaptations all seem to capture the same whimsical spirit. There’s a hint of forgiveness lurking behind every bite of satire. It all makes me want to go out and try to find some of these hard to find old stories for my own bookshelf (they’ve been out of print since 1992, but they still keep popping up here and there).
The set and costume design (by Sarah J. Leigh and Sara Wilcox, respectively) wisely don’t try to mimic exactly the spectacular line drawings by Dan Sweetman in the original stories. Production Artist Travis Olson does offer a nod to the source material in recreations of the screaming moon, Buster, Death, and a group gathered on a cliff’s edge all painted on a proscenium arch at the front of the stage. It also seems to act as a book spine, with the BSFUC title running down one side. It’s a clean, clever nod from the design team to their inspiration that never gets in the way of the storytelling, but serves a reminder before and after the stories have made their way across the stage. Special mention should be made of Death’s faceless costume - it’s familiar and unsettling, which makes the comedy that follows from that character even funnier.
My only quarrel with the staging is an issue of transitions. “Paul’s Dog” was the biggest offender. There were periods during the piece where it seemed like we were getting a blackout every thirty seconds. Buster has an insight into human nature and a dog’s life, blackout, Buster shares another insight, blackout, Buster says something else, blackout. Enough already. In addition to killing whatever momentum the story was trying to build, the blackouts were completely unnecessary. Just like the incessant shuffling around of furniture the blackouts were trying to “hide” were completely unnecessary. Later in the proceedings, the actors showed they were obviously capable of handling an emotional, character or time transition, sometimes all three, without the benefit of light changes. One can enter carrying a trash can or push a bench around without destroying suspension of disbelief. Better yet, try doing the story without so much furniture moving. The audience is on your side. They’re not stupid. They’ve seen things acted out in front of them before. They’ll roll with it. Trust your story, your audience and your actors and just let the thing flow. “Useless Universe’s” big fish bowl transition was its only slip in this regard. But again, either actor in character, in either combination, could have helped make the switch in full light, gotten you another belly laugh, and not given the audience a chance to withdraw from the story. Please, I beg of you, spare us the time in the dark. It’s not helping.
In sum, though, the evening is great fun. “Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children” lives up to the rabid devotion lavished on its source material. I’ve never held an issue of BSFUC in my hands, but I now consider myself a fan. I was already a fan of Workhouse and Hardcover, but they’ve moved up yet another notch on my list of companies to carve out time for, whenever and wherever they turn up next. But for now, go see this show and revel in some unique storytelling, very well played.
Very Highly Recommended.
“Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children” performs at Workhouse Theater’s home, The Warren, 4400 Osseo Road in Minneapolis, now through March 21st, 2009. Evening performances at 7:30pm, matinees at 2pm. Tickets are $12 ($10 seniors & students) at the door, but only $10 in advance ($8 seniors & students) - so call 612-386-5763 or reserve tickets online at www.workhousetheatre.org. You can also check out a preview article I wrote, with other handy BSFUC links, at http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=225484
Workhouse Theatre & Hardcover Theater teamed up to adapt Dave Louapre & Dan Sweetman’s “Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children” (BSFUC) for the stage and the results are quite delightful - and often unexpected. A share of that delight certainly stems from the source material itself, a series of illustrated stories for an adult audience that grabbed the attention of the comic book/graphic novel crowd, even though BSFUC was neither. Just as the product itself defies easy genre labels, the stage adaptations defy expectation.
In “Beneath The Useless Universe,” adapted and directed by Paul Von Stoetzel, Death (Madison Olimb) comes to visit a woman (Corey de Danann) who is tired of life and ready to shuffle off her mortal coil. But Death just wants to hang out. And stays for days. I thought I knew where this was going. I was wrong.
The centerpiece of the evening is “I Am Paul’s Dog,” adapted by Jeff Redman and directed by Christopher McGahan. Buster the Dog (Redman) guides the audience through a stretch of days with his master Paul (Steven Bucko). Buster gamely tries to untangle the mysteries of Paul’s mating habits, and foreign human concepts such as television, alarm clocks, weekends, and beer, among other things. The uniquely dog’s eye view of the narrative is full of twists and turns. Bucko does quadruple duty, also taking on the role of Buster’s canine best friend and Paul’s beer buddies, as well as one of Paul’s girlfriends. I thought I knew where this was going. I was wrong.
In “By The Light of the Screaming Moon,” adapted and directed by Nathaniel Churchill, a community of lemmings prepares for the big jump. But first, these rodents living a suburbanite existence have one last school prom to enjoy. Mary (Olimb again) and her date Jack (Bucko again) ditch their fellow prom-goers and Mary’s parents (de Danann and Redman again) to see if they can escape the deadly communal plunge. I thought I knew where this was going. I was wrong.
I haven’t had such a good time being confounded by a theater production in a long time.
Each story is full of laughs both large and small, as well as sudden moments of bittersweet longing and grace. One diatribe by Death almost had me tuning out the “Useless Universe” but it turns out that wasn’t the “moral of the story” after all. The story’s true end point is one of the nicer gifts to lonely single people that I’ve heard in a very long time. Despite that one brief hiccup, the adaptations all seem to capture the same whimsical spirit. There’s a hint of forgiveness lurking behind every bite of satire. It all makes me want to go out and try to find some of these hard to find old stories for my own bookshelf (they’ve been out of print since 1992, but they still keep popping up here and there).
The set and costume design (by Sarah J. Leigh and Sara Wilcox, respectively) wisely don’t try to mimic exactly the spectacular line drawings by Dan Sweetman in the original stories. Production Artist Travis Olson does offer a nod to the source material in recreations of the screaming moon, Buster, Death, and a group gathered on a cliff’s edge all painted on a proscenium arch at the front of the stage. It also seems to act as a book spine, with the BSFUC title running down one side. It’s a clean, clever nod from the design team to their inspiration that never gets in the way of the storytelling, but serves a reminder before and after the stories have made their way across the stage. Special mention should be made of Death’s faceless costume - it’s familiar and unsettling, which makes the comedy that follows from that character even funnier.
My only quarrel with the staging is an issue of transitions. “Paul’s Dog” was the biggest offender. There were periods during the piece where it seemed like we were getting a blackout every thirty seconds. Buster has an insight into human nature and a dog’s life, blackout, Buster shares another insight, blackout, Buster says something else, blackout. Enough already. In addition to killing whatever momentum the story was trying to build, the blackouts were completely unnecessary. Just like the incessant shuffling around of furniture the blackouts were trying to “hide” were completely unnecessary. Later in the proceedings, the actors showed they were obviously capable of handling an emotional, character or time transition, sometimes all three, without the benefit of light changes. One can enter carrying a trash can or push a bench around without destroying suspension of disbelief. Better yet, try doing the story without so much furniture moving. The audience is on your side. They’re not stupid. They’ve seen things acted out in front of them before. They’ll roll with it. Trust your story, your audience and your actors and just let the thing flow. “Useless Universe’s” big fish bowl transition was its only slip in this regard. But again, either actor in character, in either combination, could have helped make the switch in full light, gotten you another belly laugh, and not given the audience a chance to withdraw from the story. Please, I beg of you, spare us the time in the dark. It’s not helping.
In sum, though, the evening is great fun. “Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children” lives up to the rabid devotion lavished on its source material. I’ve never held an issue of BSFUC in my hands, but I now consider myself a fan. I was already a fan of Workhouse and Hardcover, but they’ve moved up yet another notch on my list of companies to carve out time for, whenever and wherever they turn up next. But for now, go see this show and revel in some unique storytelling, very well played.
Very Highly Recommended.
“Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children” performs at Workhouse Theater’s home, The Warren, 4400 Osseo Road in Minneapolis, now through March 21st, 2009. Evening performances at 7:30pm, matinees at 2pm. Tickets are $12 ($10 seniors & students) at the door, but only $10 in advance ($8 seniors & students) - so call 612-386-5763 or reserve tickets online at www.workhousetheatre.org. You can also check out a preview article I wrote, with other handy BSFUC links, at http://www.mnartists.org/article.do?rid=225484
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Fringe 2009 - Jailbait Fringe
Kidding. I just needed a catchy headline. But technically, shows by teens and for teens - the Teen Fringe - would qualify.
Teen Fringe, same issue as Kids Fringe, and again, for the first time I can recall. Not enough to teen entries to fill the slots set aside, so they all get in, and a couple of extra slots end up in the general lottery for the rest of the crowd. Win, win.
Only six Teen Fringe entries this year. And they are...
#1
(yes, that person was really on the ball - no pun intended - getting their application in, back in November)
Ruth Glaeser and Company
“Thank You and Have A Nice Day” - The life of employees in a department store picking up people’s clothes, making out in the dressing rooom, etc. Done through dance, song and action.
(well, yes, action of all kinds apparently. I guess I worked in the wrong department stores when I was in retail...)
(and the next two aren’t slouches either in the early application department...)
#20
Youth Performance Company
(of Goddess Menses, The Talk, and Boy Show fame - I’m a big fan of this group)
“Call It Swing” - Set in real time...
(Call Jack Bauer - or Hardcover Theater)
... it describes the hour before the longest Nazi raid of teen swing clubs in 1941, from inside the club.
(Nazis. Definitely call Jack Bauer)
#60
Free Bird Productions
“Stalled - An Elevator Story” - Eight strangers are forced to get to know each other when their elevator stalls.
(I will resist the obvious “ups and downs,” and “going down” jokes. Well, almost.)
#247
Caity Shea Violette
“Paisley Poppies” - A bizarre comedy featuring a teenage girl and her best friend, a stalker and her overly Minnesotan mother. Their reality drastically changes after a sudden turn of events.
(Ah, punctuation. It makes me think that the teenage girl’s best friend might indeed be a stalker, as well as also being her overly Minnesotan mother. Or maybe the stalker has an overly Minnesotan mother. By the way, what exactly is an overly Minnesotan mother? Should we be expecting hot dish jokes? Also doesn’t everyone’s reality always drastically change after a sudden turn of events? Isn’t that what sudden turns of events do? It does sound bizarre. Plus, paisley poppies make me think 1960s or 1970s. Lot of material to chew over here...)
#299
SteppingStone Theatre
“In Another’s Size” - Fast forward (or rewind) your life to high school.
(Sweet Jesus, please, no.)
Imagine a boy likes a girl who is really him
(so is there a word missing or is a boy in love with himself as a girl?)
who knows a cheerleader who is really a depressed boy
(well, can’t boys be cheerleaders anyway? But a depressed cheerleader would really have to work extra hard, I guess.)
who knows a basketball player who is really another girl
(again, can’t girls already be basketball players?)
who is “friends” with a dumb blonde who is really a perfectionist.
(I don’t think dumb and perfectionist are mutually exclusive to begin with)
Welcome to John Hughes High.
(Welcome to a lawsuit from John Hughes’ handlers)
(So to review, there’s a boy who’s really a girl, and that boy/girl is friends with a girl cheerleader who’s really a depressed boy, and that girl/boy knows a basketball player - who for the sake of argument we’ll assume is a boy, but he’s really a girl...
So the boy/girl who’s in love with himself/herself, knows the girl/boy cheerleader, who in turn knows the boy/girl basketball player who is friends, but not really, with a dumb blond of unspecified gender, who is also a perfectionist.
Makes total sense.
I like gender confusion as much as the next theater person, so I’ll give ‘em a break and stop teasing them and see how it all turns out)
#305
The Bakery Theatre Company
(who brought us last year's popular Fringe show Audish)
“Thin Mint” - Lies, sexuality and the Pinewood Derby. A troop’s misadventure to bury a fellow Boy Scout.
(Oh. My. God. I am so there.)
(Theater about theater, not my thing, but this, embarrassingly enough, totally is)
Teen Fringe, same issue as Kids Fringe, and again, for the first time I can recall. Not enough to teen entries to fill the slots set aside, so they all get in, and a couple of extra slots end up in the general lottery for the rest of the crowd. Win, win.
Only six Teen Fringe entries this year. And they are...
#1
(yes, that person was really on the ball - no pun intended - getting their application in, back in November)
Ruth Glaeser and Company
“Thank You and Have A Nice Day” - The life of employees in a department store picking up people’s clothes, making out in the dressing rooom, etc. Done through dance, song and action.
(well, yes, action of all kinds apparently. I guess I worked in the wrong department stores when I was in retail...)
(and the next two aren’t slouches either in the early application department...)
#20
Youth Performance Company
(of Goddess Menses, The Talk, and Boy Show fame - I’m a big fan of this group)
“Call It Swing” - Set in real time...
(Call Jack Bauer - or Hardcover Theater)
... it describes the hour before the longest Nazi raid of teen swing clubs in 1941, from inside the club.
(Nazis. Definitely call Jack Bauer)
#60
Free Bird Productions
“Stalled - An Elevator Story” - Eight strangers are forced to get to know each other when their elevator stalls.
(I will resist the obvious “ups and downs,” and “going down” jokes. Well, almost.)
#247
Caity Shea Violette
“Paisley Poppies” - A bizarre comedy featuring a teenage girl and her best friend, a stalker and her overly Minnesotan mother. Their reality drastically changes after a sudden turn of events.
(Ah, punctuation. It makes me think that the teenage girl’s best friend might indeed be a stalker, as well as also being her overly Minnesotan mother. Or maybe the stalker has an overly Minnesotan mother. By the way, what exactly is an overly Minnesotan mother? Should we be expecting hot dish jokes? Also doesn’t everyone’s reality always drastically change after a sudden turn of events? Isn’t that what sudden turns of events do? It does sound bizarre. Plus, paisley poppies make me think 1960s or 1970s. Lot of material to chew over here...)
#299
SteppingStone Theatre
“In Another’s Size” - Fast forward (or rewind) your life to high school.
(Sweet Jesus, please, no.)
Imagine a boy likes a girl who is really him
(so is there a word missing or is a boy in love with himself as a girl?)
who knows a cheerleader who is really a depressed boy
(well, can’t boys be cheerleaders anyway? But a depressed cheerleader would really have to work extra hard, I guess.)
who knows a basketball player who is really another girl
(again, can’t girls already be basketball players?)
who is “friends” with a dumb blonde who is really a perfectionist.
(I don’t think dumb and perfectionist are mutually exclusive to begin with)
Welcome to John Hughes High.
(Welcome to a lawsuit from John Hughes’ handlers)
(So to review, there’s a boy who’s really a girl, and that boy/girl is friends with a girl cheerleader who’s really a depressed boy, and that girl/boy knows a basketball player - who for the sake of argument we’ll assume is a boy, but he’s really a girl...
So the boy/girl who’s in love with himself/herself, knows the girl/boy cheerleader, who in turn knows the boy/girl basketball player who is friends, but not really, with a dumb blond of unspecified gender, who is also a perfectionist.
Makes total sense.
I like gender confusion as much as the next theater person, so I’ll give ‘em a break and stop teasing them and see how it all turns out)
#305
The Bakery Theatre Company
(who brought us last year's popular Fringe show Audish)
“Thin Mint” - Lies, sexuality and the Pinewood Derby. A troop’s misadventure to bury a fellow Boy Scout.
(Oh. My. God. I am so there.)
(Theater about theater, not my thing, but this, embarrassingly enough, totally is)
Friday, February 27, 2009
Fringe 2009 - It's For The Children
I guess the economy is hitting the Fringe hard, too. This is the first year I can remember that the applicants for the kids Fringe slots didn’t need to be drawn. Normally there have been more artists wanting in with shows by and for kids that there were slots, so they had to try their luck in the spinning chickenwire cage like everyone else.
This year, however, more slots set aside than artists.
Upside, they all got in.
Other upside, there’s another slot or two to toss into the general pot, more chance for artists of all stripes to get on the Fringe schedule.
And I guess an additional upside is, all these shows will get a little extra attention and won’t have to fight quite as hard for an audience. These nine are currently the only game in town for parents to go Fringing with their youngsters (outside of sampling some of the more adult fare out there that might also be family-friendly). They’re all local companies, and they are...
#41
Purple Horse Productions
(the proverbial horse of a different color)
“The Greener Garden” - A gardener discovers he has a greener thumb after falling asleep, allowing the magical fruit blossoms to go to work.
#105
Black Storytellers Alliance
“Anansi, Brer Rabbit, and Other Wily Characters” - Storytelling: folk tales, fairy tales, and other stories of trickery and wit.
#119
Hometown Theatre
“Goodnight, Eric!” - A young boy is asked to put himself to bed for the first time, because his parents have company. He ends up playing games with his stuffed animals because we find out, he still wants to be tucked in.
(Well, don’t we all?)
#169
Harmony Theatre Company & School
“The Sleuth Sisters” - An original detective story for children, performed as an off-the-air radio show.
(So... a radio show with an audience that’s not on the air is essentially... theater. Works out fine.)
#178
Upstage! Musical Theatre Workshop
(So, are they commanding the kids to get upstage, or to upstage their fellow performers, or since Upstage! has the exclamation point, is that the place on stage where all the music happens? I know. I’m overthinking this.)
“The Real Story of Little Red Riding Hood” - This musical tells the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood, but with a twist. When the wolf takes over the show, everyone will hear his side of the story... like it or not.
(Setting a wolf loose on a room full of kids. Excellent!)
#180
Gustavus Adolphus College
“Poppy’s Real Mother” - A show for young children about adoption.
#216
Joshua English Scrimshaw & Levi Weinhagen
“The Hardy Boys in, The Tower Treasure” - Young detectives solve a mystery and meet quirky folk along the way. A comic adaptation.
(I have to admit, I was addicted to these books, and the TV show, when I was a kid. And since it’s a kids show rather than adult Scrimshaw fare, it won’t be The Hardy Boys In Rehab - though that, too, would be fun)
#277
Top Hat Theatre
TBD
(They’ve done the Fringe before and had success. I imagine that trend will continue.)
#313
Magic Lantern Puppet Theatre
“I Won’t Grow Up!”
(ok, ok, no need to shout)
Exploration of an adult’s memories and fantasies of childhood.
(promising name of the company, in terms of what the production might hold)
This year, however, more slots set aside than artists.
Upside, they all got in.
Other upside, there’s another slot or two to toss into the general pot, more chance for artists of all stripes to get on the Fringe schedule.
And I guess an additional upside is, all these shows will get a little extra attention and won’t have to fight quite as hard for an audience. These nine are currently the only game in town for parents to go Fringing with their youngsters (outside of sampling some of the more adult fare out there that might also be family-friendly). They’re all local companies, and they are...
#41
Purple Horse Productions
(the proverbial horse of a different color)
“The Greener Garden” - A gardener discovers he has a greener thumb after falling asleep, allowing the magical fruit blossoms to go to work.
#105
Black Storytellers Alliance
“Anansi, Brer Rabbit, and Other Wily Characters” - Storytelling: folk tales, fairy tales, and other stories of trickery and wit.
#119
Hometown Theatre
“Goodnight, Eric!” - A young boy is asked to put himself to bed for the first time, because his parents have company. He ends up playing games with his stuffed animals because we find out, he still wants to be tucked in.
(Well, don’t we all?)
#169
Harmony Theatre Company & School
“The Sleuth Sisters” - An original detective story for children, performed as an off-the-air radio show.
(So... a radio show with an audience that’s not on the air is essentially... theater. Works out fine.)
#178
Upstage! Musical Theatre Workshop
(So, are they commanding the kids to get upstage, or to upstage their fellow performers, or since Upstage! has the exclamation point, is that the place on stage where all the music happens? I know. I’m overthinking this.)
“The Real Story of Little Red Riding Hood” - This musical tells the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood, but with a twist. When the wolf takes over the show, everyone will hear his side of the story... like it or not.
(Setting a wolf loose on a room full of kids. Excellent!)
#180
Gustavus Adolphus College
“Poppy’s Real Mother” - A show for young children about adoption.
#216
Joshua English Scrimshaw & Levi Weinhagen
“The Hardy Boys in, The Tower Treasure” - Young detectives solve a mystery and meet quirky folk along the way. A comic adaptation.
(I have to admit, I was addicted to these books, and the TV show, when I was a kid. And since it’s a kids show rather than adult Scrimshaw fare, it won’t be The Hardy Boys In Rehab - though that, too, would be fun)
#277
Top Hat Theatre
TBD
(They’ve done the Fringe before and had success. I imagine that trend will continue.)
#313
Magic Lantern Puppet Theatre
“I Won’t Grow Up!”
(ok, ok, no need to shout)
Exploration of an adult’s memories and fantasies of childhood.
(promising name of the company, in terms of what the production might hold)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Fringe 2009 - The Number 5
Since it was the 5th Annual Fringe Lottery (happy 5th birthday, lottery), let’s check out the 5s
Ping Pong Ball #5 was...
Commedia Beauregard, my Bad Art play pals
They ended up at the number 9 spot on the wait list, so things look good for us to get to see their offering...
“I Can Has Da Force” - An LOLcat translation of “Star Wars: A New Hope”
(aka, the first, and arguably best, of the six Star Wars films - I can be persuaded about “Empire Strikes Back,” however. Since Mr. Lucas has especially trigger-happy lawyers, I’ll be curious to see if this one actually comes to pass or they have to translate something else, by someone less litigious)
The 5th ping pong ball drawn in the general lottery was...
#268
Deaf Blender Theatre (I love them already) - another local company
“That Chair Was My Wife” (I think I really love them)
A deaf furniture salesman shares a torrid tale of obsession, marriage, and adultery - with a chair or two.
(I’m assuming the salesman is deaf, because I think furniture itself is always by definition, deaf)
The 5th ping pong ball drawn for the wait list (and thus something else we’re very likely to see) was...
#27
Vessel Performance - another local company
“Profile” - A full-length dance performance investigating identity, image, and the perception of ourselves we put out into the world.
Ping Pong Ball #5 was...
Commedia Beauregard, my Bad Art play pals
They ended up at the number 9 spot on the wait list, so things look good for us to get to see their offering...
“I Can Has Da Force” - An LOLcat translation of “Star Wars: A New Hope”
(aka, the first, and arguably best, of the six Star Wars films - I can be persuaded about “Empire Strikes Back,” however. Since Mr. Lucas has especially trigger-happy lawyers, I’ll be curious to see if this one actually comes to pass or they have to translate something else, by someone less litigious)
The 5th ping pong ball drawn in the general lottery was...
#268
Deaf Blender Theatre (I love them already) - another local company
“That Chair Was My Wife” (I think I really love them)
A deaf furniture salesman shares a torrid tale of obsession, marriage, and adultery - with a chair or two.
(I’m assuming the salesman is deaf, because I think furniture itself is always by definition, deaf)
The 5th ping pong ball drawn for the wait list (and thus something else we’re very likely to see) was...
#27
Vessel Performance - another local company
“Profile” - A full-length dance performance investigating identity, image, and the perception of ourselves we put out into the world.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Fringe 2009 - Stuck In The Middle With You
So, 152 ping pong balls were drawn for the schedule.
The first 50 of that was the sublotteries (more on them in a bit) - 9 kids shows, 6 teen shows, 15 artists of color, 5 international artists, and 15 nationals.
So 102 ping pong balls were drawn in the general part of the lottery.
And another 161 ping pong balls were drawn for the wait list.
The middle of the general part of the drawing would fall at 51, which would be...
#108
Walking Boxes Productions
a local theater group which brought us both "The Musicker’s Balalaika" and "Wallace & The Dragon" so... it’s anybody’s guess, but I remain hopeful...
“Horace Greeley the Lesser” - Singer, storyteller Horace Greeley the Lesser visits the Island of Misfit Toys
(“Nobody wants a Charlie In The Box!” Oh, I remain even more hopeful now. Tapping into random childhood nostalgia for me can often work wonders)
The middle of the wait list drawing would fall at 80.5, so we’ll just grab 80 and 81 to be on the safe side (and those acts still stand a chance of getting in, depending on the drop out rate and the readiness of the acts in line ahead of them) and those would be...
80 is
Ping Pong Ball #79
IBEX Puppetry, Inc.
a national artist out of Florida
“Puppetslam” - Live host leads the audience through an evening of five to fifteen minute puppet acts by individual artists, for an hour of puppet entertainment.
(I gotta say, I really hope they get in. I know the nationals may not have the same waiting capability in their plans that the locals do, but this sounds like it could be a lot of fun.)
81 is
Ping Pong Ball #306
Rainy Day Cabaret
another local company
“Mixed Bull” - The work of two choreographers drawing from separate archives of material creating an evening of madcap ideas and mixed dance styles.
(Fringe has opened my eyes and mind and heart to dance, so I look forward to whatever ends up landing on the schedule. Some of my favorites last year were dance.)
The first 50 of that was the sublotteries (more on them in a bit) - 9 kids shows, 6 teen shows, 15 artists of color, 5 international artists, and 15 nationals.
So 102 ping pong balls were drawn in the general part of the lottery.
And another 161 ping pong balls were drawn for the wait list.
The middle of the general part of the drawing would fall at 51, which would be...
#108
Walking Boxes Productions
a local theater group which brought us both "The Musicker’s Balalaika" and "Wallace & The Dragon" so... it’s anybody’s guess, but I remain hopeful...
“Horace Greeley the Lesser” - Singer, storyteller Horace Greeley the Lesser visits the Island of Misfit Toys
(“Nobody wants a Charlie In The Box!” Oh, I remain even more hopeful now. Tapping into random childhood nostalgia for me can often work wonders)
The middle of the wait list drawing would fall at 80.5, so we’ll just grab 80 and 81 to be on the safe side (and those acts still stand a chance of getting in, depending on the drop out rate and the readiness of the acts in line ahead of them) and those would be...
80 is
Ping Pong Ball #79
IBEX Puppetry, Inc.
a national artist out of Florida
“Puppetslam” - Live host leads the audience through an evening of five to fifteen minute puppet acts by individual artists, for an hour of puppet entertainment.
(I gotta say, I really hope they get in. I know the nationals may not have the same waiting capability in their plans that the locals do, but this sounds like it could be a lot of fun.)
81 is
Ping Pong Ball #306
Rainy Day Cabaret
another local company
“Mixed Bull” - The work of two choreographers drawing from separate archives of material creating an evening of madcap ideas and mixed dance styles.
(Fringe has opened my eyes and mind and heart to dance, so I look forward to whatever ends up landing on the schedule. Some of my favorites last year were dance.)
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Fringe 2009 - The Number 16
Someone suggested, since it’s the Fringe’s 16th birthday, that I take a gander at the 16s in the mix from the lottery. Why not?
Ping Pong Ball #16 was
Chapter 13 Productions, a national entry from Wisconsin
They ended up about 119 spots down on the wait list so I’m not sure we’ll get to see this one, but if we did, it’d be...
“Down Devil’s Backbone” - The first part in a trilogy examining the virtues of a family in a small town and the pursuit of a happiness they can’t ever have.
(Ouch.)
The 16th ping pong ball drawn in the general lottery was
#263
Charlzik Theatre Company, a local Minnesota company
“First Lady” - A woman running for President, campaigns and all activity leads to an audience vote. All about the games played in the political process.
(The names Hilary and Sarah come to mind. I wonder which one we’re going to get.)
The 16th ping pong ball drawn for the wait list (and thus, something else we’re probably going to get to see) was...
#290
Balance Theatre Project, another Minnesota company
“Rope” - Story of William Williams, the last man executed by the state of Minnesota - his love, his crime, his botched hanging.
(I say again, Ouch. And, Yikes.)
Ping Pong Ball #16 was
Chapter 13 Productions, a national entry from Wisconsin
They ended up about 119 spots down on the wait list so I’m not sure we’ll get to see this one, but if we did, it’d be...
“Down Devil’s Backbone” - The first part in a trilogy examining the virtues of a family in a small town and the pursuit of a happiness they can’t ever have.
(Ouch.)
The 16th ping pong ball drawn in the general lottery was
#263
Charlzik Theatre Company, a local Minnesota company
“First Lady” - A woman running for President, campaigns and all activity leads to an audience vote. All about the games played in the political process.
(The names Hilary and Sarah come to mind. I wonder which one we’re going to get.)
The 16th ping pong ball drawn for the wait list (and thus, something else we’re probably going to get to see) was...
#290
Balance Theatre Project, another Minnesota company
“Rope” - Story of William Williams, the last man executed by the state of Minnesota - his love, his crime, his botched hanging.
(I say again, Ouch. And, Yikes.)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Fringe 2009 - First Out of the Cage, Last Out of the Cage
Another bit of randomness from the Fringe lottery...
The first ping pong ball drawn in the general lottery, after the sublotteries were dealt with (more on them in a bit), was...
300
Empty S Productions
Local entry
“Reservoir Dougs” - A musical spoof of Reservoir Dogs
If I didn’t know Michael Shaeffer (Roofies in the Mochaccino; Tantrums, Testicles, and Trojans), I’d be torn between thinking this was was a fantastic idea and a horrible idea. Since I do know Michael, I’m inclined to think we’re looking at fantastic. Gunplay, severed ears, buckets of blood, intense homoerotic male bonding, plus song and dance are possibly in the mix - given the description. Sounds like a Fringe show to me.
The last ping pong ball drawn in the general lottery, before the wait list began was...
95
Traudtrikt Productions (do not ask me to pronounce that)
Local entry
“Murder on the Mighty Mississippi” - A murder mystery play with a cast of 8 people, takes place on a boat in September.
Why in September, exactly? Guess we’ll have to see the show to unravel that mystery as well.
The first ping pong ball drawn for the wait list (and thus, something you’re very likely to be seeing in August) was...
213
Savage Umbrella (not to be confused with Blue Umbrella, which I already did - confuse the two, that is)
Local entry
“Pagliacci” - Gender-reversed reinvisioning of a classic tale of deception and the theater. Part homage, part parody, totally rock & roll.
It’s Fringe, so gender-reversed is a required, of course. As would be the theater, parody, and rock & roll elements.
The very last ping pong ball of the night, the very last spot on the wait list (and thus, something you will very likely *not* be seeing in August), was...
8
Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre
National entry from Illinois
“Dancing Nude” - Our hero examines the sexual crisis points from age 6 to the present through story, comic verse, and dance.
Timothy Mooney (of sci-fi, Moliere, and karaoke one-man show fame - that's three different shows of course, though combining them would certainly be Fringey and interesting as well). Dancing Nude. Hmmm...
Give me Tom Reed (Rampleseed) or Noah Bremer (Live Action Set) dancing nude, then we can talk.
(No offense meant, Timothy. I'm sure you're lovely as well.)
And thus my ongoing objectification of Fringe artists continues into 2009...
The first ping pong ball drawn in the general lottery, after the sublotteries were dealt with (more on them in a bit), was...
300
Empty S Productions
Local entry
“Reservoir Dougs” - A musical spoof of Reservoir Dogs
If I didn’t know Michael Shaeffer (Roofies in the Mochaccino; Tantrums, Testicles, and Trojans), I’d be torn between thinking this was was a fantastic idea and a horrible idea. Since I do know Michael, I’m inclined to think we’re looking at fantastic. Gunplay, severed ears, buckets of blood, intense homoerotic male bonding, plus song and dance are possibly in the mix - given the description. Sounds like a Fringe show to me.
The last ping pong ball drawn in the general lottery, before the wait list began was...
95
Traudtrikt Productions (do not ask me to pronounce that)
Local entry
“Murder on the Mighty Mississippi” - A murder mystery play with a cast of 8 people, takes place on a boat in September.
Why in September, exactly? Guess we’ll have to see the show to unravel that mystery as well.
The first ping pong ball drawn for the wait list (and thus, something you’re very likely to be seeing in August) was...
213
Savage Umbrella (not to be confused with Blue Umbrella, which I already did - confuse the two, that is)
Local entry
“Pagliacci” - Gender-reversed reinvisioning of a classic tale of deception and the theater. Part homage, part parody, totally rock & roll.
It’s Fringe, so gender-reversed is a required, of course. As would be the theater, parody, and rock & roll elements.
The very last ping pong ball of the night, the very last spot on the wait list (and thus, something you will very likely *not* be seeing in August), was...
8
Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre
National entry from Illinois
“Dancing Nude” - Our hero examines the sexual crisis points from age 6 to the present through story, comic verse, and dance.
Timothy Mooney (of sci-fi, Moliere, and karaoke one-man show fame - that's three different shows of course, though combining them would certainly be Fringey and interesting as well). Dancing Nude. Hmmm...
Give me Tom Reed (Rampleseed) or Noah Bremer (Live Action Set) dancing nude, then we can talk.
(No offense meant, Timothy. I'm sure you're lovely as well.)
And thus my ongoing objectification of Fringe artists continues into 2009...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Fringe 2009 - Don’t Despair, My Wait-Listed Friends
“Well, it’s time to start killing people.”
So said a person who was not entirely happy with where their friends’ show had ended up on the wait list in the Fringe lottery.
But of course, they were kidding.
Right?
Honestly, there’s no need to resort to violence. Yet.
Here’s the thing - everybody on the wait list, sit tight.
I know it’s hard to wait, but you don’t have to wait idly.
Write that script you haven’t written yet. Inquire after friends who were going to help you put the show together. You can do all kinds of things without laying out any money yet. And you’ve got the time.
The Fringe never - I mean, never - ends up doing the festival that’s drawn out of the lottery on the first go.
First, the people who just got in the Fringe via the lottery - a fair number of them will now panic - “Oh crap! I have to put a show together! I can’t put a show together!”
For some, the panic will subside - and they’ll do a show.
For others, the panic will remain - and they will drop out.
And the first bunch of people come up off the wait list onto the schedule.
Next panic point after the initial shock - the deadline to withdraw and still get your money back - normally the middle of March sometime.
After trying valiantly for a couple of weeks, some folks will realize they just can’t get it together, and should pull out and save their money to try again next year.
So the next group of people come up off the wait list onto the schedule.
Then for any number of reasons over the next five months, productions will implode, peter out, just not come together.
Those people will withdraw, learning a lesson that cost them a few hundred bucks.
And still more people will come up off the wait list onto the schedule.
One year a friend and I had a script that was being produced by someone else, and we made the mistake of assuming our producer/director knew to sit tight and wait for a few months. We were somewhere around the 90 point on the wait list.
Following the wait list anyway, like the obsessive-compulsive blogger that I am, I noticed that a few people on the list just above us were getting called up. Too late, I contacted the producer with the good news. They’d figured there was no chance in hell we were going to be called to do a show. So they’d committed themselves as a director to another project, and even enlisted some of the same actors they would have used for our script.
D’oh!
So, the wait list people behind on the wait list us got a break.
The first 30 or so on the wait list stand a very good chance of having a production go up in August - if they’re ready when the call comes.
The next 20 or so (up to 50) on the wait list also stand a better than average chance.
I had a friend who ended up at a spot right around 70 on the wait list this year. As requested, I texted him with an update and told him, “Write the script anyway. We’ll talk.”
Last year, two days before the festival opened, someone dropped out. The company all the way at next to last on the wait list got a call, and because they had an actor who had several one man shows in his pocket ready to go - voila! Instant Fringe show. It was Charlie Bethel’s “Beowolf or Gilgamesh” which my Mom loved so much she wanted to give it six stars on a one to five scale.
Not everyone has those resources, I know. Out of towners have to plan much farther ahead. But local artists, if you’re ready when the call comes, you could be in. If not, the person behind you on the wait list just got lucky.
Remember - my own script was languishing at around 90 one year, and still the call came. We just weren’t ready. We gave up too soon.
There’s a lot of time between now and August. Create your art.
Check this link regularly
http://fringefestival.org/lottery.php
And wait.
Good luck.
I know I’ll be seeing a lot of you at the Fringe.
So said a person who was not entirely happy with where their friends’ show had ended up on the wait list in the Fringe lottery.
But of course, they were kidding.
Right?
Honestly, there’s no need to resort to violence. Yet.
Here’s the thing - everybody on the wait list, sit tight.
I know it’s hard to wait, but you don’t have to wait idly.
Write that script you haven’t written yet. Inquire after friends who were going to help you put the show together. You can do all kinds of things without laying out any money yet. And you’ve got the time.
The Fringe never - I mean, never - ends up doing the festival that’s drawn out of the lottery on the first go.
First, the people who just got in the Fringe via the lottery - a fair number of them will now panic - “Oh crap! I have to put a show together! I can’t put a show together!”
For some, the panic will subside - and they’ll do a show.
For others, the panic will remain - and they will drop out.
And the first bunch of people come up off the wait list onto the schedule.
Next panic point after the initial shock - the deadline to withdraw and still get your money back - normally the middle of March sometime.
After trying valiantly for a couple of weeks, some folks will realize they just can’t get it together, and should pull out and save their money to try again next year.
So the next group of people come up off the wait list onto the schedule.
Then for any number of reasons over the next five months, productions will implode, peter out, just not come together.
Those people will withdraw, learning a lesson that cost them a few hundred bucks.
And still more people will come up off the wait list onto the schedule.
One year a friend and I had a script that was being produced by someone else, and we made the mistake of assuming our producer/director knew to sit tight and wait for a few months. We were somewhere around the 90 point on the wait list.
Following the wait list anyway, like the obsessive-compulsive blogger that I am, I noticed that a few people on the list just above us were getting called up. Too late, I contacted the producer with the good news. They’d figured there was no chance in hell we were going to be called to do a show. So they’d committed themselves as a director to another project, and even enlisted some of the same actors they would have used for our script.
D’oh!
So, the wait list people behind on the wait list us got a break.
The first 30 or so on the wait list stand a very good chance of having a production go up in August - if they’re ready when the call comes.
The next 20 or so (up to 50) on the wait list also stand a better than average chance.
I had a friend who ended up at a spot right around 70 on the wait list this year. As requested, I texted him with an update and told him, “Write the script anyway. We’ll talk.”
Last year, two days before the festival opened, someone dropped out. The company all the way at next to last on the wait list got a call, and because they had an actor who had several one man shows in his pocket ready to go - voila! Instant Fringe show. It was Charlie Bethel’s “Beowolf or Gilgamesh” which my Mom loved so much she wanted to give it six stars on a one to five scale.
Not everyone has those resources, I know. Out of towners have to plan much farther ahead. But local artists, if you’re ready when the call comes, you could be in. If not, the person behind you on the wait list just got lucky.
Remember - my own script was languishing at around 90 one year, and still the call came. We just weren’t ready. We gave up too soon.
There’s a lot of time between now and August. Create your art.
Check this link regularly
http://fringefestival.org/lottery.php
And wait.
Good luck.
I know I’ll be seeing a lot of you at the Fringe.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Fringe 2009 - The Number 81
To start the 5th Annual Fringe Lottery coverage off on a completely random note...
The day of the Fringe Lottery this year is also my father's 81st birthday (Happy Birthday, Dad! - well, he doesn't read blogs, but it's the thought that counts)
So, I thought, let's check out ping pong ball #81, and the 81st ping pong ball drawn for the schedule, and the 81st place on the current wait list. And so...
Ping Pong Ball #81 was...
National artist applicant David Gaines, from Virginia
The title was TBD, but the concept kicks ass... "One man performs the epic story of the film 'Seven Samurai' complete with peasants, bandits and spectacular final fight scene, using only movement, masks and vocal sounds."
Sadly, this is one of the many things we probably *won't* be seeing in the Minnesota Fringe Festival this year, as ping pong ball #81 was drawn pretty close to dead last - position 147 on a waiting list of 161. Sigh.
Lucky 81 to be drawn for the schedule was...
Ping pong ball 294 - WorkHorse Theatre, from Minnesota
(OK, seriously? We've already got a Workhouse, and a Workhaus, and now there's a WorkHorse? Are the people who name theaters in town just trying to get my head to explode. Oh well...)
WorkHorse's work-ing title - CB and Sheave Take the Bus, described as "CB and Sheave don't take the bus."
The still possible, if tenuous, 81st spot on the the wait list is currently occupied by
Ping pong ball 306 - Rainy Day Cabaret, from Minnesota
Title - Mixed Bull
Description - The work of two choreographers drawing from separate archives of material creating an evening of madcap ideas and mixed dance styles.
The day of the Fringe Lottery this year is also my father's 81st birthday (Happy Birthday, Dad! - well, he doesn't read blogs, but it's the thought that counts)
So, I thought, let's check out ping pong ball #81, and the 81st ping pong ball drawn for the schedule, and the 81st place on the current wait list. And so...
Ping Pong Ball #81 was...
National artist applicant David Gaines, from Virginia
The title was TBD, but the concept kicks ass... "One man performs the epic story of the film 'Seven Samurai' complete with peasants, bandits and spectacular final fight scene, using only movement, masks and vocal sounds."
Sadly, this is one of the many things we probably *won't* be seeing in the Minnesota Fringe Festival this year, as ping pong ball #81 was drawn pretty close to dead last - position 147 on a waiting list of 161. Sigh.
Lucky 81 to be drawn for the schedule was...
Ping pong ball 294 - WorkHorse Theatre, from Minnesota
(OK, seriously? We've already got a Workhouse, and a Workhaus, and now there's a WorkHorse? Are the people who name theaters in town just trying to get my head to explode. Oh well...)
WorkHorse's work-ing title - CB and Sheave Take the Bus, described as "CB and Sheave don't take the bus."
The still possible, if tenuous, 81st spot on the the wait list is currently occupied by
Ping pong ball 306 - Rainy Day Cabaret, from Minnesota
Title - Mixed Bull
Description - The work of two choreographers drawing from separate archives of material creating an evening of madcap ideas and mixed dance styles.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Review - Little Rock, 1957 - Youth Performance Company - 5 stars
“We’ll understand it all, by and by”
First off, should you see it? - Yes. Most definitely yes.
I almost got through this performance without crying.
Tears of joy.
Almost.
Very rarely in theater do you get a glimpse of the actor underneath the character when it doesn’t draw you out of the play. Most often, such moments are accidents, mistakes. In the civil rights musical “Little Rock, 1957” from Youth Performance Company, there is such a moment, and it’s quite deliberate. But it drives the point of the performance home with such a vengeance that it makes you catch your breath. And maybe say a little prayer of thanks.
“Little Rock, 1957” centers on the stories of the Little Rock Nine - nine young African-American high school students who volunteered to be part of the U.S. government’s social experiment in school integration. The high school in Little Rock, Arkansas was part of the first phase of integration three years after the landmark Supreme Court decision “Brown vs. Board of Education.” The court made it clear that when it came to education, “separate but equal” was no longer good enough. Blacks and whites must be brought together under the same roof to learn, whether they liked it or not.
The audience gets two warnings about the language in “Little Rock, 1957” - one in the program, and one in the pre-show announcement from the director, YPC Artistic Director Jacie Knight.
“Little Rock, 1957 is about race relations in the 1950s,” says the program note. “As a chronicle of a particular place and time, the show contains racial epithets. YPC neither condones nor supports their use, but finds them necessary to the accurate telling of this story.”
“Contains racial epithets” is putting it mildly. The play is littered with them. Sambo, monkey, jiggaboo, and, of course, n**ger. (No, I don’t even want to type it.) Verbal violence, frequent and lacerating, both spoken and sung, is only part of it. At some point during the play, nearly every one of the white cast members pushes, shoves, throws things at, spits on or slaps one or more of the black cast members. The abuse is so convincing that one starts to worry, not just about the characters, but the actors themselves, on both sides of the violence. Not just that someone might get physically hurt, but that the play might be taking a real emotional toll on everyone involved.
Then, there’s that moment at the end of the production when the mask slips away.
In the final musical number, the Little Rock Nine are all singing an anthem to “one nation, one people.” Once they get it going, the white cast members slowly begin to join them onstage, from all sides of the house. But they don’t just stand together. Those who hurled the worst of the abuse enter almost sheepishly, nervous not about the audience, but about their fellow castmates. There is no hugging. Things, wisely, never get that sentimental. But there a sidelong glances. A light hand takes a dark hand. A black arm is thrown over a white shoulder. The audience can see in those moments that the cast is literally, physically relieved to not be required to pretend to hate each other anymore. And the singing grows louder, and stronger - again, not over the top, just a force that will no longer be held back. They smile. Their faces are bright, full of hope and determination. And when I see one of the male cast members fighting with everything he’s got not to cry, and succeeding, that’s when my face starts to get wet. Those last minutes are enormously powerful.
They wouldn’t be if the story that came before weren’t such a skillfully executed journey. “Little Rock, 1957” shows, as one of the artistic team puts it, “the fire these young people had to walk through” to make change happen. It took the nine students weeks just to get in the school building, and then still longer to be able to get through an entire day of classes. Even then, they weren’t allowed to participate in extracurricular activities, despite their many artistic and athletic gifts, not even a student talent show. The governor of Arkansas himself tried to block the students and integration at every turn, with moves that made him wildly popular with the majority of white voters (so much so that he was re-elected to three terms). He caused things to be so difficult that the U.S. military finally had to be called in, flying jets overhead as they marched into town, to make sure the students got to school every day, until things settled down - on the surface.
The play begins with an extended musical set piece which essentially lays out the state of race relations in 1950s Arkansas from both sides - no small feat. The music is built on the sturdy foundation of old spiritual standards (so familiar to some in the audience they couldn’t help singing along quietly in solidarity - which I must admit is the sort of involuntary audience participation I kind of like). The original music and lyrics are by Steven Joseph Hutton and Kahlil Queen (the latter of whom also served as music director, choreographer, and keyboardist in the show band - phew). One of the things I appreciated about the musical aspect of the production was that it didn’t feel compelled to give us a lot of musical “numbers.” There are show-stopping moments, to be sure, but “Little Rock, 1957” isn’t structured like a traditional musical. The music and singing acts more like connective tissue in many places between scenes than being the sole purpose of the scenes themselves. Language, even nasty language, set to music, almost lets the audience off the hook too easily. So “Little Rock, 1957” often has the music stand to the side and let the words have their full impact.
Those words are the product of E.J. McGuire. The script has gone through several evolutions over the years since it was first produced by Youth Performance Company as the result of an improvisational workshop process. This latest incarnation chooses to focus on three of the Little Rock Nine, giving the sprawling story and cast of characters three anchors around which to focus the narrative energy. It’s a smart move.
The first of the three is Elizabeth Eckford (Shenece Bass). Because Elizabeth’s family didn’t have a phone, she didn’t get the group message warning against trying to head out to school on her own. Bass’ performance turns from one of naive optimism, to one of fear and disillusionment when confronted by the angry crowds of protestors who refuse to let her enter the school. The reality of the battle they all have ahead of them is crystallized in that moment when Bass stands alone against the community and must ultimately back away for her own safety.
The second “act” - once they’re through the doors and trying to actually get an education - centers on Minnijean Brown (Iman Fears). Of the nine, she seems to have the hardest time just playing along, taking the abuse and being quiet about it. When the school talent show auditions come along, so does a possible friendship with with a white girl named Bootsie (Asia Thornton). When both sets of hopes are dashed, Minnijean has had enough. That’s when one of the show-stoppers comes into play. Fears’ act of defiance as Minnijean finally stands up for herself, refusing any longer to play the “good, quiet, clean little negro” anymore, is just as cathartic for the audience as it is for her. But it’s not without its consequences.
The last leg of the journey highlights Ernest Green (Kinaundrae Lee). As one of the older members of the group, he steps up as a leader of the nine, and will have the distinction of being the first black student to graduate from their new school - if he’s allowed to live that long. Concern on this last count mounts when his innocent friendship with progressive white student Jane (Rebecca Hurd) is misinterpreted and subjected to intense scrutiny and debate. This results in an amusing but unsettling kangaroo court musical number putting both young people on trial, where the truth is frequently turned inside out.
Humor is a key weapon here, both of the script and the Little Rock Nine themselves. Even well-meaning gestures by fellow students like class president Craig (Tyler Hanlon) can lead to hilariously awkward moments - like the first scene in the cafeteria where, after some of the Nine are invited by Craig to join them at their table to eat, no one can seem to think of anything to say, and no one seems to have much of an appetite. The silences and attempts to fill them become progressively more funny - and it’s humor that is all the funnier because it springs from character.
Special mention must also be made of Shelbi Montgomery as Thelma Mothershed, who often acts as the musical leader of the Little Rock Nine, providing much of the soulful spiritual singing that ties the episodic nature of the script together. Her voice regularly becomes a beacon, inspiring the story and those in it to keep moving forward.
A final key moment which sticks with me puts the spotlight squarely on Kaitlyn Andrews as Melba Patillo. A quieter member of the Nine, she takes one of the more shocking hits. When young redheaded bigot Darlene (Devon Solorow) takes offense at Melba’s presence, Darlene slaps Melba across the face. It didn’t look like a stage slap to me, or anyone else in the audience. It looked like the actress took a direct hit, and a stinging one. In the collective gasp of reaction, Melba’s retort was nearly lost. At first, I thought to myself, “She couldn’t have said ‘f**k you’ - I’d like her to. She deserves to. But I don’t think she would.”
Darlene advances on Melba again - “What did you say?”
Melba quietly stands her ground. Not defiant, just resolved - “Thank you.”
And in that moment, thanks to Andrews, Melba became one of my favorite characters. I don’t think I’d have been able to turn the other cheek and defuse the situation so forcefully. It’s a nice piece of work, and milestone in their journey, ever so incrementally, toward acceptance - by some. Solorow’s Darlene is unrelenting right to the end, in a fearlessly unsympathetic performance. Jaw-dropping would be a fitting adjective for the response prompted by her good work at being so bad.
It’s not a perfect production, but then what production is? Since the actors aren’t mic’d, some are better at projecting and enunciating than others, but it’s early days in the run, and that sort of thing will most likely get smoothed out as the cast gets used to working the crowd. The large ensemble fills the stage well, but there were times when I wondered if the time spent moving lockers and cafeteria tables on and off the stage (however swiftly) might have been eliminated by allowing more room for one or more of those elements to live on the set permanently, since they get such regular use. The episodic nature of the text requires a number of scene changes, most of which are covered by the sound design (by Tyrus A. Thompson) and the singers and the band (Matt Belz on Bass and Eric Domke on Drums, joining composer/lyricist Queen). But time and momentum savings wherever one can find them in use of the space are always good things.
The rest of the ensemble deserves mention by name because without them, the more central characters would have no context - no friends, no allies, no adversaries. The challenges the Little Rock Nine encountered are very real because they live and breathe in Nick Clark, Anna Esposito, Koby Felman, Jessica Ilaug, Mollay Margaret Johnson, Steven Lewer, Morgan Motzel, Ethan Nienaber, Katey Singer, Brigitta Smith, and Bryan Thornton, as well as all those previously mentioned above. And the Little Rock Nine would be most incomplete without the contributions of Brandon Cobb, Pelita Murumba, Cydni Shepard, and Isaac Sundberg.
I’ve said this time and again to other people about Youth Performance Company - the reason I admire their work so much is that they require so much of their performers. Or rather, they treat them like professional adults. Some theater for young audiences that I’ve seen over the years seems content merely to get young people up on stage - “Oh, isn’t that cute? They’re acting.” YPC asks for something more than that. They desire a professional production, and they get more well-rounded performances out of their young actors because of it. I have never cringed, or looked at my watch during a Youth Performance Company production. I’ve just seen really good theater. Every time. “Little Rock, 1957” is no exception. The alumni of YPC get a great schooling in the ways of theater, and take that into their professional lives. Some even circle back around and return the favor - McGuire, Hutton and Queen are all former YPC company members themselves. And they’ve created quite a moving document of a time that’s past, but of a problem we still face in the present.
The opening of the play has one of the Little Rock Nine opening a book and looking through it, as slides of past atrocities of the slave trade are projected on the back wall of the set. Come the ending, there are pictures of the Little Rock Nine, then and now. I’ve been told some people on the “Little Rock” team had to work very hard to resist the urge to include a photo of President Obama. The instinct was correct. The production didn’t need to show his picture. Our current president was surely on everyone’s mind already. The latest turn along our country’s oftentimes rocky path of race relations was part of the subtext running through this entire evening. Gender, religion, color, sexual orientation - there’s still a lot of healing to be done, inequities to correct. But it’s good to reflect on the occasional hard-fought but meaningful victories along the way. “Little Rock, 1957” allows us to do that.
At the emotional high point of graduation for one character, an audience member shouted out, “Tell them about it!” It was like being in the best kind of church.
Tell them about it, indeed. “Little Rock, 1957” does just that.
Like the director’s note in the program says, “History is made by ordinary people who do extraordinary things. What will you do?”
You might start by seeing and being inspired by this musical.
I’m glad I did. Judging by the standing ovation, the rest of the audience was, too.
Very Highly Recommended.
Youth Performance Company’s production of “Little Rock, 1957” runs through Sunday, March 1, 2009. Performances are at Howard Conn Fine Arts Center, 1900 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. There are a lot of school week matinees (Tuesdays thru Fridays at both 10am and 12:30pm), but there are also showtimes for the workaday adults and families among us as well. Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm, and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for children and seniors. Call 612-623-9180 or visit www.youthperformanceco.com for reservations and more information.
First off, should you see it? - Yes. Most definitely yes.
I almost got through this performance without crying.
Tears of joy.
Almost.
Very rarely in theater do you get a glimpse of the actor underneath the character when it doesn’t draw you out of the play. Most often, such moments are accidents, mistakes. In the civil rights musical “Little Rock, 1957” from Youth Performance Company, there is such a moment, and it’s quite deliberate. But it drives the point of the performance home with such a vengeance that it makes you catch your breath. And maybe say a little prayer of thanks.
“Little Rock, 1957” centers on the stories of the Little Rock Nine - nine young African-American high school students who volunteered to be part of the U.S. government’s social experiment in school integration. The high school in Little Rock, Arkansas was part of the first phase of integration three years after the landmark Supreme Court decision “Brown vs. Board of Education.” The court made it clear that when it came to education, “separate but equal” was no longer good enough. Blacks and whites must be brought together under the same roof to learn, whether they liked it or not.
The audience gets two warnings about the language in “Little Rock, 1957” - one in the program, and one in the pre-show announcement from the director, YPC Artistic Director Jacie Knight.
“Little Rock, 1957 is about race relations in the 1950s,” says the program note. “As a chronicle of a particular place and time, the show contains racial epithets. YPC neither condones nor supports their use, but finds them necessary to the accurate telling of this story.”
“Contains racial epithets” is putting it mildly. The play is littered with them. Sambo, monkey, jiggaboo, and, of course, n**ger. (No, I don’t even want to type it.) Verbal violence, frequent and lacerating, both spoken and sung, is only part of it. At some point during the play, nearly every one of the white cast members pushes, shoves, throws things at, spits on or slaps one or more of the black cast members. The abuse is so convincing that one starts to worry, not just about the characters, but the actors themselves, on both sides of the violence. Not just that someone might get physically hurt, but that the play might be taking a real emotional toll on everyone involved.
Then, there’s that moment at the end of the production when the mask slips away.
In the final musical number, the Little Rock Nine are all singing an anthem to “one nation, one people.” Once they get it going, the white cast members slowly begin to join them onstage, from all sides of the house. But they don’t just stand together. Those who hurled the worst of the abuse enter almost sheepishly, nervous not about the audience, but about their fellow castmates. There is no hugging. Things, wisely, never get that sentimental. But there a sidelong glances. A light hand takes a dark hand. A black arm is thrown over a white shoulder. The audience can see in those moments that the cast is literally, physically relieved to not be required to pretend to hate each other anymore. And the singing grows louder, and stronger - again, not over the top, just a force that will no longer be held back. They smile. Their faces are bright, full of hope and determination. And when I see one of the male cast members fighting with everything he’s got not to cry, and succeeding, that’s when my face starts to get wet. Those last minutes are enormously powerful.
They wouldn’t be if the story that came before weren’t such a skillfully executed journey. “Little Rock, 1957” shows, as one of the artistic team puts it, “the fire these young people had to walk through” to make change happen. It took the nine students weeks just to get in the school building, and then still longer to be able to get through an entire day of classes. Even then, they weren’t allowed to participate in extracurricular activities, despite their many artistic and athletic gifts, not even a student talent show. The governor of Arkansas himself tried to block the students and integration at every turn, with moves that made him wildly popular with the majority of white voters (so much so that he was re-elected to three terms). He caused things to be so difficult that the U.S. military finally had to be called in, flying jets overhead as they marched into town, to make sure the students got to school every day, until things settled down - on the surface.
The play begins with an extended musical set piece which essentially lays out the state of race relations in 1950s Arkansas from both sides - no small feat. The music is built on the sturdy foundation of old spiritual standards (so familiar to some in the audience they couldn’t help singing along quietly in solidarity - which I must admit is the sort of involuntary audience participation I kind of like). The original music and lyrics are by Steven Joseph Hutton and Kahlil Queen (the latter of whom also served as music director, choreographer, and keyboardist in the show band - phew). One of the things I appreciated about the musical aspect of the production was that it didn’t feel compelled to give us a lot of musical “numbers.” There are show-stopping moments, to be sure, but “Little Rock, 1957” isn’t structured like a traditional musical. The music and singing acts more like connective tissue in many places between scenes than being the sole purpose of the scenes themselves. Language, even nasty language, set to music, almost lets the audience off the hook too easily. So “Little Rock, 1957” often has the music stand to the side and let the words have their full impact.
Those words are the product of E.J. McGuire. The script has gone through several evolutions over the years since it was first produced by Youth Performance Company as the result of an improvisational workshop process. This latest incarnation chooses to focus on three of the Little Rock Nine, giving the sprawling story and cast of characters three anchors around which to focus the narrative energy. It’s a smart move.
The first of the three is Elizabeth Eckford (Shenece Bass). Because Elizabeth’s family didn’t have a phone, she didn’t get the group message warning against trying to head out to school on her own. Bass’ performance turns from one of naive optimism, to one of fear and disillusionment when confronted by the angry crowds of protestors who refuse to let her enter the school. The reality of the battle they all have ahead of them is crystallized in that moment when Bass stands alone against the community and must ultimately back away for her own safety.
The second “act” - once they’re through the doors and trying to actually get an education - centers on Minnijean Brown (Iman Fears). Of the nine, she seems to have the hardest time just playing along, taking the abuse and being quiet about it. When the school talent show auditions come along, so does a possible friendship with with a white girl named Bootsie (Asia Thornton). When both sets of hopes are dashed, Minnijean has had enough. That’s when one of the show-stoppers comes into play. Fears’ act of defiance as Minnijean finally stands up for herself, refusing any longer to play the “good, quiet, clean little negro” anymore, is just as cathartic for the audience as it is for her. But it’s not without its consequences.
The last leg of the journey highlights Ernest Green (Kinaundrae Lee). As one of the older members of the group, he steps up as a leader of the nine, and will have the distinction of being the first black student to graduate from their new school - if he’s allowed to live that long. Concern on this last count mounts when his innocent friendship with progressive white student Jane (Rebecca Hurd) is misinterpreted and subjected to intense scrutiny and debate. This results in an amusing but unsettling kangaroo court musical number putting both young people on trial, where the truth is frequently turned inside out.
Humor is a key weapon here, both of the script and the Little Rock Nine themselves. Even well-meaning gestures by fellow students like class president Craig (Tyler Hanlon) can lead to hilariously awkward moments - like the first scene in the cafeteria where, after some of the Nine are invited by Craig to join them at their table to eat, no one can seem to think of anything to say, and no one seems to have much of an appetite. The silences and attempts to fill them become progressively more funny - and it’s humor that is all the funnier because it springs from character.
Special mention must also be made of Shelbi Montgomery as Thelma Mothershed, who often acts as the musical leader of the Little Rock Nine, providing much of the soulful spiritual singing that ties the episodic nature of the script together. Her voice regularly becomes a beacon, inspiring the story and those in it to keep moving forward.
A final key moment which sticks with me puts the spotlight squarely on Kaitlyn Andrews as Melba Patillo. A quieter member of the Nine, she takes one of the more shocking hits. When young redheaded bigot Darlene (Devon Solorow) takes offense at Melba’s presence, Darlene slaps Melba across the face. It didn’t look like a stage slap to me, or anyone else in the audience. It looked like the actress took a direct hit, and a stinging one. In the collective gasp of reaction, Melba’s retort was nearly lost. At first, I thought to myself, “She couldn’t have said ‘f**k you’ - I’d like her to. She deserves to. But I don’t think she would.”
Darlene advances on Melba again - “What did you say?”
Melba quietly stands her ground. Not defiant, just resolved - “Thank you.”
And in that moment, thanks to Andrews, Melba became one of my favorite characters. I don’t think I’d have been able to turn the other cheek and defuse the situation so forcefully. It’s a nice piece of work, and milestone in their journey, ever so incrementally, toward acceptance - by some. Solorow’s Darlene is unrelenting right to the end, in a fearlessly unsympathetic performance. Jaw-dropping would be a fitting adjective for the response prompted by her good work at being so bad.
It’s not a perfect production, but then what production is? Since the actors aren’t mic’d, some are better at projecting and enunciating than others, but it’s early days in the run, and that sort of thing will most likely get smoothed out as the cast gets used to working the crowd. The large ensemble fills the stage well, but there were times when I wondered if the time spent moving lockers and cafeteria tables on and off the stage (however swiftly) might have been eliminated by allowing more room for one or more of those elements to live on the set permanently, since they get such regular use. The episodic nature of the text requires a number of scene changes, most of which are covered by the sound design (by Tyrus A. Thompson) and the singers and the band (Matt Belz on Bass and Eric Domke on Drums, joining composer/lyricist Queen). But time and momentum savings wherever one can find them in use of the space are always good things.
The rest of the ensemble deserves mention by name because without them, the more central characters would have no context - no friends, no allies, no adversaries. The challenges the Little Rock Nine encountered are very real because they live and breathe in Nick Clark, Anna Esposito, Koby Felman, Jessica Ilaug, Mollay Margaret Johnson, Steven Lewer, Morgan Motzel, Ethan Nienaber, Katey Singer, Brigitta Smith, and Bryan Thornton, as well as all those previously mentioned above. And the Little Rock Nine would be most incomplete without the contributions of Brandon Cobb, Pelita Murumba, Cydni Shepard, and Isaac Sundberg.
I’ve said this time and again to other people about Youth Performance Company - the reason I admire their work so much is that they require so much of their performers. Or rather, they treat them like professional adults. Some theater for young audiences that I’ve seen over the years seems content merely to get young people up on stage - “Oh, isn’t that cute? They’re acting.” YPC asks for something more than that. They desire a professional production, and they get more well-rounded performances out of their young actors because of it. I have never cringed, or looked at my watch during a Youth Performance Company production. I’ve just seen really good theater. Every time. “Little Rock, 1957” is no exception. The alumni of YPC get a great schooling in the ways of theater, and take that into their professional lives. Some even circle back around and return the favor - McGuire, Hutton and Queen are all former YPC company members themselves. And they’ve created quite a moving document of a time that’s past, but of a problem we still face in the present.
The opening of the play has one of the Little Rock Nine opening a book and looking through it, as slides of past atrocities of the slave trade are projected on the back wall of the set. Come the ending, there are pictures of the Little Rock Nine, then and now. I’ve been told some people on the “Little Rock” team had to work very hard to resist the urge to include a photo of President Obama. The instinct was correct. The production didn’t need to show his picture. Our current president was surely on everyone’s mind already. The latest turn along our country’s oftentimes rocky path of race relations was part of the subtext running through this entire evening. Gender, religion, color, sexual orientation - there’s still a lot of healing to be done, inequities to correct. But it’s good to reflect on the occasional hard-fought but meaningful victories along the way. “Little Rock, 1957” allows us to do that.
At the emotional high point of graduation for one character, an audience member shouted out, “Tell them about it!” It was like being in the best kind of church.
Tell them about it, indeed. “Little Rock, 1957” does just that.
Like the director’s note in the program says, “History is made by ordinary people who do extraordinary things. What will you do?”
You might start by seeing and being inspired by this musical.
I’m glad I did. Judging by the standing ovation, the rest of the audience was, too.
Very Highly Recommended.
Youth Performance Company’s production of “Little Rock, 1957” runs through Sunday, March 1, 2009. Performances are at Howard Conn Fine Arts Center, 1900 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. There are a lot of school week matinees (Tuesdays thru Fridays at both 10am and 12:30pm), but there are also showtimes for the workaday adults and families among us as well. Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm, and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for children and seniors. Call 612-623-9180 or visit www.youthperformanceco.com for reservations and more information.
Fringe 2009 - Lottery Day Is Upon Us...
I have to be honest.
Back in November, upon learning that the applications for the 2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival were live online for downloading, filling out and submitting, my first thought was...
"Oh crap."
And upon realizing, in the midst of my February Medea rewriting madness, that the Fringe Lottery was coming up - determining the 150 or so acts that would be on the schedule, and the 200 or 300 or so that would be waiting, patiently or otherwise, on the waiting list to be called up as other acts dropped out - my first thought was...
"Oh crap."
I'm hoping that outlook toward the Fringe changes.
I'll be at the lottery Monday night.
I'm not blogging live on the scene like FringeFamous.
I'm not videotaping for later editing and posting like 3 Minute Egg.
I'll text a couple of friends who can't be there if their ping pong ball makes the cut.
I'll take notes, look the roster over, digest it all, and start posting stuff, just like I always do. No gimmicks, other than Mom, of course, and my typing fingers.
It'll all be here - and there, and around.
I imagine things will immediately start to pique my interest, just like they always do. You can watch my level of involvement start to turn into an obsessive compulsive disorder, just like it always does.
And of course, there'll be Mom's visit and Fringe binge.
So, stay tuned.
And thanks, as always, for readin'
Back in November, upon learning that the applications for the 2009 Minnesota Fringe Festival were live online for downloading, filling out and submitting, my first thought was...
"Oh crap."
And upon realizing, in the midst of my February Medea rewriting madness, that the Fringe Lottery was coming up - determining the 150 or so acts that would be on the schedule, and the 200 or 300 or so that would be waiting, patiently or otherwise, on the waiting list to be called up as other acts dropped out - my first thought was...
"Oh crap."
I'm hoping that outlook toward the Fringe changes.
I'll be at the lottery Monday night.
I'm not blogging live on the scene like FringeFamous.
I'm not videotaping for later editing and posting like 3 Minute Egg.
I'll text a couple of friends who can't be there if their ping pong ball makes the cut.
I'll take notes, look the roster over, digest it all, and start posting stuff, just like I always do. No gimmicks, other than Mom, of course, and my typing fingers.
It'll all be here - and there, and around.
I imagine things will immediately start to pique my interest, just like they always do. You can watch my level of involvement start to turn into an obsessive compulsive disorder, just like it always does.
And of course, there'll be Mom's visit and Fringe binge.
So, stay tuned.
And thanks, as always, for readin'
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Shameless Plug of the Day - Masterworks: The Museum of Bad Art Plays
I can now safely say that bad paintings make for good theater. They also make for not so good theater. But the balance is definitely on the good side. So the Commedia Beauregard collaboration with the Museum of Bad Art paid off nicely. And you’ve still got two chances to left to see “Masterworks: The Museum of Bad Art Plays” at the Bryant Lake Bowl.
Now, I understand it’s required of straight people to gather in groups and watch the Super Bowl, just as later in the month, I am required to join the members of my gay tribe to watch the Oscars, but if folks feel like bucking the trend, one of our performances is this Sunday, February 1 at 7pm (doors open at 6pm). You can still eat and drink while watching something entertaining. The remaining performance after that is Sunday, February 8th - same time and place.
What will you be seeing? I’m glad you asked...
In what has become something of an additional character to all the plays, a projection screen slowly, ever so slowly, lowers itself from the ceiling prior to each play’s beginning. The awful painting from which the play is inspired is shown. Then the screen slowly retreats again into the ceiling. And... scene... (the routine is repeated at the end of the play, giving the audience another look at the art that inspired what they just saw, and then moving on to the next.)
Among the best of the evening are the expected entries - one from Bill Corbett (of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame), and one from Nick Ryan (of Four Humors/"Shift"/"Bards"/"Deviled Eggs"/"Mortem Capiendum"/"Inspector Rex" fame). Their scripts close out the evening.
“Hey, Physics. Eat me!”
Corbett’s “The Disturbing Chair” is riffing on a painting by the curator of the Museum of Bad Art himself, entitled “Lulli, Fowl, & Gravestone” - a peculiar work with a couple of peacocks, an enormous overturned gravestone, and a young woman perched on a... well, disturbing-looking chair. Said chair is the fixation of a comically suicidal (yes, there is such a thing in Corbett’s universe and actress Eva Nelson sells it in a big way) woman named Lulli. The psychiatrist Lulli comes to for help (played with delightfully elevating levels of exasperation by Dawn Malicsi) soon regrets encouraging Lulli to talk. The audience will have no such regrets. It’s a great little piece of comedy writing, sharply directed by Katie Willer. A great cap to a night of oddities.
“True or False - Free will killed God.”
“Whose God?”
Ryan’s play “Gina’s Demons” (based on a painting of the same name) finds an artist named Gina (Dani Krivinchuk) trapped in a doctor’s office, surrounded on all sides by her silent finger-painting demon horde (Starr Brainard, Celesta Brainard, Mozelle LeCompte, Yasha Meyer & Madelyn DeFrey). It’s a crowded stage, but director Leah Adcock-Starr uses the space well. Nick Kiminski does a great four-part turn as every member of the medical team tending to Gina - Nurse, Dr. Sentiment, Dr. Wellwell, and the Exterminator. The care-givers grow ever more ominous, but are also increasingly absurd and funny in execution (no pun intended). Gina survives her encounter with modern healthcare, but loses a lot along the way. Nick Ryan delivers again, though I’m not sure I buy the premise of the piece - that art naturally springs only from the voices in one’s head. The fact that society wants to eliminate such demons at all costs seems a bit ham-handed. And the notion that artists are only as good as their demons, I don’t find to be particularly helpful. It seems to perpetuate the idea that artists are somehow always screwed up, at least the good ones. Which too many bad artists use as an excuse for bad behavior. But “Gina’s Demons” is so amusingly performed, I’m inclined to let it slide.
“Mona Lisa, #3 of 5”
The evening begins with Greg Bonine-Giles’ take on a strangely masculine rendering of the classic DaVinci painting, entitled “Mana Lisa,” birthing a script called “Auntie Lisa.” The title character (Maretta Zilic) appears to have mugged Cyndia Lauper back in the 1980s and stolen her wardrobe. Donning this uniform, she attempts to run a business based on art fraud, with questionable assistance from her two nieces (Tegan Sickeler and Liz Swabey-Keith). The young women certainly don’t handle the local police detective very well. Their bumbling attempt at an alibi only convinces the cop (Kelvin Hatle) to return, in drag no less, masquerading as a potential customer, to get the goods on the family of swindlers. Apart from Zilic’s wardrobe, and Hatle’s undercover antics, another high point is a sound cue of a tuba belting out a very familiar tune (which someone had to share with me was Madonna’s “Like A Virgin”). Sometimes this one strays, and one wonders if director Scott Pakudaitis and company took the “bad art” directive a bit too literally. Still, an evening around a concept like this is bound to take some unusual turns.
“I’ve been eating way too many muffins lately.”
A piece that (like my own) is only tenuously connected to its painting would be Lisa Day’s “Off Leash,” directed by Natalie Novacek. The painting was “Bone-Juggling Dog In Hula Skirt,” which isn’t hard to visualize. Whatever that title conjures in your mind, you won’t be far off. The play itself is more concerned with the demise of a cat, the demise of a career, and perhaps the demise of a relationship as well. Gabby (Anna Shields) is at a crossroads, and her boyfriend Luke (Corey Walton) can’t keep up - though Lord knows the man tries valiantly. Toss in Gabby’s dad (Jack McClure, the most charming and grounded of the three characters), and the young woman’s comical quarter-life crisis is complete. Mention is often made of her feeling ready for a dog of her own, and dad has a dog that needs walking, but there are no hula skirts, nor any juggling in sight. But if you’re going to have art, there must be room for artistic license.
“Have you seen my head?!”
Going the opposite direction, writer Dan O’Neil (another of my Fringe favorites for work like “Desolation In America,” “Baggage” and the truly amazing “10/14”) took his painting “Invasion of the Office Zombies” quite literally. He injected nearly every single element of the piece into the script “The Destabilization of Businessmen, or The Big-Wigs Lose Their Heads.” The artwork is a bizarre black and white collage of Dali-esque alarm clocks, floors composed of $1,000 bills, disembodied heads on a desk, a dispiriting chart of falling profits, and someone who might or might not be contemplating jumping out a window. O’Neil finds a way to work these items into a satiric short which finds an inept middle manager (Jeff Huset) masquerading as Grover Cleveland. His outfit includes a ski mask with an enlarged photocopy of Cleveland’s head off the thousand dollar bill, with eye holes so he can see to do a little dancing. Not surprisingly, the powers that be would prefer that the manager do a little actual work to earn his paycheck, and an internal evaluator (Kjersten Johnson) and worker from the factory line (Kirsten Wiegmann) put the man’s buffoonish ways in perspective. As always, Dan O’Neil finds clever ways to insert wry political commentary into the proceedings without getting in the way of his own comedic set-ups.
I’ll be going into my thoughts on my own script, “Two Left Feet,” in another post, as they’ll take up a bit more space. In short for now, I’m thrilled with the outcome of the production. I couldn’t have asked for a better team than my director Laura Leffler-McCabe, and my actors Blake E. Bolan, Bryan Grosso, and Tera Kilbride. While remaining true to the spirit of the piece, they augmented what I had on the page and made it richer with their additions. It definitely keeps the comedic momentum going in the middle of the evening, while also serving up a little food for thought, if you’re hungry for some.
“Masterworks: The Museum of Bad Art Plays” is an intriguing grab bag of ideas and varied execution, just like the bizarre assortment of paintings which inspired it. If you’re looking for an inventive and amusing evening of theater with that Fringey sensibility about it, look no further. We have the play(s) for you.
Sundays, 7pm (doors at 6pm) - February 1 and 8, 2009 - Bryant Lake Bowl. Tickets - $15, $12 in advance or with Fringe button. Reservations recommended, the crowds have been pretty full so far. We'd hate to have to turn you away. (It happened on my last show at the BLB.) For tickets, call 612-825-8949 or visit brownpapertickets.com. For further information, visit www.cbtheatre.org, www.bryantlakebowl.com, and www.museumofbadart.org
Now, I understand it’s required of straight people to gather in groups and watch the Super Bowl, just as later in the month, I am required to join the members of my gay tribe to watch the Oscars, but if folks feel like bucking the trend, one of our performances is this Sunday, February 1 at 7pm (doors open at 6pm). You can still eat and drink while watching something entertaining. The remaining performance after that is Sunday, February 8th - same time and place.
What will you be seeing? I’m glad you asked...
In what has become something of an additional character to all the plays, a projection screen slowly, ever so slowly, lowers itself from the ceiling prior to each play’s beginning. The awful painting from which the play is inspired is shown. Then the screen slowly retreats again into the ceiling. And... scene... (the routine is repeated at the end of the play, giving the audience another look at the art that inspired what they just saw, and then moving on to the next.)
Among the best of the evening are the expected entries - one from Bill Corbett (of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame), and one from Nick Ryan (of Four Humors/"Shift"/"Bards"/"Deviled Eggs"/"Mortem Capiendum"/"Inspector Rex" fame). Their scripts close out the evening.
“Hey, Physics. Eat me!”
Corbett’s “The Disturbing Chair” is riffing on a painting by the curator of the Museum of Bad Art himself, entitled “Lulli, Fowl, & Gravestone” - a peculiar work with a couple of peacocks, an enormous overturned gravestone, and a young woman perched on a... well, disturbing-looking chair. Said chair is the fixation of a comically suicidal (yes, there is such a thing in Corbett’s universe and actress Eva Nelson sells it in a big way) woman named Lulli. The psychiatrist Lulli comes to for help (played with delightfully elevating levels of exasperation by Dawn Malicsi) soon regrets encouraging Lulli to talk. The audience will have no such regrets. It’s a great little piece of comedy writing, sharply directed by Katie Willer. A great cap to a night of oddities.
“True or False - Free will killed God.”
“Whose God?”
Ryan’s play “Gina’s Demons” (based on a painting of the same name) finds an artist named Gina (Dani Krivinchuk) trapped in a doctor’s office, surrounded on all sides by her silent finger-painting demon horde (Starr Brainard, Celesta Brainard, Mozelle LeCompte, Yasha Meyer & Madelyn DeFrey). It’s a crowded stage, but director Leah Adcock-Starr uses the space well. Nick Kiminski does a great four-part turn as every member of the medical team tending to Gina - Nurse, Dr. Sentiment, Dr. Wellwell, and the Exterminator. The care-givers grow ever more ominous, but are also increasingly absurd and funny in execution (no pun intended). Gina survives her encounter with modern healthcare, but loses a lot along the way. Nick Ryan delivers again, though I’m not sure I buy the premise of the piece - that art naturally springs only from the voices in one’s head. The fact that society wants to eliminate such demons at all costs seems a bit ham-handed. And the notion that artists are only as good as their demons, I don’t find to be particularly helpful. It seems to perpetuate the idea that artists are somehow always screwed up, at least the good ones. Which too many bad artists use as an excuse for bad behavior. But “Gina’s Demons” is so amusingly performed, I’m inclined to let it slide.
“Mona Lisa, #3 of 5”
The evening begins with Greg Bonine-Giles’ take on a strangely masculine rendering of the classic DaVinci painting, entitled “Mana Lisa,” birthing a script called “Auntie Lisa.” The title character (Maretta Zilic) appears to have mugged Cyndia Lauper back in the 1980s and stolen her wardrobe. Donning this uniform, she attempts to run a business based on art fraud, with questionable assistance from her two nieces (Tegan Sickeler and Liz Swabey-Keith). The young women certainly don’t handle the local police detective very well. Their bumbling attempt at an alibi only convinces the cop (Kelvin Hatle) to return, in drag no less, masquerading as a potential customer, to get the goods on the family of swindlers. Apart from Zilic’s wardrobe, and Hatle’s undercover antics, another high point is a sound cue of a tuba belting out a very familiar tune (which someone had to share with me was Madonna’s “Like A Virgin”). Sometimes this one strays, and one wonders if director Scott Pakudaitis and company took the “bad art” directive a bit too literally. Still, an evening around a concept like this is bound to take some unusual turns.
“I’ve been eating way too many muffins lately.”
A piece that (like my own) is only tenuously connected to its painting would be Lisa Day’s “Off Leash,” directed by Natalie Novacek. The painting was “Bone-Juggling Dog In Hula Skirt,” which isn’t hard to visualize. Whatever that title conjures in your mind, you won’t be far off. The play itself is more concerned with the demise of a cat, the demise of a career, and perhaps the demise of a relationship as well. Gabby (Anna Shields) is at a crossroads, and her boyfriend Luke (Corey Walton) can’t keep up - though Lord knows the man tries valiantly. Toss in Gabby’s dad (Jack McClure, the most charming and grounded of the three characters), and the young woman’s comical quarter-life crisis is complete. Mention is often made of her feeling ready for a dog of her own, and dad has a dog that needs walking, but there are no hula skirts, nor any juggling in sight. But if you’re going to have art, there must be room for artistic license.
“Have you seen my head?!”
Going the opposite direction, writer Dan O’Neil (another of my Fringe favorites for work like “Desolation In America,” “Baggage” and the truly amazing “10/14”) took his painting “Invasion of the Office Zombies” quite literally. He injected nearly every single element of the piece into the script “The Destabilization of Businessmen, or The Big-Wigs Lose Their Heads.” The artwork is a bizarre black and white collage of Dali-esque alarm clocks, floors composed of $1,000 bills, disembodied heads on a desk, a dispiriting chart of falling profits, and someone who might or might not be contemplating jumping out a window. O’Neil finds a way to work these items into a satiric short which finds an inept middle manager (Jeff Huset) masquerading as Grover Cleveland. His outfit includes a ski mask with an enlarged photocopy of Cleveland’s head off the thousand dollar bill, with eye holes so he can see to do a little dancing. Not surprisingly, the powers that be would prefer that the manager do a little actual work to earn his paycheck, and an internal evaluator (Kjersten Johnson) and worker from the factory line (Kirsten Wiegmann) put the man’s buffoonish ways in perspective. As always, Dan O’Neil finds clever ways to insert wry political commentary into the proceedings without getting in the way of his own comedic set-ups.
I’ll be going into my thoughts on my own script, “Two Left Feet,” in another post, as they’ll take up a bit more space. In short for now, I’m thrilled with the outcome of the production. I couldn’t have asked for a better team than my director Laura Leffler-McCabe, and my actors Blake E. Bolan, Bryan Grosso, and Tera Kilbride. While remaining true to the spirit of the piece, they augmented what I had on the page and made it richer with their additions. It definitely keeps the comedic momentum going in the middle of the evening, while also serving up a little food for thought, if you’re hungry for some.
“Masterworks: The Museum of Bad Art Plays” is an intriguing grab bag of ideas and varied execution, just like the bizarre assortment of paintings which inspired it. If you’re looking for an inventive and amusing evening of theater with that Fringey sensibility about it, look no further. We have the play(s) for you.
Sundays, 7pm (doors at 6pm) - February 1 and 8, 2009 - Bryant Lake Bowl. Tickets - $15, $12 in advance or with Fringe button. Reservations recommended, the crowds have been pretty full so far. We'd hate to have to turn you away. (It happened on my last show at the BLB.) For tickets, call 612-825-8949 or visit brownpapertickets.com. For further information, visit www.cbtheatre.org, www.bryantlakebowl.com, and www.museumofbadart.org
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Last Chance to Vote for Secret Ingredients in the 24 Hour Plays
Yes, voting closes this Monday, so you've got the weekend to get your family and friends to help you stuff the online ballot box for your favorite secret ingredients for the 24 Hour Play Project.
Time's ticking by.
What'll it be?
The playwrights will be handed an object, an emotion, a quote or line of dialogue, and something random.
What those things are is up to you.
Ever want to see a play with...
the touch of death?
"It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls?
someone walking backwards?
Wonder how characters would deal with...
blind panic?
savage joy?
obsession?
Maybe you've always wanted to hear someone say...
"Huh. Maybe it'll take two shots of penicillin."
"Not as an adult."
"Dang it, I just killed a talking moose who claimed he was the next
president!"
Perhaps you feel that every good play needs...
a woodpecker
a cactus
a toilet plunger
All these and more are waiting for your blessing.
Would you like to make the writers' lives hard, or easy, or something in between? Totally up to you.
Follow the link to the online ballot
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2fk5eqjfphe515g/start
Make your preferences known
Then mark your calendar for the big event.
The writers will meet and write the night of February 6th, then the directors and actors have a whirlwind day of rehearsals, and the finished products are unveiled at Theatre Unbound's annual gala on Saturday, February 7th (doors at 7, performances at 8) (details and tickets here)
Have fun.
I'll be interested to see how the whole thing shakes out once the votes are counted.
Thanks for helping out with the creative process. Just a couple of clicks and you help write a play. Easy, huh?
Time's ticking by.
What'll it be?
The playwrights will be handed an object, an emotion, a quote or line of dialogue, and something random.
What those things are is up to you.
Ever want to see a play with...
the touch of death?
"It's Raining Men" by The Weather Girls?
someone walking backwards?
Wonder how characters would deal with...
blind panic?
savage joy?
obsession?
Maybe you've always wanted to hear someone say...
"Huh. Maybe it'll take two shots of penicillin."
"Not as an adult."
"Dang it, I just killed a talking moose who claimed he was the next
president!"
Perhaps you feel that every good play needs...
a woodpecker
a cactus
a toilet plunger
All these and more are waiting for your blessing.
Would you like to make the writers' lives hard, or easy, or something in between? Totally up to you.
Follow the link to the online ballot
http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e2fk5eqjfphe515g/start
Make your preferences known
Then mark your calendar for the big event.
The writers will meet and write the night of February 6th, then the directors and actors have a whirlwind day of rehearsals, and the finished products are unveiled at Theatre Unbound's annual gala on Saturday, February 7th (doors at 7, performances at 8) (details and tickets here)
Have fun.
I'll be interested to see how the whole thing shakes out once the votes are counted.
Thanks for helping out with the creative process. Just a couple of clicks and you help write a play. Easy, huh?
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