This one really surprised me (in a good way)...
The Crock Pot
Mrs & Mrs Fallon Productions
"Manipulation, scandalous confessions and playing dirty - everything you'd expect from a Lutheran Hobby Fair!
In this dark comedy, Claire Olafson and her two 'best friends' Joy and Ruth form the middle-aged menagerie of their church's Bible Study, where they keep God close and their enemies closer. The Scande-German Hobby Fair proves to be more than crafts and baked goods as the ladies vie for attention, power and glory.
When Minnesota kitsch meets Bible Study b*tch, things are bound to simmer in The Crock Pot!"
This is normally the polar opposite of entertainment for me. I'm just not amused by "Minnesota accent"/Lutheran humor. It frequently seems mean-spirited to me, like all Minnesotans are funny-sounding simpletons. Those aren't the Minnesotans I've become acquainted with in the years since I moved here. The popularity of this humor bewilders me. You want to perpetuate this stereotype about yourselves so that's all people think of when they think of Minnesota? I just don't get it.
Add to that the whole genre of "church people are secretly small-minded vicious hypocritical human beings" and I'm doubly turned off.
So imagine my surprise when I actually found myself liking this preview snippet.
At first, I found it all grating like I normally do, and then the writing and the performances totally won me over. Accent plus phone call for exposition normally equals boring, but since the character was accepting a call from her sister in prison, it got progressively more interesting. The non-incarcerated, churchgoing sister (Ruth, I think) at one point scolds her sister for saucy language unheard by our end of the phone call...
"That's what an inmate would say, not a lady."
And she signs off by saying, "Dear, I love you. Now go make someone your bitch."
Ruth has designs on the fresh-faced new pastor, but she explains to her sister that it's tough to get a conversation going with him at church services because, "it's his place of business." She gets the brainstorm on the phone to photograph the minister in a dozen godly poses for the church calendar.
Pastor Ed has apparently been burned like this in the past, but he admits when Ruth springs this idea on him that he's "totally down with being the Lord's clay." Ruth encourages him to "use your body for the Lord."
Sure it's inappropriate, but the people have some dimension to them. They're not just cartoons - at least not the two in this excerpt. For a show to overcome my prejudices, and get my attention in just three minutes. That ain't easy to do.
If this is the sort of thing you're inclined to like already, I think you'll really enjoy. And if, like me, it isn't normally something you like, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Their Fringe page is a little in love with the exclamation point...
...the too nice and often stepped on Claire!
...the manipulative and conniving Joy!
...the independent, cat-loving, pastor-crushing Ruth!
(I assume this means she *has* a crush on the pastor, not that she literally, physically crushes him.)
...the cute, young pastor, Ed, with a sketchy past!
...the nosy and dumb Mrs. Ackerman!
...the wheelchair-bound, vengeful Frank - Joy's husband!
...the cantankerous and lazy Skip - Claire's husband!
Written by Emily Schmidt and directed by Molly Dworsky!
Such enthusiasm!
Facebook group
Their Fringe page
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Fringe 2010 - FFA1 - A Show That Hands Out Those Red Plastic Cups For Your Beer
Yet another show that unexpectedly charmed me at Fringe-For-All
(man, I guess it was a better showcase overall than I felt like when I was sitting through it. Hmmm... don't worry, there will be blood. Later...)
I Remember You
created by Jess Dunne and Connor Molloy
"When retrograde amnesia from a car accident blocked out six years of Donny's life, he left high school. Now he's back for a house party, but when you don't have your own memories, whose can you believe?"
I was curious about this one since reading its previous blurb at the Fringe lottery back in February, when it was just called "Brain Injury" (newer title is great, by the way)...
"In the bedroom of a party, old friends catch up with a kid who left their school then lost his memory."
It's just such a wonderfully awkward premise, and the ensemble approached it in a loose, goofy way that completely disarmed me.
So the preview starts with our slacker/stoner dude narrator speaking to the audience as he passes out those red plastic cups that are required at any kegger to the audience members in the front row.
There's a girl sitting in an enormous plastic bin, which we find out later is supposed to be a bathtub. She has had a few too many mushrooms and is contemplating the universe.
The narrator gives us the backstory, well, as many details as he can recall anyway. There was an accident ("His mom died or something.") and Donny lost 4th through 10th grade from his memory. He switched to a new school to start over, but when graduation rolled around, he came back to his old school for their send-off party, which the slacker narrator thinks was a really cool thing for Donny to do. Even though the whole situation is supremely odd.
Donny and his former girlfriend sit on the porch together. He doesn't remember her. She knows it's not his fault, it's nothing personal, but it still hurts to be forgotten.
They approach these strange moments in a straightforward way, as devoid of sentimentality as Donny is devoid of memory, letting the audience decide how they feel about it. And just when things might slide into being maudlin, up pops some weird kid to try and bond with Donny. Who, of course, Donny doesn't remember. But this doesn't deter his "old buddy" from being really happy to see him. Maybe it's the red plastic cups talking.
The slacker narrator admits, "I don't have memory loss, and even I don't remember who the hell that guy is."
It's sort of every rite of passage/end of school story, turned on its head. I really enjoyed the quirky sensibility of it all.
Their website wasn't there when I checked a week or so ago, but it's up now. Not entirely fixed, some links are wonky, but the stuff that is there is engaging. It reminded me how I'm struggling to redesign my own website currently. Some makeshift production/publicity photos (as if they were taken at that party in the play - someone sitting on a washing machine, etc.) And the video links for the characters aren't video clips from the play, they're clips that the characters might enjoy, or the way they view the situation in the play. They're random mood pieces, which is an intriguing idea. It's worth poking around in, go visit.
Like I said, I was leaning toward this one anyway, but the preview sealed it. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on here, and the touch is light and funny without being superficial. It could end up being one of my favorite bits of Fringe. Stranger things have happened.
Their website - http://sites.google.com/site/irememberyoutheminnesotafringe/
Their Fringe page
(man, I guess it was a better showcase overall than I felt like when I was sitting through it. Hmmm... don't worry, there will be blood. Later...)
I Remember You
created by Jess Dunne and Connor Molloy
"When retrograde amnesia from a car accident blocked out six years of Donny's life, he left high school. Now he's back for a house party, but when you don't have your own memories, whose can you believe?"
I was curious about this one since reading its previous blurb at the Fringe lottery back in February, when it was just called "Brain Injury" (newer title is great, by the way)...
"In the bedroom of a party, old friends catch up with a kid who left their school then lost his memory."
It's just such a wonderfully awkward premise, and the ensemble approached it in a loose, goofy way that completely disarmed me.
So the preview starts with our slacker/stoner dude narrator speaking to the audience as he passes out those red plastic cups that are required at any kegger to the audience members in the front row.
There's a girl sitting in an enormous plastic bin, which we find out later is supposed to be a bathtub. She has had a few too many mushrooms and is contemplating the universe.
The narrator gives us the backstory, well, as many details as he can recall anyway. There was an accident ("His mom died or something.") and Donny lost 4th through 10th grade from his memory. He switched to a new school to start over, but when graduation rolled around, he came back to his old school for their send-off party, which the slacker narrator thinks was a really cool thing for Donny to do. Even though the whole situation is supremely odd.
Donny and his former girlfriend sit on the porch together. He doesn't remember her. She knows it's not his fault, it's nothing personal, but it still hurts to be forgotten.
They approach these strange moments in a straightforward way, as devoid of sentimentality as Donny is devoid of memory, letting the audience decide how they feel about it. And just when things might slide into being maudlin, up pops some weird kid to try and bond with Donny. Who, of course, Donny doesn't remember. But this doesn't deter his "old buddy" from being really happy to see him. Maybe it's the red plastic cups talking.
The slacker narrator admits, "I don't have memory loss, and even I don't remember who the hell that guy is."
It's sort of every rite of passage/end of school story, turned on its head. I really enjoyed the quirky sensibility of it all.
Their website wasn't there when I checked a week or so ago, but it's up now. Not entirely fixed, some links are wonky, but the stuff that is there is engaging. It reminded me how I'm struggling to redesign my own website currently. Some makeshift production/publicity photos (as if they were taken at that party in the play - someone sitting on a washing machine, etc.) And the video links for the characters aren't video clips from the play, they're clips that the characters might enjoy, or the way they view the situation in the play. They're random mood pieces, which is an intriguing idea. It's worth poking around in, go visit.
Like I said, I was leaning toward this one anyway, but the preview sealed it. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on here, and the touch is light and funny without being superficial. It could end up being one of my favorite bits of Fringe. Stranger things have happened.
Their website - http://sites.google.com/site/irememberyoutheminnesotafringe/
Their Fringe page
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Fringe 2010 - FFA1 - Flatulent Cross-eyed Dinosaur Devours Fringe Kitty
Another unexpectedly charming Fringe-For-All preview...
Fartosaurus Rex!
Big Blue Head
"Fartosaurus Rex! is the saga of what happens when the king of carnivores decides to take up a vegetarian diet of legumes, broccoli and cabbage. His cholesterol levels go way down and he finds friendship with fellow prehistoric creatures now that they no longer worry about getting their heads bitten off.
But there's also an unfortunate change to his digestive system. Fartosaurus Rex's former prey used to flee his fangs. Now they fear his flatulence. Will the dinosaur lose his new buddies? Will climate change ensue because of this new source of methane?
A puppet show about flatulence, friendship and food politics, starring a giant green dinosaur who sings, dances and cuts the cheese.
Plus a special cameo appearance by Wobbles, the Minnesota Fringe Festival kitty mascot. And audience members will have a chance to win a whoopee cushion door prize!"
This Fringe show's title and concept have been inducing giggles in the Fringe community since it was first announced to the world during the Fringe lottery in February.
The preview doesn't end happily for Wobbles the Fringe kitty. After devouring a smaller dinosaur, and Fred Flintstone (who fruitlessly ran for his life yelling, "Yabba Dabba Don't!"), Fartosaurus Rex bit off poor Wobbles' head. So there was also a cameo appearance by Wobble's bloody entrails. Yikes.
Our narrator was a giant talking pillow (no, really), and Fartosaurus itself is a person in a vibrant green dinosaur outfit - and cross-eyed.
No farting occurred during the three minute preview, as Fartosaurus had not yet changed from his meat diet.
But you can hear him let loose in this video interview...
And just in case you can get enough of farting dinosaurs, here's something random...
They just posted another video interview with Professor Van Schwanstucker (naughty)...
I think my favorite part of the preview was when, after only two lines of a song, Fartosaurus went up, and called out "LINE!"
Saved by the red light, Fartosaurus was not required to finish the song.
But clearly these people have a twisted, though still family friendly, sense of humor. The adults will get it on one level (Schwanstucker. Really?), and the kids get the farting and the disemboweling and the whoopee cushion door prizes (their parents should *love* that)
They are, appropriately enough, at the Jungle Theater.
The press release they sent had some delightful tidbits in it, including...
"We'd be happy to talk to you about it, or make Fartosaurus Rex available for an interview or appearance."
(That is *so* tempting. If only we had the budget to do the TV show this year, a farting cross-eyed dinosaur as a guest would be delightful. Sigh.)
"This is a one cheek sneak past the barriers of good taste, boldly diving into the world of bodily functions for a good belly laugh. Amusing for kids, or anyone else who likes a good fart joke. But also appealing to adults for its gentle message about friendship and climate change.
There's back story love story in the production. "Fartosaurus Rex!" is the creation of a couple of newlyweds who went on their first dates at 2009 Fringe Festival shows. Now back with a show of their own, these Fringe Festival rookies almost eloped so they would have more time to sew costumes, fashion puppets, create a prehistoric Badlands set and mold papier mache dinosaur turds instead of planning a wedding."
The bio section on their Fringe page has bios for each of the puppet/non-human characters, including, of course...
"Fartosaurus Rex
Role: Star. Eating. Singing. Farting.
...Credits include Jurassic Park on Ice (National Tour), Law & Order: Hell Creek Formation, Medora Musical and All My Children. Proud graduate of Michigan State University. Thanks to Mom, Dad, God and my intern/assistant Katie for remembering only a quarter packet of sugar in my latte.
Buddy
...got his start in show biz with his family's vaudeville act, The Aristocrats. Credits include A Streetcar Named Desire (Stanley Kowalski) at Randolph Junior High School, West Wing and commercials for Heinekin and American Express. Northwestern graduate. (Again, this is a puppet.)
Herbie Barrymore III
...credits include Rachel Henderson's 4th birthday party and the Morrison Insurance Brokerage company picnic.
Mason Throckburton
...spent the last two years lecturing and performing magic on cruise ships.
Richard Chin
Role: Stage manager
...has created toy theater productions of A Christmas Carol and Dracula. He's looking forward to bigger things with Fartosaurus Rex!: sock puppets instead of thumb-sized paper figures and the Jungle Theater stage instead of his living room. But he'll try to remember that in puppet theater, there are no small parts, only small actors."
I find it really hard to resist a show that has such a healthy sense of humor about itself.
Their Fringe page
Fartosaurus Rex!
Big Blue Head
"Fartosaurus Rex! is the saga of what happens when the king of carnivores decides to take up a vegetarian diet of legumes, broccoli and cabbage. His cholesterol levels go way down and he finds friendship with fellow prehistoric creatures now that they no longer worry about getting their heads bitten off.
But there's also an unfortunate change to his digestive system. Fartosaurus Rex's former prey used to flee his fangs. Now they fear his flatulence. Will the dinosaur lose his new buddies? Will climate change ensue because of this new source of methane?
A puppet show about flatulence, friendship and food politics, starring a giant green dinosaur who sings, dances and cuts the cheese.
Plus a special cameo appearance by Wobbles, the Minnesota Fringe Festival kitty mascot. And audience members will have a chance to win a whoopee cushion door prize!"
This Fringe show's title and concept have been inducing giggles in the Fringe community since it was first announced to the world during the Fringe lottery in February.
The preview doesn't end happily for Wobbles the Fringe kitty. After devouring a smaller dinosaur, and Fred Flintstone (who fruitlessly ran for his life yelling, "Yabba Dabba Don't!"), Fartosaurus Rex bit off poor Wobbles' head. So there was also a cameo appearance by Wobble's bloody entrails. Yikes.
Our narrator was a giant talking pillow (no, really), and Fartosaurus itself is a person in a vibrant green dinosaur outfit - and cross-eyed.
No farting occurred during the three minute preview, as Fartosaurus had not yet changed from his meat diet.
But you can hear him let loose in this video interview...
And just in case you can get enough of farting dinosaurs, here's something random...
They just posted another video interview with Professor Van Schwanstucker (naughty)...
I think my favorite part of the preview was when, after only two lines of a song, Fartosaurus went up, and called out "LINE!"
Saved by the red light, Fartosaurus was not required to finish the song.
But clearly these people have a twisted, though still family friendly, sense of humor. The adults will get it on one level (Schwanstucker. Really?), and the kids get the farting and the disemboweling and the whoopee cushion door prizes (their parents should *love* that)
They are, appropriately enough, at the Jungle Theater.
The press release they sent had some delightful tidbits in it, including...
"We'd be happy to talk to you about it, or make Fartosaurus Rex available for an interview or appearance."
(That is *so* tempting. If only we had the budget to do the TV show this year, a farting cross-eyed dinosaur as a guest would be delightful. Sigh.)
"This is a one cheek sneak past the barriers of good taste, boldly diving into the world of bodily functions for a good belly laugh. Amusing for kids, or anyone else who likes a good fart joke. But also appealing to adults for its gentle message about friendship and climate change.
There's back story love story in the production. "Fartosaurus Rex!" is the creation of a couple of newlyweds who went on their first dates at 2009 Fringe Festival shows. Now back with a show of their own, these Fringe Festival rookies almost eloped so they would have more time to sew costumes, fashion puppets, create a prehistoric Badlands set and mold papier mache dinosaur turds instead of planning a wedding."
The bio section on their Fringe page has bios for each of the puppet/non-human characters, including, of course...
"Fartosaurus Rex
Role: Star. Eating. Singing. Farting.
...Credits include Jurassic Park on Ice (National Tour), Law & Order: Hell Creek Formation, Medora Musical and All My Children. Proud graduate of Michigan State University. Thanks to Mom, Dad, God and my intern/assistant Katie for remembering only a quarter packet of sugar in my latte.
Buddy
...got his start in show biz with his family's vaudeville act, The Aristocrats. Credits include A Streetcar Named Desire (Stanley Kowalski) at Randolph Junior High School, West Wing and commercials for Heinekin and American Express. Northwestern graduate. (Again, this is a puppet.)
Herbie Barrymore III
...credits include Rachel Henderson's 4th birthday party and the Morrison Insurance Brokerage company picnic.
Mason Throckburton
...spent the last two years lecturing and performing magic on cruise ships.
Richard Chin
Role: Stage manager
...has created toy theater productions of A Christmas Carol and Dracula. He's looking forward to bigger things with Fartosaurus Rex!: sock puppets instead of thumb-sized paper figures and the Jungle Theater stage instead of his living room. But he'll try to remember that in puppet theater, there are no small parts, only small actors."
I find it really hard to resist a show that has such a healthy sense of humor about itself.
Their Fringe page
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Fringe 2010 - FFA1 - Love Among The Coffee Grounds
Yet another show that unexpectedly charmed me during Fringe-For-All previews...
Grind: The Musical
Theatre Undeclared
"The short version: The Rush coffee shop is a haven for all, from homeless evangelists to aspiring musicians. Grind uses rap, shadow puppetry and lots of music to see what happens when a shop like this is set for demolition."
OK, so I have a knee-jerk reaction to any show that slaps "The Musical" onto the end of their name, but it's a Fringe marketing gimmick that works for a lot of people. So I'm gonna stop fighting that.
I've gotten a reputation for hating musicals and that's not entirely true. I don't live and breathe musicals like some of my fellow gay brethren, but I don't hate all musicals. I do hate bad musicals. And there are a lot of them out there.
What constitutes a bad musical? A musical theater geek friend of mine is of the opinion that the bad ones are the ones in which the plot stops dead for a musical number, rather than the song pushing the plot forward. Revealing character is a good reason for a song, too, but even those need to keep the thing moving right along.
Another musical theater aficionado acquaintance of mine insists there must always be a love story, somewhere, at the heart of it. What else would prompt people to be so overcome with emotion that could only express themselves in song?
Stories set in coffee shops are almost as overdone as those in office environments, but hey, I'm just as guilty as the next person of using coffee shops. No stones to be thrown in that glass house.
I hear the Theatre Undeclared crowd sped up the song they sampled at Fringe-For-All, so that it would fit in the three-minute time limit. Phew. That may explain why one person was sometimes out of breath and overpowered by the electric keyboard nearby.
And wow, there were a lot of cheesy coffee-related metaphors - "I love you latte" "I can't espresso how much I feel..." etc.
And if the young lady and the young man hadn't both been totally adorable, solo, and with each other, it probably wouldn't have worked.
But they were adorable, and it did work. And after reading their slightly more expansive synopsis, cheekily titled...
"The better version: Grind is part of the next generation of musical theater, where the lines between actors, band and audience are broken down for good: our actors are musicians, our musicians play characters, and the audience is always, always in on the game. We believe breaking down these barriers is essential to telling a story that's both surprising and resonant. That's why we chose a coffee shop--it's a place where you arrive with a barrier up, but when that barrier gets broken down and you let yourself experience the people around you, magic can happen. And in "Grind", it does.
Plot-wise, Grind follows the owner of a doomed Minneapolis coffee shop, her aspiring-musician brother, a homeless evangelist, a comic-book writer and a young barista relocated by Katrina as each answers the question "what do I do when 'home' can't be home anymore?" Punctuated by bursts of shadow puppetry done in the style of comic-book art, each character struggles to answer this question set to a soundtrack made from styles varying from rap to indie to jazz to spoken word. And somehow, it's also hilarious."
...I get the feeling we might be in for something interesting. Not your standard cookie cutter romantic comedy.
I'm particularly intrigued by the comic book art shadow puppetry stuff. There are pictures of the process and end result on their flickr feed, again on their website.
Plus, the trailer for their previous outing - "Liberal Arts, The Musical" (argh) actually looks like some really nice work. Which bodes well for musical number 2.
I particularly enjoyed how a quote from a professor proclaimed, "It was sick." (I presume in a good way.)
Their blog has song samples from rehearsal - complete with actors swearing when they screw up the lyrics. Hee.
And Theatre Undeclared is one of a half dozen acts that are doing the Midwest Fringe circuit. So they'll have one Fringe already under their belt by the time they get to us. Kinks all worked out by then, I expect.
It's strangely bewitching. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I know I'm curious, rather than indifferent, which inches this show up a notch on the "must cram into my schedule somehow" list.
Their website - www.grindthemusical.com
Their Fringe page
Grind: The Musical
Theatre Undeclared
"The short version: The Rush coffee shop is a haven for all, from homeless evangelists to aspiring musicians. Grind uses rap, shadow puppetry and lots of music to see what happens when a shop like this is set for demolition."
OK, so I have a knee-jerk reaction to any show that slaps "The Musical" onto the end of their name, but it's a Fringe marketing gimmick that works for a lot of people. So I'm gonna stop fighting that.
I've gotten a reputation for hating musicals and that's not entirely true. I don't live and breathe musicals like some of my fellow gay brethren, but I don't hate all musicals. I do hate bad musicals. And there are a lot of them out there.
What constitutes a bad musical? A musical theater geek friend of mine is of the opinion that the bad ones are the ones in which the plot stops dead for a musical number, rather than the song pushing the plot forward. Revealing character is a good reason for a song, too, but even those need to keep the thing moving right along.
Another musical theater aficionado acquaintance of mine insists there must always be a love story, somewhere, at the heart of it. What else would prompt people to be so overcome with emotion that could only express themselves in song?
Stories set in coffee shops are almost as overdone as those in office environments, but hey, I'm just as guilty as the next person of using coffee shops. No stones to be thrown in that glass house.
I hear the Theatre Undeclared crowd sped up the song they sampled at Fringe-For-All, so that it would fit in the three-minute time limit. Phew. That may explain why one person was sometimes out of breath and overpowered by the electric keyboard nearby.
And wow, there were a lot of cheesy coffee-related metaphors - "I love you latte" "I can't espresso how much I feel..." etc.
And if the young lady and the young man hadn't both been totally adorable, solo, and with each other, it probably wouldn't have worked.
But they were adorable, and it did work. And after reading their slightly more expansive synopsis, cheekily titled...
"The better version: Grind is part of the next generation of musical theater, where the lines between actors, band and audience are broken down for good: our actors are musicians, our musicians play characters, and the audience is always, always in on the game. We believe breaking down these barriers is essential to telling a story that's both surprising and resonant. That's why we chose a coffee shop--it's a place where you arrive with a barrier up, but when that barrier gets broken down and you let yourself experience the people around you, magic can happen. And in "Grind", it does.
Plot-wise, Grind follows the owner of a doomed Minneapolis coffee shop, her aspiring-musician brother, a homeless evangelist, a comic-book writer and a young barista relocated by Katrina as each answers the question "what do I do when 'home' can't be home anymore?" Punctuated by bursts of shadow puppetry done in the style of comic-book art, each character struggles to answer this question set to a soundtrack made from styles varying from rap to indie to jazz to spoken word. And somehow, it's also hilarious."
...I get the feeling we might be in for something interesting. Not your standard cookie cutter romantic comedy.
I'm particularly intrigued by the comic book art shadow puppetry stuff. There are pictures of the process and end result on their flickr feed, again on their website.
Plus, the trailer for their previous outing - "Liberal Arts, The Musical" (argh) actually looks like some really nice work. Which bodes well for musical number 2.
I particularly enjoyed how a quote from a professor proclaimed, "It was sick." (I presume in a good way.)
Their blog has song samples from rehearsal - complete with actors swearing when they screw up the lyrics. Hee.
And Theatre Undeclared is one of a half dozen acts that are doing the Midwest Fringe circuit. So they'll have one Fringe already under their belt by the time they get to us. Kinks all worked out by then, I expect.
It's strangely bewitching. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I know I'm curious, rather than indifferent, which inches this show up a notch on the "must cram into my schedule somehow" list.
Their website - www.grindthemusical.com
Their Fringe page
Fringe 2010 - FFA1 - The First Three Minutes Were Great
Another in the category of Fringe-For-All previews of "shows that unexpectedly charmed me..."
The First Five Minutes Are Slow
"...but what follows is an epic. Using movement and the manipulation of everyday objects, three actors create and perform an original adventurous journey. A show for everyone that embraces laughter and imagination."
from Tamara Ober/Present State Movement
"I'm really jealous you guys all got to see that and I didn't," said Robin. Stuck backstage in her role as MC, it was hard to tell what was going on. All she could here was that we were all very amused.
This is where it gets fun to watch the Fringe slowly start to congeal. At first, the tech booth kept the lights up a bit, until they realized - oh, darkness is the point! And they pulled the lights out for the rest of the bit.
Because it was sort of "Attack of the Dancing Light Fixtures" (with a side order of "I Sure Hope They Don't Run Out of Extension Cords")
Tamara (I'm just guessing, since it's a three person group and she's the only female on stage) was dressed in business attire, and glasses, and we were told she went into a cave. Along with a desk lamp. The lamp would go on and off, in time with the music, at the behest of a remote control clicker she would zap it with. And dance with. The light started out red, and by the end somehow became blue, and green, and then kind of a kaleidoscope. She was joined by two men in matching button down shirts, ties, vests and slacks, creeping up behind her. Also armed with desk lamps they could remotely zap, and dance with. And the colored light samba they had going would reveal their contorted comical quizzical faces in all sorts of combinations. It was cheeky and goofy and really a hell of a lot of fun.
A scratch of a needle across a record sound and the lamps went out. "What happened?" asked one of the ominous men. "Our time is up," she replied. They'd timed it out with time to spare, but the bit at the end was an amusing way to put a button on it and avoid being applauded offstage for running overtime.
Not a heck of a lot on their Fringe page, but when I went digging about I discovered...
"Oh! She's the one who did Pipa in last year's Fringe!" (a show I heard a lot of good things about but never got a chance to see) A sampling...
From the looks of other posts on the internet, she took her act up to the Canadian Fringe circuit and out west to Seattle, among other things, quite successfully. She also revisited Pipa as part of the Red Eye New Works series.
Also got herself a Minnesota dance award, the Sage Award for Outstanding Performer, last fall. So she's had a busy fruitful year since last Fringe. She's done a lot of work in the past with the Zenon Dance troupe (which even a non-dance-ophile like myself has heard of, if not seen in person yet)
Oh, and she was also part of the Fringe 2008 show The Gypsy & The General from 3 Sticks, so that's another point of reference I didn't already know I had.
Time I saw her for myself I think. The show looks like a real lark.
So, thanks, Fringe-For-All. I now need to revisit my schedule - again. Too much good theater to choose from. My favorite painful time of year.
Their Fringe page
The First Five Minutes Are Slow
"...but what follows is an epic. Using movement and the manipulation of everyday objects, three actors create and perform an original adventurous journey. A show for everyone that embraces laughter and imagination."
from Tamara Ober/Present State Movement
"I'm really jealous you guys all got to see that and I didn't," said Robin. Stuck backstage in her role as MC, it was hard to tell what was going on. All she could here was that we were all very amused.
This is where it gets fun to watch the Fringe slowly start to congeal. At first, the tech booth kept the lights up a bit, until they realized - oh, darkness is the point! And they pulled the lights out for the rest of the bit.
Because it was sort of "Attack of the Dancing Light Fixtures" (with a side order of "I Sure Hope They Don't Run Out of Extension Cords")
Tamara (I'm just guessing, since it's a three person group and she's the only female on stage) was dressed in business attire, and glasses, and we were told she went into a cave. Along with a desk lamp. The lamp would go on and off, in time with the music, at the behest of a remote control clicker she would zap it with. And dance with. The light started out red, and by the end somehow became blue, and green, and then kind of a kaleidoscope. She was joined by two men in matching button down shirts, ties, vests and slacks, creeping up behind her. Also armed with desk lamps they could remotely zap, and dance with. And the colored light samba they had going would reveal their contorted comical quizzical faces in all sorts of combinations. It was cheeky and goofy and really a hell of a lot of fun.
A scratch of a needle across a record sound and the lamps went out. "What happened?" asked one of the ominous men. "Our time is up," she replied. They'd timed it out with time to spare, but the bit at the end was an amusing way to put a button on it and avoid being applauded offstage for running overtime.
Not a heck of a lot on their Fringe page, but when I went digging about I discovered...
"Oh! She's the one who did Pipa in last year's Fringe!" (a show I heard a lot of good things about but never got a chance to see) A sampling...
From the looks of other posts on the internet, she took her act up to the Canadian Fringe circuit and out west to Seattle, among other things, quite successfully. She also revisited Pipa as part of the Red Eye New Works series.
Also got herself a Minnesota dance award, the Sage Award for Outstanding Performer, last fall. So she's had a busy fruitful year since last Fringe. She's done a lot of work in the past with the Zenon Dance troupe (which even a non-dance-ophile like myself has heard of, if not seen in person yet)
Oh, and she was also part of the Fringe 2008 show The Gypsy & The General from 3 Sticks, so that's another point of reference I didn't already know I had.
Time I saw her for myself I think. The show looks like a real lark.
So, thanks, Fringe-For-All. I now need to revisit my schedule - again. Too much good theater to choose from. My favorite painful time of year.
Their Fringe page
Fringe 2010 - FFA1 - Man In Love With Chair, version 2.0
In the "shows I was unexpectedly charmed by" category is...
Yvette
Action Theater Project
"Morton has run out of ways to save the Thornton family estate from foreclosure, but when two antiques dealers show up and offer Morton a large sum of money for a particular antique chair, it looks like all may not be lost.
There is only one problem: Morton is in love with the chair.
With the foreclosure deadline closing in, how far will Morton go to defend his love for Yvette?
Sexual objectification takes on a whole new meaning in this farcical comedy when the object of sexual desire is, literally, an object. "Happily ever after" means something different when you can't legally get married. And sometimes autodidacts are the smartest people in the room.
If you have ever been annoyed by a love story, this show is for you."
First off, I was hoping to like this show anyway, because the writer/director is Gemma Irish, who gamely pitched in to help as a 24-Hour playwright for Theatre Unbound's annual fundraiser a couple of years ago. As playwright wrangler for the event, I often find it challenging to find 12 writers willing to go through sleep deprivation to instantly create a play overnight. Gemma was one of those writers, and whenever possible, I try to have a long memory about those things and help those writers in return as I'm able.
However, what are the odds that two local playwrights - one male, one female; one gay, one straight; one deaf, one hearing - should both write plays about men who fall in love with furniture, and produce them in back-to-back years in the Fringe Festival? I am referring, of course, to last year's That Chair Was My Wife. It was the first thing Mom and I saw in last year's Fringe. Even though that show was in my pre-Fringe Top 20, I still wasn't sure how I'd feel about it. It ended up getting a 4 star review out of me, and turned out to be more fascinating, and strangely moving, than merely creepy.
But who knew men's amorous attentions to chairs was its own genre? As Robin Gillette said the other night at Fringe-For-All (about the seals who turn into women double feature at this year's Fringe): "I do not understand the zeitgeist."
The last time I checked their Fringe page, there wasn't a lot of information there on the people involved. So I didn't know what to expect.
Then Joe Bombard walked out.
And I now want to see this show about ten times more than I already did.
That was before he did a thing.
Joe Bombard is one of my favorite theater people. And he works a lot. And I miss so many of his shows it's criminal. And the one great thing about Fringe season is that I finally have a week and a half where my one and only job is just to see as much damn theater as I can. So if friends have shows and the scheduling magic works out, I can actually watch people I love watching onstage, doing what they love to do.
I think I first saw Joe in Fringe production of Bent, which had such a strange audience member in the front row what I felt compelled to riff on the subject of Fringe Etiquette for the Holocaust. Joe was also the title character in Walking Shadow's production of American Pilot.
But the reason Joe Bombard is permanently stuck on my list of people I need to see perform as often as I can is that he was also the title character in Dog Tag in Fringe 2008. A little script my friend Anne Bertram and I wrote. And Joe was just a heartbreakingly delightful dog, with such boundless enthusiasm, that... well, see for yourself...
There are actors who would treat that role like a joke.
And there are actors who would treat the role of a man in love with a chair like a joke.
Joe isn't one of those actors.
No matter the level of weirdness, he commits to it fully, and makes his characters - animal, vegetable or mineral - fully human, and recognizable, and relatable.
So if anybody can make me care again about a guy who cares about a chair, it'd be Joe.
In fact, when he touched, and kissed, and brought flowers for the chair, Yvette, there were actually some people in the audience who went, "Awwww." Like it was the cutest, most romantic thing ever.
A guy. And a chair. To the tune of a little French pop song.
(Bonus points, I see also in the cast list now, they have Patrick Kozicky, of
Fringe 2009's The Return of LICK!, Fringe 2008's American Sexy, and Fringe 2006's Wonderland, among other things. Cool.)
Excuse me now while I rearrange my Fringe schedule (again) so I can be sure to see Yvette
Their Fringe page
Yvette
Action Theater Project
"Morton has run out of ways to save the Thornton family estate from foreclosure, but when two antiques dealers show up and offer Morton a large sum of money for a particular antique chair, it looks like all may not be lost.
There is only one problem: Morton is in love with the chair.
With the foreclosure deadline closing in, how far will Morton go to defend his love for Yvette?
Sexual objectification takes on a whole new meaning in this farcical comedy when the object of sexual desire is, literally, an object. "Happily ever after" means something different when you can't legally get married. And sometimes autodidacts are the smartest people in the room.
If you have ever been annoyed by a love story, this show is for you."
First off, I was hoping to like this show anyway, because the writer/director is Gemma Irish, who gamely pitched in to help as a 24-Hour playwright for Theatre Unbound's annual fundraiser a couple of years ago. As playwright wrangler for the event, I often find it challenging to find 12 writers willing to go through sleep deprivation to instantly create a play overnight. Gemma was one of those writers, and whenever possible, I try to have a long memory about those things and help those writers in return as I'm able.
However, what are the odds that two local playwrights - one male, one female; one gay, one straight; one deaf, one hearing - should both write plays about men who fall in love with furniture, and produce them in back-to-back years in the Fringe Festival? I am referring, of course, to last year's That Chair Was My Wife. It was the first thing Mom and I saw in last year's Fringe. Even though that show was in my pre-Fringe Top 20, I still wasn't sure how I'd feel about it. It ended up getting a 4 star review out of me, and turned out to be more fascinating, and strangely moving, than merely creepy.
But who knew men's amorous attentions to chairs was its own genre? As Robin Gillette said the other night at Fringe-For-All (about the seals who turn into women double feature at this year's Fringe): "I do not understand the zeitgeist."
The last time I checked their Fringe page, there wasn't a lot of information there on the people involved. So I didn't know what to expect.
Then Joe Bombard walked out.
And I now want to see this show about ten times more than I already did.
That was before he did a thing.
Joe Bombard is one of my favorite theater people. And he works a lot. And I miss so many of his shows it's criminal. And the one great thing about Fringe season is that I finally have a week and a half where my one and only job is just to see as much damn theater as I can. So if friends have shows and the scheduling magic works out, I can actually watch people I love watching onstage, doing what they love to do.
I think I first saw Joe in Fringe production of Bent, which had such a strange audience member in the front row what I felt compelled to riff on the subject of Fringe Etiquette for the Holocaust. Joe was also the title character in Walking Shadow's production of American Pilot.
But the reason Joe Bombard is permanently stuck on my list of people I need to see perform as often as I can is that he was also the title character in Dog Tag in Fringe 2008. A little script my friend Anne Bertram and I wrote. And Joe was just a heartbreakingly delightful dog, with such boundless enthusiasm, that... well, see for yourself...
There are actors who would treat that role like a joke.
And there are actors who would treat the role of a man in love with a chair like a joke.
Joe isn't one of those actors.
No matter the level of weirdness, he commits to it fully, and makes his characters - animal, vegetable or mineral - fully human, and recognizable, and relatable.
So if anybody can make me care again about a guy who cares about a chair, it'd be Joe.
In fact, when he touched, and kissed, and brought flowers for the chair, Yvette, there were actually some people in the audience who went, "Awwww." Like it was the cutest, most romantic thing ever.
A guy. And a chair. To the tune of a little French pop song.
(Bonus points, I see also in the cast list now, they have Patrick Kozicky, of
Fringe 2009's The Return of LICK!, Fringe 2008's American Sexy, and Fringe 2006's Wonderland, among other things. Cool.)
Excuse me now while I rearrange my Fringe schedule (again) so I can be sure to see Yvette
Their Fringe page
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Fringe 2010 - Fringe-For-All 1 - Sometimes The Unscripted Moments Are The Best
Favorite unintentional theater review from last night...
During intermission of Fringe-For-All last night, a friend couldn't believe that between the History Theater and the School of Music that housed it, they didn't have a single piano which could be used for the previews.
I was about to make excuses (after all, 29 groups of artists you don't know, playing with something as delicate as a piano?), when another friend blurted out under their breath,
"It wouldn't have helped."
Oops. I think that was your "out loud" voice, my dear.
They were immediately chagrined, but grinned.
And they were right. Some of those 29 previews last night were a bit... rough, to be kind about it. Still very much works in progress. But we're still 23 days out. Over three weeks. God love 'em all for having the nerve to put something out there. Hard core Fringers can be forgiving, but also a potentially tough crowd. And it made the groups that had their act together really stand out.
A fellow blogger during the same intermission shared a bit of their inner monologue with me, jokingly grumbling, "I just wanna post something before Everett!"
Well, my friend, you have over a 12 hour head start. (And that's not counting all the people twittering and otherwise connecting with the internet over their new-fangled phones during the previews. My phone is still just a phone. It doesn't even take pictures. Seriously, people, unplug for a couple of hours. There are all kinds of people you can connect with, you know, right next to you. There's a room full of them. And it's live theater. Whatever.)
Day job's been crazy, as it's the reporting period after the turn of our fiscal year end, and we're still understaffed. It's job security of a sort, but it doesn't leave a lot of downtime for blogging duties.
Then I absentmindedly spaced the fact that I needed to recharge my laptop battery, since there's nowhere to plug in on the lunch break. So lunch was actually just lunch, and not lunch and computer time, for a change. I contented myself with reading over one of my own scripts in rewrite mode instead. I listened to a guy singing and playing his guitar in the sandwich shop next to the food court outside my workplace. Wow, music exists beyond my earbuds. Imagine that.
Rather than go through them all chronologically (as it was sometimes a bit of "long hard slog" as Rumsfield used to say), I think I'll gather them in some general groupings...
Shows that unexpectedly charmed me
Shows that I'm sure have to be better than their previews last night
Shows that it will surprise no one that I liked
Shows that I am just not the audience for
Well, on with it then...
During intermission of Fringe-For-All last night, a friend couldn't believe that between the History Theater and the School of Music that housed it, they didn't have a single piano which could be used for the previews.
I was about to make excuses (after all, 29 groups of artists you don't know, playing with something as delicate as a piano?), when another friend blurted out under their breath,
"It wouldn't have helped."
Oops. I think that was your "out loud" voice, my dear.
They were immediately chagrined, but grinned.
And they were right. Some of those 29 previews last night were a bit... rough, to be kind about it. Still very much works in progress. But we're still 23 days out. Over three weeks. God love 'em all for having the nerve to put something out there. Hard core Fringers can be forgiving, but also a potentially tough crowd. And it made the groups that had their act together really stand out.
A fellow blogger during the same intermission shared a bit of their inner monologue with me, jokingly grumbling, "I just wanna post something before Everett!"
Well, my friend, you have over a 12 hour head start. (And that's not counting all the people twittering and otherwise connecting with the internet over their new-fangled phones during the previews. My phone is still just a phone. It doesn't even take pictures. Seriously, people, unplug for a couple of hours. There are all kinds of people you can connect with, you know, right next to you. There's a room full of them. And it's live theater. Whatever.)
Day job's been crazy, as it's the reporting period after the turn of our fiscal year end, and we're still understaffed. It's job security of a sort, but it doesn't leave a lot of downtime for blogging duties.
Then I absentmindedly spaced the fact that I needed to recharge my laptop battery, since there's nowhere to plug in on the lunch break. So lunch was actually just lunch, and not lunch and computer time, for a change. I contented myself with reading over one of my own scripts in rewrite mode instead. I listened to a guy singing and playing his guitar in the sandwich shop next to the food court outside my workplace. Wow, music exists beyond my earbuds. Imagine that.
Rather than go through them all chronologically (as it was sometimes a bit of "long hard slog" as Rumsfield used to say), I think I'll gather them in some general groupings...
Shows that unexpectedly charmed me
Shows that I'm sure have to be better than their previews last night
Shows that it will surprise no one that I liked
Shows that I am just not the audience for
Well, on with it then...
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Fringe 2010 - Fringe Preview Season Is Upon Us
The marathon of Minnesota Fringe Festival previews is about to hit with a vengeance.
You can see the full list of acts ready to dazzle you with excerpts on the Fringe's showcase page.
Monday, July 12th kicks off the two-part Fringe-For-All preview explosion, with 30 acts taking the History Theater stage in St. Paul at 7:30pm
Part 2 will be next Monday, July 19th at 7:30pm at the Ritz in NE Minneapolis, another 30 Fringe groups to get a peek at.
In between, there will be three smaller preview events...
Wednesday, July 14
Kids' and family-friendly showcase at
R.H. Stafford Library
8595 Central Park Pl, Woodbury
(there's some overlap in acts, but two we won't have had a chance to see yet - Benny The Illusion, and The Little Prince)
Thursday, July 15
General showcase at Lyric at
Carleton Place
765 Hampden Av S, St. Paul
(again, more overlap, but some acts not part of the Fringe-For-All lineup - Indifferent, Mismatched, and Pop Goes The Cherry)
Saturday, July 17
General showcase at
Minneapolis Central Library
300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
(some more overlap, and yet still another handful of acts not previewed elsewhere - Condoleeza's Rites, Mixed Reality, SlapDash)
All in all, nearly 70 of the Fringe shows vying for your attendance as an audience member will be getting their act out there for you to sample. Still not quite half the offerings of the entire festival, and yet a mighty impressive chunk. Could be enormously illuminating, and help you make some of the tough choices of the weeks ahead.
All this will of course culminate in the Out of Towner showcase at Bedlam the night before the Fringe begins, Wednesday, August 4th, where the visiting acts get a chance to say hello. And that should put us close to, if not over, the halfway mark in terms of sampling. Phew.
Sadly, I won't get to the three mini-previews (getting in those hours at the day jobs, in advance of my theatergoing vacation with Mom). But I'll be there for the Fringe-For-Alls (FFA), and the Out of Towner (OOT) Showcase, dashing off little bloglets to toss my opinion in the mix.
Oh, for the Fringe-For-All, admission is the act of buying your $4 Fringe button - which is then good for the whole festival, and for Fringey discounts year-round. Can't wait to finally get mine (and a spare, to keep in the car, since I'm reliably forgetful).
Have fun everybody!
You can see the full list of acts ready to dazzle you with excerpts on the Fringe's showcase page.
Monday, July 12th kicks off the two-part Fringe-For-All preview explosion, with 30 acts taking the History Theater stage in St. Paul at 7:30pm
Part 2 will be next Monday, July 19th at 7:30pm at the Ritz in NE Minneapolis, another 30 Fringe groups to get a peek at.
In between, there will be three smaller preview events...
Wednesday, July 14
Kids' and family-friendly showcase at
R.H. Stafford Library
8595 Central Park Pl, Woodbury
(there's some overlap in acts, but two we won't have had a chance to see yet - Benny The Illusion, and The Little Prince)
Thursday, July 15
General showcase at Lyric at
Carleton Place
765 Hampden Av S, St. Paul
(again, more overlap, but some acts not part of the Fringe-For-All lineup - Indifferent, Mismatched, and Pop Goes The Cherry)
Saturday, July 17
General showcase at
Minneapolis Central Library
300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
(some more overlap, and yet still another handful of acts not previewed elsewhere - Condoleeza's Rites, Mixed Reality, SlapDash)
All in all, nearly 70 of the Fringe shows vying for your attendance as an audience member will be getting their act out there for you to sample. Still not quite half the offerings of the entire festival, and yet a mighty impressive chunk. Could be enormously illuminating, and help you make some of the tough choices of the weeks ahead.
All this will of course culminate in the Out of Towner showcase at Bedlam the night before the Fringe begins, Wednesday, August 4th, where the visiting acts get a chance to say hello. And that should put us close to, if not over, the halfway mark in terms of sampling. Phew.
Sadly, I won't get to the three mini-previews (getting in those hours at the day jobs, in advance of my theatergoing vacation with Mom). But I'll be there for the Fringe-For-Alls (FFA), and the Out of Towner (OOT) Showcase, dashing off little bloglets to toss my opinion in the mix.
Oh, for the Fringe-For-All, admission is the act of buying your $4 Fringe button - which is then good for the whole festival, and for Fringey discounts year-round. Can't wait to finally get mine (and a spare, to keep in the car, since I'm reliably forgetful).
Have fun everybody!
Interregnum 2009-2010 - Blog of the Time Between - Project 515
This is a collection of the links related to my work with The Flowershop Project on their production related to Project 515 - a group working for equal civil rights for gay and lesbian couples in Minnesota...
6/24/10 - My Strategy For Being More Gay This Weekend
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/24/10 - My Strategy For Being More Gay This Weekend
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
Interregnum 2009-2010 - Blog of the Time Between - Shameless Plugs
I see theater between Fringes, really I do. Sometimes I even remember to write about it ahead of time, so maybe other people know it's out there, too. So here are some shameless plugs for things that happened since the last Fringe...
6/29/10 - Kick My Asthma
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/26/10 - Twin Cities Improv Festival 4
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
4/17/10 - Maximum Verbosity - Pissing On The Great Wall
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/17/09 - Playwrights' Center Gathering
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/13/09 - Vaudeville Extravaganza
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
8/28/09 - Minnesota Shakes - Good Boys
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
8/26/09 - Red Letter Theater - Phaedre's Love
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/29/10 - Kick My Asthma
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/26/10 - Twin Cities Improv Festival 4
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
4/17/10 - Maximum Verbosity - Pissing On The Great Wall
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/17/09 - Playwrights' Center Gathering
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/13/09 - Vaudeville Extravaganza
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
8/28/09 - Minnesota Shakes - Good Boys
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
8/26/09 - Red Letter Theater - Phaedre's Love
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
Fringe 2010 - Returning Favorites
Here's a bunch of handy links to all the write-ups on Fringe acts this year that were spotlighted in past Fringe Top 10 and Fringe Top 20 lists on this blog. (We'll see if I have enough time to get to them all this year. They tend to keep piling up...)
Aspect I Studios/Damian Sheridan (Top 10 2004) - 7/6/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Ben Egerman (Top 10 2008) - 7/11/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Joking Envelope (Joseph Scrimshaw) (Top 10 2005) - 7/8/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Partizan Players (Top 20 2009) - 7/10/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Shelby Company (Top 10 2009) - 6/22/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Rachel Teagle (Top 10 2008) - 7/11/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Aspect I Studios/Damian Sheridan (Top 10 2004) - 7/6/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Ben Egerman (Top 10 2008) - 7/11/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Joking Envelope (Joseph Scrimshaw) (Top 10 2005) - 7/8/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Partizan Players (Top 20 2009) - 7/10/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Shelby Company (Top 10 2009) - 6/22/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Rachel Teagle (Top 10 2008) - 7/11/2010
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Single White Fringe Geek
Interregnum 2009-2010 - Blog of the Time Between - Reviews
The Twin Cities Daily Planet has given me my own little byline page, and has me reviewing shows outside the confines of the blog, too, these days. Like anyone in the Twin Cities, I still miss more theater than I end up seeing. But here's the write-ups on the things I managed to catch since last Fringe...
7/10/10 Theatre Pro Rata - Traveling Light
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/23/10 Jungle Theater - The Mystery of Irma Vep
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/21/10 Off-Leash Area - Le Squat
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/21/10 Prospero Theatre - Baby With The Bathwater
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/10/10 Swandive Theatre - The Baltimore Waltz
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/8/10 Minnesota Shakes - Hamlet
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
5/23/10 Killing Joke Productions - The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
4/21/10 Park Square Theatre - Dead Man's Cell Phone
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
4/17/10 Naked Stages 2 - Kelley Meister and Mire Regulus
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
4/2/10 Naked Stages 1 - Julia Elizabeth Babb and Julian McFaul
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
3/15/10 Theatre Pro Rata - The Spanish Tragedy
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
2/20/10 Walking Shadow - Mojo
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
2/7/10 Gremlin Theatre - The Homecoming
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
1/11/10 3AM Productions - Dumb/Sex
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
11/11/09 Sandbox Theatre - .faust
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
11/9/09 Workhaus Collective - The Sense of What Should Be
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
11/8/09 Hardcover Theater - She: Immortal Witch Queen of a Lost World
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
11/8/09 Prufrock Theatre - Landscape of the Body
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/17/09 The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later - An Epilogue
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/17/09 The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later - An Epilogue - Q&A
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/6/09 Theatre Pro Rata - Marisol
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/5/09 Open Eye Figure Theatre - Mark The Encounter
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
9/27/09 Urban Samurai Productions - Homeland Prayer
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
9/4/09 Minnesota Shakes - Good Boys
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
8/30/09 Red Letter Theater - Phaedra's Love
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/23/09 Twin Cities Improv Festival 3 - Preview
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
7/10/10 Theatre Pro Rata - Traveling Light
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/23/10 Jungle Theater - The Mystery of Irma Vep
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/21/10 Off-Leash Area - Le Squat
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/21/10 Prospero Theatre - Baby With The Bathwater
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/10/10 Swandive Theatre - The Baltimore Waltz
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/8/10 Minnesota Shakes - Hamlet
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
5/23/10 Killing Joke Productions - The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
4/21/10 Park Square Theatre - Dead Man's Cell Phone
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
4/17/10 Naked Stages 2 - Kelley Meister and Mire Regulus
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
4/2/10 Naked Stages 1 - Julia Elizabeth Babb and Julian McFaul
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
3/15/10 Theatre Pro Rata - The Spanish Tragedy
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
2/20/10 Walking Shadow - Mojo
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
2/7/10 Gremlin Theatre - The Homecoming
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
1/11/10 3AM Productions - Dumb/Sex
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
11/11/09 Sandbox Theatre - .faust
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
11/9/09 Workhaus Collective - The Sense of What Should Be
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
11/8/09 Hardcover Theater - She: Immortal Witch Queen of a Lost World
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
11/8/09 Prufrock Theatre - Landscape of the Body
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/17/09 The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later - An Epilogue
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/17/09 The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later - An Epilogue - Q&A
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/6/09 Theatre Pro Rata - Marisol
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
10/5/09 Open Eye Figure Theatre - Mark The Encounter
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
9/27/09 Urban Samurai Productions - Homeland Prayer
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
9/4/09 Minnesota Shakes - Good Boys
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
8/30/09 Red Letter Theater - Phaedra's Love
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
6/23/09 Twin Cities Improv Festival 3 - Preview
Twin Cities Daily Planet version
Fringe 2010 - Returning Favorites - Ben Egerman & Rachel Teagle
It's a two-for-one deal on this returning favorite. Ben Egerman and Rachel Teagle teamed up as the Questionable Company Theatre to present Orange (a farce about terrorism) that landed on my 2008 Fringe Top 10 list. The show itself got a 4 star review out of me, and a wide variety of opinions out of their audiences.
Not long ago, Rachel moved down to Atlanta, and Ben remained here in Minneapolis. And now they've both got their own show in the 2010 Fringe.
Ben (as The Great Ben Egerman Theatre Adventure!) is currently touring his show Do Not Kill Me, Killer Robots! around Canada and the east coast of the United States, before he brings it back home to us. (You can follow along on his blog or facebook if you like)
So, about that show...
"The place is here. The time: the very near future. Humanity has been all but eradicated by a horrible robot army. Ben Egerman is the only human left. You are the robot army. Get ready.
Set in the very near future, 'Do Not Kill Me, Killer Robots' presents a world where the entire human population has been reduced to one (namely, writer/performer Ben Egerman) by a murderous horde of robots. Locking himself in as secure a building as he could find, he prepares for the robots’ inevitable arrival. Luckily, he knows the robots’ only true weakness—the line of their programming code that inexplicably prevents them from killing during a one-man show. Presenting stories from the horrible robot wars and elsewhere, Egerman plans on enticing his audience with his own unique brand of absurdist humor, with healthy servings of sci-fi kitsch, lo-fi props, and some electronic gadgetry to taste. Learn what happens when all of your facebook friends join a group called “We Need More Grenades!” and become fans of either 'The Book of Revelations' or 'Mass Suicide.' Discover the magical and sexy origins of the robot hordes, what makes astronauts lonely, and the precise conditions under which an adorable kitten can win in a battle with a nurse shark. But most of all, discover the bloodthirsty automaton within, that you never knew was longing to break free."
His website - www.benegerman.com
His show page
Rachel, this time around as a national Fringer visiting our fair cities, presents Rachel Teagle Believes in Ghosts
"Rachel Teagle's new apartment is haunted. And she wants to tell you all about it.
She has always had a secret, nerdy interest in the supernatural, and moving to Atlanta with its decaying mansions and ever-present graveyards was like hitting the spectral jackpot. In this world-premiere solo show, she delves into her own haunted history: from California's Winchester Mystery House to the disappearing cemeteries in Savannah. In exploring and conquering her haunted apartment, built on a Union Army campsite, Rachel discovers urban legends, murder ballads, unexplained phenomena and tales passed down from the women in her family who see ghosts. Through her discovery of the ghost in her apartment, Rachel explores many aspects of the super natural, from the spirit knocking of late 19th century mediums to the modern day ineptitude of 'Ghost Hunters.'
These stories range from creepy to beautiful to ridiculous and are told through words, music, and dance. Rachel Teagle Believes in Ghosts is a wry journey through the supernatural with detours into the unexplained, the frustrated, and the ridiculous. While one needs not believe in ghosts to enjoy the show, anyone who has been relieved to learn they were not alone will connect to these stories from below the Mason-Dixon line and beyond the grave."
Rachel also gets good kharma for directing Katherine Glover's truly fantastic solo storytelling show A Cynic Tells Love Stories in the 2009 Fringe. It was in the second half of my Fringe marathon last year and thus didn't get nearly the praiseworthy electronic ink it should have from me. Man, I really loved that show. An excerpt of it performed at the Kick My Asthma benefit last week just reminded me of that anew. One of the best last year. Katherine Glover shall be front and center on any new Top 10 list when she does her next Fringe show, trust me.
For now, however, back to Rachel...
Her blog
Her show page
And here's a bit of video from where this show was born (Rachel warns that there's more swearing than normal because at the time she did this stand-up routine, she was still in college)
Not long ago, Rachel moved down to Atlanta, and Ben remained here in Minneapolis. And now they've both got their own show in the 2010 Fringe.
Ben (as The Great Ben Egerman Theatre Adventure!) is currently touring his show Do Not Kill Me, Killer Robots! around Canada and the east coast of the United States, before he brings it back home to us. (You can follow along on his blog or facebook if you like)
So, about that show...
"The place is here. The time: the very near future. Humanity has been all but eradicated by a horrible robot army. Ben Egerman is the only human left. You are the robot army. Get ready.
Set in the very near future, 'Do Not Kill Me, Killer Robots' presents a world where the entire human population has been reduced to one (namely, writer/performer Ben Egerman) by a murderous horde of robots. Locking himself in as secure a building as he could find, he prepares for the robots’ inevitable arrival. Luckily, he knows the robots’ only true weakness—the line of their programming code that inexplicably prevents them from killing during a one-man show. Presenting stories from the horrible robot wars and elsewhere, Egerman plans on enticing his audience with his own unique brand of absurdist humor, with healthy servings of sci-fi kitsch, lo-fi props, and some electronic gadgetry to taste. Learn what happens when all of your facebook friends join a group called “We Need More Grenades!” and become fans of either 'The Book of Revelations' or 'Mass Suicide.' Discover the magical and sexy origins of the robot hordes, what makes astronauts lonely, and the precise conditions under which an adorable kitten can win in a battle with a nurse shark. But most of all, discover the bloodthirsty automaton within, that you never knew was longing to break free."
His website - www.benegerman.com
His show page
Rachel, this time around as a national Fringer visiting our fair cities, presents Rachel Teagle Believes in Ghosts
"Rachel Teagle's new apartment is haunted. And she wants to tell you all about it.
She has always had a secret, nerdy interest in the supernatural, and moving to Atlanta with its decaying mansions and ever-present graveyards was like hitting the spectral jackpot. In this world-premiere solo show, she delves into her own haunted history: from California's Winchester Mystery House to the disappearing cemeteries in Savannah. In exploring and conquering her haunted apartment, built on a Union Army campsite, Rachel discovers urban legends, murder ballads, unexplained phenomena and tales passed down from the women in her family who see ghosts. Through her discovery of the ghost in her apartment, Rachel explores many aspects of the super natural, from the spirit knocking of late 19th century mediums to the modern day ineptitude of 'Ghost Hunters.'
These stories range from creepy to beautiful to ridiculous and are told through words, music, and dance. Rachel Teagle Believes in Ghosts is a wry journey through the supernatural with detours into the unexplained, the frustrated, and the ridiculous. While one needs not believe in ghosts to enjoy the show, anyone who has been relieved to learn they were not alone will connect to these stories from below the Mason-Dixon line and beyond the grave."
Rachel also gets good kharma for directing Katherine Glover's truly fantastic solo storytelling show A Cynic Tells Love Stories in the 2009 Fringe. It was in the second half of my Fringe marathon last year and thus didn't get nearly the praiseworthy electronic ink it should have from me. Man, I really loved that show. An excerpt of it performed at the Kick My Asthma benefit last week just reminded me of that anew. One of the best last year. Katherine Glover shall be front and center on any new Top 10 list when she does her next Fringe show, trust me.
For now, however, back to Rachel...
Her blog
Her show page
And here's a bit of video from where this show was born (Rachel warns that there's more swearing than normal because at the time she did this stand-up routine, she was still in college)
Friday, July 09, 2010
Fringe 2010 - Returning Favorites - Partizan Players
Unfortunately, Partizan Players last year ended up being one of those acts that I pimped on my 2009 Fringe Top 20 list, and then managed to completely miss all the performances of
Something Witchy. I'm hoping to correct that this year.
And what better year to do it than one in which Partizan revisits their 2005 Fringe hit (which I also missed, what is up with me?), The Princeton Seventh - a show so universally beloved back then that for this year's Fringe page, they just re-posted all their audience praise from last time to convince you to come out this time around. Can't argue with that strategy.
I also can't argue with the cast, which includes not only the talented Alex Cole and Ari Hoptman, but the lovely and talented Alayne Hopkins, who recently played a werewolf for me in a Thirst play I wrote. Added incentive to go, as if I needed more.
Their website - partizanpictures.com
Their show page
Something Witchy. I'm hoping to correct that this year.
And what better year to do it than one in which Partizan revisits their 2005 Fringe hit (which I also missed, what is up with me?), The Princeton Seventh - a show so universally beloved back then that for this year's Fringe page, they just re-posted all their audience praise from last time to convince you to come out this time around. Can't argue with that strategy.
I also can't argue with the cast, which includes not only the talented Alex Cole and Ari Hoptman, but the lovely and talented Alayne Hopkins, who recently played a werewolf for me in a Thirst play I wrote. Added incentive to go, as if I needed more.
Their website - partizanpictures.com
Their show page
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Fringe 2010 - Returning Favorites - Joking Envelope (Joseph Scrimshaw)
Speaking of deals with the devil (see the post on The Collectors)...
"'What's Up, Satan?' is the hottest pilot in LA. Only three actors remain in the audition room of hell. What won't they do to land the lead role of Lucifer? An evil comedy about every day evil.
Using the Hollywood dream of fame and success as a backdrop, the show explores the concept of "everyday evil". Putting aside demons, Nazis, or super-villians--what choices do we all make on a day-to-day basis that we are less than proud of? Is there really such a thing as good and evil? What won't we do to get what we really want in life?"
Yes, Joking Envelope (aka Joseph and Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw) is back in this year's Fringe with a new Joseph Scrimshaw comedy
The Damn Audition
Sample lines from The Damn Audition...
"Did you know that in Los Angeleles 'is that normal?' is the most frequently asked and least frequently answered question?"
"In America, wanting to be famous is like having herpes. Even if you're not experiencing an outbreak, it's always there, living in your spine."
"I am a Lutheran. The closest I have ever been to an orgy is a really successful potluck."
The cast is so good, it almost isn't fair...
"The show features a truly all star cast of Twin Cities acting talent: Equity actor and star of the Guthrie’s recent production of “M. Butterfly”, Randy Reyes*, as an inexperienced actor brand new to LA; Fringe Favorite David Mann* as a frustrated LA character actor; John Middleton as a deranged former child star; and Maggie Chestovich* and Joseph Scrimshaw as artistically obsessed casting agents.
*Member of Actor’s Equity Association"
If I knew nothing about these people, I think the press materials would have had me at "deranged former child star." John Middleton as a deranged former child star? Even better!
I did a big returning favorite write-up on Joseph in 2008 (both the Scrimshaw Brothers made the Top 10 list on my blog back in 2005), so I won't go repeating myself on that score. And here's the seemingly inevitable five star review from me for his outing in the 2009 Fringe, The Tragedy of You, as well as a variety of audience and critical response
From the Joking Envelope website jokingenvelope.com...
"Here at Joking Envelope... we believe three simple absolute truths about comedy.
Number One: Comedy is fun. You shouldn’t take it too seriously.
Number Two: Comedy is a deadly serious art form. It exists to ignite impassioned intellectual responses and provoke the cathartic emotional release commonly known as laughter.
Number Three: There is no reason comedy can't be both at the same time."
Amen, brothers and sisters.
Their Fringe show page
"'What's Up, Satan?' is the hottest pilot in LA. Only three actors remain in the audition room of hell. What won't they do to land the lead role of Lucifer? An evil comedy about every day evil.
Using the Hollywood dream of fame and success as a backdrop, the show explores the concept of "everyday evil". Putting aside demons, Nazis, or super-villians--what choices do we all make on a day-to-day basis that we are less than proud of? Is there really such a thing as good and evil? What won't we do to get what we really want in life?"
Yes, Joking Envelope (aka Joseph and Sara Stevenson Scrimshaw) is back in this year's Fringe with a new Joseph Scrimshaw comedy
The Damn Audition
Sample lines from The Damn Audition...
"Did you know that in Los Angeleles 'is that normal?' is the most frequently asked and least frequently answered question?"
"In America, wanting to be famous is like having herpes. Even if you're not experiencing an outbreak, it's always there, living in your spine."
"I am a Lutheran. The closest I have ever been to an orgy is a really successful potluck."
The cast is so good, it almost isn't fair...
"The show features a truly all star cast of Twin Cities acting talent: Equity actor and star of the Guthrie’s recent production of “M. Butterfly”, Randy Reyes*, as an inexperienced actor brand new to LA; Fringe Favorite David Mann* as a frustrated LA character actor; John Middleton as a deranged former child star; and Maggie Chestovich* and Joseph Scrimshaw as artistically obsessed casting agents.
*Member of Actor’s Equity Association"
If I knew nothing about these people, I think the press materials would have had me at "deranged former child star." John Middleton as a deranged former child star? Even better!
I did a big returning favorite write-up on Joseph in 2008 (both the Scrimshaw Brothers made the Top 10 list on my blog back in 2005), so I won't go repeating myself on that score. And here's the seemingly inevitable five star review from me for his outing in the 2009 Fringe, The Tragedy of You, as well as a variety of audience and critical response
From the Joking Envelope website jokingenvelope.com...
"Here at Joking Envelope... we believe three simple absolute truths about comedy.
Number One: Comedy is fun. You shouldn’t take it too seriously.
Number Two: Comedy is a deadly serious art form. It exists to ignite impassioned intellectual responses and provoke the cathartic emotional release commonly known as laughter.
Number Three: There is no reason comedy can't be both at the same time."
Amen, brothers and sisters.
Their Fringe show page
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Fringe 2010 - Creepiest. Panda. Ever.
When I first heard there was going to be a panda in Junkyard Theater's Bedroom Eyes, I thought. Oh. Panda. Cute.
This panda? Not so much.
Creepiest. Panda. Ever.
Not that this is a bad thing. To explain further...
This video. I swear...
Just so you know what you're getting into - it's an elaborately costumed drag queen (Mistress Ginger, aka Justin Leaf) lip-syncing to Nina Simone, but then...
There's a guy wearing a panda mask.
In a business suit.
Who sits watching in a empty theater.
And then gets up to dance with said drag queen.
Then the panda man appears to change size.
And has sex with the drag queen in a men's restroom.
The drag queen then has to take a pregnancy test.
The panda man has impregnated the drag queen.
The drag queen has her panda baby.
And abandons it in a shopping cart at a grocery store...
No. Really.
Wow. Just... wow.
Now that's Fringe, baby.
The show's Fringe page says that the video itself, part of a previous mounting (no pun intended) of Bedroom Eyes last summer, isn't part of this Fringe outing, but its spirit "most certainly" is. So, there you have it.
Also part of the spirit would be this video (no panda warning needed, bonus parts for cute personal trainer...)
I've seen a lot of theater (and a whole lot of Fringe), so I'm not easily dazzled, but Justin Leaf (Mistress Ginger) has quite the pedigree - BFA in dance performance from Julliard, 2001 Zaraspe Prize for Outstanding Choreography, a 2007 Minnesota SAGE Award for Best Performance, and a 2009 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Dancers. Has danced with both the James Sewell Ballet and Minnesota Dance Theatre. So, to paraphrase Yogi Bear, smarter than the average drag queen.
And let's face it, shows like Bedroom Eyes also exist to remind me just how gay I am.
The press release says, in part...
"Junkyard Theater’s Bedroom Eyes is a glittering mélange of song and dance starring the “flawless and lawless” Mistress Ginger, who’s had many lovers but longs for something more. She welcomes the audience into her bona fide boudoir where she sings and dances her way through a slew of old standards, including songs by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Johnny Mercer. A love story unfolds as Ginger must confront the truth of her own self if she is ever to realize that which she seeks: true love. It’s comedy, romance, music, and dance, worked over with Junkyard Theater’s transgressive twist."
mélange
Gershwin
Porter
true love
Clang, clang, clang went the trolley...
"...Mistress Ginger, the pink-haired diva who made it big in the notorious “Broadway Bound…and Gagged” at the Bryant-Lake Bowl in 2007."
Neil Simon joke (for the theater geek in me)
Ding, ding, ding went the bell...
And finally, panda man, aka Joey Clark.
"dancing panda bear (and would-be love interest) played by actor/singer/dancer Joey
Clark."
That's actually - per elsewhere in the press release - actor, musical director, director, teaching artist, private voice teacher and composer.
Bonus points of course - given the evidence of pictures on facebook, and anyone who saw him perform last fall in Theatre Latte Da’s production of The Full Monty - if his other character (Joseph) gets him out from under that panda outfit.
Handsome, smart, talented people just wreck the curve for the rest of us. That's all I'm sayin'.
Oh, Mistress Ginger. How you taunt me.
For further info, check out...
www.justinleaf.com
www.junkyardtheater.com
Their Fringe show page
This panda? Not so much.
Creepiest. Panda. Ever.
Not that this is a bad thing. To explain further...
This video. I swear...
Just so you know what you're getting into - it's an elaborately costumed drag queen (Mistress Ginger, aka Justin Leaf) lip-syncing to Nina Simone, but then...
There's a guy wearing a panda mask.
In a business suit.
Who sits watching in a empty theater.
And then gets up to dance with said drag queen.
Then the panda man appears to change size.
And has sex with the drag queen in a men's restroom.
The drag queen then has to take a pregnancy test.
The panda man has impregnated the drag queen.
The drag queen has her panda baby.
And abandons it in a shopping cart at a grocery store...
No. Really.
Wow. Just... wow.
Now that's Fringe, baby.
The show's Fringe page says that the video itself, part of a previous mounting (no pun intended) of Bedroom Eyes last summer, isn't part of this Fringe outing, but its spirit "most certainly" is. So, there you have it.
Also part of the spirit would be this video (no panda warning needed, bonus parts for cute personal trainer...)
I've seen a lot of theater (and a whole lot of Fringe), so I'm not easily dazzled, but Justin Leaf (Mistress Ginger) has quite the pedigree - BFA in dance performance from Julliard, 2001 Zaraspe Prize for Outstanding Choreography, a 2007 Minnesota SAGE Award for Best Performance, and a 2009 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Dancers. Has danced with both the James Sewell Ballet and Minnesota Dance Theatre. So, to paraphrase Yogi Bear, smarter than the average drag queen.
And let's face it, shows like Bedroom Eyes also exist to remind me just how gay I am.
The press release says, in part...
"Junkyard Theater’s Bedroom Eyes is a glittering mélange of song and dance starring the “flawless and lawless” Mistress Ginger, who’s had many lovers but longs for something more. She welcomes the audience into her bona fide boudoir where she sings and dances her way through a slew of old standards, including songs by George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Johnny Mercer. A love story unfolds as Ginger must confront the truth of her own self if she is ever to realize that which she seeks: true love. It’s comedy, romance, music, and dance, worked over with Junkyard Theater’s transgressive twist."
mélange
Gershwin
Porter
true love
Clang, clang, clang went the trolley...
"...Mistress Ginger, the pink-haired diva who made it big in the notorious “Broadway Bound…and Gagged” at the Bryant-Lake Bowl in 2007."
Neil Simon joke (for the theater geek in me)
Ding, ding, ding went the bell...
And finally, panda man, aka Joey Clark.
"dancing panda bear (and would-be love interest) played by actor/singer/dancer Joey
Clark."
That's actually - per elsewhere in the press release - actor, musical director, director, teaching artist, private voice teacher and composer.
Bonus points of course - given the evidence of pictures on facebook, and anyone who saw him perform last fall in Theatre Latte Da’s production of The Full Monty - if his other character (Joseph) gets him out from under that panda outfit.
Handsome, smart, talented people just wreck the curve for the rest of us. That's all I'm sayin'.
Oh, Mistress Ginger. How you taunt me.
For further info, check out...
www.justinleaf.com
www.junkyardtheater.com
Their Fringe show page
Labels:
Fringe Archives 2010,
Fringe blogging
Fringe 2010 - Returning Favorites - Aspect I Studios/Damien Sheridan
Damian Sheridan/Aspect I Studios was part of my 2004 Fringe Top 10 List for their delightfully cheesy sci-fi adventure The Judas Cradle.
This time around it's
The Collectors
"The dark business of the corporate squeezing of America has never been so funny, or so Faustian. You will resonate with the original story and score behind this bold new musical. Get ready to leave singing."
which is sort of vague (and corporate subject matter tends not to interest me), but the Faustian tag makes me think it may still be along the lines of their working title and show description, which was
Soul Collectors
A musical about a person who works for a third party collection agency employed by Hell to collect on "deadbeat" souls.
So I'm curious to see them in action again. We should have more to go on shortly, as they're part of the upcoming July 12th edition of Fringe-For-All
This time around it's
The Collectors
"The dark business of the corporate squeezing of America has never been so funny, or so Faustian. You will resonate with the original story and score behind this bold new musical. Get ready to leave singing."
which is sort of vague (and corporate subject matter tends not to interest me), but the Faustian tag makes me think it may still be along the lines of their working title and show description, which was
Soul Collectors
A musical about a person who works for a third party collection agency employed by Hell to collect on "deadbeat" souls.
So I'm curious to see them in action again. We should have more to go on shortly, as they're part of the upcoming July 12th edition of Fringe-For-All
Monday, July 05, 2010
Fringe 2010 - Seals Who Turn Into Women, and The Men Who Love Them
We've got a lot of weird two-fers in this year's Fringe.
Two examinations of (shudder) George W. Bush - Shrubs - A Bush Musical Comedy and The Bush Monologues - cue The Vagina Monologues jokes... now
Two Twilight spoofs - SemiDarkness and Bite Me, Twilight (or Oops, I F**ked A Vampire)
But none odder (to me) than the double feature dealing with a legend of seals who turn into women, and then fall in love with men.
Scotia Productions
The Selkie
"This juxtaposition of traditional Scottish dance and contemporary movement tells an eerie love story of seals who peel off their skins to take on the form of alluring women and the men who seek to possess them."
Here's a video preview...
and
Isabel Nelson
Ballad of the Pale Fisherman
"What happens when a fisherman falls in love with a woman who happens to be a seal? Faced with the dueling calls of land and sea, which will she choose?
Ballad of the Pale Fisherman is a re-imagining of the Irish/Scottish folktale of the seal-woman, or selkie. In this timeless fable, a fisherman falls in love with a beautiful seal-woman, and takes her as his wife. But a love that defies the laws of land and sea is never simple (see: Little Mermaid, The), and the seal-woman must eventually make a choice borne of betrayal and self-sacrifice. Will she choose her past or her future, her heart or her home?
Using song and movement to portray fisherman and sea creatures, curmudgeonly storytellers and sweeping landscapes, this newly-formed ensemble creates a world that is as magical as it is moving, as lyrical as it is heartfelt. The performers hail from backgrounds and trainings as varied as Live Action Set, Sandbox Theater, the Minnesota Shakespeare Company, the University of Minnesota B.F.A./Guthrie program, and the Lecoq-based London International School for Performing Arts (LISPA). From such far-flung experiences, these eight physical theatre creators have come together in collaboration to build this re-imagining of the selkie folktale through original music and storytelling.
There will be physical theatre, but it's not a dance piece. There's an accordion, but not a polka to be found. It's family friendly, but it's not a kid's show. It's a fairy tale with depth, with sharp edges and deep longing. Above all, it is imaginative.
Come see for yourself!"
And thanks to the Pale Fisherman cast list, I'm much more likely to come see for myself. This is where more information is a useful thing. Some shows haven't posted their casts yet, but I'd encourage them to. Here's an example of why...
I might have just passed the Pale Fisherman by, but then I found Derek Miller's name in the cast list.
Derek Miller works these days with Sandbox Theatre, which gave us June of Arc in the 2009 Fringe. He's also one of the driving forces behind Perpetual Motion Theatre Company, which gave us the "play in a pool" The Depth of the Ocean in Fringe 2006, and the scrappy little musical One Night Only With Mike Mahoney in Fringe 2008. So, based on his involvement alone, I'm much more interested in finding a way to wedge Ballad of the Pale Fisherman into my schedule this year.
(Everybody knows somebody. The more names that you have associated with your play, the more likely someone will trip over someone they know, connected to your show, and might be more inclined to come and see it. Your cast and crew are great publicity, Fringers. Use 'em to your advantage.)
Two examinations of (shudder) George W. Bush - Shrubs - A Bush Musical Comedy and The Bush Monologues - cue The Vagina Monologues jokes... now
Two Twilight spoofs - SemiDarkness and Bite Me, Twilight (or Oops, I F**ked A Vampire)
But none odder (to me) than the double feature dealing with a legend of seals who turn into women, and then fall in love with men.
Scotia Productions
The Selkie
"This juxtaposition of traditional Scottish dance and contemporary movement tells an eerie love story of seals who peel off their skins to take on the form of alluring women and the men who seek to possess them."
Here's a video preview...
and
Isabel Nelson
Ballad of the Pale Fisherman
"What happens when a fisherman falls in love with a woman who happens to be a seal? Faced with the dueling calls of land and sea, which will she choose?
Ballad of the Pale Fisherman is a re-imagining of the Irish/Scottish folktale of the seal-woman, or selkie. In this timeless fable, a fisherman falls in love with a beautiful seal-woman, and takes her as his wife. But a love that defies the laws of land and sea is never simple (see: Little Mermaid, The), and the seal-woman must eventually make a choice borne of betrayal and self-sacrifice. Will she choose her past or her future, her heart or her home?
Using song and movement to portray fisherman and sea creatures, curmudgeonly storytellers and sweeping landscapes, this newly-formed ensemble creates a world that is as magical as it is moving, as lyrical as it is heartfelt. The performers hail from backgrounds and trainings as varied as Live Action Set, Sandbox Theater, the Minnesota Shakespeare Company, the University of Minnesota B.F.A./Guthrie program, and the Lecoq-based London International School for Performing Arts (LISPA). From such far-flung experiences, these eight physical theatre creators have come together in collaboration to build this re-imagining of the selkie folktale through original music and storytelling.
There will be physical theatre, but it's not a dance piece. There's an accordion, but not a polka to be found. It's family friendly, but it's not a kid's show. It's a fairy tale with depth, with sharp edges and deep longing. Above all, it is imaginative.
Come see for yourself!"
And thanks to the Pale Fisherman cast list, I'm much more likely to come see for myself. This is where more information is a useful thing. Some shows haven't posted their casts yet, but I'd encourage them to. Here's an example of why...
I might have just passed the Pale Fisherman by, but then I found Derek Miller's name in the cast list.
Derek Miller works these days with Sandbox Theatre, which gave us June of Arc in the 2009 Fringe. He's also one of the driving forces behind Perpetual Motion Theatre Company, which gave us the "play in a pool" The Depth of the Ocean in Fringe 2006, and the scrappy little musical One Night Only With Mike Mahoney in Fringe 2008. So, based on his involvement alone, I'm much more interested in finding a way to wedge Ballad of the Pale Fisherman into my schedule this year.
(Everybody knows somebody. The more names that you have associated with your play, the more likely someone will trip over someone they know, connected to your show, and might be more inclined to come and see it. Your cast and crew are great publicity, Fringers. Use 'em to your advantage.)
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Fringe 2010 - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Well, the weeping and gnashing of teeth starts early this year.
The Minnesota Fringe Festival website is up and running in a big way.
It looks amazing, and already has tons of useful information, with more to follow.
For instance, you can download the entire Fringe program - now.
And you can download the entire schedule grid, or download individual daily schedule grids - now.
There is a full list of the artists currently slated to be part of the two-part Fringe-For-All preview on July 12 and 19, as well as several mini-preview showcases in between, with links to all of their show pages.
With all this information already in hand, the enormity of the Fringe becomes readily apparent so much earlier than it did last year.
And even a hard-core Fringer like myself must face facts.
Even if I saw a different show in every one of the performance slots, including the encore slot - I could only see a total of 56 shows.
The Fringe has 169 this year.
So not only is it physically impossible to see everything in the Fringe - no matter what you do, you will still end up missing twice as many shows as you see.
That is a wonderful and terrible problem to have.
And one must be ruthless, and make decisions.
And once you make those decisions, the schedules need to align.
And you have to be realistic about just how far you can travel in less than half an hour between shows ('cause let's face it, it's not just the travel, it's parking time)
Then there's the beloved Mom Fringing factor. I know how fast I can move. But I am not running my 70something year old mother that hard. This is supposed to be her vacation. Relaxation, not stress. Together time, not relay race time. So the first seven days of the Fringe will see a lot of picking a general locale, and staying within that hub (of which, thankfully, the Fringe has several, so options are plentiful no matter where you situate yourself.)
Doubtless I will fall in love with a show or two and want to go back, which knocks out another couple of slots with repeat viewings.
And the more I get to know the various shows, the more I want to see them. My list is growing, not shrinking.
The great thing about all that is, well, the Fringe seems poised to kick my ass again this year, and show me some really amazing, varied theater. With a little luck and honest planning, I may be fortunate enough to see over 50 shows, and not hate a single one of them.
Didn't happen last year, but hope springs eternal.
And everyone keeps bringing their "A" game.
Which makes my job as an audience member harder and easier at the same time (both in a good way).
Now it's time to start rattling off all the things I'm looking forward to, and the oddities I keep tripping over.
Go poke around the Fringe site, folks. It's only a month away now.
The Minnesota Fringe Festival website is up and running in a big way.
It looks amazing, and already has tons of useful information, with more to follow.
For instance, you can download the entire Fringe program - now.
And you can download the entire schedule grid, or download individual daily schedule grids - now.
There is a full list of the artists currently slated to be part of the two-part Fringe-For-All preview on July 12 and 19, as well as several mini-preview showcases in between, with links to all of their show pages.
With all this information already in hand, the enormity of the Fringe becomes readily apparent so much earlier than it did last year.
And even a hard-core Fringer like myself must face facts.
Even if I saw a different show in every one of the performance slots, including the encore slot - I could only see a total of 56 shows.
The Fringe has 169 this year.
So not only is it physically impossible to see everything in the Fringe - no matter what you do, you will still end up missing twice as many shows as you see.
That is a wonderful and terrible problem to have.
And one must be ruthless, and make decisions.
And once you make those decisions, the schedules need to align.
And you have to be realistic about just how far you can travel in less than half an hour between shows ('cause let's face it, it's not just the travel, it's parking time)
Then there's the beloved Mom Fringing factor. I know how fast I can move. But I am not running my 70something year old mother that hard. This is supposed to be her vacation. Relaxation, not stress. Together time, not relay race time. So the first seven days of the Fringe will see a lot of picking a general locale, and staying within that hub (of which, thankfully, the Fringe has several, so options are plentiful no matter where you situate yourself.)
Doubtless I will fall in love with a show or two and want to go back, which knocks out another couple of slots with repeat viewings.
And the more I get to know the various shows, the more I want to see them. My list is growing, not shrinking.
The great thing about all that is, well, the Fringe seems poised to kick my ass again this year, and show me some really amazing, varied theater. With a little luck and honest planning, I may be fortunate enough to see over 50 shows, and not hate a single one of them.
Didn't happen last year, but hope springs eternal.
And everyone keeps bringing their "A" game.
Which makes my job as an audience member harder and easier at the same time (both in a good way).
Now it's time to start rattling off all the things I'm looking forward to, and the oddities I keep tripping over.
Go poke around the Fringe site, folks. It's only a month away now.
Friday, July 02, 2010
Fringe 2010 - Woman, Made From Flowers, Turns Into Owl
Is it weird that this plotline sounds familiar to me?
"Bloddeuwedd, a one-person show based on a Welsh legend, will receive its world premiere at the Minnesota Fringe. The show tells the story of a young woman who is magically fashioned from flowers, becomes enmeshed in a brutal marriage and a passionate affair, and is punished by being turned into an owl."
Oh, wait a minute...
This is a variation on the same legend which was brought to the Fringe in 2005 as a musical (?!) by the group we would come to know as 3 Sticks. It was an ensemble show, rather than a one-person show, and it was called Mythed.
It was part of my Fringe Top 20 that year. It got some nice reviews, both from me and others.
This time, it's less musical, and a wee bit darker.
"It is both a literary horror story, recounted in poetic language, and a feminist fable about a woman’s ultimate empowerment in the face of brutal circumstances and her systematic repression. Like the myth that inspires it, the story is full of unexpected twists and turns, behavioral insights, and fantastic events. Dealing with both sexual themes and violent episodes, Bloddeuwedd is intended for mature audiences."
They ain't kidding, check out the video trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjrj8rfZiqA.
OK, so more than a wee bit darker.
The press release also provides a handy pronunciation guide...
Bloddeuwedd (pronounced “Bluth-a weth,” with the “th” sounds resembling the “th” in the word “the”)
Because I truly would never have gotten that one. Phonetics would have failed me utterly.
I have to admit to chuckling at the press release when they wrote
"A video trailer is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjrj8rfZiqA (or by searching YouTube for “Bloddeuwedd trailer”)."
Because, honestly, I'm just as likely to type in the URL address correctly as I am to ever spell Bloddeuwedd correctly. Hee hee.
I also enjoyed the title of their press release...
WOMAN TURNS INTO OWL AT MINNESOTA FRINGE
(Something like that happens every year.)
Some other info on the show...
"Written and directed by Mark Hunter and featuring a performance by Erin Daly, Bloddeuwedd was developed at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Hunter is a free lance professional director and a professor of theatre at Cornell College. While he has directed more than 80 theatrical productions in both professional and academic settings, Bloddeuwedd represents his debut as a playwright. Daly is an artist and a student as well as an actor, mixing her theatrical work with her interests in art history and classical studies. This show was created specifically for her to perform and was showcased last May as part of a larger site-specific theatrical venture known as The Owling Project."
Here's the Bloddeuwedd show page on the Fringe site.
"Bloddeuwedd, a one-person show based on a Welsh legend, will receive its world premiere at the Minnesota Fringe. The show tells the story of a young woman who is magically fashioned from flowers, becomes enmeshed in a brutal marriage and a passionate affair, and is punished by being turned into an owl."
Oh, wait a minute...
This is a variation on the same legend which was brought to the Fringe in 2005 as a musical (?!) by the group we would come to know as 3 Sticks. It was an ensemble show, rather than a one-person show, and it was called Mythed.
It was part of my Fringe Top 20 that year. It got some nice reviews, both from me and others.
This time, it's less musical, and a wee bit darker.
"It is both a literary horror story, recounted in poetic language, and a feminist fable about a woman’s ultimate empowerment in the face of brutal circumstances and her systematic repression. Like the myth that inspires it, the story is full of unexpected twists and turns, behavioral insights, and fantastic events. Dealing with both sexual themes and violent episodes, Bloddeuwedd is intended for mature audiences."
They ain't kidding, check out the video trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjrj8rfZiqA.
OK, so more than a wee bit darker.
The press release also provides a handy pronunciation guide...
Bloddeuwedd (pronounced “Bluth-a weth,” with the “th” sounds resembling the “th” in the word “the”)
Because I truly would never have gotten that one. Phonetics would have failed me utterly.
I have to admit to chuckling at the press release when they wrote
"A video trailer is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjrj8rfZiqA (or by searching YouTube for “Bloddeuwedd trailer”)."
Because, honestly, I'm just as likely to type in the URL address correctly as I am to ever spell Bloddeuwedd correctly. Hee hee.
I also enjoyed the title of their press release...
WOMAN TURNS INTO OWL AT MINNESOTA FRINGE
(Something like that happens every year.)
Some other info on the show...
"Written and directed by Mark Hunter and featuring a performance by Erin Daly, Bloddeuwedd was developed at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Hunter is a free lance professional director and a professor of theatre at Cornell College. While he has directed more than 80 theatrical productions in both professional and academic settings, Bloddeuwedd represents his debut as a playwright. Daly is an artist and a student as well as an actor, mixing her theatrical work with her interests in art history and classical studies. This show was created specifically for her to perform and was showcased last May as part of a larger site-specific theatrical venture known as The Owling Project."
Here's the Bloddeuwedd show page on the Fringe site.
Labels:
Fringe Archives 2010,
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