Fringe Review - Into The Unreal City - Rarig Center

“What the heck is that?” someone asked when I told them I was going to see Into The Unreal City.  Because it was one of the site specific shows, and one that would involve the audience traveling along with the show, a lot of people had heard about it.  But no one really knew what it was.  Now I can answer it a bit better.  Partly because I needed to make a full report back to Mom afterward, who we lost in the first block of the traveling audience, musical romantic comedy.

Word of caution - come with your walking shoes on.  There is no place to sit on this journey.  And you can only lean on things for the length of time the actors and the audience are standing still, and there isn’t a lot of time when that’s happening.  There are also stairs involved.  The show proper doesn’t start until someone makes an announcement about the beginning of the show and how it’s going to work.  A fellow playing guitar for the 10 minutes prior to that is just pre-show music.  So if you want to sit a little longer and not just stand around waiting for the walking to begin, find a place to perch, listen to guitar out of the corner of your ear, and keep an eye out for that announcement to happen.

That said, it’s worth the exercise.  I saw the first performance and I think everyone involved in the production was concerned that they end on time and not run over, giving us all plenty of time to get to our next venue.  They overcompensated a wee bit.  We weren’t quite jogging, but it was brisk and speedy walk through most of the proceedings.  They ended it in under 40 minutes.  So there’s plenty of room to breathe (a good 15 minutes of slowing the pace down), and still get everyone out in time for the next show.  I’m sure they’ll be adjusting accordingly over the remainder of the run.

Back to “What the heck is that?” - 3 men in blue and white checkered shirts play the different ages of Zeke, our guitar playing protagonist.  3 women in red dresses with lacy trim portray the different ages of Zeke’s wife, Bet, who teaches literature at an unnamed college.  Present Day Zeke (Russell Dugger) gets in an argument with Present Day Bet (Amber Davis) about how they’re not making enough time for one another around the edges of their all-consuming passions of music (Zeke) and literature (Bet).

This sends Zeke off on a contemplative jaunt through their collective past.  Recent Past Zeke (Mark Sweeney) and Bet (Shaina Ferguson) pass through the action on bikes as Present Day Zeke leads us over to watch a scene play out between Young Zeke (Tristan Miller) and Young Bet (Laura Mason) fumbling drunkenly through their first protestations of love to one another outside the Viking Bar.  Then we cross the street to meet up with Recent Past Zeke and Bet at the bus stop discussing whether they’re where they want to be in their careers, and whether the satisfaction of living for themselves, each other, music and literature is enough to justify their decision not to have children.

Recent Past Zeke and Bet lead us on the bridge over the highway to the staircase leading down to the light rail station, and we get another little song (after the trains go by).  Crossing the tracks they scurry away from us up the stairs blocked off by Young Zek and Bet who are just deciding to take risks in their careers, and the big risk of getting married.  Another song, dance, swift stroll, in which the audience can participate using party-favor little kazoos provided by the show.  Then up another set of stairs where Young Zeke and Bet disappear around a corner and the audience catches up to Recent Past Zeke and Bet instead.  This leads to the top of the stairs and an open food court style plaza, where Present Day Zeke and Bet reach a final understanding - and all the Zekes and Bets gather round for the big closing number.

You can’t be shy in this production.  In order to keep up and hear properly, the audience clusters around all sides of the action, moving or standing still.  The production does a really good job of telegraphing when it’s time to move and time to stop.  The actors also do a really good job of rolling with the inevitable intrusion of actual reality.  There are trains, cars, trucks, motorcycles, and planes throwing major noise at them throughout.  One particularly clever moment is when Present Day Zeke needs to get the signal to change so we can cross the street, but he involves the crossing signal in his contemplative moment -

“Who do you think I am?”

He presses the button.  The signal says “Wait!”

“Who do you think you are?”

“Wait!”

Some poor gentleman had to pass through the cluster of people on the corner by the Viking Bar and wanted to make it clear as he moved swiftly among us that he wasn’t acknowledging us, and didn’t want us pulling him in to whatever we might be up to.  Likewise the two people waiting on the bench for their bus were not entirely happy by being surrounded by strangers when they were just trying to read, or wait without an audience.  A fellow roller-blading by during the big closing number slowed down, listened, came back, and finally asked the group guide in her Fringe lanyard what was going on.  They may have gotten a future audience member hooked.

Gemma Irish’s script and Mark Sweeney’s songs are engaging and sweet.  The specifics of who Zeke and Bet are have been thoughtfully laid out throughout the three interwoven ages of story.  The performers are all winning enough to keep us invested in Zeke and Bet’s story and how it might turn out.  I guess my only issue with the play itself is that the characters spend an awful lot of time talking about how much they love each other, rather than somehow showing us how much they love each other.  Kisses and dancing and singing are all very important, of course.  But it’s the little daily things you do for people, the way you find to share what you care most about with the person you care most about, that show someone you’re serious.  Zeke gets to sing for Bet, but it often feels like he’s singing more for the joy of singing, or for us as an audience, than he ever does for his wife.  This is, of course, part of Bet’s point. 

But there must have been a time when he did sing just for her, and write just for her.  And there must be times that she finds a poem or a passage in a great book that reminds her of him, that she shares with him.  Perhaps she even writes something, as college professors must always be publishing, that uses music as a metaphor, somehow including him and his songs in the thing she loves most about her own work.  I needed to feel, just a little more, how good they were together, in order to feel the full weight of the impact of what might be lost if they came apart.  That, of course, is also a function of time, that a Fringe show doesn’t have the luxury of indulging in.  Even if they took that 15 minutes to easing the pace, it might not be enough time to fill with those details.  Maybe also we as an audience just need to spend more time with them in order to know them better.  Again, not an option in the Fringe, but it seems the production team at Catalog Models will be looking for future ways to explore this actor/audience dynamic and so there may be ways to get more quality time with the participants in future stories. 

Quick shout-out to director Laura Leffler-McCabe, who keeps this traveling show moving along just right.  Though the travel time was speedy on opening night, the pace of the scenes and songs themselves was never rushed, and the multiple stages of this couple’s story interweaving was always clear and never confusing, which is no easy trick.  Everyone made the most of what the script and music gave them.  Well done.

4 stars - Highly Recommended

Fringe Review - Kyle and Sean Are Lovers - U of M Rarig Center Arena

Honestly, this was a relief.  The box office staff warned us that the show was going to be slightly different than the content described on the Fringe website, which was my first “Uh oh” moment.  Because we’d seen their preview in the touring artists showcase the night before - and that was VERY different than the show promised on the website.  There was also a “warning” that the show would be short, only 40 minutes long.  But if it had been 40 minutes of what we sampled in the preview, I’m not sure I could have handled that.  Both for better and for worse, Kyle and Sean Are Lovers was not what I feared.

What was promised on the website was part of the reason I was there.  Having heard praiseworthy things said about past Fringe productions from T or D or S (Theater or Death or… not sure what the S is for, didn’t pick that up from their blog), and seeing that this production was supposed to have GLBT content I thought, “This might be the time to give their particular brand of theater a try.”  As near as I can tell, both from what I’ve heard and what I’ve just experienced over the past couple of nights, T or D or S is trying to present performance to the audience that seems so real and unstaged that it actually makes you uncomfortable.  As if you’re watching something genuine but treating it as entertainment.  And what does that make you, as a passive spectator, consuming this but not calling out what might seem wrong about it.

Now, the press release I originally received had nothing about white supremacists on it.  And I could almost swear, if I’d done a screen grab at the time, that the original posting on their Fringe web page for the show said nothing about Nazis.  Maybe somebody said, “Guys, you really can’t do that. The bait and switch is so egregious, it borders on audience abuse.  And nobody signs on for that for 12 bucks and a four dollar button, not even at the Minnesota Fringe Festival.”  Or maybe they didn’t.  Looking carefully at the press release I was sent now, I do see that it’s very carefully worded.  I assumed when the word Pride was used, it referred to Gay Pride.  But it could just as easily be White Pride.  It doesn’t specify.  So, points for caginess and clever word play.

They were essentially their own spoiler alert at the Touring Artist Showcase with their preview, so I’m not going to feel badly about mentioning that though the play starts with confessions about homosexual tendencies and experimentation, it takes a turn into something a lot darker.  That something would be what they gave up in the preview.  The preview was itself a pretty spectacular piece of audience trolling so I have to give them props for sheer balls.  “This was the only group we had to tell to keep their clothes on,” Fringe Executive Director Jeff Larson said in his introduction.  Sure enough, the minute Kyle Potter walked out on stage, he took off his shirt and pants and proceeded to stand there for the rest of the preview, mute, in his boxer briefs.

Sean Neeley then appeared, opened his writing journal, and proceeded to read from it the terms of their upcoming show.  It wasn’t really a show.  It was using theater, in the midst of a much larger festival, so as not to attract attention to their actual intent.  They were recruiting, through hazing tactics of humiliation, soldiers for their planned uprising in October of 2015.  A mass shooting.  (Yeah, it gets worse, or better.  Really depends on where you’re sitting.)  Some people were laughing at this - either nervous laughter because they weren’t sure it was a joke but they were hoping it was, or outright laughter because they were convinced it was a joke and they couldn’t believe their ears.  The bulk of the audience was just listening.  Maybe internally recoiling.  Maybe just sitting there thinking “WTF?!” 

Then a woman behind me for some reason felt compelled to make sure that everyone around her was certain that SHE was in no way OK with such pronouncements.  It was probably right after Sean first used the N word, followed by Faggot, followed by Jew.  “Isn’t there a time limit on these things?  Shouldn’t they be done?”  Well, no, sweetheart.  The touring artists aren’t subjected to the three minute limit with green, yellow and red lights, enforced by audience applause to get them offstage.  (She even tried abortively to applaud to end things.)  Normally they only get five minutes and I know, I feel you, this preview is so uncomfortable that it feels longer than five minutes.  But this guy knows what he’s doing.  He’s trolling you.  He couldn’t have more effectively gotten a rise out of you if he’d entitled his show “Shut Up, You Self-Righteous Beeyotch.”  You are playing right into his hands.  And the more you respond to him, the more you’re feeding him.  He’s going to keep talking until you shut up and stop giving him what he wants.  And you have now effectively convinced me that I need to see his show.  Because you’re being needlessly rude. To a visiting artist.  It’s the old Voltaire “I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it” thing.  He got a rise out of you, now you’ve gotten a rise out of me.  (And if THAT was also part of their marketing strategy, wholly crap these guys are brilliant.)

I mention all this because the show itself never delivered this kind of verisimilitude.  And thus, none of the same shock and discomfort.  The show begins with two men emerging, naked, onto the stage area.  They introduce themselves.  They shake hands.  They grab each others penises in greeting.  They sit down, one draping himself in a Sponge Bob Squarepants sheet, the other draping himself in what I hope was a sheet that looked like the American flag and not an actual American flag, but given this set of artists, anything goes.  They opened their writing journals and took turns recounting their formative sexual experiences as straight boys experimenting with homosexual interactions.  They were guided by a spotlight and a disembodied voice piped in over a microphone.

And here’s where it went off the rails I think they wanted to stay on.  Because this opening sequence was extremely effective in presentation.  They lowered their voices to force the audience to pay closer attention.  They were aware of, but seemed scared of, the audience.  But they never mumbled.  They were always very clear in the things they said and the way they said them, all the while making it seem natural and unrehearsed.  In the preview, we got that same kind of presentation also giving us the racist manifesto as well.

Here the actors onstage use the gay confessions as the beginning of a ritual.  But the ritual is guided, and the racist thoughts espoused, by the disembodied voice over the sound system.  In the preview we saw the face of evil.  In the show, that face is hidden.  What made the preview so shocking and uncomfortable was that a human being in front of us was saying these things directly to us, to the point where we weren’t spectators but participants in a conversation.  And thus culpable for the turns that conversation was taking.  The show itself was a piece of theater.  No one was confronting us.

Please know I am grateful that someone didn’t emerge with a handful of human intestines to prove that a ritual killing had been performed.  I am also grateful there were no human screams.  I am also grateful that stage blood never looks real.  I am also grateful that the murder was not literally committed in front of us like some kind of live action snuff film. 

I am grateful for all of these things.  But maybe I shouldn’t be.

Because something I wasn’t was unsettled.  Something I wasn’t was uncomfortable.  Something I wasn’t was moved.

If I had seen the face of evil, as a human being in front of me daring me to speak out, that would have rattled me.

It rattled me in the preview.  I was unsure what I was watching.

Here, I was watching a piece of theater.  And I disembodied voice thanking me for my passive spectating just isn’t an indictment that stings.  Not in the way I think they want it to.  I wanted this to matter more.  I think they did to.

2.5 stars - Not Bad, Still Needs Some Work

Fringe Top 10 for 2014 - All The Links

Here's the full list of titles in this year's 2014 Fringe Top 10 list with links to the individual write-ups:

1 - One Arm - Perestroika Theater Project

2 - Native Man, The Musical  - New Native Theate

3 - From Here To Maternity - Shanan Custer and Joshua Scrimshaw

4 - The Miss Longview Texas Drag Pageant - Brazen Theatre

5 - Yama and Kalinda: A Transdimensional Love Story - Hey Rube Productions

6 - The Happy Vagina Puppet Show - Dangerous Productions

7 - Uptown Bank Heist - Siege Perilous Films

8 -  Playne Jayne - Regal Dice

9 - Gray Duck - Wolf's Mouth

10 - (a dance two-fer) Duetted - Monica Rodero, and Connected, Dan Shuchart

Fringe Top 10 - #1 - One Arm - Perestroika Theater Project

One Arm is a stage adaptation of an unproduced Tennessee Williams’ screenplay about a military boxer who loses an arm in a car accident and ends up using the body he has left for prostitution, pornography, and murder.  So, not a comedy.  But for a change, the homosexuals are front and center in this story, not unseen supporting players who end up eaten by cannibals or blowing their brains out.  So, progress.  The adaptation was by Moises Kaufman (of Laramie Project fame).  Director Joe Stodola has assembled a coveted cast of actors including Bryan Daniel Porter as the boxer, Adam Qualls, David Coral, and Paul Rutledge, among others, all of whose work I admire.  While the gays certainly don’t lead a happy life in this play, Stodola promises a feeling of transcendence and redemption arising from the ashes of these tragic circumstances.  Looking at where we’ve been, we can’t help but be thankful for where we are, even as we look at how far we still have to go.

Fringe Top 10 - #2 - Native Man, The Musical - New Native Theatre

First, the insertion of Native American faces into a black and white rendering of members of The Avengers is brilliant and cheeky marketing - Native American Iron Man, Native American Hulk, and Captain Native American.  Playwright Rhiana Yazzie has been a willing volunteer when I wrangle together writers for Theatre Unbound’s 24 Hour Xtreme Theater Smackdown.  It takes a hardy soul to be willing to take on sleep deprivation and instant collaboration with another writer, using element unknown until the night of the writing to create a short play, much less a good one.  Her willingness to pitch in this way is only the beginning of why I like her and want to support her work.  There’s also the whole controversy surrounding a recent local production of the musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.  Yazzie’s thoughtful and considered objections to the play provided the intellectual foundation for subsequent protests.  Add to that the grace with which she handled the resulting backlash from some quarters of the theater community, and she’s pretty much got me in her corner permanently.  I’m happy to see her work and her perspective as part of this year’s festival with Native Man, The Musical, and I’m excited to attend her opening on Saturday afternoon.

Fringe Top 10 - #3 - From Here To Maternity - Shanan Custer and Joshua Scrimshaw

As I said in tagging From Here To Maternity as one of my Fringe 5 of artists who I inexplicably keep missing at the Fringe, I’ve missed this show in every one of its incarnations.  And though Mom has seen many a Scrimshaw in the Fringe over the years, Joshua included, she’s never seen Shanan.  So I must rectify that glaring omission.  Ever since I saw her in Emilie and 2 Sugars Room For Cream, Shanan can do no wrong in my eyes.  She can be funny without saying a word, and her dramatic work has the ability to break my heart.  This will be a fun end to a very long opening Saturday marathon for Mom, and she’ll finally be able to see what I’ve been going on about.

Fringe Top 10 - #4 - Brazen Theatre - The Miss Longview Texas Drag Pageant

I didn’t get the decorating gene, I didn’t get the fashion gene, and I didn’t get the drag gene - I missed a lot when they were putting together my gay portfolio as a fetus apparently.  Thankfully, my fellow homos have been very patient and generous in making up for the gaps in my education.  I still may not “get” drag, but I no longer look at it in complete befuddlement, and that’s progress.  Fringe time helps move my consciousness forward, even in the guise of comedy - and thus, The Miss Longview Texas Drag Pageant.  I appreciate the good work Mark Hooker is doing with Brazen Theatre, embracing camp and holding it up as its own particular form of art.  Plus, this has the added bonus in the cast of Erica Fields (who did an amazing job as the Duchess in the recent production of my play But Not For Love), and her wife Patience.  We’re not getting to this one until Monday, but Mom and I are very much looking forward to it.

Fringe Top 10 - #5 - Yama and Kalinda: A Transdimensional Love Story - Hey Rube Productions

Yama and Kalinda is another one from my Fringe 5 of artists I continue missing at the Fringe that I want to finally catch this year.  They had a preview that impressed me, which I wrote about here.  Not getting to this one until Sunday, but again, Mom and I are looking forward to it.

Fringe Top 10 - #6 - The Happy Vagina Puppet Show - Dangerous Productions

How is it that when you type the word Vagina into the Fringe website search engine The Happy Vagina Puppet Show is the only show that comes up?  Is the Fringe getting soft or less edgy?  We seem to be vagina deficient, how is that possible?  At any rate, that’s a side issue.  Dangerous Productions creeped me the heck out with their offering in the Twin Cities Horror Festival last fall, Hear No Evil.  I have no idea how they do happy, puppets or vaginas, but these are theater artists impressive enough to make we want to find out.  Added bonus, Shannon Leach in this cast was one half of my sexy robot in Love Bot in Gadfly’s sci fi short play festival earlier this year, so I’m always happy to see her on stage again.

Fringe Top 10 - #7 - Uptown Bank Heist - Siege Perilous Films

The brains behind Siege Perilous Films were the folks who did the animation for the Flowershop Project’s production of my dark comedy Medea and Jason: Rubicon Waltz a couple of years back.  They were also incredibly supportive of my efforts self-producing How To Date A Werewolf in last year’s Fringe.  They had an amusing Fringe preview which did the “wrong scene” focusing on a couple of bank customers, one of whom was dumping the other and using the surprise meeting with a banker to separate their assets as the excuse to finally tell them, much to the delight of the bank teller who secretly pines for the soon to be single boyfriend.  Oops, they forgot to do the heist part of the play for a more exciting preview.  The bank robber actors were very put out by this.  A goofy meta preview, with the added bonus of Renee Werbowski in the cast - who has done numerous plays of mine over the years and recently kicked serious butt in 20% Theatre’s Rapture Blister Burn.  All kinds of reasons for me to love and look forward to this one.  Mom and I are seeing it Sunday.

Fringe Top 10 - #8 - Playne Jane - Regal Dice

Playne Jayne is another play I’m very interested in because of personal and artistic connections.  Jayne Deis has a quirky sense of humor and a great personality.  Before I most recently saw her in the ensemble of Nightpath Theatre’s production of Our Town, I’d last seen her on stage as a singing, dancing cactus, so there’s a wide range of performing experience here.  Fellow performer and co-writer Sheila Regan is also one of my co-contributors at the Twin Cities Daily Planet.  I’m very curious, and likely to be most amused, by what happens when Jayne and Sheila put their heads together to perform a Fringe show.  I’m looking forward to getting myself over to HUGE Theater to see the results.

Fringe Top 10 - #9 - Gray Duck - Wolf’s Mouth

Director Lucas Skjaret is the main reason I’m seeing Gray Duck.  He did a great job directing an excerpt of my musical The Hopes and Fears of All The Years in the TEASE new play showcase this year, and he’s been bouncing around the Twin Cities theater scene at a blistering pace with his name popping up in what seemed like pretty much every theater program I opened when I sat down to a show - directing and costume design work primarily but he’s been tireless in trying to work with as many different theaters, on as many different types of productions, as he possibly can.  So I’m looking forward to see him working on something that’s a full play and not just a scene out of context.  Plus, it’s a new play by a writer I know, Amy Seham, and it has GLBT content.  On the design side, we have Theresa Akers doing the set - and her set was one of the major strengths in an extremely weird and uneven production of Crazyface which I recently attended.  I’m curious to see what she does on a Fringe scale.

Fringe Top 10 - #10 - (a dance two-fer) - Duetted - Monica Rodero, and Connected - Dan Schuchart

Monica and Dan are teaming up on Duetted, and then Dan has his own solo show, Connected.  I’ve enjoyed the spirit of whimsy that runs through a lot of their dance work when I’ve seen them in the past at the Fringe, so that’s what bumps them up closer to the top of the list of things I really want to see this year.

Fringe WTF Preview - Night 2

“A motherfudgin’ ninja if ever I met one.”

Don’t Let Them See You Cry: The Failures and Successes (But Mostly Failures) of Daisy Kay McChubbins - If you’re looking for verbally abusive white female clowns who rap, have we got a Fringe show for you!  First up, I think being a clown onstage might be one of the bravest things a performer can do.  You are practically begging people to laugh AT you rather than WITH you, and then you’re trying to control and somehow ride that response to get the audience where you want them to go.  The clown Daisy Kay McChubbins is sporting bright pink hair with a nose, stockings and sneakers to match, in glaring opposition to her bright yellow shirt.  Fringe Executive Director Jeff Larson does an admirable job of rolling with whatever oddities appear behind him as he’s making introductions during previews.  Just going off audience reaction, he can tell, “OK, something strange just appeared upstage of me.”  When he turned around this time to behold Daisy Kay, I wondered “Is he thinking, Oh God, this is my life now?”

Daisy Kay and her clown cousin both seem quite friendly, even bubbly, as they introduce themselves and tell a little of their story.  The F word is replaced with “fudge,” and other things that might lull you into thinking this was a family friendly kind of clown show.  But that would be a mistaken impression.  The last part of their preview is a rap performance culminating in the repeated admonishment, “If you don’t think so, you can s*ck the d*ck.  S*ck the d*ck, s*ck the d*ck. If you don’t think so, you can s*ck the d*ck.”  Complete with hand gestures, of course.

Now I’m sure clowns are just like the rest of the general population.  9 out of 10 clowns (performers and/or personas) probably identify as straight.  And I don’t mean to, as Allegra Lingo referenced in her preview, “play the gay card” getting all huffy about things being reflexively hetero-normative.  Especially since the Fringe is the one time of year I actually have too many options for shows with GLBT content to try and squeeze into only a week and a half’s time.  But…

If only in jest, probably because I’m feeling punchy from too much blogging right now, I feel the need to point out that telling someone to “s*ck the d*ck” isn’t as universal an insult as some people think it is.  Just like someone calling out “Faggot!” in my general direction is just as likely to make me respond, “Yes, and - ?” as it is to make me fear for my life (it’s most certainly not the insult anymore that they’d like to imagine it to be) - in my younger days, if someone said I should “s*ck the d*ck,” my reply would probably have been along the lines of “Sure, name the time and place.”  (These days, the response would probably be “Don’t tease.  It’s not polite.”) Now, to my knowledge, I have never s*cked clown d*ck, so perhaps that’s a different experience, like those flowers in a clown’s lapel that squirt water in your face, or a joy buzzer.

Yes, yes, I know, I’m overthinking it.  But if you can’t have some fun with a d*ck joke, what’s the point of the Fringe (or for that matter, Shakespeare), am I right? The fact that being confronted with a metaphorical penis isn’t a stinging indictment of my own manhood is probably a good thing to realize about one’s self.  In the context of the Fringe, however, this may be a joke that’s passed its expiration date as something you can fling around without any nuance anymore.  That said, like a song you can’t get out of your mind, that little rap chorus has been stuck in my head for almost a week now.  So congrats on a very effective mind worm, Daisy Kay.  You get down with your motherfudgin’ self and have a lovely Fringe.

Fringe Previews - Battle of the Acoustic Guitars

There were also a whole lot of guitars being plucked and strummed over both nights of previews.  One showed up in the previously mentioned Tales At Twilight to add a little musical color to the storytelling.  Struggling as I am personally to coax some music out of my own guitar, my appreciation for the level of difficulty involved in being a good guitar player has only grown in the past couple of years.  I always knew it took nerve to get up on stage and act.  Music feels like even greater act of bravery these days.  I know I’m not up to it, so my hat’s off to those that are.  If you’re looking for some music with a folksy feel, you could take a look at the following:

John’s Divine Comedy

“Waiting for the cue at the bottom of the page.”

I saw Suburban Cowboy Productions’ last Fringe offering, where the writer/performer twined together the legend of Icarus and the story of his own brother’s unexpected flameout, dying young.  The guy puts it all out there for the audience to see.  He’s remarkably earnest and genuine.  I’m curious to see what story he wants to tell next.  His mission to bring his two loves - music and theater - together, is admirable one, one that I hope succeeds.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

“A heart so free it needs no place to lodge.”

The music here is complex and interesting.  Sometimes it’s a little outside the comfort zone of the performers, but they push through all the same.  Staging just for a preview out of context is sometimes hard for shows.  A chorus of four waited patiently through nearly the whole preview before they got a chance to join in and sing out.  It was worth the wait.  The play appears to be mixing modern personal journeys and ancient mythology, and I’m never against that kind of mash-up, so I’m curious.

Into The Unreal City

“This is not our twilight, it’s just the end of the day.”

Hard to tell from this preview.  The song was a little on the vague and generic side.   Pretty, and pleasant to listen to, but I’m not sure I knew anything more about the people singing it when it was over vs. before it started.  The hook for this show, of course, is that it’s one of the genuinely site-specific shows being offered by the Fringe this year.  It’s a mini-walking tour of the West Bank area.  There are apparently some stairs involved.  But they promise to have you back to the Rarig again (where you started) in plenty of time to catch another show.  Mom and I planning to give this a go on opening night and see how it works.  We were charmed by Mark Sweeney’s original musical last year, and I’ve been intrigued by Gemma Irish’s work as a playwright in past Fringes, so the combo of the two behind this offering is enough to put it on my list.  Plus, you know, guitars.

The Whole World Is Here: Pandora Retold

“Sickness, disease and envy flew past on fairy wings.”

A musical retelling of the Pandora’s Box fiasco of ancient mythology, the event which released evil and pestilence into the world.  Not exactly happy go lucky musical fare, but a compelling potential narrative.  The song sampled and the singer’s voice in the preview were both pluses, and I liked the way it wove spoken narration into the song as well.  Not sure exactly how they’re planning to treat the material, but the elements of a potentially good show are there.  Worth keeping an eye on, and if, like me, you enjoy the retelling of old tales with modern theatrical tools, then this might be a show for you.

The Zeitgeist Got Stuck on Hillbilly

There was a recurring vein of southern accented, kentucky fried, redneck style comedy popping up in the previews this year.  For example, both from Night 1 of the Previews, we have

Tales At Twilight

“He lived all by himself.  His first mistake.”

and

Stuck On A Truck: A Hooch Crixby Mystery

“No disrespect, Mr. Bags, but water never cured death.”

Tales is campfire ghost story material with a hillbilly twang.  Stuck is your standard murder mystery in the context of one of those “hands on a truck” competitions, sort of Murder She Wrote, Y’all.  The two ensembles of actors are both very game and seem to work well together.  Hard to tell just how funny or terrifying they’ll ultimately be based on these previews, but they had their act enough together to be able to get full scenes out there for people to see.  So if this sounds like your kind of entertainment, check them out.

Favorite Dance Show Fringe Preview with Actual Dancers - Night 2

“You talk just like an American.”
“I AM an American.”

Hi!  Hello!  Namaste? - This one gets extra points for sheer size.  They wisely decided, why not get right to the big Bollywood dance number?  Who else has one of those this year, right? (If you’ve got one, speak up and I’ll stand corrected.)  First, send out the two cute kids.  Then clear the way and hang on tight as 11 more dancers burst onto the stage.  Oh, and then partway through the routine we get two MORE dancers.  Now, this isn’t the finely tuned dancing of professionals in perfect synchronization.  They do try.  But some of these dancers are extremely white (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  However, what they may sometimes lack in precision, they more than make up for in enthusiasm.  Few previews were composed of people looking like they were having this much fun.  And that spirit of playfulness was infectious and quickly transmitted to the audience.  I was even smiling in spite of myself.  And then after the big finish, four MORE people came out on stage to do a snippet of an introductory scene, and it fit.  These folks crammed a whole lot into their three minutes, so they have my attention.  I’ll be looking to see if there’s a way I can squeeze this one into our overcrowded schedule.

Another Fringe Preview Helping of Absurdity - Night 2

“I see some of you writing already.  That’s terrifying.”

Fiddlestick Conundrum - Ben San Del’s another Fringe regular that probably doesn’t need any help from me.  He’s been writing and/or performing in Fringe hits for years now.  Mom and I saw his very first Fringe outing - Mittens For Fat Kids - and we’ve tried not to miss one since.  Doesn’t always work out on Mom’s compressed Fringe schedule but we do our best.  In fact, Ben’s the reason for our first 2014 foray into the downtown collection of Fringe venues on opening weekend.  We’ll put in a show or two as a buffer beforehand, to make sure we’re in the neighborhood and not going to get locked out by the “no late seating” policy (‘cause they don’t joke around about that at Fringe time).  This year, rather than a scripted comedy acted by others (like Fringe Encore winners Minnesota Middle Finger or A Nice Guy’s Guide To Awkward Sex), he’s penned some new stand-up material (ala Mittens, or Agony of Fools, or Animal Cracker Genocide).  Ben’s actually got more than enough material to fill his slot.  He’s in the enviable position of having to trim down for time at the moment.  So he could afford to burn through some additional material he’s only using for previews and his video trailer.  The content of Fiddlestick remains a mystery.  Life’s absurd sometimes, and if you need help remembering how to laugh at it, Ben’s your man.

Close Second for Funniest Fringe Preview - Night 2

“Call me Daddy.  I saw that on television.  I thought it would be erotic.”

Kitty Kitty Kitty - For starters, you’ve got Sam Landman and Katie Willer walking around in cat ears.  That visual’s pretty much all I need to sell me on this one.  The plot involves a suicidal cat, and cat cloning, and cats pretending they know how to talk dirty to one another.  And yes, it’s weird as heck.  But that’s kind of why I like it.  Again, it helps that the performers are so good.  To sell a concept like this, they almost have to be.  If they don’t take it “seriously,” how could we invest in such an oddball story.  Love is apparently just as much a mystery to cats as it is to us human beings.  Which I guess is comforting.  Fringe Preview host Jeff Larson returned to the stage after the scene to say, "That was a strange thing to only be able to hear."  Hey, Jeff, we saw it, and it was still mighty strange.  But I'd like to see more.

Funniest Fringe Preview - Night 2

“Damn you!  This gift was meant for joy!”

Our American Assassin; or You Can’t Handle The Booth! - This apparently is the untold story of the  real tragedy behind the assassination of President Lincoln - how it affected the actors who were performing on stage at the time the president was killed.  And yes, that’s ridiculous.  That’s why it’s a comedy.  That’s why it’s a meta piece of theater I don’t mind watching.  That’s why it’s a play about artists that won’t make my teeth hurt.  Josh Carson, Andy Kraft, Shanan Custer and company are seldom funnier than when they’re ruthlessly making fun of themselves, and their art, and artists, and theater, and the Fringe.  They’re normally firing their rapid fire machine gun of jokes in all directions at once.  And the uncanny thing is that they hit their target every time.  I’m expecting this to be no different.  You almost don’t want to laugh too loud or long for fear you’ll miss the next five jokes that are coming right behind the one that just landed, but you can’t help yourself.  And that’s what repeated viewings are for.  Mom enjoys Mainly Me Productions’ shows because they’re stuffed with so much comedy, you can’t catch it all the first time.  That’s a perfect problem to have with a Fringe show.  So naturally, she demands it be on the schedule as early as possible.

Fringe New Play Preview I’m Most Interested In - Night 2

“This is the holiday where we sacrifice a chicken to the giant bunny god, right?”

Yama and Kalinda: a Transdimensional Love Story - Just like always, there’s a lot of dysfunctional family stories in the Fringe, and there’s a lot of love stories, but this one seems to be one of the better written ones.  Character isn’t sacrificed for one-liners.  Everyone seems like a human being rather than a stereotype.  Of course, it helps to have good actors, and they have that here as well.  Mostly I appreciated that the uncomfortable situation of bringing someone new home to meet the family - for a big holiday meal, no less - was treated adeptly from all angles.  The family dynamics were economically laid out.  Same for the romantic relationships.  Watching those tensions come into contact with each, and then mix and produce something even more awkward and amusing, was a really nice surprise.  New scripts in the Fringe are often lucky if they function well just on a single level.  This one’s operating well on several.  And I only got to see three minutes.  Impressive.

Fringe New Play Preview I’m Most Interested In - Night 1

“It’s 1928 in Chicago, and all three Fail sisters are soon to die.”

Failure: A Love Story - Local playwright Philip Dawkins, and local actor/director Joshua Campbell (currently onstage at the Guthrie as Spike in Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike) have teamed up with a large and lively cast in period clothing to tell this quirky tale.  The preview gives a sampling of the inventive staging - a desk on wheels that doubles as a car, a large bolt of blue cloth that represents the water than drowns the girls’ parents in a bizarre auto accident, a perky narrator saying all kinds of really sad things, and actors that are quick with a smile and pose, and surprised by their unfortunate fates.  If I’m honest, I’m a little uncomfortable with the premise that leaves the men standing while the women all die, but the artistic team all seems good-natured enough.  I’m willing to give the premise a shot.  After all, it’s not like they’re hiding the ending.  It’s the mystery of how we get there that’s supposed to be the point.  I’m up for the journey.

Two Fringe Preview Helpings of Absurdity, part 2 - Night 1 (and Night 2)

“I will not use third party donor sperm as an instrument of vengeance.”

The Genealogy of Happenstance - Allegro Lingo is another one of those artists that, when she has a show in the Fringe, Mom is immediately on board.  Doesn’t matter what it is, she just likes to hear Allegra spin her humorous stories.  This Fringe will be no different.  First night of previews, Allegra wasn’t originally scheduled to present.  But somebody else dropped out at the last minute, so, being the game and ever ready promoter she is, Allegra stepped into that spot on the program.  She was already scheduled to do a preview on the second night, one she had more time to plan for, and she did that as well.  So audiences around for both previews got a double dose of the new show.  Allegra’s stories have always been personal on some level - even when they were largely focused on the craft of storytelling itself.  But this year, she’s mining the absurdity of navigating our health care system when you’re two women trying to have a baby together, a journey she and her wife Amy have been experiencing as they endeavor to expand their family.  The unplanned preview was looser but just as funny, if not funnier, than the one she’d planned for the following week.  It must be comforting to know that no matter what situation Allegra finds herself in, she’s full capable of just winging it.  (That’s a skill set that’s going to come in handy in this new world of parenting she’s about to enter.)  Come watch Allegra perform one last time before she has to do it completely sleep-deprived.

Two Fringe Preview Helpings of Absurdity, part 1 - Night 1

“Why not vote for someone you actually want to get f**ked by?”

Indefinite Articles - A Libertarian Rage - There’s a handful of artists that Mom’s gotten to know over her years of Fringing that always worth repeat viewing.  Whatever they’re doing, she’s interested.  If I bring up their name, she doesn’t ask “What are they doing?”  She just says “Add it to the schedule.”  One of those performers is phillip andrew bennett low (she loves saying all four names, if she could say it in lower case somehow, she would).  This year Phillip’s railing against the absurdity of politics in a rewritten remount of Indefinite Articles: A Libertarian Rage.  Mom missed the original a few years back due to scheduling difficulties (she’s only here for the first five days), so she’s very happy to be able to catch this new version.  Of all the intriguing options the schedule offers up in the very first slot on the very first night, Thursday 7/31 at 5:30pm, this is the one she wanted to see the most.  Phillip’s been a relentlessly touring Fringe artist for a while know, and he knows how to work a preview.  He got some help from a friend - flash card rapid fire question and answer session to pack in as many clever jokes as possible, so you know you’ll be properly entertained.  Always interested to see what he’s got up his sleeve this time.  A great way to kick off this year’s Fringe.

Favorite Dance Show Fringe Preview with Actual Dancers - Night 1

There Is No Myth - Writing about dance, and dance previews, is something I still struggle with.  Here it was just a feeling that the choreographer and the dancers knew what they were doing.  The moves were very precise and controlled.  The pace was deliberate and unhurried.  The point of this particular excerpt was the watch them go through the moves, not to catch them on the fly as they zipped past.  The moments, the distance between, and then contact between the dancers, all added up to something that felt like a story you could tell yourself, even in just three minutes.  The ensembles they wore were coordinated.  The music, a combination of piano and stringed instruments, was engaging.  I’m sure different pieces within the show will do different things in different ways but this individual offering convinced me that I’d like to watch whatever these artists have to offer.

Favorite Fringe Meta Preview - Night 1

“Barren fields that produce little - except wolves.”

Marie-Jeanne Valet Who Defeated La Bete du Geyaudan - Like Jeff Larson, I won’t even pretend to be able to pronounce the title of this show.  Whenever I talk to Mom about it, I try and then give up and refer to it as “the French one with the wolf in it.”  Not that the company is French, it’s our own local Sandbox Theatre.  Not that the show is spoken entirely in French, just fake French accents with the occasional phrase or “Bonjour!”  No, this is Sandbox, so they like to tweak us and pretend they’re a pretentious theater company when in actuality they just want to tell a good story, and part of that for them is dressing the story up as something else that it isn’t. 

When I say Meta Preview, I mean a preview of a show that’s aware that it’s a piece of theater telling a story to an audience it acknowledges is there, using tricks that it isn’t trying to hide, blatantly engaging the audience’s imagination to play along.  (I suppose I could also mean a preview of a Fringe show that is fully aware it is a preview of a Fringe show and not at all trying to just be an out of context excerpt of the show itself - and we had plenty of those, but now thinking about that, my head hurts.) 

Basically they just set up the premise of the show, a poor French town out of the past (frilly shirts and peasant dresses) suffering from a rash of wolf attacks - a banging tambourine to signal the oncoming wolf, and a flourish of a big red piece of cloth to indicate blood spurting out of the body, my favorite being the actor who laid down and covered her face while the other actors lamented “The third one was missing her head.”  Not sure what the point of the story is, you rarely know with Sandbox until you’re in the middle of it, but it certainly looks like fun.  Mom agreed and slotted it into our opening weekend schedule.

(Intentionally) Creepiest Fringe Preview - Night 1

“Are you sure there are no lost souls in the house tonight?"

Tourist Trap - Tim Uren and his company Ghoulish Delights know horror, and serve it up right.  If you find yourself nervous when they carry out a large wooden chair with leather restraints on the arms, this is the right instinct.  Follow that up with Charlie Hubbell onstage to deliver the chilling tale of a man who sweeps up the homeless, the wandering and the forgotten, and tortures them before killing them, and you know the kind of evening you’re in for.  The thing I admire about Tim Uren’s work is he earns the terror he inflicts on his audiences.  It’s not about sudden shocks or overwhelming rivers of gore (though, let’s be honest, we’re not ruling those out).  Uren crafts his stories in basic human psychology and reality.  You can see the horrific only one step removed from the every day.  And that makes it that much more unsettling.  Plus, he’s got a really great cast to help him tell the tale.  Hubbell is the first of many.  Ghoulish Delights serves up the kind of stories that get under your skin and stay there.  You’ve been warned.  Mom and I, however, are still going.

Close Second for Funniest Fringe Preview - Night 1

“Weasels, a poem by Joshua Scrimshaw, age 15”

Amateur Hour - Producer Joshua Scrimshaw has gathered together another group of comedy Fringe veterans (many of whom, including Joshua himself, you will see pop up in other Fringe outings).  These artists have developed enough of a thick skin over the years to be able to not only laugh at themselves, but are confident enough to let everyone else laugh at them, too.  They’ve gathered together a sampling of their first attempts at performance when they were much younger - and doing things like writing poetry (unironically) and are now presenting them through the clear-eyed and unforgiving eye of their adult selves.  Mocking their younger selves is bound to yield comedy gold.

The publicity is an assortment of pictures of the artists when they were teenagers, which Jeff Larson proclaimed “the most horrifying show image this year.”  Larson is also a really good sport, not letting it phase him (too much) when Scrimshaw gave him a playful pat on the ass.  Boundaries, people, boundaries.

Funniest Fringe Preview - Night 1

“They’re actually not that bad.”

Jumping Jack Kerouac - Producer/choreographer Windy Bowlsby took a challenge posed to her in a bar to create a dance show with a bunch of writers as the dancers, and this is the result.  Rather than actually have any of them dance and spoil the surprise, she instead trotted out most of her cast - Katherine Glover, Kelvin Hatle, John Heimbuch, phillip low, Ben San Del, Tim Uren and Tim Wick - all of them Fringe veterans as writers and non-dancing performers, many of whom also have other shows in the Fringe this year themselves (gotta get an extra plug in where you can - just run their names through the search function on the Fringe site or watch the video record of their preview to get the details - chances are they’ve already stuck a postcard in your hand anyway).  This eight car pile-up of quirky artistic personalities all crammed onstage together makes you wonder what you could come up with if they had to just shut up and move.  As one of them said, “I could stand to be more scared in my life.”  As another of them said, “One way or another, it will be epic.”

I feel a little bad that the dance show I’m now most looking forward to doesn’t have any people who regularly define themselves as dancers in it.  But this being the Fringe, there’s a lot of “regular”(?) “normal” (?) dance shows that will no doubt find their way onto my schedule as well.  I’ve piled them all into the queue.  We’ll see how the scheduling shakes out.

Fringe Previews - Night 1

A friend who sat with me at the second set of Fringe Previews who had missed the first asked, “What shows looked good last week?”  And in having to narrow it down on the fly for him, skimming my notes, it became clear which shows had made a (good) lasting first impression.  So I figured that’d be a good way to finally get this Fringe blog jump started for the summer.

First of all, I’ve been missing out on Fringe Executive Director Jeff Larson’s sense of humor until now.  He was a most amusing host both nights.  Very proud of the mobile nature of the new Fringe website he encouraged us all to keep our phones ON during the previews, so we could just tag shows we liked online, rather than “take notes on paper like a savage.”  While he clearly didn’t want to be in danger of talking too much, a lot of his throwaway lines right after previews were quite delightful.  I’ll liberally quote him whenever possible.  On to the evals (culled from my prehistoric note taking)…

Upcoming Auditions for Gay Astronauts and Sexy Robots (3/22 and 3/29)

When Gadfly Theatre Productions announced they were looking for new short scripts that fell in the category of queer/feminist/sci-fi/fantasy I thought, “Sure.  Why not?”

After some thought, the following idea wandered into my head…

When the human race is nearly extinct, it’s hard to repopulate the galaxy if your last two astronauts are a gay man and a lesbian woman.  But that’s why they created the Love Bot - half man, half woman, all designed be just what they need to reboot humanity.

And so, the Love Bot was born.

The more I thought about the mechanics of the thing, the weirder, and funnier, it got.

And strangely just a bit melancholy because, well, if you’re one of the only two people left, that’s got to be an odd feeling.

Thankfully, Gadfly took a liking to it, and it’s one of six plays that are part of their Final Frontier festival of short works, June 13 to 22, 2014 in the Nimbus Theater space.

The other plays on the docket are: Who Killed Captain Kirk, by Paco Jose Madden (directed by Immanuel Elliott); The Wolves Above, by Alyssa Zaczek (directed by Cassandra Snow); Falling Awake, by Alexis Scheer (directed by Mel Day); Honest to God, by J.C. Pankratz (directed by Anna Lewein); and Gargle McFury Slays Gender Assimilation, by Alex Reed (directed by Kristin Fox).

Scott Pakudaitis will be directing Love Bot.

And of course the first step will be auditions.  Auditions will be held Saturday March 22nd and Saturday March 29th from 1pm to 4pm at the People’s Center Theatre on the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis.

My understanding is there will be some double casting across shows in the festival, and each show is getting four performances.  Some rehearsals may begin in late April, continuing on through May up until the festival opening on June 13th.

Details on how to sign up in advance for auditions and what’s required are on the Gadfly Theatre blog (gadflytheatre.org).

The roles in Love Bot are listed as follows on the audition post:

Solomon-- Male-identified, any race, childbearing age (the gay astronaut/scientist)
Esther-- Female-identified, any race, childbearing age (the lesbian astronaut/scientist)
Justin-- Male-identified, any race, childbearing age (the male half of the Love Bot)
Jennifer-- Female-identified, any race, childbearing age (the female half of the Love Bot)

If you’re curious about the content, there are some script excerpts posted online on my website.  Just follow these links…

“All sex will be consensual./Very consensual.”

“Our creators were always thinking about sex./They’re scientists.”

“My uterus is already exhausted just thinking about this.”

“This is a conservative religious person’s worst nightmare, you know.”

I’m proud of my little foray into science fiction.  Please spread the word among your actor friends.

Thanks.

Weirdest. Ensemble. Ever. (Friday 9/27 - 4pm-10pm)

Outside of the occasional play reading, the last time I did any performing was in the 2000 Minnesota Fringe Festival, playing the world's oldest Jimmy Olson cub photographer in the bisexual adventures of Superman.  Superman was, among other things, carrying on simultaneous affairs with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson.  Lois wore a leather dominatrix outfit. I wore flannel pajamas.  But, hey, I got to make out with a cute guy in tights all summer, so win-win.

Before that, it had been a long break - reaching back to undergrad in Terre Haute, Indiana, where I sat atop an enormous cuckoo clock, in lederhosen, playing the flute.  I was Hans Christian Andersen.  Really, the less said about that production, the better.

Acting is not my calling.  In fact, it's way out of my comfort zone.  I leave it to the professionals.

However, Samantha Johns has lured me into semi-performance again.

Tomorrow, Friday, September 27, 2013.  One night only.  And I am in some very eclectic company (see the roster at the end of the post).

Not really performance so much as simply being.  Deliberately.  In public.  With another person alongside me.

Samantha Johns and George McConnell directed something that was, no question, one of the best pieces of theater I saw in 2012 - Snowf**k (of course they spelled it out in all caps, but I don't want to shout and curse on the internet at the same time, so...)

Samantha and George (and their partner in crime Paige Collette) make some damn interesting theater together.  Just check out Samantha's website if you don't believe me.

The thing that probably interests me most about it is that they're never pretending the audience isn't there, that the audience is a passive spectator.  They want to engage the audience, to pull them out of themselves for a minute or two, or ninety, and get them to really encounter what they're seeing.  It's a conversation.  Even if the audience isn't speaking, they're actively watching, thinking, and responding.  It's not the dreaded "audience participation" but the fourth wall is definitely a creeky old anachronism best shoved off to the side.  Walls in general are not what Samantha, George and Paige are interested in, unless they're knocking them down.

So, there's this arts initiative in St. Paul called Irrigate:

Irrigate is an artist-led creative placemaking* initiative spanning the six miles of the Central Corridor Light Rail line in Saint Paul during the years of its construction. Artists collaborate with businesses, organizations and community groups to change the landscape of the corridor with color, art, surprise, creativity and fun.

* Placemaking is the act of people coming together to change overlooked and undervalued public and shared spaces into welcoming places where community gathers, supports one another, and thrives. Places can be animated and enhanced by elements that encourage human interaction – from temporary activities such as performances and chalked poetry to permanent installations such as landscaping and unique art.

And there's this adult novelty store called The Love Doctor (right near the corner of University and Snelling, just off highway 94) - think Sex World with a lot less neon.  No, I'm not linking to their website, that's the definition of NSFW.  They're at 1607 University Avenue West in St. Paul.  "Your Prescription For Passion" (hee)

Outside The Love Doctor, there are a number of evenly spaced trees along the sidewalk bordering University Avenue.

From 4pm to 10pm on Friday, September 27, 2013, there will be pairs of people between these trees.

According to our instructions, or Performance Score:

PERFORMANCE SCORE:
-You will perform in between the trees lining the sidewalk - in front of Love Doctor.
-When you arrive. You can pick your location and begin performing.
-Sam will be there - if you have questions before you begin.
-The piece is silent.
-The piece is family friendly.
-The piece does not involve any objects/props other than humans.
[If you would like you may bring something to sit on - if you do not want to stand for 1+ hour.]
-Clothing of your choice. Pedestrian attire.
-Ideally you will remain in one location during your performance time.
-You will be performing actions of intimacy and care.
Possible examples of Intimacy: Holding hands, Brushing a cheek, Hugging, Kissing,
Looking at each other, Standing back to back, Thumb wresting, ETC
[It could be one of these actions, or all of these actions. Or what ever you feel best about.]
-If pedestrians ask what you are doing - we'll have flyers for you to hand them (below)
-With-in this score, please make the piece your own.
-Relax. Have fun. Respect.

NOTES:
-If you would like to stay longer than you signed up for, wonderful!
-There will be photos and video being taken.
-We will have bottled water for you.
-Bathrooms are available in The Love Doctor.

Those flyers we hand out in order to stay silent/not talk say the following:

Ten Statements About THIS.HERE.

1- THIS.HERE. is legitimate.

2 - THIS.HERE. is a reality where intimacy is not something to be hidden.

3 - THIS.HERE. is a small little scream we need you to hear.

4 - THIS.HERE. [re]performs and [re]invents the identity of civilian.

5 - THIS.HERE. is a long-approach to altering landscape.

6 - THIS.HERE. fashions a situation to defeat oppression.

7 - THIS.HERE. is a safe environment to respect, empower, and take care of yourself and others.

8 - THIS.HERE. erases culture artifacts and [re]claims love in its own image.

9 - THIS.HERE. lives in the body, in the mind, in the air.

10 - THIS.HERE. can be performed/lived anywhere by anyone.

"These are our beliefs. You get to have beliefs of your own. What matters to us is not that you agree with us, but that you question the prevailing paradigm and decide for yourself what you believe."
- Easton and Liszt

Project maybe possible by:
Irrigate. irrigatearts.org
Love Doctor. thelovedrs.com
Samantha Johns. samanthajohns.carbonmade.com
Paige Collette. paigecollette.carbonmade.com
And Viewers Like You.

(hee)

So yes, it sounds pretentious.  Everything Samantha and George and Paige do sounds pretentious.  They take it very seriously.  They talk about it in a very simple straightforward manner.  But it's not about being confrontational.  It's just about not being passive.  And I never experience theater that these people make as pretentious.  It's always just something they're very excited about sharing with an audience.  Quite literally sharing.  It's not about "look at me and what I'm doing."  It's about "come over here and hang out with me for a while and tell me what you think of this."  Frankly, it's always fun, and odd, and strangely innocent for something that is so often dealing with human intimacy.

This event came up in a random exchange of messages between Samantha and myself and I thought, "Well, I can stand in one place and hang out in silence with a friend for an hour."

Then it occurred to me - who would I ask?

If I had a husband or boyfriend, obviously, that would make something like this easier.  Of course, there's a friend down in Texas, and another friend over in Slovakia, either of whom would said yes and be totally down with the whole idea.  After all, with me it'd be more like hanging out than making out anyway.  So, local...  Samantha had no worries about it, "there are millions of cool local ppl who would look at you for an hour or 2."  Thanks, but I also have to feel comfortable asking them.

And of course, my brain immediately thought, "It should be a guy."  The whole reason I do theater is to tell stories that I don't see, and I figured (rightly, see the roster below) that the whole thing would lean largely hetero.  Even if the "two guys" pairing I brought to the mix wasn't going to be sexual, just the presentation of two men, together, silent, with no beer or ladies involved would naturally send a different message than the expected Love Doctor male-female pairings, or even two women (which people seem more comfortable with, less threatened, even titillated by, for better or worse).  I am, naturally, oversimplifying and generalizing.  It was just my thought process.

So, it'll be me and two heterosexual fellows hanging out between a couple of trees in front of a sex toy shop.  I'm standing for a two hour block, and they'll each tag in for an hour apiece.  And I have absolutely no idea what we're doing.  First is Cade Homselth, dancer, choreographer, aerialist and massage therapist.  Next is Matt Weerts, playwright, actor, and stand-up comedian.  Matt and I will probably have a harder time because we're used to talking so damn much.  Cade's a lot more in touch with the physical side of things.

Worst case scenario - I get to hang out for a couple of hours with a couple of guys like I like spending time with, and we're less than compelling "theater."  Plus I push the envelope of my comfort zone by being out in public with the express purpose of being looked at.  The "what am I wearing" part of my day will be especially fraught.  Matt and I have already planned to go out and eat afterward just to be allowed to talk and decompress.

There's really no hiding here.  We're either close to the doors where the customers at Love Doctor come and go, or we're on the ends where people walking by the Love Doctor have to pass on the sidewalk.  We're getting seen no matter where we place ourselves.  There is no offstage, because there is no stage.

So here's the line-up, starting at 4pm

Billy Mullaney (another Samantha/George regular) and Emily Gastineau are there for the entire six hour stretch from 4 to 10pm.  If you get bored with any of the rest of us, Billy and Emily are always fun to watch.

Also on deck from 4 to 5pm - Amy Salloway and Florence Brammer; Ben Kreilkamp and TBA; Megan (no last name given) with Jim and Oliver (same); and Carly and Chelsea (again, no last names)

Joining Billy and Emily from 5pm to 6pm is the pairing of Elayna Waxse and David Rue

Starting at 6pm; Savage Umbrella regulars Blake E. Bolan and Carl Atiya Swanson and Hannah K. Holman get a daisy chain of pairings going - it's Blake and Carl from 6pm to 7pm, Carl and Hannah from 7 to 8, and Hannah and Blake from 8 to 9.

Joining that, along with Billy and Emily, will be me and Cade (Everett hour 1)

Starting at 7pm, Cade tags out and Matt tags in for Everett hour 2, alongside Billy and Emily, and Carl and Hannah.  Also in play, Annie Enneking with Harper and Flann

I may be done for the evening at 8pm, but Billy and Emily continue, Hannah and Blake pair up, and Alana Horton starts her own two hour block, first with Ben Marcy.  Also in play, John Bueche and Nancy Waldoch, and Emma Buechs and Phoebe DeVincenzi

Winding down the evening, we have the ever present Billy and Emily, while Alana pairs off with Ryan Brownlow.

So part of St. Paul is definitely not shutting down after 5pm tomorrow.

Come watch a bunch of people.  Being.  Together.

I think it's going to be fun.