Friend a Day – Katherine Glover
As my Focus on Fringe continues, I look at the people I see for a fortnight once a year because they are awesome.
I know Katherine only through Fringe. As is my sometimes awkward nature, I’ve been to a few of her shows and told her that I thought they were pretty good. We’ve sat at the same table at Fringe central and engaged in conversations about whatever we were talking about. Probably Fringe.
Right now, we are actually in the same dance show, which marks the first time the two of us have actually worked together.
As she will be quick to point out, we aren’t working “together” as we aren’t in the same dances.
All of this is to say that I call Katherine a friend but I don’t know her as well as I should.
She has what appears to be limitless energy and enthusiasm for whatever she is doing. That energy and enthusiasm seems to extend to whatever anyone else is doing as well.
While I imagine it has happened, I can’t remember ever seeing her simply walk into a room. She kind of explodes into a room. She either genuinely likes being around other people or pretends to like other people in an attempt to mask social anxiety.
I think it’s the former but it could be the latter. Either way, it’s charming.
As an aside, I have also just learned that we both went to the same high school. Not at the same time. She was there a long time after I left. But still, neat coincidence, right?
Katherine has received a lot of recognition for her work and that recognition is well deserved. She has a life focused on writing and performing and, to be honest, it makes me a little bit envious.
She’s really good at it, though.
Katherine is a great person to know and I’m excited to be in a show with her. Even if we don’t get to dance together.
Friend a Day – Phillip Andrew Bennett Low
Photo by Anastacia Bolkwazde
Fringe week continues until I’m no longer focused on Fringe week!
Back in 2007, Phillip was a blogger for the Fringe Festival and he wrote about a particularly bad preview we did for Vilification Tennis. I wrote back.
And now we are friends. The end.
Our exchange was actually fairly boring, which may come as something of a surprise given how some people react to Vilification Tennis. Phillip was smart, articulate, and raised good points. I was polite, non-combative, and listened.
He came to our show at the Fringe that year and gave us a positive review. I went to his show that year and really enjoyed it.
See? Being nice to people actually works.
Phillip is a lover of words and language. His shows are frequently solo shows that explore his personal journey, his personal opinions, and his personal passions. He has a complex sense of humor that ranges from geeky to angry to political. Sometimes in the same sentence.
His writing is challenging and I mean that in the best possible way. He challenges his audiences to think. His work is dense and thoughtful. It is not impenetrable but nor is it for those who are unwilling to pay attention.
That said, he can produce work that is startling in its simplicity. His “Improv Comedy Duo” with Ben San Del was one of the funniest short works I’ve ever seen at the Fringe. They took an idea and carried it to a brilliantly absurd extreme.
Because of his passion for words, he is one of the people I look forward to seeing at the Fringe. Conversation is lively and interesting. He can see the best in just about any show while still recognizing that the best is not always good enough.
He’s also always willing to take a chance. As with many years, Phillip is involved with more than one show at the Fringe Festival. One of them is a dance show. I’m in it too.
I don’t know if Phillip is a better dancer than me (probably), but I do know he’ll give it everything he has. Because that is the kind of person he is.
Friend a Day – Amy Rummenie
Photo by Walking Shadow Theatre Company
With the Fringe Festival approaching, it seems appropriate to focus on a few Fringe friends for the next few days.
I met Amy when she was asked to step in and help direct my fringe show “Story Time: Time Bomb.” I didn’t know her and she didn’t know me. I just knew we needed a director.
It was a great learning experience for both of us. I’d never done a “kids” show and she’d never directed a show that was mostly improv. The result was a tight show that was, I thought, a lot of fun.
For all the work I do in theatre, I’m not a very good director. Amy is a great director and her skills have not gone unnoticed in the Twin Cities theatre community. I’m glad I got to work with her before everyone else found out.
Amy always has a big smile on her face. I must assume she is always smiling because she is always enjoying herself. From that experience with her as a director, I think it is also because she is getting to do what she loves with her life. It’s hard to be bitter about that.
I’ll note she isn’t smiling in the picture above. But when you are posing with a Batleth, you should at least try to look serious.
She is co-artisitic director of Walking Shadow Theatre Company and if you haven’t heard of them, you should take the time to learn. They are producing some of the best original (and adapted) work in the Twin Cities.
In getting ready to work with Amy on a show in the spring, I like how excited she is by every idea. She makes a great collaborator and it makes me want to write something worthy of her excitement.
The Fringe has been a gateway for me to a lot of truly talented Twin Cities artists. Amy is one of those people and I’m very happy this wacky theatre festival brought us together.
Friend a Day – Courtney McCLean
Photo by John Robinson
I met Courtney at the Fringe Festival about five or six years ago. She is probably the most energetic person I know. And that is saying a lot.
Courtney is always excited about what she is doing. It makes me excited too.
She has good reason to be excited because she does such awesome stuff. Her stories are imaginative and clever. Her music with the Dirty Curls is catchy and funny. As exhibited in “Bump” at last year’s Fringe Festival, she can also bust a move.
All this, and she can play the banjo!
Simply put, if Courtney’s name is on something, it is something I want to see.
If it seems like she is running from one thing to the next, I think that is because she is always in the middle of doing something. She has what seems to be dozens of irons in the fire and, of course, they are all interesting.
As a songwriter, I’m particularly impressed with Courtney’s music. She writes a ton of songs are thematically similar and yet all very different. I spent most of my time watching them play paying very close attention to the lyrics because they are awesome.
I’m really in awe of her storytelling ability. It isn’t just the writing, which is exceptional, but also the personality she brings to the presentation. It is a vibrant and expressive personality of someone who is completely in the moment.
I think that is why I enjoy her presence on the Vilification Tennis cast. She is one of a few performers who walks on stage without a lot of prepared material. That can be a very risky proposition but I think it helps her be more present on stage than she would be if she walked in with only pre-planned material.
I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Courtney as a collaborator and as an audience member. She’s a truly talented person.
Friend a Day – John Newstrom
Photo by Garner Moffat
I met John through work when he took over for my old boss. He’s since left the company but we’ve continued to work together as collaborators on Fringe shows.
When he came to work in the office, we hit it off right away. I think we have fairly similar personalities. Our senses of humor were perfectly matched and we both liked most of the same things. He made work a lot of fun and while it made sense for him to move on when he did, I still miss seeing him every day.
John is the person most responsible for pushing me into writing more. He suggested “Highlander: The Musical” as a show title and I said I would write the music for him if it got into the fringe. It was a crazy thing to say since I’d never written a musical before. That has led to a lot of writing projects that I never would have considered.
When John gets excited about something, you can’t help but be excited as well. He gets a wild look of determination in his eyes and it’s hard to say anything but yes, let’s give it a try.
I do possess a certain level of awe for people like John, who actually enjoy directing. I’m happy to write things and have someone else figure out how to make those things look on stage. John is one of those people and I’m extraordinarily lucky to have found someone who works well with me and has an understanding of what I’m trying to do with my writing.
His marketing skills are something I wish I possessed. When there needs to be artwork produced for a show, he puts it together in what seems like seconds and it is always considerably better than anything I would have created.
Random chance is a funny thing. John and I started working together without any knowledge of each other’s theatre background. We hit it off and the result has been an artistic partnership far more fruitful than what either of us expected.
I’m very pleased random chance brought the two of us together. I look forward to many more collaborations.
Putting it Together – Five Fifths
Putting it Together is my Monday “artist talking about art stuff blog”. The title comes from “Sunday in the Park with George,” the best (and possibly only) musical that is entirely dedicated to an artist talking about his art. Is that pretentious enough?
Sometimes you get exactly what you want and then you realize all the reasons you may not have wanted it.
The Minnesota Fringe Festival does a big fundraiser every year wherein they invite five producers to write one fifth of a familiar pop culture property. When it comes to writing comedy, pop culture parody is kind of my wheelhouse. I have been super hopeful that someday I would be asked to write a fifth because that’s my thing!
So this year, I’ve been asked to write a fifth. And when I got asked I was really excited and happy because, as I said, this is completely my thing!
The movie in question is The Shining and I love The Shining. Not in a crazy Room 237 kind of way, you understand. It is a great film that offers so many exciting possibilities for satire. Some of which haven’t even been featured on “The Simpsons!”
Many of which I can squeeze into the fifteen minutes that shall be mine to bend to my will!
So excited!
What happens after that initial excitement about what I get to do, however, is the realization that I just agreed to actually do it. Then the doubt creeps in.
Putting it Together – The Fringe Lottery
Putting it Together is my Monday “artist talking about art stuff blog”. The title comes from “Sunday in the Park with George,” the best (and possibly only) musical that is entirely dedicated to an artist talking about his art. Is that pretentious enough?
I sometimes wonder if I got into this game too late. Most of my friends who are successful are in their early to mid 30’s. I spent those years putting together a science fiction convention, which is doing OK.
I graduated from college with a theatre degree, but left theatre behind me to do things like work a regular job, have a couple of kids, start a convention…you know, the normal stuff. I still loved theatre but I guess part of my problem was that I never knew what I wanted to do in theatre.
One thing did happen, though. I started writing sketches for CONvergence and I was pretty good. It is possible that writing parodies of popular culture presents very little challenge. I think it is more likely that I found something that finally re-ignited my interest in the stage.
Fringe Festival – Day 8 & 9
Seems kind of silly to review shows that are over but since I watched them, I want to make sure I write something about them.
I’m not going to pretend I’m satisfied with my shows at the Fringe this year. Stop Talking was fun to do but no particular stretch. I stretched myself by writing “Schrodinger’s Apocalypse” and while I feel the script was not perfect, I was mostly frustrated that the show didn’t draw enough of an audience to really get a feel for what I could have done to improve the work.
See, audience reviews are frustrating but the Fringe is filled with other people trying to do the same thing I’m doing – produce good theatre. We all want to see each other succeed and, I think, help each other when we don’t. I wish more people I knew had seen the show and were able to offer their opinions, it would have helped me figure out how to do a better job the next time I write something.
Frustrations with my own work aside, I still had a great time hanging out with friends, watching theatre and coming up with ideas for next year. There’s always next year.
Here’s what I watched on the last two days of the Festival
I admire the cheek it took to produce the show. A musical about The Human Centipede? Just about the silliest idea ever.
And while the audience really seemed into the show, I was never satisfied with the result. My problem is probably that I write music and I just felt the lyrics and music didn’t nail it.
If you are going to have characters singing about being turned into a human centipede, you need to go all the way. I didn’t feel like the show went all the way.
What would I have done differently? I’m still thinking about that.
I think I’m in the minority in my response to this show. Most of the audience loved it. I just didn’t.
The premise for this show was just about as nuts as one might expect from the minds of Andy Kraft, Levi Weinhagen and Joshua English Scrimshaw. Three guys open the show by slamming a McDonald’s Happy meal and then they have to spend the rest of the show trying to burn those calories.
Thus begins a crazy hour of dodgeball, jump rope and comic monologues. The show was fast paced, varied and filled with a whole lot more laugh out loud moments than any other show I saw at the Fringe.
I love that these guys are producing family friendly theatre that works for kids and adults. I’m pretty sure most everyone in that audience had a good time.
They even threw in some serious stuff about body image and parenting.
But I’m not going to hold that against them.
Fringe Orphans 2: Orphan Harder
The structure of Fringe Orphans would suggest a mixed bag but there were a lot more hits than misses in this grab bag of theatrical shorts.
Last year, Ben San Del and phillip andrew bennett low provided the funniest two minutes of the Fringe with their improv comedy due. This year, Fringe Orphans delivered again with a series entitled “The sound of Food.” I’m not going to try explaining the bit. Either you saw it or you didn’t.
If you saw it, you will never forget it. They deserve the best slow clap of the Fringe.
Promiscuous Fiction: The Runaway Stories of Jonathan Lethem
I spent so much of the Fringe going to shows that were produced by people I knew, I nearly missed this one and I really enjoyed it.
It was a weird little series of somewhat twisted stories that were all so fascinating I didn’t want them to end. While there were certainly amusing moments, the show didn’t come off as a comedy because most of the stories were even a bit creepy.
Really well acted and scripted, I wish I’d caught the show earlier in the festival so I could have recommended it to others.
I went to this show for two reasons. First: I had attended a show in every venue of the 2013 Fringe except The Playwrights’ Center and I wanted to fully cover my Fringe venue Bingo card. Second: this particular show had been ripped apart by the Pioneer Press and I wanted to see if it was really as bad as all that.
No. It wasn’t.
Mind you, I think the script was a bit of a mess and the idea that a critic would need to apologize for their opinion of a movie or a performer is a bit absurd. I’ve spent too much time in theatre to believe that a critic can have that much impact on the artist.
But look, this is a young scriptwriter and director who is still learning her craft. Her idea wasn’t bad but the end result wasn’t quite there. I can certainly relate to that.
I’ve seen far worse shows in and out of Fringe Festivals.
They Shoot 25 Year-Old Gay Men, Don’t They?
Fearless Comedy sponsored this show and I finally managed to see it in the second to last time slot.
The show was plagued by cast problems (a couple of cast members dropped out at the last minute) and that meant it was never going to be fully formed.
There was some really funny stuff in the script and the writing showed the skills of a guy who knows how to make people laugh. Unfortunately, it was filled with a lot of people who were clearly not actors and that can cause problems with any script.
Saying they were not actors is different than saying they were horrible actors. They had no experience doing simple things like finding their light, which was frustrating. They delivered lines too quickly and too softly. They didn’t know their lines. That’s what happens when you have no experience.
At the Fringe you cast who you can cast. Unfortunately, an inexperienced cast can really hurt your show.
I want to see Jakey do more work at the Fringe. But I think he needs to cut back his cast size and really focus on the writing. He’s got great potential.
To Mars with Tesla or the Interplanetary Machinations of Evil Thomas Edison
It took an encore slot for me to finally see this show. I’d missed it twice due to the twin curses of traffic and a sell out.
I played the odds that the encore performance wouldn’t be sold out and while it was popular, it was not sold out. Score!
I’m a sucker for a live silent movie so it was a guarantee that I was going to like this show. Especially when you have a cast as talented as this one. Kelvin Hatle is the perfect choice for evil Thomas Edison.
To be fair, I knew that before I saw the show.
Kelvin was not the only talented person in the cast. I just single him out because he was playing a role that he was clearly destined to play. At least he would be if destiny was actually a thing.
It was a great way to close out the 2013 Fringe Festival.
My personal record as a producer may not have been what I wanted it to be this year. That’s the way things go. Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you don’t. Taking chances and stretching oneself as an artist are important.
Every show I saw, whether I liked it or not, were produced by people taking chances. They put their work out there to be judged by others. I have nothing but respect for anyone who does that.
And, of course, I already have plans for next year.
So it goes.
Fringe Festival – Day 7
Day seven of the Fringe Festival ended after I was thwarted in my attempts to watch To Mars with Tesla or The Interplanetary Machinations of Evil Thomas Edison. I found myself at Ping’s eating chicken skewers with Chris Bowlsby, Sharon Stiteler, Levi Weinhagen and Courtney McClean. Later, Levi and I arm wrestled. So it was a weird day.
The transient nature of the Fringe can be frustrating at times. With 30 minutes between shows. You are rushing from one side of Minneapolis to the other in a mad attempt to reach the next theatre. At times your concern is not a sellout but simply missing opening curtain. Either way, you may find yourself taking an unexpected dinner break because you were too late.
I dislike that stressful process of getting from here to there. The best laid plans can be thrown by bad luck with traffic lights or pedestrians.
It is all part of the Fringe experience, though. It is a mad rush of theatre and it isn’t for the weak of heart.
Josh Carson’s weakness is he is too good at writing jokes.
I know, it isn’t a weakness. It just means that his shows are just packed with punchlines and you are going to miss a few. I would argue that it ensures rewatchability.
My frustration with the show came not from Josh’s dense writing but rather from actors who weren’t enunciating ther lines well. I know they had to speak them in a hurry to squeeze the entire show into an hour but a little bit of diction would have gone a long way.
That’s not a big thing. I certainly understood enough of the jokes to enjoy the hell out of the show. I just wanted to understand more of them.
I am really in love with the staging of this show.
The story, which was about a politician who loses his Nose, was absurd from the start and the staging complemented the absurdity perfectly.
The actors moved in a way that wasn’t dancing but the inspiration was clear. They were choreographed meticulously. Every move had purpose.
Well yeah. Every move in theatre is supposed to have purpose. However, the moves were sychronized and the three actors worked together to create a piece that was as much about movement as it was about story.
I thought it was terrific.
Burning Brothels: Sex and Death in Nevada
I didn’t want the show to end.
A fascinating series of stories about the sex trade in Nevada, I felt like I was taking a masters class in prostitution.
Katherine Glover shared stories of why brothels are legal in Nevada and tells us about a few women who work there as a way to, I think, demystify the institution.
Is prostitution OK? That isn’t really the point here. The point is that she wants us to understand the industry and the people who are involved in it because those people are interesting. Their stories are interesting too.
It isn’t that there aren’t judgements to make. It is that we don’t really know what we’re judging. This show gives us a glimpse into an industry few of us really understand.
And I walked away wishing I could glimpse a little more.
Well done.
Fringe Festival – Day 6
I dwell on bad reviews.
I know it isn’t healthy or productive but whenever I get a bad review, all I think about is what I could have done to make that show an enjoyable experience to the person who hated it so much.
Of course it is impossible to please everyone all of the time but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to make the attempt. One horrible review for “A Brief History of Irish Music” is upset that we didn’t play enough Irish music.
The stuff I really take personally is the stuff that makes me question what I did wrong. We had a pretty uneven show on Wednesday night.
OK. It was pretty bad.
The reviews reflect that, which is fair.
But they also say that our music was “OK” and that we don’t seem to enjoy the music.
That sucks because I know that our music sounds really good and we do love playing music. Lots of other reviews for our show say so. That means we completely failed to sell ourselves to that audience on that particular night. I want to go back and change that experience for them. But I can’t.
At the Fringe, I always say I’m trying to write a four star show. I mean, I like getting five stars but to me, five stars is a great show. I don’t try to write great shows. Feels like too much pressure.
I try to write good shows. But when someone calls my show bad, I dwell on it.
Which is why I have a difficult time panning anything. I know how it feels. And it sucks.
Fortunately, I have no plans to pan the three shows I saw last night.
So here’s where my thoughts about an off night come from. This improv show has a great premise (the audience draws props on chalkboards and the performers integrate those props into the show) and the performers are very good.
But the show felt a bit off to me last night. I felt like they weren’t using the chalkboards enough, for one. With such a great premise, it felt like they needed to do a better job taking advantage of it.
I would bet that nine times out of ten, this show is completely fantastic from beginning to end. Yesterday it was a little uneven. Because I know how good it must be most of the time, it still gets a strong recommendation.
I went to this show on word of mouth and while it didn’t connect with me, I can see how it resonated with others.
The show is a dramedy about several people dealing with a recent unexpected loss. Having been through a similar time in my life, I could certainly relate to the raw pain they were clearly all feeling.
I think that the show may have been done a disservice by the Fringe time limit. Another fifteen minutes might have helped bring together the disparate story lines.
Now, I didn’t love this show. I went on the recommendation of someone who thought it was the best show at the fringe.
Conveniently, we can both be right.
Best show I saw last night and one of my top five of the Fringe so far.
This show combines very clever dance numbers and stories (told by Courtney McClean) that are all inspired by the horror genre. Some are funny, some are creepy, all are memorable.
There was not a slow moment in the entire show. Not a moment I was disengaged or thinking that a dance had gone on just a bit too long.
We had a lot of intriguing choices for our final slot of the night but we settled on this one and boy am I glad we did!
More Fringing tonight! Can’t wait!
Grail Diary 