Minneapolis / St. Paul Music Blog

And so it goes... the 2008 Minnesota Fringe Festival is behind us and it was good.  I wrapped the thing up seeing three shows, which were all chosen due to various obligations.  I'm not going to do full reviews of these.  But here in this entry I'll mention a couple of things about each, as well as give them the standard treatment of a rating and a Ten Word Summary.  Thereafter, it'll be time to share some final thoughts and say goodbye.

"Secrets of the Little Yellow Diary" was one of Christopher O. Kidder's favorite shows this year. Be sure to check out our Fringe in Photos slideshow gallery for pictures from this and other shows, afterparties and more. Image by B FRESH Photography.

This is the final day of the 2008 Minnesota Fringe Festival.  It is time to catch the last few shows that you can fit in.

Day Ten: 10:00 p.m. Time Slot

Show: Systems: A Literal Interpretation of the Fourth Wall
Company: Insurgent Theater
Venue: U of M Rarig Center Xperimental
Die Roll:  16

I'm about to write a review that kills my chances with two more women completely.  That thought crossed my mind  sitting in the audience of this show as I realized just how bad this show was.

Day Ten: 8:30 p.m. Time Slot

Show: The Bronze Bitch Flies at Noon and Dog Tag
Company: Magicword Theater
Venue: U of M Rarig Center Arena
Die Roll: 19

I really like Matthew A. Everett & Anne Bertram, the writers of these pieces.  This production was made up of two shorter plays through which these two writers explore the nature of loving relationships.  One of the best things to me about Matthew's writing has always been that he tackles love stories.  So many people have left basic love story comedies behind in an effort to be edgy.  What many people forget, is when dealing with gay themes, basic love stories push the most important edge.  Here's what I mean.  All too often gay theatre is about making a point.  All too often it includes things for shock value and flaunts the parts of gay culture that are campy or lurid, or whatever else.  To the average non-enlightened heterosexual individual, seeing gays as campy, silly, and gross isn't that challenging.  A piece of art that helps that perception along isn't accomplishing all that much, no matter how much the purveyors of such theatre might think they're presenting satire or an important commentary on the beliefs of others.

Day Ten: 7:00 p.m. Time Slot

Show:  Phi Alpha Gamma
Company:  Dan Bernitt
Venue:  U of M Rarig Xperimental
Die Roll:  8

I've mentioned once before that I'm soon to go out on the road with GTC Dramatic Dialogues.  The shows that we do are geared for college orientation programs and are about some topics that are often hard to talk about.  One of the topics that we address is Sexual Orientation.  So, I've been very interested in this play since I first heard about it.  I reviewed Dan's show Thanks for the Scabies, Jerkface a few years ago, and while I didn't hate it, I didn't love it, either.  But, I'm always willing to give a performer a second chance.  Especially since the dice don't give me much of a choice.

The second Saturday of the Fringe is the day that my daughter traditionally goes around with me.  This year, as you know, she went around the Fringe with me in the first weekend.  So, this year feels strange to me to begin with.  Mix that in with a couple of scheduling things that limit the number of shows I get to see today, and it almost feels like Fringe is winding down a day early for me.

I'll be seeing at least 2 shows today.  Hopefully 3.  We'll have to see how that works out.

This is the last night to hang out at Fringe Central.  So I can promise you that I'll be there, recorder in hand.  There will be one last Fringecast before the festival is done.

Day Nine: 8:30 p.m. Time Slot

Show: War of the Worlds: The Musical -- A Tribute to Old-Time Radio
Company: Hometown Theatre
Venue:  Lab Theater
Die Roll:  13

When I saw this group at the Fringe-For-All I wasn't terribly impressed.  In fact, I was dreading attending this show.  I am so glad that I was wrong in my expectations.  Yay!

I enjoyed the show immensely.  I've always been a huge fan of the tight harmonies of 40s style music.  And the old-time radio show is a wonderful thing, too.  The fact that this script is sharply written, is funny and brilliantly self-aware in its presentation adds a lot and makes it an hour really well spent.

Title:  Day Nine - 7:00 p.m. Time Slot

Show: Hue & Cry
Company: Lex-Ham Community Theater
Venue: Playwrights' Center
Die Roll: 6

This will likely be my shortest review to date.  I liked this play.  It was well acted.  Nicholas Leeman, particularly, did a stellar job.  He nailed the Irish accent that his character required.  Grant Henderson, who I shared the stage with in the 2004 Fringe in a play by Matthew A. Everett, pushed past his normal repertoire and performed some modern dance in this piece, and he did a remarkably good job for a non-dancer. 

Day Nine: 5:30 p.m. Time Slot

Show: The Legend of Little Bad: Not Her Father's Fairy Tale
Company:  Behemoth Theatre Company
Venue: U of M Rarig Center Proscenium
Die Roll:  20 - Critical Hit!  (I got to choose!)

When my die pops up with a 20, I get to choose which show to see.  In this time slot it came down to two shows.  The Legend of Little Bad,or An Inconvenient Squirrel.  I chose The Legend of Little Bad.  Partly because I know quite a few people in this cast and I want to support their show, and also because the venue technician told me that they have had a lot of bad luck scheduling-wise.  And you know, when you're a children's show and you're scheduled when kids can't come, it's not a good thing.  When you are also then scheduled up against one the the perennial Fringe superstars when you do manage to get a good slot, and that show is playing across the hall from you, you're still going to be hurting.  I'd heard this was a good show that needed a little help getting an audience.  So... that made up my mind.

Well, I want to apologize for having nothing to report about Day 8.  My body revolted, and in a fit of what I can only guess was food poisoning, I didn't go see any shows, nor did I attend rehearsal for my upcoming tour.  It was a terrible evening.  Anyway...

Now, we're onto the final weekend!  This Friday is a special one.  There are earlier shows today than any other weekday of the Fringe.  I'm not sure why that is, except that perhaps one expects to skip out on work a little early on the final Friday of Fringe.  That being the case, there is one 2 p.m. show at the Bryant-Lake Bowl, and a whole bunch of 4 p.m. performances everywhere around the Fringe.

Day Four: 8:30 p.m. Time Slot

Show:The Department of Angels

Company: Schave & Reilly 

Venue:  Minneapolis Theater Garage

Die Roll: 13

I, like most people of my generation, were raised on Looney Tunes, the Little Rascals, and The Muppets.  With the exception of the Muppets which were brand new at the time, our parents had seen those same things when they were kids, too.  Through cartoons and the like, we have no seen the vaudeville style comedy for many, many years.  And so are perhaps a bit numbed to it.  My daughter, at age nine, has a different perspective of what comedy is because she watches all the Disney Channel shows, and sitcom-like children's programming that is unlike that which we grew up with.

Day Four, 7:00 p.m. Time Slot

Show:Life Sciences
Company:  Frustrated Muppets
Venue:  Playwrights' Center
Die Roll: 7

There was no program for this play, and there's not a lot of information on the Fringe website, either.  So, I don't have a lot of insight into why these guys put together this play.  I'm guessing that someone read the classic script No Exit and decided to do a modern (although it isn't that old to begin with) and comedic re-envisioning.

Re-envisioning things is one of the staples of theatre.  How many times has Shakespeare been set in some odd non-Elizabethan setting, or redone entirely?  How many classic operas got the Jeune Lune treatment over the last decade?  How many pieces of classic literature have been tackled byJohn Ferguson?  It's an effective way to create art.  You take something that people know, and you play with it until you have a new piece of art that can be remarkable in its own right.

Day Seven: 10:00 p.m. Time Slot

Show: The Dawn of Tusk Company: Voluptuous Tusk Venue: The Southern Theater Die Roll:  5

I made it to this venue with time to spare and bumped into the two technicians that run the space.  It's always nice to run into folks who have been working the Fringe and asking them about the different experiences they've had this year.  I'm normally in such a rush from venue to venue that making that personal connection with others around the festival doesn't get to happen until we're all at Fringe Central after the fact.  It makes me happy to actually have a chat or two along the way.

Day Seven: 5:30 p.m. Time Slot

Show: Boom
Company: IL Productions
Venue:  U of M Rarig Center Arena
Die Roll: 9

Sitting in the darkness as this play begins the audience is treated to a selection of rules supposedly representing a list of rules on the proper use of bombs.  The final rule prior to the show's actual beginning is "When choosing between two bombs, always listen to your heart."

It's Thursday night.  Tomorrow is the official beginning of the final weekend.  Shows are coming up to their last or second-to-last performances, so if there's something you want to see, check your schedule and squeeze it in.  The Fringe is soon to be done.

Prior to the festival starting, you may remember that I did a number of preview articles about different plays and companies that would be part of the Fringe Festival.  Then, I ran out of time before the Fringe got going and there were no more previews.  It was time to actually see and review shows.

Well, time has passed, and it has reached the point wherein I can tell if I'm going to make it to a show or not (in some cases).  You see, though I don't know which shows I might see, I can tell at this point if a show has no more performances that correspond with the slots on my charts.  The shows at the Bryant-Lake Bowl only line up every once in a while.  Since my charts are designed for the standard one-hour time slots, the longer shows at the BLB only line up once a day on week days (10 p.m. slot) and only a couple of times on the weekends.  That means that I can tell you right now that though Brilliant Traces will be having two more shows.  I won't be seeing either one of them.

I have a song to sing o!  Sing me your song o!  There is a concert tonight at Fringe Central.  I don't personally know anything about the group, but I suppose I will after I hear them play. 

I thought I would take a moment to review reviewers.  Number one, on the very first day of the Fringe, I (and the rest of the audience) watched a certain Star-Tribune reviewer and his lady friend walk out of the show after only one third of the performance (walking out of the Lab theatre unnoticed is really hard to do, as the stairs are better lighted than the theatre itself).  Not surprisingly he gave the show a poor review.  But he also was only able to describe what happened in the first part of the show.  I, too, gave that same show a less than stellar review, but at least I could describe what happened in the last forty minutes of the performance.  These shows are only one hour long.  And they are spaced so you can make the next one without the least bit of effort.  Even if you're in a hurry you don't have to leave early.

Day Six: 5:30 p.m. Time Slot

Show: Beowulf or Gilgamesh, You Decide
Company:  Chopping Block Theater & Charlie Bethel
Venue: U of M Rarig Center Arena
Die Roll:  11

I wanted Gilgamesh!!!!!  Now that I've got that out of the way, let me tell you about Charlie Bethel's Beowulf.  Or even better, let's just start with talking about Charlie Bethel.  I finally met Charlie a couple of years ago because he was cast in a play that I wrote for Thirst Theater.  Charlie is one of this community's most under-valued assets.  Sure, he's got a small cult following due to the two shows that make up the repertoire of this production, but he's a damn fine actor and ought to be a regular on some of the bigger stages in town.

In an 11-day festival, day six is the halfway point.  It is like Wednesday in a normal week.  It is our Hump Day!  The strange thing is that some of the shows have just had one show, others have had four of their five already.  So, in some cases the excited Fringer may need to check and see if the show that sounds really good will still be around much longer.

Tonight at Fringe Central there is a special Fringe edition of Bar Trivia.  The folks at the Bedlam are doing their best to keep the feel of the Fringe going late into the night.

There's a new audioblog/Fringecast up.  You don't want to miss out on the sounds of the Fringe!  If you've missed a past edition, you can find them archived here. 

Well, I got out of rehearsal with enough time to make it to a 10 p.m. show.  That show ought to have been at the Rarig Center, and I was just there with a minute to spare, but the parking ramp was being pressure washed and was closed to new cars coming in.  Once I tried to find other parking in the area, time had passed enough that I would have missed the first 5 minutes, at least, of the show.  So... giving up I turned my car's wheels toward Fringe Central.  The event of the night was to feature films made earlier in the year at the 48 Hour Film Festival.  I like seeing this cooperation between festivals.  That's part of the positive energy that I keep hearing so much about around the Fringe.

Day Five: 5:30 p.m. Time Slot

Show:  10.10 Post 9.11: Laughter in the Aftermath
Company:  Adam Sharp
Venue:  U of M Rarig Proscenium
Die Roll:  19

Fate plays odd tricks.  Just shortly after I got a little ticked off at the director of this show for using the comment section of this blog as a place to promote his show, I roll the dice and end up attending his show.  Well, there's that.  At least I know one of the actors in it, and I normally enjoy his work.

This play is actually an assemblage of 5 short works.  It pokes fun at a number of the somewhat-recent political events of our country.  Basically, it looks at the "Dubya" era and all that goes with it.

"We are sort of an under-the-radar group," said Debbie Tallen, a technician for the
Minnesota Fringe Festival.

It is true that most attendees of the Minnesota Fringe Festival will never encounter a Fringe technician.  They are the people in the back of the theatre dressed in black and keeping out of the public eye.  "Generally, we
like it that way," acknowledged Tallen.

Just before the 2008 fringe got underway, I sat down with Debbie at the Chatterbox Pub in Minneapolis.  I have often interviewed performers for this column over the years, but never had I sat down one-on-one with a technician.  And I thought it was odd that I'd neglected doing so.  Many of my friends over the past few years have been the folks running the lights and the sound and everything else at the Fringe venues.  Despite attempting to cover Fringe from many different angles, somehow I missed one right in front of me.

So, the first weekend is wrapped up at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. 
It was quite a weekend. But, it is important to realize that it doesn't stop there, and there is no hiatus prior to the 2nd weekend.  This is an 11-day festival.  And there is stuff going on all 11 days.  That includes tonight! 

There are four show slots tonight starting at 5:30 p.m.  I'll be catching one show in the first slot and then running to rehearsal.  Once I'm done there, I'll either catch a 10 p.m. show or I'll head to Fringe Central where the 48-Hour Film Festival will be showing off some of their best movies from this past year.

Day Four - 8:30 p.m. Time Slot
Show: Audish
Company:  Bakery Theatre Company
Venue:  Theatre de la Jeune Lune
Die Roll: 2

Walking back to my car after this show I couldn't help but think that I had no idea what I just watched.  There were some crazy parts.  A lot of fun parts.  Some parts that left me completely at a loss.  Generally, it ran the gamut and though it was an entertaining hour, I'm not sure I would go to it a second time to try and figure it out.

At the Fringe-For-All previews, this was one of my favorite pieces.  I came in with high hopes.  Sadly, the tight piece of promotion that was their preview wasn't included in the overall show.  The characters that were fun in the preview were a bit too much to deal with for a 50+ minute time span.

Day Four, 5:30 p.m. Time Slot
Show: This Play is Trash
Company:  The Theat of the Cunch
Venue:  U of M Rarig Center Arena
Die Roll: 12

Many, many years ago in a place across the river from the Fringe Festival, I was training in to be a teacher for SteppingStone Theatre for Youth Development. 
In order to see an example of good teaching in progress, I was assigned to watch a class taught by Matthew Vaky.  Over the next two years I designed lights for two shows that Matthew wrote.  And then our paths diverged for a while. 
We ran into each other last fall when the education department at the Guthrie had a meeting of all its instructors.  Then, I didn't run into him again until this festival.  Now, Matthew is part of the strangely named The Theat of the Cunch, but it is his progeny that make up the better part of its creative core.

Day Four, 4:00 p.m. Time Slot
Show:The Virginity of Astronauts
Company:  The Electric Telescope Theatre Company
Venue:  Intermedia Arts
Die Roll: 9

I like Intermedia Arts as a venue.  I like the fact that it has art in the lobby.  I like the fact that there is a small parking lot on the North side of the building that somehow people seem to not know about.  There is always a place to park (now watch me never find a spot again due to mentioning it here).  Unfortunately, my affection for Intermedia Arts is not being reciprocated right now.  It is doing cruel things to me.  Cruel and evil things like making me sit through The Virginity of Astronauts.

There are so many questions to be asked about this production, but the main one is... What the hell is going on here?  I am quite familiar with the Greek myth of Ion. 

Day Four: 2:30 p.m. Time Slot
Show:Sex, Love
& Vomit
Company:  Story Tapestries
Venue:  Playwrights' Center
Die Roll: 7

Storytellers often let you into the intimate details of their lives.  Sometimes more intimate than others.  I mean, some storytellers that tour libraries for kids tell tales of Anansi the Spider and such.  But, in the Fringe Festival, more often than not, the storytellers bring you right into their own experiences.  This show definitely does that.  And it doesn't play it safe with stories like, "You know, when I was a kid, I loved that old tire swing..."  No.  The stories in this show are told by two women about their assorted trials and troubles on the road to love.

Katie Knutson and Arianna Ross started the show with their own stories about guys they dated early in their romantic histories.  Both of the fellas were named Josh (nice coincidental fact that tied the stories together).  The one thing I learned during these stories was the guys name Josh are universally bad kissers (at least as teenagers).

The Show then segued into a dance piece to the song "Coin Operated Boy".  The dance was fun, but it was clear that it was dance by
non-dancers.  But, that was okay.  This wasn't a dance show.  It was clear that they were having fun doing it, and we were having fun watching it.  That's all that's important sometimes.

So... I have a full docket today.  The rolling of dice is still goingon, but I've altered when I roll.  Instead of rolling on a show by show basis, I have opted to roll on the charts for the entire day in one fell swoop in the morning.  That way I can plan travel.  It's a crazy bit of fun to try to make it around the festival anyway.  It's even more crazy when you don't know where you're headed next. 

Well, these comes a time for every parent that shares custody of a child when you have to take the child back to the other parent.  That's what I had todo during the 7 p.m. time slot.  So, I didn't see a show then.  It was a lot of fun having my daughter with me for the Friday and Saturday shows, though.  Her faves, in case you were wondering were, in ranked order:

Day Three: 4:00 p.m. Time Slot

Show: Snip, Snap, Snute
Company:  Alrighty, Then
Venue: U of M Rarig Center Proscenium
Die Roll:  n/a - this was chosen by my daughter

As I explained in an earlier post, this show was the one that I promised I would take my daughter to, no matter what.  And so, the day before she leaves for two successive summer camps, that's just what I did.

It is the story of a troll girl and a human girl who were swapped at birth.  They are raised by families that they can't truly be a part of.  And they eventually go on an adventure that results in them finding their real parents.