"A Jumping-Off Point" at the Jungle Theater

"A smart, sharp comedy that asks the important questions about privilege and who is allowed to fail." This tagline on the cover of the program pretty well describes the new play A Jumping-Off Point, receiving its regional premiere at the Jungle Theater. It's the kind of play that I love, one in which complex characters discuss relevant issues in a personal and relatable way, with no easy answers, no winners or losers. And the issues discussed are ones on the forefront of current conversation - who has the right to tell whose story? It's no longer acceptable for a writer to tell the story of a community they're not a part of, particularly a marginalized community. People in that community have the right to tell their own story, something we've only just begun to realize and put into practice. But does that make it OK to steal someone else's idea and "make it better?" Those are the thorny issues that this excellent three-person cast, savvy director, and brilliant design team dig into in just 90 minutes. Buckle your seat belts, not just to make it through Uptown construction to see this play at the Jungle through May 19, but also to navigate the twists and turns of this story.

"Weathering" at Penumbra Theatre

Prolific #TCTheater playwright Harrison David Rivers has written another beautiful and relevant story about humans. Weathering was commissioned by Penumbra as a response to the growing awareness of racial disparities in maternal health. A quick google search reveals staggering statistics around the racial disparity in infant and maternal mortality in this country - two and three times higher for Black mothers compared to White mothers. Weathering puts a human face on those statistics and lets us experience the tragedy of one family, as well as the healing that can happen within a community.

"Flip the Script: The Great Divide IV" an audio play series by Pillsbury House Theatre

"During the 2016 presidential election, the American political landscape ruptured into one of the most heated divides in recent history. In response, Pillsbury House Theatre began The Great Divide project, commissioning five new ten-minute plays each year tackling the rising political tensions in America. As we head towards the 2020 election, on the heels of a pandemic and a global uprising, that divide has grown even larger. For the fourth and final installment of The Great Divide, Pillsbury House Theatre has invited five former Great Divide playwrights to write a companion piece to their earlier work that imagines a way to move forward, beyond the divide. By pairing playwrights' earlier work with pieces written in this election year, Flip the Script is a powerful examination of the past, present, and future of our political divide."

"Blackout Improv" at Mixed Blood Theatre

Friends, it's been too long since I've seen Blackout Improv. Now in their fifth year, this all-POC improv troupe performs every third Monday at Mixed Blood Theatre. Now that #TCTheater is winding down for the holidays, I was finally able to go see a show, just in time for their year end/holiday show. If they're not already, Blackout Improv should definitely be on your radar going into 2020 for the unique perspective and performance style they bring to the Twin Cities performing arts scene.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Measure4Measure"

Day: 2

Show: 6

Title: Measure4Measure

Category: COMEDY / DRAMA / PHYSICAL THEATER / LITERARY ADAPTATION / LGBTQ+ CONTENT / POLITICAL CONTENT / RELIGIOUS CONTENT / SHAKESPEARIAN ELEMENTS

By: Rough Magic Performance Company

Directed by: Sarah Agnew

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: An adaptation of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, the original #MeToo play.

Highlights: The last time I saw Measure for Measure, I found it a bit long (as I often do with Shakespeare's plays), but this one-hour version (adapted by Catherine Johnson Justice and directed by Sarah Agnew) felt just right. I didn't miss a thing in the story of the woman who is told by a powerful man that the only way she could save her condemned brother is to sleep with him. Cries of "who would believe me if I told" sound all too familiar to us today. A record scratch and the repetition of important lines really drives this point home. An excellent all female cast (Alayne Hopkins, Ashawnti Sakina Ford, Catherine Johnson Justice, and Mo Perry, with Elise Langer and Taj Ruler bringing the funny) plays all of the characters and really brings this story to vibrant life. If you like your Shakespeare short, succinct, funny, relevant, engaging, and feminist, don't miss this Measure4Measure.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"She Persists: The Great Divide III" at Pillsbury House Theatre

For the third year in a row, Pillsbury House Theatre is presented a collection of short plays that speak to our divided nation. The 2017 collection was subtitled Plays for a Broken Nation, 2018 was Plays on the Politics of Truth, and 2019 is an all-female collection/creation called She Persists. The series has been a really wonderful way to examine what divides us in a non-judgmental, non-threatening way, while offering a path towards hope and greater connection and conversation with each other. With most theater companies planning their seasons out a year or more in advance, it's difficult for them to immediately respond to what's happening in the world. But this series allows for that, with five brand new 10-minute plays that could not be more timely and relevant.

"The Imaginary Invalid" by Combustible Company at Gremlin Theatre

Their opening night was cancelled in the Great April Blizzard of '18, but a little (or a lot) of snow didn't stop Combustible Company from delivering a funny, clever, relevant, and really well-done version of Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid. When I finally made it to Gremlin Theatre two days later than planned, I found myself thoroughly entertained for two and a half hours by this delightfully odd mixture of humor, music, social commentary, bright costumes, and pharmaceutical ads. The play may be over 300 years old, but this clever new adaptation (by Oded Gross and Tracy Young) brings out all the relevance to 2018 in this story of a hypochondriac struggling with health care issues, as so many are today. The modern references make the play feel fresh and current, while still keeping a tie to the original, and the consistently fantastic cast plays up the comedy to a hilt, without losing sight of the humanity of the characters. (Playing through April 28, click here for info and tickets.)

"A Crack in the Sky" at History Theatre

The world premiere new play A Crack in the Sky, now playing at St. Paul's History Theatre, teams up Ahmed Ismail Yusef, author of the book Somalis in Minnesota, with Playwrights' Center core writer Harrison David Rivers* to tell Ahmed's very personal and very relatable story of being a Somali immigrant in America. The play was workshopped and read last year as part of History Theatre's Raw Stages series, and has now come beautifully to full life in this production. It's a play that's funny and playful, short and sweet, and tells a very human story of a man striving to make a better life for himself and his family, while pursuing his love of knowledge and storytelling.

"365 Days/365 Plays" by Full Circle Theater at Penumbra Theatre

About 15 years ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks gave herself a challenge - write a play every day for a year. New #TCTheater company Full Circle Theater (they've been around a couple years but this is just their second production) has chosen to produce a "remix" of 46 of these plays in just over two hours. The result is a mishmash of stories, characters, and conversations, seemingly unrelated, but with some common threads to be found. Full Circle is intentionally multiracial, with a mission "to produce heartfelt, groundbreaking theater that artfully addresses issues of human nature and social justice for 21st century audiences." A wonderful goal, and 365 Days/365 Plays is an interesting, perplexing, thought-provoking step towards it.

"600 Years" by Sandbox Theatre at the Southern Theater

Confession: I, like millions of people, love The Walking Dead. I'm fascinated with the idea of people working together to build a new society out of nothing. But what I don't love, and what I'm becoming increasingly disheartened by, is how in their version of the post apocalyptic world (zombies, natural disaster, it doesn't really matter what caused the end of the world as we know it), people turn on each other instead of working together to combat the very real enemies and dangers in the new world. Sandbox Theatre has envisioned a different version of the post apocalyptic world using their unique ensemble created, devised theater method. This world, where women called Seekers run between villages to create connections (they're kind of like the new internet) and all humanity works towards a common goal, is a much more hopeful world than that of The Walking Dead, and one I would much prefer to live in.