"Hurricane Diane" by Rough Magic Performance Company at the Center for Performing Arts

This morning when I went for a run, the sun was an unnatural bright pink, a color I'd never seen from the sun before, due to smoke from Canadian wildfires. While it was a stunning display, it was also disturbing. This poor air quality from far away fires happens occasionally in the border state of Minnesota, but it seems to be happening much more often this year, and in places much farther away. Arizona is currently experiencing record heat, and devastating natural disasters like tornadoes and hurricanes seem to be increasing every year. In playwright Madeleine George's play Hurrican Diane (which premiered in 2017 and played Off-Broadway in 2019), the god of wine, vegetation, and fertility, known as Dionysus or Bacchus, witnesses this growing crisis and steps in to attempt to remedy it. How does he do so? By posing as a lesbian landscaper and seducing four suburban New Jersey women to become acolytes. It's a very funny play, well executed by the all-star cast and creative team at Rough Magic Performance Company, but that doesn't make its lesson any less dire. In fact, the audience being seduced by the laughter and ridiculous situations makes the stark reality that human choices and actions are making the planet more and more unlivable for humans even more shocking. Don't miss this beautifully done regional premiere of the timely, hilarious, and terrifying play Hurricane Diane (continuing at Center for Performing Arts through July 30).

"Norma Jeane Baker of Troy" by Rough Magic Performance Company at the Mill City Farmers Market

Rough Magic Performance Company has made a name for themselves at Minnesota Fringe Festival with their short, modern, and feminist adaptations of Shakespeare. But now they're moving beyond that by performing a new play outside of the Fringe. And literally outside* (thanks, covid), in the gorgeous space used by the Mill City Farmers Market, between the Guthrie Theater and the Mill City Museum. Norma Jeane Baker of Troy is a retelling of the legend of Helen of Troy, aka the face that launched a thousand ships, superimposed with the story of Norma Jeane Baker, aka Marilyn Monroe. The play examines parallels between the two women and attempts to look beyond their status as icons of female beauty to the truth behind the image. It's a fascinating play, beautifully produced, with a lot packed into the one-hour runtime. Even though I've been to a handful of outdoor plays and musicals this year and last, for some reason this really felt like my first return to theater as we once knew it. Maybe because I held an actual physical program in my hands, maybe because the stage and audience setup felt familiar, maybe because of the complex nature of the play. But for perhaps the first time in 16 months, I left feeling that familiar sort of theater daze, having just traveled to another world for a time, and not quite ready to settle back into this one.

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.

"Pop Goes the Noggin" by SOS Theater at Gremlin Theatre

New #TCTheater company SOS Theater debuted a year and half ago with the dark comedy / family dramedy Roller Derby Queen. I really enjoyed that play, calling it "smart, funny, and well-written, with quirky but real characters," and was looking forward to their second outing. Pop Goes the Noggin is another new play written by Michele Lepsche, a dark comedy featuring quirky characters. Unfortunately it's an example of the proverbial sophomore slump as the great ideas don't quite come together, perhaps because due to an unexpected illness the playwright was unable to finish the play, which was completed by director Kari Steinbach and cast member Greta Grosch (one of the writers of the Church Basement Ladies series). But the play has an interesting premise, and a cast of unique and endearing characters (some more defined than others). There's definitely potential there, and it would be interesting to see it again after a round of revisions.

Fringe Festival 2017: Mid-Festival Favorites

We're halfway through the 11-day, 15-venue, 167-show Minnesota Fringe Festival. I've seen 25 shows, with another 20-some on the schedule for the next five days. Here are a few of my favorites so far. I haven't seen everything on my must-see list yet, so be sure to check that out for more recommendations. And you can read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

There are five days left of Fringe - so get out there and see some shows! Full schedule, venue, and ticketing information can be found on the Fringe's handy dandy website.

My favorite 2017 Minnesota Fringe shows so far, in alphabetical order (click on the title for full show information):

Fringe Festival 2017: "Much Ado About Nothing (as told by Dogberry and Verges)"

Day: 6

Show: 25

Title: Much Ado About Nothing (as told by Dogberry and Verges)

Category: Comedy

By: Rough Magic Performance Company

Written by: William Shakespeare (mostly)

Location: Jungle Theatre

Summary: A funny and clever and very meta adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing featuring an all female cast and creative team.

Highlights: Catherine Johnson Justice adapted and Sarah Agnew directs this perfectly delightful Shakespeare adaptation that starts with a couple of stagehands (Taj Ruler and Sara Richardson) wondering what to do when the actors don't show up. This is one show you'll want to show up early for as the comedy starts before the pre-show announcement. The stagehands soon take things into their own hands and tell the story on their own, with the help of actors Alayne Hopkins, Catherine Johnson Justice, Elise Langer, and Kirby Bennett, and a couple of puppets. The star-crossed love stories of Hero and Claudio, and Beatrice and Benedick, are clear and concise in the less than an hour time limit, while the occasional breaks out of the play within a play add interest and fun to the proceedings, and this cast is full of comedians with perfect timing and hilarious comic choices. After seeing this and the lovely Twelfth Night adaptation What You Will, I'm beginning to think Shakespeare should always be 60 minutes long.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Nature Crown" by Theatre Forever at the Guthrie Studio Theater

I went to see Theatre Forever's newest creation Nature Crown not knowing what it was about. I left the theater still not knowing exactly what it was about, except that it's lovely, delightful, innovative, poignant, creative, and incredibly moving. The original fairy tale deals with the ideas of home, place, and change, but I'll let creator and director Jon Ferguson explain it: "It's about returning to a source or place of origin, honoring that place and letting it go, all at the same time. It's about love and change and re-connection. And that's what I hope for everyone. Through the experience of this play I hope that this story and this place becomes yours. I hope that we find parallels between us, to better understand each other, and ourselves, in order to live better together."

The story centers around a typical working man named João (Diogo Lopes) who is fired from his job, sending him off on a life-changing adventure (or dream?) in a village on the other side of the woods. He meets a mysterious woman (Aimee K. Bryant) who he later learns is Nature or the Earth herself, and chases a boy (13-year-old Lorenzo Reyes) to a quaint little village preparing for a once in a century celebration, at which point everything is destroyed and life begins anew. After presenting himself to the King (Brant Miller) and Queen (Catherine Johnson Justice), João remembers the village and doesn't want it to change, so he believes the royal assistant Rupert (Tony Sarnicki) when he tells him he must slay a monster in the woods to prevent the village's destruction. Things don't go as well, but "this is a fairy tale, so everyone gets what they need." João returns to his life forever changed, with the memories of this place and this experience bringing a new energy and joy to his life.

the villagers (photo by Eric Melzer)

But this plot summary does not even tell one-tenth of the story. This is one of those pieces that's difficult to put into words, because what is created in that in-the-round space by the 14 members of the ensemble, four musicians, and the six-member Artemis Chamber Choir* is beyond words. It's so creative, and playful, and physical, and fun, and unabashedly sincere and hopeful. The village is created by little houses mounted on backpacks, so of course the castle is a suitcase. It's England so there's lots of tea pouring and drinking. Two young villagers (Paul Rutledge and Ben Mandelbaum) learn to transform themselves into trees and logs and rocks. A mysterious backpacked man (Peter Lincoln Rusk) and his apprentice (Nick Saxton) help to guide the events as they're supposed to happen. Flower petals represent leaves and blood, depending on what's called for. Things pop up out of the floor when needed. A spoon is a recurring motif. None of it makes any sense, but somehow it all makes sense.

"Home is where the heart is," the saying goes. Or perhaps the heart is where home is. We all carry places around inside of us, places that meant something to us at different times in our lives. Places that we may never see again, or places that we may return to and find them not at all how we remember them. "You can never go home again," goes another saying, but this piece seems to say that we can carry the memory and spirit of that place inside us, to give us courage for what lies ahead.

If exploring the ideas of home and change and courage ("be brave or you'll miss everything") with music, movement, delightful props, heartfelt performances, and much theatrical innovation is intriguing to you, go see Nature Crown, and be reminded of those places that lie inside your heart (continuing in the Guthrie's Dowling Studio through April 4).



*The Artemis Chamber Choir performs in the lobby of the Dowling Studio before the show, and the acoustics of the space combined with lovely harmonies create something quite haunting.


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

Fringe Festival: "What You Will" and "Twelfth Night"

Day: 9

Show: 33 and 36

Title: What You Will and Twelfth Night

Category: Comedy

By: Renegade Play-Reading Company and Rough Magic Performance Company

Adapted by: Catherine Johnson Justice

Location: Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night split into two shows, one focusing on the separated and disguised twins Viola and Sebastian, the other on the supporting characters.

Highlights: I was thinking this would be a Hamlet/Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead kind of pairing, but rather it's really just Shakespeare's original, only split in two by subject matter. It's a fun idea, and well executed by director Terry Hempleman (who also appears as the Duke in one of the two shows) and the excellent large cast. I saw What You Will first, which tells of the shenanigans of the members of the lady Olivia's (Alayne Hopkins) household, including a delightfully dopey Sam Bardwell as Sir Andrew, the always entertaining E.J. Subkoviak as Sir Toby, a mischievous Katie Kaufman as Maria, and Sasha Andreev with some strong monologues as Malvolio, going from proud to ridiculous to pitiable. The second hour tells the main story of Twelfth Night, with Catherine Johnson Justice and Clarence Wethern as the twins getting mixed up in the wooing of Olivia by the Duke. The two stories are tied together by Emily Zimmer's ukulele-playing fool. It's a clever idea and a fun way to view Shakespeare in a new way, performed by great actors.

"Outside Providence" by Dark & Stormy Productions

If you're walking down 10th Street in downtown Minneapolis and you see some crazy people yelling out of a doorway, or perhaps you peek in the windows and see them yelling at each other while a bunch of people are sitting on chairs watching, don't be alarmed. It's just theater. I wouldn't blame you for not recognizing it as such - it's not like the theater you probably are familiar with. It's raw, real, and intimate, happening all around you in three separate locations in the space as the audience moves around to follow it. It really feels like eavesdropping on a conversation, which can be awkward because these are very intense, personal, heavy conversations! But it makes for some pretty amazing, unique theater.

Outside Providence* is comprised of three one-act plays by Edward Allan Baker. They are not related in terms of the same characters or storyline, but they are most definitely all connected in theme. All three deal with relationships (sisters, a married couple) among working-class people in Providence, Rhode Island (for those of you who, like me, know nothing about Rhode Island except that it's the smallest state, think South Boston). These people do not have easy lives or relationships. In Rosemary with Ginger, two sisters meet in their old neighborhood to enter their mother in a contest, bringing up issues of their past and present. Face Divided features a wife who loses herself in her small, closed-in life while her husband is off working and playing in a band (kind of like a poor, modern-day Betty Draper). Dolores again features two sisters, each with troubles of her own. These are desperate people who do desperate things, but continue to love and support each other. A note from the playwright explains it best: "A good dramatist puts misery on its feet and makes it entertaining, engaging an audience's interest so as to evoke empathy for those members of our species who are trapped - especially women."

the cast of Outside Providence

Four actors (Catherine Johnson Justice, Alayne Hopkins, Sara Marsh, and Ryan Lindberg) portray these complicated characters, and each gives an amazingly open, truthful, raw performance. In the fully-lit room, the actors are so close you can see the look in their eyes, and all you can see there is the desperation, hope, and everything in between that the character is feeling. It's pretty powerful stuff. The space is interesting and unique - an office on 10th Street in Minneapolis with windows looking out to the street where you can see passersby curiously looking in, adding to the feeling that this is happening right here in the real world, not on some distant stage.

This is the first production from Dark & Stormy Productions, a new theater company dedicated to creating theater to draw in a younger audience, specifically the 18-35 age group. I wouldn't know anything about the lack of theater geared toward that audience; I'm (slightly) outside of the target age group, and even when I was in that age group, I was still a theater geek who obviously had no problem finding theater that I wanted to see. But I'm all for anything that brings more people to the theater. This first attempt is definitely exciting, immediate, and entertaining, short and intense and to the point. Mission accomplished. (Outside Providence is playing now through September 15, all seats are pay what you can, more information can be found here.)


*I received one complementary ticket to Outside Providence.