"Loudly, Clearly, Beautifully" by Elena Glass at The Hive Collaborative

My favorite thing about artists is the way that they take pain and trauma and turn it into art, releasing it to the world to help us mere mortals process and perhaps heal from our own pain and trauma. #TCTheater artist Elena Glass, who has been performing professionally on stages around town for the last ten years or so, has done just that in her aptly titled solo show Loudly, Clearly, Beautifully playing at the intimate Hive Collaborative. Elena's dad was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) when she was 14, and died when she was 30, during the height of the COVID epidemic. I had a similar experience; my dad was diagnosed with MS when I was very young and lived almost 50 years with the disease, most of it confined to a wheelchair and in the last few years, to bed, and died just over two years ago. So this show touched me deeply. But you don't have to have a parent with MS to relate to this well-constructed and beautifully performed show. Its themes of grief, loss, family, love, growing up, and moving on are universal, as told through Elena's specific story. If you'd like to see an artist share their personal story with honesty, humor, authenticity, and gorgeous vocals, go see Loudly, Clearly, Beautifully before it closes on January 31.

"A Night with Leslie Vincent" at The Belvedere at Crooners Supper Club

I'm becoming a regular at Crooners Supper Club. I returned for my fourth concert this year in their new outdoor venue The Belvedere, this time to see the multi-talented #TCTheater artist Leslie Vincent and her amazing friends. It was such a glorious night, so full of the joy of music and community. It really feels like our vitally important performing arts community is starting to come back to life again*, and Crooners has been leading the way since last summer.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2020: "The Champagne Drops: The In-Between Years"

Location: Nightly Fringe (Aug. 6)

Length: 40 minutes

Title: The Champagne Drops: The In-Between Years

By:  The Champagne Drops

Summary: A cabaret celebrating this duo's "in-between years," aka middle school.

Highlights: The Champagne Drops are Leslie Vincent (whom you might have seen Monday night in TV Tunes) and Emily Dussault. They used to perform around town, and now they perform around the internet. This show was inspired by their journals, letters, and other memorabilia from the horror known as middle school. But the show is anything but horrible. They each performed a live cover of a song they loved in middle school, and played a few recordings of original duets they wrote based on the theme (because singing harmony live over the internet is inadvisable). It's lovely and funny and charming and a little bit cringey, and their friendship and enjoyment in singing together are evident and only make the show better.

Read all of my Nightly Fringe mini-reviews here.

Read all of my Digital Hub mini-reviews here.