"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.

"Sea Cabinet" at Theatre Elision

Almost five years ago, Theatre Elision brought us the first US production of Sea Cabinet, a charming song cycle written by British singer-songwriter Gwyneth Herbert. At the time I called it "a collection of lovely, melodic, interesting, unique songs around a common theme of the sea, and specifically a woman walking along the sea collecting objects." I was happy to revisit it again with their new production, this time in Theatre Elision's home, the Elision Playhouse in Crystal, where it feels closer and cozier than it did in the gorgeous expanse of the Southern Theater. They've brought back the original cast and creative team, and I was reminded just how lovely it is. Even though there are no clearly defined characters or storyline, the songs taken together as a whole create an experience that's gorgeous and moving, beautifully brought to life by Elision. If you like original and unique music-theater, that's a tight 70 minutes that'll leave you wanting more, see Sea Cabinet as it continues this weekend and next.

"The Boy Wonder" at History Theatre

I had never heard of Minnesota's youngest governor, Harold Stassen, before seeing a virtual reading of the musical The Boy Wonder as part of History Theatre's Raw Stages new works festival a few years ago, when I declared it to be "Minnesota's Hamilton." A progressive Republican elected at the age of 31 in 1938 who resigned during his third term to enlist in the Navy and serve in WWII, and later ran for president a record nine times, Stassen is a perfect candidate for a History Theatre original. Recently retired Artistic Director Ron Peluso wisely asked Keith Hovis, whom one might call the "boy wonder" of #TCTheater musical theater creators, to write his story as a musical. It's finally receiving its world premiere at the downtown St. Paul theater, and it's a wonder indeed. A historical piece that feels timely and relevant, at a time when there's such divisiveness, corruption, and turmoil in our government and political process, it makes one long for a government and elected officials that work for the people instead of for themselves. But this is no staid period piece or preachy sermon, it's a dynamic, modern, exciting musical for today. Well-written, well-acted by a dream cast, with smart and sleek design, it's another in a long line of hit original musicals from History Theatre. You only have one weekend left to catch this fantastic new locally created musical - don't miss it!

"Islander" by Theatre Elision at Elision Playhouse

Theatre Elision could not have chosen a better piece for their post-covid return to the stage than the two-person a capella musical Islander, a recent hit from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And I could not have chosen a better show for my first time seeing a live performance inside a theater in 508 days (but who's counting?). Theatre Elision has been around for a little over four years and fills the niche of small-cast, one-act, rarely done or original musicals with a mostly female cast and/or creative team. They opened their new space just off Highway 100 in Crystal less than a year before the pandemic, and it's a lovely small venue that feels safe to return to with a masked and not too crowded audience. The feeling of being back inside the theater was indescribably wonderful and surreal. Islander is a brilliant piece of music-theater and just the kind of thing that Elision excels at. It's a sweet little story, fantastical yet grounded in characters that feel real, and musically gorgeous. The show runs for three weeks, longer than their usual short runs due to a reduced audience size, and I highly recommend you check them out and celebrate the beginning of the return of #TCTheater (click here for info and tickets).

"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.

"Sea Cabinet" by Theatre Elision at the Southern Theater

If you're not aware of new(ish) #TCTheater company Theatre Elision, you haven't been paying attention. To me, anyway. I've seen just about everything they've done since their debut two years ago and continue to be impressed with how they're filling a niche we didn't even know we were missing - small-cast one-act original or rarely performed musicals with mostly (or all) female cast and creative team. Get on board! For their penultimate show of their second full season, Elision has discovered a charming song cycle written by British singer-songwriter Gwyneth Herbert and are bringing it to the Southern Theater in Minneapolis - the very first US production. Sea Cabinet is a collection of lovely, melodic, interesting, unique songs around a common theme of the sea, and specifically a woman walking along the sea collecting objects. It's beautifully performed by this four-person all female cast with spot on design and direction under the gorgeous historic arch of the Southern. Truly a perfect 75 minutes of music-theater.

"Gone Missing" by Theatre Elision at Dreamland Arts

The Twin Cities Theater Bloggers gave new-ish #TCTheater company Theatre Elision the "Under the Radar" award for 2018 (read all the awards here). It was less than two years ago that they debuted with an original musical Ragtime Women in the intimate Dreamland Arts space in St. Paul. After nearly a dozen small cast, one act, original or rarely done musicals at small venues around town, they return to Dreamland Arts with another such piece. Gone Missing was created by NYC based theater company The Civilians, including playwright Steven Cosson and composer/lyricist Michael Friedman. The Civilians also created The Abominables at Children's Theatre, premiering shortly after Michael's death from AIDS shocked the theater world. I'm a big fan of his music (see also Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), so I'm grateful to Elision for bringing us this piece. Gone Missing is a funny, quirky, poignant little musical about all things lost, as always beautifully performed by the cast and band.

"The Last Schwartz" by Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company at the Highland Park Center Theatre

Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company brings us another modern (well, late '90s) Jewish family trying to maintain their cultural identity while living in the melting pot of America. Four siblings gather at the family home in upstate New York for their father's Jahrzeit (one-year anniversary of death), and disagree about just about everything. At times funny, at times heart-breaking, The Last Schwartz is an intense 90 minutes spent with a family that puts the fun in dysfunctional. Or as one character puts it when another laments "why can't you be a normal family?" - "this is a normal family."

"Dial M for Murder" at Gremlin Theatre

I concluded my unintentional Frederick Knott double-bill weekend with the fun and twisty murder mystery Dial M for Murder at Gremlin Theatre (see also Theatre in the Round's production of the English playwright's Wait Until Dark). It was fun to see the two plays back to back and notice the similarities: both take place entirely within an apartment with mention of a street door, both use phone calls to further the mystery, and both feature seemingly helpless maidens in distress who overcome their attacker and defend themselves, proving to their husbands that they are strong and capable and not so easily fooled. In Dial M for Murder, the husband plans the perfect murder, but if it were as easy as he thought to get away with murdering his wife, we wouldn't have a play. Gremlin's production is well cast and well designed, and tells an intriguing and engaging story.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "Blood Nocturne"

Day: 10

Show: 36

Title: Blood Nocturne

Category: Drama / Horror / Musical Theater

By: The Winding Sheet Outfit

Written by: The Winding Sheet Outfit

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: A retelling of the history/legend of Erzsébet Báthory, a Hungarian countess accused of murdering dozens (or even hundreds) of young women and girls in the early 17th Century.

Highlights: I had never heard of Erzsébet, but a quick read of her Wikepedia page reveals a horrifying tale of torture, mutilation, and murder. The Winding Sheet Outfit tells us Erzsébet's story from her point of view, as a powerful woman manipulated and falsely accused, although perhaps not totally innocent. The ensemble tells the story in a non-linear fashion, with charming and creepy original music. They often break the fourth wall, calling each other by their actual name when someone goes too far or suggests something not in line with the story they're telling. This device puts the audience at ease and reminds us it's just one interpretation of a story that can never fully be known. But it's a story that has much to tell us about gender, power, justice, and violence. Emily Dussault gives a strong and empathetic performance as Erzsébet, while the rest of the talented ensemble (Amber Bjork, Boo Segersin, Derek Lee Miller, Joshua Swantz, and Kayla Dvorak) play her helpers, friends, enemies, and alleged victims. Dressed in period clothing and playing period instruments, they work well together as an ensemble, using movement, music, and physical theater to create the world of Erzsébet against the perfect background of the Southern Theater. After seeing the play I'm not sure what to think about Erzsébet, but I know the situation is a little more nuanced and complex than what history usually describes.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"The Awakening" by Savage Umbrella at the Southern Theater

The 1899 novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin was ahead of its time. It depicts a woman who feels constrained and unsatisfied within the strict confines of the gender roles of the time, namely as wife and mother (like a precursor to Betty Draper). Only after Kate Chopin's death was The Awakening appreciated for the feminist work that it is, and it's appropriate that Savage Umbrella is bringing us their version of the story during Women's History Month, adapted by director Laura Leffler-McCabe and created with the ensemble. With a large cast utilizing physical theater techniques, live music performed by an onstage three-person band, and beautiful production design, The Awakening is a truly lovely and moving story of a woman's struggles to find her place in a world that doesn't accept her.

"105 Proof; or, the Killing of Mack 'The Silencer' Klein" by Transatlantic Love Affair at Illusion Theater

Since being mesmerized by Ash Land at the 2012 Minnesota Fringe Festival, I've been a loyal follower of Transatlantic Love Affair, the physical theater troupe that casts a spell and weaves a dream by using nothing but their bodies, voices, hearts, and souls to tell stories. Their subjects are typically very loose retellings of fairy or folk tales (Cinderella in Ash Land, Little Red Riding Hood in Red Resurrected, the legend of the Selkie in The Ballad of the Pale Fisherman), but recently they've developed original stories including the memory play These Old Shoes and the modern-day love story emilie/eurydice. Most of their shows premiere at the Fringe, but thanks to their partnership with Illusion Theater, they, and we the audience, often get a chance to revisit the stories in a slightly expanded version. Such is the case with 105 Proof; or, the Killing of Mack "The Silencer" Klein, which debuted at the 2015 Fringe. 105 Proof is another original story, but one with a decidedly different tone than their other work. The tale of a small town boy who becomes a Chicago mobster in the Prohibition era is darker, grittier, more suspenseful, and also funnier than their usual dreamy tales. But what's not different is the way the cast (most of whom were in the original production) and live musical soundtrack create an entire world of the imagination that feels real and all-encompassing.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Pretty Girls Make Graves"

Day: 1

Show: 4

Title: Pretty Girls Make Graves

Category: Something Different

By: Loudmouth Collective

Written by: Sam Landman

Location: Phoenix Theater

Summary: Two women meet after a man they both loved died, and bond over '80s bands, boxed wine, and vintage exercise equipment.

Highlights: I never miss a Loudmouth Collective show. They specialize in smart, well-written, intense, small-cast shows that are funny or heartbreaking or both. Written by Artist in Residence Sam Landman (also check out his One-Act-A-Week project) and directed by Artistic Director Natalie Novacek, this new play falls neatly in Loudmouth's wheelhouse. It's one of those two-people-sitting-in-a-room-talking plays, which I love, especially when the talk is this smart and funny and real. After she finds out her boyfriend died, Carla (Emily Dussault) goes to his apartment and meets his sister BMX (Katie Willer). They discuss his love of Jethro Tull, Carla's love of The Smiths, and Carla's love of Duran Duran. But even if you, like me, don't get a single one of the music references (I spent the '80s watching sitcoms, not listening to music), you can still enjoy this little slice of life and exploration of two characters that feels very real, until it takes a surreal turn. See this show for sharp writing, directing, and acting - one of the more professional shows you'll see at the Fringe.

"1984" by Theatre Pro Rata at Intermedia Arts

"Big Brother is watching." We're now 30 years beyond the dystopian world imagined by George Orwell in his novel 1984, and its themes have become eerily familiar and not too far outside of our current reality. Written over 60 years ago, 1984 predicts a world where the government controls what information the public receives, and knows our every thought and action. This adaptation by Michael Gene Sullivan focuses on the interrogation of "thought criminal" Winston Smith, and this well-done production by Theatre Pro Rata makes for a gripping and squirm-inducing evening.

Entering the theater at Intermedia Arts, the audience is immediately thrown into the world of 1984. On a bare stage, a man is handcuffed and curled up inside a square on the floor. A recording warns us, "system observers are prohibited from interacting with the subject." The play begins when the interrogators come on stage and jarringly shut off the house lights. The main interrogator is at first only heard, as he instructs the man known as 6709 Smith to confess his crimes. The four "party members" act out scenes from his life as he recounts them. Smith works for the Ministry of Truth, and his job is to change past documents to match the current party line. He's secretly disgruntled with the party, led by someone called Big Brother who may or may not be real, and longs to join the resistance, known as the brotherhood. He meets a woman who feels the same way and they embark on a clandestine affair, trying to hide from the telescreens that are in every home and workplace, observing and recording everything that happens. He is eventually captured, along with his incriminating diary and a book about the brotherhood. The goal of the interrogation is to break him of his "thought crimes" and restore in him a believe that Big Brother is right and good. When the torture moves past electrical shocks into making real his worst nightmare (involving rats, the most squirm-inducing moment), Smith is broken. Big Brother wins again.

6709 Smith (Grant Henderson)

The story plays out in reenactments, as Smith is forced to watch the highs and lows of his recent life as he recounts them. At times he participates in the scenes (although never leaving his square on the floor), at other times his role is taken over by one of the party members, some of whom seem to get caught up in the story they're telling, others of whom are increasingly angry at having to take part. It's a clever and effective storytelling device that not only conveys the facts of the story (or at least as Smith remembers them), but also gives us more insight into the main character and the nameless characters who play the roles.

Impressively, Grant Henderson as Smith never leaves the stage, or his shackles, from before the show, through intermission, to curtain call. He takes Smith from a man who's upset but strong enough to fight back, through the devastation of betrayal, to something so broken it's difficult to watch. As the voice of the interrogator, John Middleton is eerily calm and insistent, and later shows up in person to give an even greater presence to this cold and relentless embodiment of evil. As the unnamed party members, Brian Columbus, Emily Dussault, William Goblirsch, and Kory LaQuess Pullam all create personalities for these characters and the characters they play. Director Carin Bratlie keeps the action moving along and the tension ever increasing.

Theatre Pro Rata's 1984 is thought-provoking, compelling, creepy, disturbing, and a little too real. Check it out at Intermedia Arts in Uptown through next weekend.

"Elephant's Graveyard" by Theatre Pro Rata at Nimbus Theatre

The play Elephant's Graveyard is one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" stories. In 1916, a five-ton circus elephant was hung in the town of Erwin, Tennessee after killing a man. You read that right - they hung an elephant. Theatre Pro Rata's production of the play tells the story so vividly that it's absolutely horrific. By that I don't mean that it's a bad play, on the contrary it's so good at telling this tragic story that as an animal lover, it's almost unbearable. I'm not sure I could use the word enjoyable for the experience, but it's a completely captivating and fascinating look at a bizarre historical incident with larger implications about the way that we have historically treated and continue to treat animals (and other second-class citizens) in this country.

The play is written as a series of monologues, in which circus people and townspeople take turns telling the story directly to the audience. They take us through the excitement of a circus coming to a small town, the unique lives of circus performers of that era (see also the bizarre and wonderful HBO show Carnivàle), and the horror of the hanging. It's like one long story being told by multiple people. I don't think think I've ever seen a play with so many characters in which they never talk to each other. It's an effective storytelling device and lets us get inside the heads of all of the characters to learn how they view the event, whether it's as the triumph of the American spirit, or a business failure, or the death of a true friend, or a similarity to the other lynchings happening in the South.

Emily Dussault, Ben Tallen,
and Wade A. Vaughn

This is a true ensemble piece. There's no main character (other than Mary the elephant, who looms large even though we never physically see her or any representation of her), rather each of the 13 actors and two musicians share the spotlight equally, including Wade A. Vaughn with an electric performance as the ringmaster, Neal Skoy as Mary's heartbroken trainer, and young Jillian Jacobson representing the children of Erwin.

Adding greatly to the mood of the piece is the period appropriate music by Theo Langason on guitar and Shannon Foy on percussion. The cast also occasionally adds its lovely voices to the music. Particularly noteworthy are a haunting duet between Joy Dolo's townsperson and Emily Dussault's Ballet Girl, and Ethan Bjelland's preacher song.

The story takes place on a completely bare stage, with only a bench as an occasional prop/set piece, and lights evoking a big top. This really allows the audience to focus on the descriptive language and the images it evokes in our minds. The colorful costumes also stand out in this bare environment, from the red coat of the ringmaster and the green of the ballet girl, to the more drab colors of the hardworking townspeople (costumes by Mandi Johnson).

Elephant's Graveyard is my first experience with Theatre Pro Rata, and I like what I saw. It's storytelling at its best - completely captivating and so vivid that you feel like you're actually seeing the events play out, which in this case can be painful. Playing now through March 2 at nimbus theatre.