Fringe Festival 2016: "Break Your Heart"

Day: 3

Show: 13

Title: Break Your Heart

Category: Something Different

By: One T Productions

Written by: Scot Moore

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: A show about love, the endings and the beginnings and the part in between.

Highlights: This one-man show (written and performed by Scot Moore, with direction by Ben Layne) is quintessentially what the Fringe is about, quintessentially what theater is about. An artist takes a life experience, the good and the bad of it, and turns it into art that's both a personal catharsis and something that entertains and touches the audience. On what was supposed to be an 8-week trip around the world with his girlfriend, Scot instead encounters heartbreak and a solo journey to amazing and unexpected places, both geographical and emotional. In addition to being beautiful personal expression, the piece is also really well constructed (including actual scientific citations!). The technical elements are spot-on: well-chosen music (from guitar pieces by Scot's friend Geordie Little to Bonnie Raitt's classic "I Can't Make You Love Me"); projected images, maps, text, and videos; and a trippy video animation that's mesmerizing (by Tim D. Tapp). Video interviews with friends on the topic of love and heartbreak make this bigger than just one person's experience. I exited the theater feeling like I'm seeing the world differently now, and I don't think that feeling will go away for a while. That's the best possible result of theater.

Fringe Festival 2016: "AfterLife"

Day: 3

Show: 12

Title: AfterLife

Category: Drama

By: SunsetGun Productions

Written by: Candy Simmons and Chris Van Strander

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: A one-women show about three women in different times and places trying to figure out what they want in life.

Highlights: Candy Simmons fully inhabits three very different characters and makes them seem human and relatable despite their oddities. A woman in Appalachia in the early part of the 20th century wants nothing more than to be a mother, and goes to extreme measures to make it happen. A 1950s housewife feels dissatisfied with her life as a mother, wife, and homemaker, and looks to yoga as a way to find her true self. A modern-day businesswoman in NYC finds that "having it all" isn't as easy, or fulfilling, as it seems. With a change of accessories and accents, and a few images projected to set the time and place, Candy becomes each of these women, their stories tied together around the theme searching for one's identity, as a woman and as a human. Funny, poignant, well-written, beautifully brought to life in a compelling performance. What more can you ask for in a Fringe show?

Fringe Festival 2016: "RUNE"

Day: 1

Show: 1

Title: RUNE

Category: Something Different

By: Vox Medusa

Created by: Vox Medusa

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: A dance piece exploring traditional Sami (the native people of Norway) culture and the journey of a Noaidi (Shaman) into "the Norse Otherworld."

Highlights: This piece is lovely and evocative, combining dance, live music, recorded sounds, and video images. I didn't quite "understand" everything that was happening, and wouldn't have known it was about Sami culture if I hadn't read the description. But I don't think that's important; I was still swept away on a journey and felt like I had visited another time and place. Choreographed by Kristin Freya (the piece was inspired by her own journey among the Sami people in Norway) and Julie Marie Muskat (the lead dancer), the dancing is modern and unique, but with a tribal, traditional feel. The costumes are lovely (both cool, loose, white Sami-inspired costumes and drapey red modern costumes). Four musicians accompany the dancers, with hauntingly lovely singing/chanting, as well as drumming. It's billed as "something different" but I would classify it as dance, and it's a beautiful and moving one at that.

Fringe Festival 2015: "The OzFather"

Day: 1

Show: 3

Title: The OzFather

Category: Comedy

By: Locally Grown Theatre

Created by: Peter Potyondy

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: A mash-up of the iconic movies The Wizard of Oz and The Godfather, set in Minnesota, with a little Johnny Cash thrown in.

Highlights: It's the first time in the Fringe for this community theater from Cottage Grove, presenting an original play that finds teenage Dottie living with her aunt and uncle after her parents are killed. She, along with her dog Toto (played by an adorably sweet real live dog), wakes up in a place called Comoland populated with small children, meets friends along the way, helps to solve the mystery of a mill fire, and visits a powerful man searching for help to go home. This feels like an amateur production, but in a good way, and really that's one of the beautiful things about this unjuried festival. It gives theater non-professionals a chance to come together out of the love of theater and tell a story to a willing and eager audience. The result may be a bit scattered (mill fire?), but I smiled, laughed, and was entertained. Highlights in the large and enthusiastic cast include a likeable Samantha Smith as Dottie, playwright Pet Potyondy as her adorkable brother and scarecrow reporter, Jeff Heutmaker as the lion figure who for some reason sings like Johnny Cash, and Matthew Thompson with a great Godfather impression (coming from someone who's never seen the movie). It's cute, fun, and short, the kids and dog are adorable, and you get to hear some Johnny Cash!

"U/G/L/Y" at Intermedia Arts

Accomplished local actor Shá Cage is presenting a three-part series of original works around the idea of identity. Last night I was fortunate to witness the world premiere of the second piece in the series, entitled U/G/L/Y, at Intermedia Arts as part of their Catalyst program. It's a truly unique and original creation, combining the arts of movement, storytelling, music, video, poetry, and visual art to explore the idea of beauty, particularly in women, particularly in women of color, but relatable on some level to all of us who live in this world. Shá's performance is, as always, powerful and moving, and she leaves the audience with plenty to think about.

Shá tells the stories of many women, easily slipping into their skin and bringing each of them specifically to life on stage. The stories are varied, some playful, some devastating, all told with the rawness of truth. At first it's a bit unclear on the surface how all of the stories relate to each other, but in the end they all sort of fall together to inform this idea of ugly vs. beautiful, ideas that are really just social constructs most of with struggle to break free of on a daily basis. The piece also incorporates video of women speaking about what they see and think when they look in the mirror, thoughts which are their own yet feel universal. When we look in the mirror, our eyes are typically drawn to our flaws, things that other people might not even notice. But as the women in the video look deeper, they are able to see the beauty in themselves beyond the supposed flaws.

I was completely fascinated watching Shá create little pieces of art on the floor with what I thought was sand, but later learned is actually grits (I'm from Minnesota, I don't think I've ever seen uncooked grits before). I have no idea what it means, but it's beautiful to watch. She also uses movement and dance, the rhythm of speaking, recorded voice, and a live violinist (Katherine Pehrson, with recorded music by Chastity Brown) to further develop the theme. This is more than just theater, it's performance art. It doesn't all make sense from a literal viewpoint, but it's not supposed to, it's supposed to engender thoughts and feelings and emotions, which is exactly what it does (judging from my own reaction as well as the very responsive audience).

It's interesting that this show is playing the same weekend that Park Square is opening The Color Purple, a story about a woman who is told she's ugly from the time she's a young girl. Through her long life journey, she's eventually able to recognize and own her own beauty, identity, and place in the world, singing "Most of all, I'm thankful for loving who I really am. I'm beautiful. Yes I'm beautiful, and I'm here." Shá's piece speaks to this same idea in a really unique and profound way.

Only two performances of U/G/L/Y at Intermedia Arts remain, after which it will embark on a world tour.

"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.

Fringe Festival: "Sex and Sensibility"

 Day: 2

Show: 5

Title: Sex and Sensibility

Category: Comedy

By: The Recovery Party

Written by: Joshua Will

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: A dozen or so comedy sketches, most of which are not nearly as risque as the title implies, interspersed with Jane Austen quotes.

Highlights: Not much to say about this one other than it's very funny and very clever. The sketches cover a wide variety of topics, from learning through spontaneous osmosis, to "The Housewives of Isanti County," to an ad for a new drug Limpital (the anti-Viagra), to a kid Jesus complaining that he never gets Christmas presents because his birthday is on Christmas, to perhaps my favorite, an alternate animal alphabet. The cast is great, whether working solo, in duos, or as a group. Highlights include: Dawn Brodey as the bitter bridesmaid, Jim Cunningham sternly reading the alphabet (if you've been to a Twins game in the last 17 years you'll recognize his strong radio voice - he's the "P.A. Guy"), Eriq Nelson as a New York tough answering phones at an Isanti County dairy company, Amy Shomshak serenely reading an alternate version of "Footprints in the Sand," and Joshua Will reciting facts from physics formulas to "The Modern Major General." It's funny, clever, sketch comedy, perhaps like what Saturday Night Live is supposed to be.

Fringe Festival: "The Cosmic Equation = 2 Wives + 2 Husbands / Adventure"

Day: 8

Show: 25

Title: The Cosmic Equation = 2 Wives + 2 Husbands / Adventure

By: Adventurer Press

Created by: Stephen B. Brooks

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: Narrated by a talking horse, two husbands work in an office rearranging numbers, while their wives go an adventure, meet a giant, are turned into dancing pennies, and eventually reunite with their husbands.

Highlights: Unfortunately, my last show of the 2013 Minnesota Fringe Festival was also one of my least favorites. I really wanted to love this show - it's about numbers (which I love), the cast includes several actors that I love (Tyson Forbes, Suzy Kohane, and Sara Richardson), and the three-minute preview I saw at Fringe-for-All was funny in a crazy way. But when I saw the whole show, I just didn't get it. The actors are great as expected, fully committed to what they're doing, but it just didn't make any sense to me. What I learned about marriage is that husbands work in an office all day and never come home, while wives go on crazy adventures and get turned into dancing pennies. Huh? The highlights are the musical accompaniment and whenever Sara and Suzy add their lovely voices to it, especially during the singing scene changes, and the attention to detail in the props and costumes.

Read more of my fringe fest reflections…

… including my top 5 shows

Fringe Festival: "To Mars With Tesla or The Interplanetary Machinations of Evil Thomas Edison"

Day: 8

Show: 23

Title: To Mars With Tesla or The Interplanetary Machinations of Evil Thomas Edison

By: English Scrimshaw Theatrical Novelties

Created by: Adrienne and Joshua English Scrimshaw

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: A silent film style play that explores the real and imagined life of scientist Nikola Tesla, and his real and imagined enemy Thomas Edison.

Highlights: A few months ago, nimbus theatre did an original play called Tesla about the fascinating and brilliant scientist (best known for developing the alternating current motor). The first half of this piece tells a similar story about Tesla immigrating to the US and working for Edison, and his OCD-like quirks. The second half diverges into an imagined tale of Tesla and Edison travelling to Mars to... well I'm not quite sure why. I find Tesla's real life more interesting that the made-up parts, but it does provide an excuse for some interesting Martian choreography (they speak only in movement). The silent film aspects of this piece are very well done, with expressive silent acting telling the story along with title cards displayed at the back of the stage. The funniest bits include a static electricity fight and a chalkboard brainstorm session about how to get to Mars. The six-person cast all perform well in this style, especially Joshua Scrimshaw as Tesla and Kelvin Hatle as Edison. It deserved its placement among the top 15 shows in attendance.

Read more of my fringe fest reflections…

… including my top 5 shows

Fringe Festival: "Expiration Date"

Day: 8

Show: 21

Title: Expiration Date

By: SunsetGun Productions

Created by: Candy Simmons

Location: Intermedia Arts

Summary: A one-woman show about a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer who decides not to tell anyone about it until she figures out what it means and what she wants.

Highlights: Candy Simmons, who also wrote the play, gives one of the best performances I saw in the 2013 Minnesota Fringe Festival. She portrays a range of emotion, from anger and despair to acceptance and determination, with ease and believability. Acting out multiple parts (with multiple accents) in scenes and speaking directly to the audience, she moves around the sparse stage, populated only by a bench, rolling chair, and doctor's office curtain, with grace and purpose. Expiration Date is funny, sharp, moving, and thought-provoking. Where a lot of Fringe shows abound with silliness (which is not necessarily a bad thing), it's nice to see a more serious and contemplative, but still entertaining, piece of theater.

Read more of my fringe fest reflections…

… including my top 5 shows

"Gruesome Playground Injuries" presented by The Peanut Butter Factory at Intermedia Arts

The Peanut Butter Factory is not a theater company.  It's a production company that basically provides the infrastructure for independent theater artists so that they can present their work, without being attached to a theater company (read more about it here).  Sounds pretty cool to me, and with some familiar names on the list of Producing Associates (like Bradley Greenwald), I knew I had stumbled onto a good thing.  I was invited to attend their current production, Gruesome Playground Injuries, by the director, Natalie Novacek.  I decided to check it out, expecting it to be a fun, light-hearted look at friendship and growing up.  But it was so much more than that.  It was unexpectedly poignant, heartfelt, moving, and really very sweet.

Kayleen and Doug meet in their school nurse's office at the age of 8, he having "broken his face," and she having thrown up due to a "sensitive stomach."  The play jumps forward and backward in time from there, visiting important moments in their relationship, which all seem to be marked by some injury or illness.  Doug is accident prone, or more accurately he's one of those daredevil kids that constantly gets himself into situations where he gets hurt.  Leeny (as only Doug calls her) has injuries and scars that are more internal.  She takes out her life's anguish by cutting herself, eventually ending up in a mental hospital.  Through it all, these two friends are there for each other, despite often going years without seeing each other.  To say they love each other unconditionally doesn't even scratch the surface.  They know each other as well as they know themselves, and love each other as an extension of themselves.  If Doug and Kayleen had a theme song, it would be this from Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson: "It's not blood, it's a metaphor for love.  These aren't veins just the beating of my heart.  This fever isn't real, it represents how I feel, my pain transformed into art."


Kayleen visits Doug after one of his more gruesome injuries
(photo by Justin D. Gallo Photography)

Unfortunately I've never had a 30-year friendship like this, but there is much in the story I can relate to.  I'm the same age as these characters, so the timeline feels familiar (marked with music of the day).  I also went to a Catholic grade school, and was traumatized when my best friend in first grade fell off the monkey bars during recess and smashed her face up.  I can still see it clearly; gruesome playground injuries stay with you.  And the scene in which Doug and Kayleen are 13 years old and at a school dance brought back that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that only a 7th grade dance can give you.

Doug and Kayleen share their scars
(photo by Justin D. Gallo Photography)

The story moves between timepoints seamlessly, and even if it were not printed in the program, the audience would know approximately where these characters are in their lives, based on accessories (eye patch, bow in the hair) and the way the actors inhabit their characters.  Adam Whisner and Leigha Horton (whom I saw in Minnesota Middle Finger at the Fringe last summer) bare their souls (and their bodies) on stage, and you really can't ask much more of an actor.  They have a believable chemistry, and successfully portray the different ages from 8 to 38.  Between scenes they change costumes and injuries on the side of the stage, in full view of the audience.  They were chatting and laughing, sharing inside jokes, and I wasn't sure if it was in character or not.  Either way it added to the feeling of familiarity between these two people. 

This is why I do this, friends.  To go to an out of the way, under the radar theater with zero expectations, and be totally surprised and delighted and touched and moved.  It doesn't get much better than that.  That's why I love theater; it'll get you when and where you least expect it.  Only two performances remain of this hidden gem, catch it while you still can!  And at just $10 a ticket, you won't find a better theater deal in town.

*I received one free ticket to attend the show.  But because I enjoyed it so much and think that the whole structure of it is pretty cool, I donated to their Kickstarter campaign, as you can do too if you wish!