Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "In The Garden Of American Heroes"

Day: 5

Show: 17

Title: In The Garden Of American Heroes

Category: 

By: Wheeler in the Sky

Created by: Andrew Erskine Wheeler

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: General Custer is stuck in purgatory and lamenting not being included in the "Garden of American Heroes" being built for America's 250th birthday next year (that's a real thing).

Highlights: This is the third of Andrew's original solo historical pieces that I've seen, and like 2019 Booth's Ghost and 2022's WHOOSH! (a revised version of which is part of History Theatre's upcoming season) it's thoroughly researched, thoughtfully constructed, incredibly relevant to our current times, and performed with 100% commitment. All of these works examine controversial figures from America's history, and don't ask us to sympathize with them, but maybe perhaps understand how they came to be and how that's paralleled in things we're seeing happening today. We have to understand our history in order to not repeat it, and that's what this show does for Custer. To try to describe this show would not do it justice, it feels like a fever dream through this particular segment of American History. As Custer, Andrew speaks directly the audience, running through the aisles, disappointed in his exclusion from the Garden ("how bad do you have to be to be rejected by this administration?!"). He comes out dressed in Custer's full regalia, gradually shedding layers and arranging them on the floor, like the remnants of a life. This Custer does not apologize or ask for our forgiveness; he admits that he was motivated not by any sense of duty to his country, but by the love of killing. It's harsh and brutal, and endlessly captivating. As usual Andrew's prop work is detailed and thoughtful, with a saber, a spear, a wig head that holds those flowing blond locks. The lighting is almost like a character in and of itself, sometimes garishly bright, sometimes flashing, sometimes soft, Custer reacting to each change. The story starts and ends with his death in battle, and leaves us disturbed and questioning just what is an American Hero?

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

"A Very Die Hard Christmas" at Bryant Lake Bowl

I've never seen the popular 1988 action movie Die Hard, so for years I resisted seeing what has become an insanely popular holiday* tradition - A Very Die Hard Christmas at Bryant Lake Bowl (the 10pm showtime also kept me away). But this year, I finally had to see what everyone was raving about, especially since they added a few 8pm shows for us morning people. I'm still not sure I understand why it's so popular (this year they sold out the entire run before they even opened), but it is a super fun show chock full of pop culture references (of the '80s and Christmas varieties), with very funny performances by the cast. I've never seen such a packed and enthusiastic BLB audience. People love the show, and the team loves doing it, and I guess that's what makes it such a popular and long-standing tradition.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Booth's Ghost"

Day: 7

Show: 24

Title: Booth's Ghost

Category: COMEDY / DRAMA / HORROR / PHYSICAL THEATER / SOLO SHOW / STORYTELLING / HISTORICAL CONTENT / LITERARY ADAPTATION / SHAKESPEARIAN ELEMENTS

By: Andrew Erskine Wheeler

Created by: Andrew Erskine Wheeler

Location: Ritz Theater Mainstage

Summary: A ghostly and theatrical solo show about the Booth family - acting legend Junius Brutus and his sons, actor Edwin and presidential assassin John Wilkes.

Highlights: This is an all-engrossing performance by Andrew Erskine Wheeler, who stays in character(s) even through the moving curtain call that draws parallels between this story and the recent shootings, with a connecting thread of white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and gun violence. But first, Andrew leads us non-linearly through the life of the Booth family primarily through the ghost of Edwin's assistant, but also taking on the form of the three Booth men. He makes great use of the Ritz Theater (where John Wilkes Booth was last seen in the person of Dieter Bierbrauer in Theater Latte Da's brilliant production of the Sondheim musical Assassins), walking through the audience and up and down the aisles, engaging the audience (but not quite interacting) as the house lights go up. The show is very thoughtfully put together and smoothly transitions from lighter moments to deadly serious ones (with direction by Matt Sciple). With a ghostly white face and dressed in period clothing, adding and removing pieces as appropriate to the story, using a few well chosen props, Andrew is the embodiment of the ghosts of these men that forever changed American history. The show is enlightening about the Booth family, steeped in history and nostalgia, and also relevant to today (see above). This is a truly impressive feat by Andrew Erskine Wheeler to create and perform this show that is thoughtful, thorough, entertaining, educational, moving, funny, and more. A can't miss of the festival (two more performances this weekend).

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"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."

"Roller Derby Queen" by SOS Theater at Gremlin Theatre

A new #TCTheater company is debuting a new play by a first time playwright in a new St. Paul theater space that just opened this summer. What's more exciting than that?! The good news is that Roller Derby Queen is a great play - smart, funny, and well-written, with quirky but real characters played by a dreamy cast, clearly directed in this intimate space. I'm not entirely sure what SOS Theater is about yet, but based on the first offering of this "new production company dedicated to producing evocative works that present fresh and entertaining perspectives of this ludicrous thing called life," I'm intrigued, and hope to see more.

"Nature" by TigerLion Arts at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

"This one thing I know for sure, we must all return to Nature." So says Henry David Thoreau in TigerLion Arts' outdoor walking play Nature, and I couldn't agree more. That's one of many reasons why I love this unique theater piece so very much and saw it last weekend for the fourth year in a row. It's truly one of my favorite theater things. Nature checks off all of my theater boxes: it's funny, whimsical, poignant, musical, physical (for performers and audience), immersive (but not interactive), historical, spiritual, inspiring, silly, 90 minutes no intermission, and performed in the best location ever - the great outdoors. It fills my heart with joy and my mind with challenging thoughts about the interaction between civilization and nature. The 2017 tour (which included a trip to Concord MA for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of Thoreau's birth) has concluded, but follow TigerLion Arts on Facebook and/or Twitter for information on future performances and an upcoming documentary. As long as TigerLion Arts keeps performing Nature and there exists Nature in which to perform it, I will follow them on this beautiful journey.

"Henry V" by Theatre Pro Rata at the Crane Theater

I recently wrote, "I should just give up seeing anyone else do Shakespeare, because no one does it like Ten Thousand Things." Of course that's not very realistic for a theater blogger; Shakespeare is still one of our most produced playwrights. But lucky for me, Theatre Pro Rata's new production of Henry V borrows a few things from TTT, namely a small cast, an edited story, and a playful spirit. They use just five actors to play the two dozen or more roles, and what's even more interesting - each actor takes a turn playing the title role. It's all done in a meta theater style in which five actors attempt to tell this epic story and realize just what they're up against, congratulating each other at the end when they accomplish the task. And accomplish it they do, in what is a new and inventive take on a very old play.

"Nature" by TigerLion Arts at Elm Creek Park Reserve

A few weeks ago, I spent four days and three nights in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, just outside of Ely, MN. Even though I've been to New Zealand and Northern Alaska, this was the most in Nature I've ever been. After paddling into the nationally designated wilderness area, the only signs of civilization I and my six companions saw were the campsite fire pits and latrines (if you can call a copper stool with a hole in it standing in the middle of the woods "civilization"). Nothing soothes my fears and relieves my stress like being in Nature. Those four days were like a balm to my soul; the challenge is to carry that feeling with me back into civilization. TigerLion Arts' outdoor walking play about the friendship between Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, simply titled Nature, challenges the audience to escape from civilization for an hour or two and feel Nature's balm. After touring around the Midwest, it was at the beautiful Elm Creek Park Reserve, just north of Maple Grove, last weekend. This was my third time seeing it and the third location (after the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and my alma mater St. John's University), and I will continue to go see it every year they continue to do it. It truly is one of my favorite theater experiences.

"Waiting for Waiting for Godot" by Loudmouth Collective at Open Eye Figure Theatre

Waiting for Waiting for Godot is definitely the lightest and funniest show Loudmouth Collective has done in their five seasons. And friends, it's really funny. Playwright Dave Hanson has written a clever, smart, and silly companion play to Beckett's classic absurdist play Waiting for Godot, in which two understudies are waiting backstage for their moment in the spotlight. Much like the original (which I've seen but am not super familiar with, having only seen it once at the Jungle a few years ago) Waiting for Waiting for Godot is kind of just two idiots blathering about nothing. But in doing so the play touches on the nature of acting and waiting and being. It's another great choice for Loudmouth. As much as I love their dark and intense side, what a treat it is to watch them be fun and playful, while still putting on a sharp and all-around high-quality production with a dream team of cast and creative. In short - go see it! And soon, because it's only around through next weekend, after which you'll just be waiting for Loudmouth's next show in the spring

"Nature" by TigerLion Arts at the St. John's University Arboretum

Nature is truly one of the most special and unique theater experiences I've ever had, and I've had a lot of theater experiences in the last five years of writing this blog, and in the years before. This "outdoor walking play" about the lives, writings, and friendship of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau was created in 2010 by TigerLion Arts' Tyson Forbes (a descendant of Emerson) and Markell Kiefer, et al., and has continued to be developed into its current form as the touring production known as Nature for the Nation. With the state of our global and local environment, it's quite obvious this that Nation needs Nature, and this piece is a beautiful way to connect to, explore, and comment on Nature. And beyond that, it's an incredibly inventive and unique piece of theater that is a perfect illustration of the concept "content dictates form." When your content is the very personal and yet infinite idea of Nature herself, there is no better form that getting the audience out in Nature while watching, and participating in, this experience. Nature is everything I love about theater, combining comedy, drama, music, physicality of performance, physicality of the audience in walking through the space, creativity, an inspiring true story, and a stunningly gorgeous natural location.

Nature leads the way through the SJU Arboretum

I first saw Nature last year at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen, where it played for several weekends in the late fall. It's definitely one of those shows you can see multiple times; it's such a rich and full experience with so much to take in, and it's different every time due to the main character, ever-changing Nature. This year's tour presents multiple opportunities to see it again. I was invited to the opening in Minneapolis, but I decided I'd rather see it at St. John's University, my alma mater (technically I went to St. Ben's, but they're really the same school). Every fall I visit the SJU campus with my family (most of whom live in the St. Cloud area, many of whom attended or are attending CSB or SJU) to walk through the woods and have a picnic by the lake. This is one of the places where I have felt a connection to Nature over the years, so I wanted to experience Nature there. And to make it even more special, my super-talented 16-going-on-17-year-old cousin and goddaughter Greta was part of the community chorus, and it was a perfectly gorgeous fall day, making it well worth the 150-mile roundtrip.

the cast of Nature at the Arboretum last year

As at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum last year, the play took place in four locations at the SJU Arboretum, a place I'd never visited in my 20-year history with the campus. The community chorus (gathered from local volunteers at each location who rehearse on their own and briefly with the cast, which in this case happened to also include Mark McGowan, co-founder and former member of my favorite a capella group Tonic Sol-Fa) led us to the first location - a church. It was there that the play began with the introduction of Emerson and Thoreau and their early lives. We followed them to a prairie hill with grasses blowing in the breeze as we watched the friends take a walk, something they loved so dearly. Next we paid a visit to Thoreau's Walden Pond cabin, where we learned more about the complicated friendship between these very different men who shared a love of and respect for Nature, but went about it in different ways. Finally we watched Thoreau working in the fields, while "progress" started to overtake Nature, much to his dismay and disgust. This is where the conflict set in, as we followed the story back through the various locations and ended where we began - at the church. We have traveled with this story through time and space and Nature, and come full circle having experienced something truly beautiful.

Emerson (Tyson Forbes) and Thoreau (John Catron)

Most of the cast from last year returns to the tour this year, forming an absolutely delightful, playful, and endlessly watchable ensemble that includes Kate Guentzel as Emerson's wife Lydian, Kimberly Richardson as his aunt Moody (and choreographer), and too many wonderful people to mention (check the tags at the end of this post for a few). Tyson Forbes and John Catron are Emerson and Thoreau once again, and are the perfect embodiment of these two men and their friendship. For at its heart, this really is a love story - in the friendship of these two men and their love for a third party that drew them together. No, not Lydian, although there was a bit of a soap opera love triangle there. Their most important love was for Nature herself. And I cannot imagine anyone else as Nature than Norah Long. She is Nature personified, with her golden halo of curls blowing in the breeze, a look of absolute serenity and oneness on her face, and a voice like the goddess herself (and my cousin tells me she was also wonderful working with the chorus in their rehearsals and the performances). The music provided by Norah (she also plays by the violin), Andrew Forbes (playing bagpipes, flute, guitar, etc.), the cast, and the chorus is so lovely and transporting and perfectly appropriate to the time period and the setting.

There are so many wonderful things about Nature that I can't even begin to tell you about all of them (the whimsical sound effects, the exaggerated apple-eating, the charming letter delivery). It truly is something you need to experience yourself. Return to Nature, take a walk, watch the sky through the trees, be embraced by the earth, and let this talented group of artists take you on a journey that you'll never forget. There are two more stops on the 2015 Nature for the Nation tour, south of the Twin Cities at Gustavus and Carleton Colleges (more info here). But Nature never ends, and hopefully neither will Nature. They're hoping to take it on a National tour, eventually arriving in Concord in 2017 for the 200th anniversary of Thoreau's birth.This beautiful and important story, so well and appropriately told, needs to be heard and is an absolute joy to experience.

"2 Sugars, Room for Cream" at Park Square Theatre

Next Sunday, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, two of the funniest women in America, will host the Golden Globes. Until then, we have Shanan Custer and Carolyn Pool, two of the funniest women in the Twin Cities, presiding over a delightful evening of comedy, friendship, and coffee. Their 2008 Fringe hit 2 Sugars, Room for Cream has gone through many incarnations, including stints at the New Century Theatre in 2012 and the Jerome Hill Theater in 2013, won an Ivey Award, and has now landed on Park Square Theatre's new Andy Boss thrust stage. Even though this is the third time I've seen it and many of the scenes and characters are familiar to me, it still makes me laugh until I cry, and marvel at the universality of life experiences, and the thing that binds us all together - coffee. From bad church basement coffee to the gourmet stuff at fancy coffee shops, it's a running theme in many of our lives and helps us get through the day, and the long cold winter. This show is a celebration of that, but more so a celebration of friendship and laughter.

2 Sugars, Room for Cream, written and performed by Shanan and Carolyn under the direction of Matt Sciple, is a sketch comedy made up of a dozen or so short vignettes all centered around coffee. Two women bonding over books at a coffee shop, sisters at a funeral, employees on a coffee break, two women who didn't like each other so much 20 years ago reconnecting at their high school reunion, a picky customer at a diner, a worried new mom being comforted by a stranger on a park bench, all of it happens over coffee. The funeral and reunion stories are revisited several times throughout the show, with the funeral story providing some of the more poignant moments as the sisters laugh, drink (something stronger than coffee), and cry through the big issues of life and death. While most scenes are two-character scenes, each woman also gets a solo scene, Shanan as a frazzled mom constructing an all too honest Christmas letter, and Carolyn as a woman recording a video for her unborn daughter encouraging her to be strong, confident, and smart.

After years of performing and fine-tuning the show, Carolyn and Shanan have developed a comfort level with each other and the material. They both come across as genuine in their characterizations and in their easy chemistry with each other. While the show is scripted, there does seem to be some room to play a little within the confines of the script. And there are a few musical moments as well, as the two duet on wistful, funny, original songs.

The set (designed by Sadie Ward) is just darling and much more elaborate than previous versions of the show. A coffee cart holds all the necessary refreshments in various forms, the chairs at the table are trimmed in pink, as is the bench in the back, and either side of the stage holds pink shelves littered with things our characters (and/or actors) like. Photos of inspirational women like Tina and Amy, Mindy, Lucy, Rosemary, and Barbra are mixed in with tchotchkes, Girl Scout cookies, and so many things I wanted to wander by and peruse the shelves for a good long while.

2 Sugars, Room for Cream is only playing for three short weeks, through January 18*. If you've never seen these two smart and hilarious women before, do yourself a favor and head on down to St. Paul, grab a cup of coffee, and lose yourself in laughter. And if you have seen them before, you don't need me to tell you how fabulous this show is and worthy of a second (third, fourth...) viewing!

*As seen in the bottom half of the above program, the Andy Boss stage will next be home to another completely delightful and unique show, Trick Boxing, in which husband and wife dance team Brian Sostek and Megan McClellan play multiple characters and tell a charming story using dance, puppets, and other innovative theatrical tricks. Last seen locally at the Guthrie in 2012.


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

"Fuddy Meers" by Loudmouth Collective at nimbus theatre

It's fun to see multiple works by the same playwright, and look for similarities and differences between them. Loudmouth Collective's Fuddy Meers is the third play by David Lindsay-Abaire that I've seen in the last year. I could easily see the similarities between Rabbit Hole and Good People; both are intense family dramas dealing with serious issues with humor and realism. At first glance Fuddy Meers seems to be a bit of an anomaly. The situations are surreal and wildly comic - a woman who wakes every morning with amnesia, the damaged and crazy man who kidnaps her, her mother who speaks in mostly nonsensical sentences, a man who speaks through a sock puppet. While one could easily see oneself and one's friends and families in the characters and scenes in the former two plays, it's a bit of a stretch with Fuddy Meers. But by the end of the play, I could more easily see how it fit with the others - the same relatable and real characters, just in more absurd situations.

Fuddy Meers is part mystery, part madcap comedy, and part touching family drama. The mystery comes in as we join amnesiac Claire (Noë Tallen, very charming and open) in her journey to discover who she is and what happened to her. She wakes every morning with no memory, and is therefore happy and childlike, with no memory of the pain she's experienced. Her genial husband Richard (Leif Jurgensen) patiently explains the situation to her, while her surly teenage son Kenny (a completely natural Spencer Harrison Levin) just wants to go about his normal surly teenage life. Claire is surprised by a man (an effectively creepy Matt Sciple) who claims he's there to rescue her from her husband, and takes her to her mother Gertie's house. Gertie has suffered a stroke and has trouble forming sentences (in a quite brilliant performance by Karen Weise-Thompson, who believes every word she's saying, even if the words make no sense). They soon meet the crazy man's friend/accomplice Millet and his hand puppet (Paul Rutledge, equally good as both). Meanwhile, Richard and Kenny go looking for Claire and are waylaid by a cop (Katie Willer). They all end up at Gertie's house, which is where the madcap comedy ensues as the plan goes wrong, guns go off, puppets disclose truths, and everyone reaches their wit's end. The puzzle pieces begin to fall into place, and we learn just what happened and how everyone fits in. In the end, the touching family drama can be seen through the man who loves his wife and the son who loves his mother, and just want her to return to them, which has become a daily process.

Loudmouth Collective is a newish theater company, in just their second season, but all of their work that I've seen has been great - interesting choices of smart, well-written, complex plays, and wonderful actors. This cast of seven is large for them; previous pieces have been one- or two-person shows. It's a nice ensemble and they work and play well together, as directed by Artistic Director Natalie Novacek. A fun feature are the dancing scene changes which keep the mood light and the momentum going, and keep the audience from getting bored as furniture is shuffled about.

Performances continue this weekend and next at nimbus theatre's NE Minneapolis space, with ticket prices just $15 (or $10 with a Fringe button). Definitely worth checking out for an inexpensive and entertaining night at the theater.

"A Behanding in Spokane" at Gremlin Theatre

A Behanding in Spokane is a very dark, very funny little play. The 2010 Tony nominated play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh is this year's selection in what has become Gremlin Theatre's tradition of non-holiday fare in this month of Christmas Carols and jingle bells. I saw it on a three-show weekend, sandwiched between Yellow Tree's Miracle on Christmas Lake II and A Don't Hug Me Christmas Carol. It serves as a nice palate cleanser, but more than that, it's a great play with a fabulous cast of actors that's thoroughly entertaining any time of the year.

The play takes place in a shabby hotel room somewhere in America (kudos to designer Carl Schoenborn for creating the appropriate level of shabbiness). Mr. Carmichael has been traveling around the country for 27 years, looking for the hand that was taken from him as a teenager in a cruel act of violence. He's full of rage and revenge; you get the feeling that this searching for his hand business has been a hard life, but it's all he's ever known. Portrayer David Tufford embodies the years of frustration, exasperation, and darkness this man has lived through. Even though in some ways he's the villain of the play, threatening violence to every other character, you can't help but sympathize with him when he shares the details of how he came to be a one-handed man. There's a sadness there too; once he accomplishes his goal, he's got nothing else to live for, and the life he's known is over.

The event taking place in the hotel room before us is a sort of business transaction. A couple has decided to try to sell him a disembodied hand that they know is not his, but this man is not so easy to fool. He does not enjoy being scammed, and the consequences are dire as the two try to get out of it. Sara Marsh as the slightly dimwitted Marilyn and Brian J. Evans as her somewhat savvier boyfriend Toby are very entertaining as the alternately loving and bickering couple.

David Tufford and Luverne Seifert

Last but certainly not least in this talented four-person cast is Luverne Seifert as "the receptionist guy." I adore Luverne; he's a true clown (I mean that as the highest complement). He's extremely expressive in his delivery and physicality, and is an expert at engaging the audience (go see him in a Ten Thousand Things production and beware if you're sitting in the front row). He delivers an insane monologue that's really about nothing, other than establishing what a strange character this Mervyn is. He inserts himself into the situation happening in the hotel room, and is actually quite delighted that something exciting is finally happening in his life. I won't go into details about how this situation is resolved (you'll have to see it yourself to find out), but it's a crazy fun ride to watch them get there.

I only discovered the Gremlin a year or so ago, but they've quickly become one of my favorite theaters in town. Everything I've seen there has been interesting, or surprising, or touching, or silly, or all of the above. A Behanding in Spokane (with excellent direction by Matt Sciple) is no exception. Gremlin Artistic Director Peter Hansen* called it "an insane play and ton of fun to do." It's a ton of fun to watch, too. Playing now through December 16 at Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul.

*Peter was working the will call desk the night I attended, talk about hands on (no pun intended). Peter will soon be reuniting with his After Miss Julie costar Anna Sundberg for the Jungle's production of the recent Tony Award-winning play Venus in Fur.

"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.

"Compleat Female Stage Beauty" by Walking Shadow Theatre Company at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage

"To the theater to see a play!" What's better than that? Compleat Female Stage Beauty is a play about theater, specifically about that time in the history of English theater when women were finally allowed to play female roles, taking over for the men who traditionally played female roles on the stage. In this play by Jeffrey Hatcher, it's a difficult time of transition. It reminds me of that time in American film when "talkies" replaced silent films, and silent film actors had to figure out a place for themselves in the new era, or fade away (at least that's what I learned from The Artist). Similarly, the men, or in this case, one particular man, who had previously only played female roles, had to figure out a new place for himself in a world that has changed.

The play is a fictionalized account based on the lives of several historical figures. Samuel Pepys kept a detailed diary of his life and the events in London in the 1660s, and serves as a sort of narrator, opening and closing the play (and uttering the above line several times). From what I can tell, he's a little like me - he enjoys going to the theater and writes everything down in his diary. If there were an internet in the 1600s, he probably would have had a blog too. :) The main character in the play is based on another historical figure, Edward Kynaston, one of the last male actors to play female roles on the English stage. When he finds out that "his" role of Desdemona in Othello is being played by a woman named Margaret Hughes  (another historical figure) in a theater across town, he feels threatened. Eventually the king rules that men cannot play female roles on stage, and Kynaston's life falls apart. His lover leaves him, because he preferred to see him as a woman, as the role he was playing (as Rita Hayworth famously said, "Men fall in love with Gilda, but they wake up with me"). He takes a job singing bawdy songs in a pub, quite a step down from Shakespeare. It's there that his friend Maria finds him and, with the help of the King's mistress, gets him to return to the theater. He had always thought, "a man playing a man, where's the artistry in that?" But in teaching Margaret how to play Desdemona better than he ever did, he discovers a new love for the theater and a way to apply his artistry to male roles, the only ones open to him. As Maria says to him, "We are never suited for the roles we most desire."

This is a great cast (most of whom were previously unknown to me), starting and ending with Wade A. Vaughn as Mr. Kynaston. He plays such a range of emotions (and costumes!) and does it all believably, emphatically, and sympathetically. He goes from an artist at the top of his game, to the object of mockery brought low, to a teacher and expert demanding respect. The play opens and closes with Desdemona's death scene, with Mr. K first as the murdered Desdemona and later as the murderer Othello, and I found myself wishing I could see the latter production. Jane Froiland (from last year's sublime Ten Thousand Things production of Doubt) is Mr. K's frenemy, the ambitious Ms. Hughes, who goes from merely a novelty to a good actress thanks to her association with him. Adelin Phelps is bubbly and entertaining as the boisterous comedic actress and mistress of the King. Matt Sciple as the scribe Pepys, Sean Byrd as the theater owner, and Teresa Marie Doran as the fresh-faced Maria are also wonderful in their roles, and along with the rest of the ensemble populate and bring to life this crazy aristocratic English Reformation society. The wigs, make-up, and costumes are quite astounding, and a lovely three-piece band accompanies the action with period music played on such instruments as the hammered dulcimer and melodica. All of which works to transport you back a few centuries.

There are three reasons I went to see this play: I found a half-price deal on Goldstar.com, I saw a Walking Shadow production at the Guthrie last fall and enjoyed it, and I love the Minneapolis Theatre Garage. Other than that I wasn't quite sure what to expect, which is often the best way to be surprised and delighted. "To the theater to see a play," indeed! (And I might have to check out the 2004 movie starring Billy Crudup and Claire Danes.)