Showing posts with label Oncoming Productions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oncoming Productions. Show all posts

Monday, August 8, 2022

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2022: "Slender Vale"

Day: 4

Show: 14

Title: Slender Vale

Category: DRAMA / HORROR / IMPROV

By: Oncoming Productions

Created by: Oncoming Productions

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: An improvised horror story that takes place in a small town in Northern Minnesota called Slender Vale.

Highlights: Improv is usually done for comedy, but this time it's done for horror, although it's funny too at times. Based on the prompt of three cards drawn from a deck (e.g., a bog, a voice) by a narrator, who also adds interjections to fill in background or guide the story, a rotating cast of improvisors tells a spooky story. The night I saw it, the story revolved around a couple of influencers staying at a cabin in Slender Vale, who got involved with the locals and went to the dangerous bog, despite being warned against it. A local teacher cast a spell to make one of the influencers fall in love with him, but it got out of control (natch). Effective horror may need more plotting than this format provides, but the music and lighting add to the spookiness factor, including strobe light effects, spotlights in the dark, and eerie sounds provided by a live musician.

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Minnesota Fringe Festival: "Five-Fifths of Mary Poppins" at Park Square Theatre

We're only three months away from the most hectic, exiting, exhausting, wonderful week in #TCTheater: the Minnesota Fringe Festival! This year's festival will take place August 1-11 (with the related Family Fringe happening July 26-28 and August 2-4), but events have been happening all year. May brings one of my favorite Fringe events, the "Five-Fifths" benefit, in which a popular movie is divided into five parts and handed to five Fringe companies for them to interpret as they wish. It's a very clever concept, and one that really showcases what's unique about each company. This year's choice was Mary Poppins, and the results were, as my friend Jules from Minnesota Theater Love succinctly put it, "weird and fun." Just like Fringe!