Fringe Festival 2015: "Total Eclipse of the Heart"

Day: 4

Show: 17

Title: Total Eclipse of the Heart

Category: Comedy

By: The Peanut Butter Factory

Directed by: Christopher Kehoe

Location: Illusion Theater

Summary: A high melodrama of a soap opera inspired by the '80s ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Highlights: I have no idea how this relates to the song, but here's what happened. In a soap opera called Total Eclipse of the Heart (a great name for a soap), a group of people meet in an art museum. There is a wealthy brother and sister, the twin brother of her former fiance turned pop star, a diva, a museum worker, and a young woman searching for clues to her parentage in the artwork. Prefaced by "previously on" and concluded with "next time on," this is just one episode of highly melodramatic moment followed by highly melodramatic moment. It's not at all what I expected (see Collyard/Nelson's explanation of an expectation review), and I found it quite bizarre. But the cast is game for the ride, consistent across the board in their commitment to the overly soapy tone of the show, which provides for some amusing moments.

2015 Minnesota Fringe Festival Must-See List

Last night I attended the second Fringe preview, in which 30 shows presented a three-minute excerpt. I've also read the descriptions of all 175 shows. I give them all a +, ?+, ?, or -. Right now I've got over 50 +s, which isn't really feasible (if you go to every timeslot, that's 56 shows, but I'm not quite that insane). So I've still got some work to do to get my list down to a manageable schedule of 30-40 shows. But these shows for sure are going to make the cut (scheduling gods willing).

105 Proof or the Killing of Mack "The Silencer" Klein: the physical theater company Transatlantic Love Affair returns to the Fringe after a one-year absence with this story set in the Prohibition era. But the story doesn't really matter, what matters is that TLA tells stories in an achingly beautiful way. They are not to be missed.

Collyard / Nelson's Guide to Reviewing Fringe Festival Shows & Other Tips to Help Keep Your Cool In the White-Hot World of Amateur Criticism OR "So You Kept Their Postcard; Now What?": as a bit of an "amateur critic" myself, I can't resist hearing what they have to say about it. Plus, "fringe legends."

Couple Fight: Tom Reed is one of my Fringe faves with his one-man musical spoofs, so this creation with real-life wife Anna Weggel-Reed is a must-see in my book.

Edgar Allan: I missed this new musical about an 11-year-old Edgar Allan Poe at last year's Fringe, so I'm glad I have a second chance to see it.

FRANKENSTEIN: I'm not really a horror fan, but the preview was creepy and cool, and with three of the minds behind last year's creepy cool hit Crime and Punishment, I've got to check this one out.

High Flight: the preview for this piece was incredibly moving, with Theatre Pro Rata's Artistic Director Carin Bratlie introducing the show as a tribute to her father, who disappeared on a solo flight to Duluth, told through music (a brass quintet!) and dance.

The Mrs.: they had me at Shanan Custer. But also, the preview was really funny, like a comedy version of Big Love that also spoofs TLC's increasingly trashy reality shows. This one is called PolyGIMME a Break.

Oregon Trail: The Musical: like other children of the '80s, Oregon Trail was the first computer game I ever played. And now someone's turned it into a musical?! That is the very definition of must-see.

Parent Observation Day: have you ever seen a kids' dance class perform? There's always a kid who's totally in their own world, another performing every step enthusiastically, another who's always one step behind the group. The preview for this show was exactly like that, except that adults (who you can tell are actually good dancers) are playing the adorably awkward kids.

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Tennessee Williams last year, Oscar Wilde this year. New Epic's One Arm was one of my favorites of last year's festival, so I will definitely be checking out their new production.

Pretty Girls Make Graves: I never miss a Loudmouth Collective show, whether Fringe or not. Always smart, unique, and well done, whether funny or heartbreaking, and since this one is written one of my favorites Sam Landman it's a definite must-see.

Shelly Bachberg Presents: Orange is the New POTUS: The Musical: this sequel to 2013's ridiculous musical spoof of a certain former Minnesota congresswoman is set in a prison a la Orange is the New Black. If that's not reason enough, the cast is fantastic.

To the Moon: a modern reimagining of the fairy tale genre sounds lovely, but the important thing is that it stars Debra Berger (from the quirky and charming 2013 Fringe hit Hello Stranger), Emily King (a gorgeous dancer as seen in Love's Labour's Lost), and local superstar Tyler Michaels (he's in everything), and was written by Tyler Mills (the lovely and poignant Jonah and the Whale).

Total Eclipse of the Heart: produced by The Peanut Butter Factory which only does good things, based on an awesome '80s song, and featuring an adorable kitten as the show photo. Come on.

Trial by Jury: I discovered The Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company, which has existed for over 30 years, just this year. They're appearing in the Fringe for the first time with this one-act operetta from musical comedy geniuses Gilbert and Sullivan (whose work can also be seen in the Ordway's production of Pirates of Penzance, opening annoyingly right in the middle of Fringe).

Underneath the Lintel: if you missed Pat O'Brien's lovely one-man show about a librarian on a quest at the 2011 Fringe, now's your chance to see this moving and poignant show.

We Do Every Show in the Fringe: last year it was called Four Humors Does Every Show in the Fringe, but judging by the show photo, the concept and performers are the same - a hilarious improv show in which the cast performs a randomly drawn Fringe show based on the picture and description. (This is one you might want to make reservations for, see below.)



My annual tips for the Fringe newbie:

• Buy a button and make sure you have it with you, it's required for entry to all shows. You can buy them in advance on the website or at any venue.

• If you're going to multiple shows (and why wouldn't you?), buy a punch pass, available in quantities of 4 or 10, or unlimited if you plan on seeing more than 20 shows. It saves you $1-2 per show. Once you buy a pass, you can reserve a seat online at any show for $1.75, or just show up and present your pass (see below).

• If a show is particularly popular, or you really really want to see it, consider buying (or reserving a seat) in advance. You can also take your chances and just show up. I typically only make reservations for a handful of shows that look like they might be busy (you can check the show's page to see if it's in danger of selling out).

• All shows are general admission, so get there early for best choice of seating.

• Shows typically run just under an hour, with a half hour between shows so it's feasible to get from any theater to any other in that time. But it's good to plan to see a bunch in one location to minimize transportation time; the highest concentration of theaters is in the West Bank neighborhood, with 6 theaters within a few blocks (4 in the same building - the Rarig Center on the U of M campus).

• Bring snacks, water, reading material, and sunscreen - you will be waiting in line, probably outside. And be aware of what line you're in, often there's one line to check in and get tickets, and another to enter the theater and get your seat. Ask one of the friendly volunteers in the Fringe shirts if you need help with anything.

• Keep an open mind - some of what you'll see is really weird. But that can be a good thing! And if you see a dud, well, that's part of the Fringe experience.
• Each show has five performances, and on the last night of the Fringe (Sunday August 9), the show in each venue that has sold the most tickets receives a sixth show. Keep an eye out for the announcement late Saturday and check out a popular show you might have missed.
• The Fringe website has pretty much all the info you'll need, so bookmark it on your smart phone for easy on-the-go reference!

Happy Fringe-ing!

Fringe Festival: "The Genealogy of Happenstance"

Day: 4

Show: 16

Title: The Genealogy of Happenstance

Category: Something different

By: The Peanut Butter Factory

Created by: Allegra Lingo

Location: Rarig Center Arena

Summary: Fringe fave Allegra Lingo shares her unconventional journey to motherhood.

Highlights: This is a moving and compelling story. While it's a bit academic (not surprising since it was adapted from Allegra's dissertation), I did get caught up in the story and hoped for a happy ending. Allegra and her wife Amy made the decision to start a family a few years ago, with Amy as "the optimum womb" because of Allegra's health history. She shares personal stories from various points along the journey, some funny, some touching, some sad. She also relates this journey to stories from her past, including her fear of flying and surgeries for scoliosis. The Genealogy of Happenstance is a moving, funny, relatable, personal story well-told by the person who lived, or rather is living, it.

Fringe Festival: "To My Son, Born Five Years from Today:"

Day: 2

Show: 5

Title: To My Son, Born Five Years from Today:

By: The Peanut Butter Factory

Created by: Christopher Kehoe

Location: Woman's Club of Minneapolis

Summary: A man writes a letter to his future son as he wrestles with the idea of what it means to be a man, told in words and movement.

Highlights: Christopher Kehoe enters the stage in a suit, barefoot. The stage is empty except for two folding chairs and a low table with a lamp and writing papers. He methodically and repetitively arranges the items on the desk, clicking his pen repeatedly as if he has OCD. He then begins to write, toss away ideas, and write again, while moving his tall frame around the stage with precise movements (choreographed by Carl Flink), occasionally pausing in his letter writing because "I have a story." By the end of the show he has managed to gather all these pieces together to create a beautiful picture. This show, to me, is the epitome of the Fringe Festival. An artist taking a chance and doing something unique and interesting and a little bizarre, that you might not see any other time of the year. I knew Christopher Kehoe was a brilliant writer from last year's Fringe, but he's also a captivating performer, commanding the stage with his physical presence and unique storytelling style. This show might not be for everyone, especially the Fringe or theater novice, but if you're looking for something different and unique - this is it.

Read more of my fringe fest reflections…

… including my top 5 shows

Fringe Festival 2012: Joe Dowling's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on the Moon, Featuring Kate Mulgrew as Lady Capulet

Day: 1

Show: 3

Title: Joe Dowling's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on the Moon, Featuring Kate Mulgrew as Lady Capulet

By: The Peanut Butter Factory

Written by: Christopher Kehoe

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: In this play-within-a-play, a renowned local theater is doing a completely ridiculous version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, set on the moon with the Capulets as aliens, the Montagues as humans, and the Friar as a robot, complete with stunt casting (for those non-Trekkie's like myself, Kate Mulgrew played Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager). Five audience members give us their varying opinions and experiences with the play - a critic, a Star Trek fangirl, an understudy, a professor, and man who's attending the play with a woman who is not his wife.

Highlights: This is by far the best of the four shows I saw on my first day at the Fringe. First, the brilliant writing by Christopher Kehoe (who's also hilarious as the pretentious theater critic), in which he very successfully weaves together certain pivotal scenes from Romeo and Juliet with the commentators critiques. He also uses the actors' real names and backgrounds as fodder for the satire (e.g., Alex Brightwell really did recently graduate from the U of M/Guthrie BFA program, Max Wojtanowicz really did appear in the Children's Theater's "Ivey-Award-winning" production of Romeo and Juliet). This play pokes fun at just about everything about this sort of big budget spectacle theater, but in a good-hearted way (see the lovely note below about the real Joe Dowling, Artistic Director of the Guthrie Theater). It also illustrates that everyone's experience with theater, or any art form, is different, depending on what we bring to the theater that day. Whether it's "I have to pee," or our education and past experiences, or the person we're sitting next to, it all affects what we get out of the show. What is seen as crap and a waste of time to most of the audience turns out to be, for one man, what "saved my life." And that's the beauty of art. I have to mention the cast that is all-around fantastic (even the robot!), from the play-within-a-play actors who manage to give such convincing, if slightly over-the-top, performances of this classic play seemingly oblivious to the craziness going on around them that I almost wish I could see the entire fictional production, to the five outsiders who lets us see the play through their eyes, especially Dawn Brodey as the professor who lectures her students about the obvious (to her) misogyny of the piece. This is the second play produced by The Peanut Butter Factory (a producing company, not a theater company) and directed by Natalie Novaceck that I've loved (see also Gruesome Playground Injuries), and it makes me excited to see what they'll do next.

Tip: If you go to see this show (and you should), you might want to consider buying tickets in advance. I went to the first performance and it was almost sold out. This show clearly had a lot of pre-show buzz, which is only going to increase as people see it.

Read more of my fringe fest reflections...

a note from the playwright about the play's namesake
(click on image for a larger view)

My 2012 Fringe Must-See List

2011 was my first year attending the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and I'm hooked. I was a little unprepared about how to pick shows and how everything works, but I found out that it's really well-run and organized. They make it quite easy to see a lot of great theater in a short time. I also learned that there's no secret to picking shows, just choose a few that look interesting and go for it, and try not to worry to much about the many that you'll miss. Here are a few shows I know I have to see in this year's Festival, beginning August 2 and running through August 12. (For a full list of performances see the Fringe website, where you can search by cast, company, or performance type.)

Answered Prayers 
A sequel to last year's Twisted Apples, one of my favorites of the festival, this piece by Nautilus Music-Theater is a musical adaptation of Sherwood Anderson's 1919 short-story cycle Winesburg, Ohio (which I've just begun reading).

Fruit Fly: The Musical
Sheena Janson (aka Audrey II, a spelling bee contestant, etc.), Max Wojtanowicz (aka Cliff, the Tin Man, etc.), and this: "Can a gay guy and a straight girl - a fruit fly - 'quit each other' to find true love? Find out in this brand-new musical filled with laughter, Sondheim references, and enough boxed wine to kill us all!" Need I say more?

The Hungry Games: Mocking the Mockingjay
I haven't seen or read The Hunger Games (yet), but I adore Tom Reed's solo-comedy-musical-spoof show (see last year's Disney Dethroned: Snowcahontas and the Tangled FrogBeast).

Joe Dowling's William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet on the Moon, Featuring Kate Mulgrew as Juliet 
Come on, how can you resist that title? Plus, I really loved The Peanut Butter Factory's production of Gruesome Playground Injuries earlier this year, so I'm excited to see what else they can do.

Rip
I want to see this musical adaption of the story of Rip Van Winkle for one reason: to find out what else talented young actor David Darrow (see Theater Latte Da's Beautiful Thing and Spring Awakening) has up his sleeve.

What else should I see? Please tell me, either in comments below or email, I hate the thought of missing something good! Now I just need to figure out the most efficient way to see all of the above, and any additional that catch my eye between now and August 2. I'll try to see several in the same location (the Cedar-Riverside area is great for that with seven theaters within easy walking distance), and fill in the holes in the schedule with whatever looks interesting in the area. Or maybe just plant myself at one location and see several shows in a row. 

If you've never attended the Fringe Festival before, here are a few tips. And if you have attended and you have some tips of your own - please share!

• Buy a button and make sure you have it with you, it's required for entry to all shows.
• If you're going to multiple shows, buy a punch pass, available in quantities of 5 or 10, or unlimited if you plan on seeing more than 20 shows (I wish!). It saves you $2 per show. Once you buy a pass, you can reserve a seat at any show for $1, or just show up and present your pass (see below).
• If a show is particularly popular, or you really really want to see it, consider buying (or reserving a seat) in advance. You can also take your chances and just show up.
• All shows are general admission, so get there early for best choice of seating.
• Shows typically run just under an hour, with a half hour between shows.
• Bring snacks, water, reading material, and sunscreen (you will be waiting in line, probably outside).
• Keep an open mind - some of what you'll see is really weird. But that can be a good thing!

Happy Fringe-ing!

Read what I thought about these and 11 other Fringe Festival shows here.

"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!