"Island of Discarded Women" Live Podcast Recording at The Belvedere at Crooners Supper Club

Consider this your annual PSA to listen to Sue Scott's (longtime voice actor on A Prairie Home Companion) podcast "Island of Discarded Women." The over 30 episodes (available on your favorite podcast platform and on their website) feature comedy sketches, musical performances, storytelling, and interviews with fascinating and inspiring women. What began as a way for Sue to use her voice after she was essentially fired from her job for being "too old for radio" has blossomed into a platform to elevate women's voices from many different areas of life. A rotating cast of local actors and musicians join Sue on the island, along with resident musician Zippy Laske, who writes a new song for each episode that poignantly represents the theme of the stories being told. As a bonus, the podcast is recorded live every month, and you can go see it! Watch their website, follow them on Facebook, or join their mailing list to be notified of upcoming live recordings.

"Island of Discarded Women" Live Podcast at the Woman's Club of Minneapolis

In May of 2020, I posted a piece called "I Listen to Podcasts Now!" Prior to the pandemic I listened to a few podcasts, but as it probably did for most people, the number of podcasts I listen to has increased exponentially in the last year and a half. One of my few pre-pandemic podcasts was Island of Discarded Women, created and hosted by #TCTheater artist and long-time voice actor on A Prairie Home Companion, Sue Scott. The monthly podcast was recorded live onstage in 2019 (I was hoping to attend my first one in spring 2020), and moved to at-home/zoom recordings during the pandemic. Now the live recordings have begun again in their new home, the Woman's Club of Minneapolis, the second Sunday of every month (proof of vaccination required, plus masks when not enjoying the dinner and drink service). I was thrilled to experience my favorite local podcast live last weekend!

I Listen to Podcasts Now!

I don't know about you, but this global pandemic has left me with a lot more time on my hands. I used to spend 20-30 hours a week at the theater, driving to the theater, writing about theater, scheduling theater, reading about theater. One of the things I'm doing to help fill those empty hours is listen to podcasts. And because I'm me, many of them have something to do with local theater. Here are the ones I'm listening to; please add your suggestions in the comments below!

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Mad as Nell, or How to Lose a Bly in Ten Days"

Day: 4

Show: 12

Title: Mad as Nell, or How to Lose a Bly in Ten Days

Category: COMEDY / HISTORICAL CONTENT

By: Rinky Dink Productions

Created by: Rinky Dink Productions

Location: Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A modern, comic, feminist retelling of 19th Century investigative journalist Nellie Bly who went undercover in a mental institution.

Highlights: Written by cast members Josh Carson, Shanan Custer, Allison Witham, and Kelsey Cramer as Nellie Bly, this show is the fun mash-up of history and pop culture that I've come to expect from this group (freshly minted as Rinky Dink Operations, with a quarterly variety show at BLB). They tell the loosely historical story of aspiring "lady reporter" Nellie Bly, who tries to impress editor Joseph Pulitzer by writing a series of articles exposing the horrible conditions at the mental hospital she gets herself committed to (possibly mashed up with the movie How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, or maybe that's just for the clever title). The cast (also including Adelin Phelps, Aisha Ragheb, Tim Hellendrung, and equity members James Detmar and the deliciously evil Sue Scott!) is hilarious and playful, they sing a few fun original songs, there are just the right amount of 4th wall breaking moments, and the inspiring feminist story is succinctly, cleverly, charmingly, and irreverently told. Simply put, this is Fringe at its best.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Sisters of Peace" at History Theatre

In the second of a three-show HERstory spring, the History Theatre is telling the true story of four local sisters and Sisters who actively work for peace and justice. The aptly named Sisters of Peace brings these four amazing women to life on stage (who, by the way, are still alive and continuing their work in their 80s and 90s). I was so moved and inspired by these courageous and determined women who ceaselessly work to create a better world, that I was often moved to tears, amidst the laughter of their lives. These women fight not with weapons, but with kindness, music, love, and laughter. We would all be better people if we lived by the mantra, "what would the McDonald sisters do?" Sisters of Peace is not only a truly feel-good piece, but also a call to action to live more authentic lives and consider our fellow beings on this planet.

"Little Wars" by Prime Productions at Mixed Blood Theatre

British mystery writer Agatha Christie. American playwright Lillian Hellman. Activist Muriel Gardiner. American author Dorothy Parker. It's debatable whether or not these four accomplished women met in the home of the equally accomplished women Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in the French Alps in 1940, but it sure makes for a fascinating play. One with these many roles for women in their prime. A perfect choice, then, for the debut of the new theater company Prime Productions whose mission is "to explore, illuminate, and support women over 50 and their stories through the creative voice of performance." As a woman who's approaching that age (at a seemingly greater speed with each passing year), it's a mission I whole-heartedly support. And the Twin Cities is the perfect location for such a company, as we are lucky enough to have many female theater artists in their prime. Little Wars, a play about fascinating real-life historical women*, is an exiting debut for this company. I look forward to seeing what else the amazingly talented women in their prime in the #TCTheater community can do, when given the opportunities they deserve but are often denied by our ageist and sexist society.

"Barbecue" at Mixed Blood Theatre

When you see as much theater as I do, you can often see where things are going. Not so with Barbecue at Mixed Blood Theatre. This play did something that theater rarely does - it surprised me. Surprised me in such a huge way that the play I ended up watching was not the play I thought I was watching at the beginning. Surprised me in such a wonderfully clever and challenging way that this post is going to be frustratingly vague and uninformative because I don't want to ruin that surprise for anyone. If you're intrigued, just go see the show and find out what I'm talking about. In addition to being surprising, Barbecue is also really funny and asks some tough questions. Questions about race, questions about our assumptions about race, questions about how different races are portrayed in the media, questions about truth, questions about drug and alcohol abuse, questions about family relations. There's a lot going on at this little family barbecue, and this incredible cast pulls it off brilliantly.