"Tristan Tzara Was My Best Friend in Junior High" at Mirror-Lab

And now for something completely different: Tristan Tzara Was My Best Friend in Junior High. The subtitle of this odd and charming little play is "A dinner party ritual," and that's exactly what it is. It's been around in various incarnations for about ten years, but this was my first experience with it. I'd tell you to go see it if you're looking for a different kind of theater experience, but there are only four performances and it's sold out (self-produced by the artists). Here's hoping they'll bring it back again - follow this website for more info.

"Survivors" at Six Points Theater

Just in time for Holocaust Remembrance Day, Six Points Theater is presenting the play Survivors, which tells the stories of ten Holocaust survivors. 79 years ago today the concentration camp Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army. In the course of human history, or even American history, that's not that long ago, and unfortunately it did not mark the end of violence, discrimination, and hate against the Jewish people. It's so important to keep telling these stories, to remember the horrors that Jews endured not so very long or far away, because as they say in the play, "Never Forget! Never Again! Never is Now!" Survivors only has three performances; it's more of a special event than a part of Six Points' full season. But if you have a chance to see the final performance on Sunday afternoon, I encourage you to do so. Each performance is followed by a discussion about anti-Semitism with local leaders and scholars. Anti-Semitism never went away, but has seen a resurgence in recent years with the extreme political climate, as well as in recent months since the Israel-Hamas War. I'm so glad I was able to attend this moving performance and informative discussion, which was heavy and a bit depressing, but also hopeful and inspiring. (Click here for info and to purchase tickets to the final performance.)

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2022: "Bob and Reggie Go To Bed"

Day: 3

Show: 10

Title: Bob and Reggie Go To Bed

Category: COMEDY / ORIGINAL MUSIC / PHYSICAL THEATER / KID FRIENDLY / NON-VERBAL

By: Comedy Suitcase

Created by: Joshua English Scrimshaw & Levi Weinhagen

Location: Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A completely wordless comedy about... well... two nitwits going to bed.

Highlights: I would happily watch Levi Weinhagen and Joshua English Scrimshaw do anything, which is what most of this show is. Just watching them put on pajamas and get into bed is hilarious. It's just good old-fashioned comedy, the kind that works in any era, geography, or age of audience, in the Buster Keaton silent film kind of style. I'm certain these two go home with bruises and abrasions every night the way they heedlessly throw their bodies around the stage, all for the sake of comedy. They're joined for part of the show by Sulia Altenberg as a tough chain-smoking Tooth Fairy. They keep hitting each other in the face to make their teeth fall out to get more money out of her, which does not make her happy, culminating in a ridiculous slow-mo fight scene employing tools of dental hygiene. While without verbal dialogue, this show is far from silent; composer/musician Rhiannon Fiskradatz creates a soundscape for the show on guitar, percussion, and various other instruments, the sounds making the physical comedy even funnier. At one point the boys are "locked" off the stage and find themselves in the audience, running around gleefully and playfully interacting with the audience. Eventually all four performers end up back on stage, along with a few stragglers they've picked up in a conga line through the audience. This show is just pure joy and delight and laughter. If you don't want your face to hurt from laughing too much, you should avoid this show at all costs.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"The Big Blue River" by Mariah Theatre Company at North Garden Theater

It's great to welcome in a new #TCTheater company, after we've lost too many in the last two years. Theater and film actor/director/writer Patrick Coyle is debuting his new company, Mariah Theatre Company: "a boutique theatre company in St. Paul, MN producing world premieres with a mission to produce work that honestly depicts issues of mental health, suicide awareness, and addiction." Patrick wrote The Big Blue River before and during the pandemic. It's a funny, quirky, poignant play about a woman looking for connection, something probably everyone can relate to after the isolation of the recent past. He's assembled a fantastic cast of local actors to bring his story to life in the intimate space of the North Garden Theater in St. Paul's West 7th neighborhood.

Park Square Theatre's Special Zoom Performance of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

Out of all the streaming theater performances I've watched at home in the past seven weeks, none has affected me as much as Park Square Theatre​'s special zoom performance of their annual production of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK. This is their 21st year presenting this for student audiences, and I commend them for finding a way to get this ever more relevant and inspiring story out to students (and others) in such a uniquely moving way. It's really well done, with each actor emoting from their own separate little box, but somehow creating a cohesive story as if they were in the same room. The cast and creative team put much thought and care into their at-home costumes, lighting, and props, as well as the way actors appear and disappear from the screen. Anne and her family's horrific experience really puts our temporary isolation into perspective. I highly recommend it for your at home quarantimes (or anytime) theater viewing.

"City Council Christmas" at Daleko Arts

This was my fourth visit to the very southern-most #TCTheater, DalekoArts in New Prague (pronounced prayg not prahg, because this is Minnesota). I spent the first 15 years of my life in a rambler on a dead-end gravel road less than 20 miles from where Daleko is now, and my parents still live in Lakeville, so the drive to New Prague is filled with nostalgia for me. Daleko has built up a loyal audience over the last five and a half years, and it seems that their original holiday* comedies are just as popular as the ones at that other theater in the 'burbs on the opposite end of town. I'm not sure I would recommend spending two hours in the car to attend an 80-minute show (although I wouldn't dissuade you if you're so inclined), but if you find yourself in the southern metro, you should definitely check out what's happening at the Prague Theater in charming historic downtown New Prague. Which right now happens to be City Council Christmas, a hilariously quirky and fun comedy about a small town city council, which Daleko calls their "goofy, idiotic, fun, and totally ridiculous love letter to our audiences, and to the good people of New Prague and the surrounding area."

"The Visit" by Frank Theatre at the Minnesota Transportation Museum

To open their 30th season, intrepid nomadic #TCTheater company Frank Theatre is bringing us The Visit in the Minnesota Transportation Museum. This is actually the second play I've seen in this unique and super cool venue (see also Wayward and Mission's co-production of Ghost Train). Both plays are set (at least partly) in a train station, so the museum is a perfect location. Filled with vintage train equipment and displays (which you can wander through before the show and at intermission), the museum is fascinating but also kind of dark and creepy and cold, and smells a little like a garage. Which is the perfect atmosphere for Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt's absurd "tragicomic" play. This is a very Frank play, with a huge and talented cast and great commitment to the highly stylized design and tone of the play.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "A Justice League of Their Own"

Day: 5

Show: 20

Title: A Justice League of Their Own

Category: Comedy / Sci-Fi / Political Content

By: Mainly Me Productions

Directed by: Josh Carson

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A mash-up of A League of Their Own and superhero movies, in which female superheroes are recruited to fight evil and the patriarchy.

Highlights: Let me start by saying that I have very vague memories of watching A League of Their Own many years ago, and I don't watch superhero movies. At all. Because of this I probably missed about a third of the jokes (also because the 60 minutes are packed with as many jokes as Lin-Manuel Miranda musicals are packed with words, and because my brain moves considerably slower after 10 pm), but I still found this show brilliant and hilarious. Kudos to director Josh Carson for writing (with ample help from his mostly female cast) a play that skewers the misogyny of the superhero universe and the world in general, and making it so funny and geeky too. Five awesome women (Allison Witham, Emily Jabas, Kelsey Cramer, Lauren Omernik, and Sulia Altenberg) play five awesome superheroes who, despite being strong and capable, have to deal with society's expectations of how they should behave. Heather Meyer is a superhero as well with her multiple characters and lighting fast dialogue, while Josh fills the Tom Hanks role as the past his prime alcoholic Batman hired to coach the women (with Andy Rocco Kraft and Brad Erickson playing many ridiculous roles). The entire cast is fun and playful and all around top notch. If you're more familiar with A League of Their Own than I am (I really need to watch that movie again), you might recognize some familiar scenes and themes, as well as some superhero archetypes. Like Not Fair, My Lady!, this show comes at just the right time and refreshingly shows us female characters just being (super) human. How revolutionary.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Steel Magnolias" at Lyric Arts

If you've only ever seen the movie version of Steel Magnolias, you might be surprised when you see the play on which it was based. Unlike the movie, the entire play takes place in Truvy's beauty salon (where the motto is, "there is no such thing as natural beauty"), and the only characters we see are the six strong, funny, loving Southern women who inspired the title. Husbands, boyfriends, children, and dogs are talked but about never seen, so that the focus of the story is the women and their undying friendship. Lyric Arts' production features six wonderful actors who bring these women to life, directed by a #TCTheater actor who can break my heart and crack me up at the same time, Angela Timberman. She and her cast bring that beautiful "laughter through tears is my favorite emotion" feeling to every moment of this story. So head up to Anoka through June 24, grab some popcorn, and have a good laugh and a good cathartic cry (it was a two-tissue play for me).

Fringe Festival 2017: "The Wright Stuff, or You'll Believe They Can Fly!"

Day: 7

Show: 27

Title: The Wright Stuff, or You'll Believe They Can Fly!

Category: Comedy

By: Outlandish Productions

Created by: Josh Carson and Andy Kraft

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: A comic and very fictionalized version of the true story of Orville and Wilber Wright who built and flew the world's first airplane.

Highlights: This show is a whole lotta fringey fun. Josh Carson and Andy Kraft are the odd couple brothers, the serious and ambitious Orville and the dimwitted and accident prone Wilbur. Sulia Altenberg is their no nonsense sister who longs to go to college and, you know, vote. Jim Robinson is their widowed Bishop father, just trying to hold the family together. We witness their first attempts at flight, during which Josh and Andy throw their bodies around the theater with abandon and no regard to their own safety, which is great fun for the audience. This cast is fantastic and hilarious (also including Mike Fotis and Tucker Garborg). But perhaps the best part of the show is the Greek chorus singing pop songs (Karissa Lade, Leslie Vincent, and Olivia Hedeman), the songs perfectly chosen (the most obvious being "I Believe I Can Fly").

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2017: "Synchronicity"

Day: 7

Show: 26

Title: Synchronicity

Category: Comedy

By: Raw Sugar

Created by: Raw Sugar

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: The story of a community synchronized swimming team in the early '90s marred by all the drama of being a teenage girl.

Highlights: This super cute show full of '90s references (Blossom, Joey Lawrence, Rainbow Brite) builds to the even cuter synchronized swimming routine. The girls in a summer team go to their first big meet, and inter-personal drama threatens to get in the way. The seven-person cast (Constance Brevell, Danielle Krivinchuk, Michelle Casali, Sarah Parker, Starla Larson, Sulia Altenberg, and director Rebekah Rentzel filling in when I saw the show) are all pretty adorable tween girls with all their drama and seriousness and note-writing and glee. In fact it's such an accurate (if exaggerated) depiction of that difficult age I almost felt sick to my stomach remembering the trauma! The costumes (designed by Sulia) are spot on with the stone-washed jeans and array of swimming suits, as is the styling, complete with side ponies. And seriously, that routine is the best!

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Red Velvet" by Walking Shadow Theatre Company at Southern Theater

In just four days, I saw two plays in which an actor of color donned white face. A little strange, a little disturbing, but a very good sign that the #TCTheater community is telling some important and relevant stories right now. Mu's Charles Francis Chan Jr.'s Exotic Oriental Murder Mystery deals head on with the practice of yellow face and Asian American stereotypes in media, while paying homage to real life pioneers of Asian American theater. Walking Shadow's Red Velvet deals with art, politics, and race in theater while telling the story of a real life pioneer of African American theater who had a successful career doing Shakespeare in Europe in the 19th Century. Both plays provide astute social commentary through historical stories that are also engaging and entertaining, and are both well worth seeing.

"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

Fringe Festival 2016: "Couple Fight II: Friends and Family"

Day: 6

Show: 28

Title: Couple Fight II: Friends and Family

Category: Comedy

By: Weggel-Reed Productions

Created by: Anna Weggel-Reed

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A return of last year's hilarious Couple Fight, with all new real-life fights between funny people who love each other.

Highlights: This is another simple premise that works. Fringe favorites reenact a real-life fight they had with a loved one - spouse, parent, friend, sister. Created by Anna Weggel-Reed, directed by Tom Reed, and written by the cast, it's the first Fringe show that brought me to tears of laughter. Sisters Angie Martin and Casey Haeg fight about nothing and everything, the way sisters do. Improv buddies Andy Hilbrands and Katy Kessler fight about (what else) the election. Lacey Zeiler fights with her 3-year-old daughter Lila (hilariously played by her husband John Zeiler) about bedtime. Married couple Rachael Davies and Andy Kraft fight about football, and who's more of a man. BFFs Sulia Altenberg and BriAnna M. Daniels fight about race (awkward!). Friends Anna Weggel-Reed and Richie McLarn fight about smoking on the U of M campus. And last but perhaps best, Emily Schmidt and her mother Pat reenact a scene at Target when Emily was a precocious 7-year-old. It's nicely put together with intro and ending scenes that include a snippet of all fights, and each scene is introduced like a boxing match (perfect for the in-the-round setting). And then little Lila shows up for the curtain call and steals the show.

Fringe Festival 2016: "Celebrity Book Club"

Day: 4

Show: 18

Title: Celebrity Book Club

Category: Comedy

By: Outlandish Productions

Written by: Jimmy LeDuc, Dan Hetzel, and Sulia Rose Altenberg

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A mock TV show in which a host, producer, and assistant talk about books written by celebrities, with a different theme and special guest panel (comprised of Fringe favorites) at every performance.

Highlights: Funny people reading ridiculous books that probably only got published because the author is a celebrity. Simple premise, but it works, especially with the creative team of Jimmy LeDuc (the producer keeping the show going), Dan Hetzel (the genial and slightly smarmy host), and Sulia Rose Altenberg (the helpful and sometimes hostile assistant). I attended on "Celebrity Fiction or Poetry" night, so I enjoyed the poems of Jewel read by Avi Aharoni, Ally Sheedy's poems (some of which were written during her stint at Hazeldon) read by Joshua English Scrimshaw, Pamela Anderson's novel Star Struck, read by Jen Scott, and finally, selections from Touch Me: The Poems Suzanne Sommers, read by Eric Webster. It's a fun and informal show, kind of like a late-night talk show recurring skit, with the audience given the vote on each book whether to "shelve it" or "trash it." The thin premise succeeds because of the talent, humor, and charm of the regulars and special guests.

"The Diary of Anne Frank" at Park Square Theatre

Some 32,000 students a year head to Park Square Theatre's two-stage downtown St. Paul space to see theater that is just for them. Many of Park Square's regular shows have a handful of student matinees, but there are also several shows that are primarily for students, with few, if any, evening performances for us grown-ups. But because I'm not a normal grown-up, I was able to get into a student matinee of one of the two shows for students this spring, The Diary of Anne Frank (the other is a captivating 90-minute Romeo and Juliet, which I saw last year). A theater full of hundreds of teenagers creates a much different atmosphere for watching theater, and watching the kids watch the play is almost as entertaining as watching the play itself. The Diary of Anne Frank is a play that must appeal to teenagers, with a main character that is herself just a typical teenager, despite living in hiding during the Holocaust. Anne's story and spirit are brought to life in an engaging production that's a pleasure for kids and grown-ups alike.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Backlash"

Day: 3

Show: 12 

Title: Backlash

Category: Comedy

By: Mainly Me Productions

Written by: Josh Carson

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A high school drama teacher by day and comedian by night becomes jealous when a student gets famous from a YouTube video of and gets an audition for SNL.

Highlights: Josh Carson wrote, directs, and stars in this story of a frustrated comedian named Bill who partners with a student and sometimes neglects his wife Allie (Sara Marsh) in the pursuit of comedy. When young Blair (Tucker Garborg) lands on The Today Show thanks to his video of Law and Order with farts, the three embark on a road trip to NYC to audition for Saturday Night Live. Along the way they meet a quirky young writer (Sulia Altenberg) and SNL's newest star who wants off the show (Andy Kraft). Rounding out the cast is Nels Lennes as the narrator and others, and they all work and play together well. Backlash is funny, a little bit ridiculous (they break into the set of SNL), topical, very fringey, and also has some real moments in the relationship of the couple. The road trip story is kind of silly, but it allows for some funny and real moments, and the closer "Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight" with a guest star from the audience is a winner.

Fringe Festival: "Hour Town"

Day: 7

Show: 22

Title: Hour Town

Category: Comedy

By: Dana's Boys

Created by: Dana's Boys

Location: Music Box Theatre

Summary: A condensed version of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, set in Minnesota with Garrison Keillor as the stage manager.

Highlights: This show is littered with Minnesota references, which I love. Everything from Joe Mauer's bilateral leg weakness to Jesse Ventura's recent court win, from Paul Bunyon to Little House on the Prairie, from pedal pubs to a list of Minnesota-made movies. But that's not the only thing that makes Hour Town unique. The creators have also added puppets, pop culture references, and music. While not everything works (as much as I love Grover, I don't understand what he was doing in the show, and the wedding dance break was fun but a bit weird, and "Super Trooper?"), enough of it works to make this show a delight. And while some of the poignancy of the original gets lost amidst the goofy humor, there's still a touch of it here, particularly in the repeated use of the song "Que Sera, Sera," which perfectly fits with Wilder's theme of appreciating life in the moment because you don't know what the future will be. The large cast does well with the many roles; Brad Erickson does a spot-on Garrison Keillor impression, and as the young lovers Drew Tennenbaum and Sulia Altenberg are fresh-faced and charming (and Sulia has a lovely voice and looks like a young Judy Garland, Minnesota reference not intended). It's a clever take on a classic and appeals to those of who unabashedly love (or at least love to complain about) our home state.