Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "Rejection"

Day: 10

Show: 34

Title: Rejection

Category: Comedy / Drama / LGBTQ+ Content

By: Theatre Corrobora

Written by: Hailey Colwell

Location: Augsburg Mainstage

Summary: A relationship dramedy about a group of friends whose relationships change when they take part in a study about relationships.

Highlights: Based on the title of the play you know someone's going to get rejected. But it's a story well told by the strong cast in this entertaining , if not particularly revelatory play. After discussing her relationship with the researcher, Sadie begins to doubt it, and confesses her fears to girlfriend Jade, who doesn't share her same fears. Their (seemingly) happily married friends Penny and Steven also talk to the researcher, revealing some cracks in their relationship as well. Single friend Margo is happy being solo (especially observing her friends' relationship troubles) but tries dating anyway. In the end everyone's life is changed by the study, which really just made clear the issues that were already festering (moral of the story: talk about your feelings). Perhaps a little predictable, but still enjoyable, and bonus points for the thoughtfully chosen instrumental soundtrack of love songs.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Based On / A True Story: Two New Plays" by Raw Sugar and Theatre Corrobora at Southern Theater

At the Southern Theater this weekend, you can see two new one-act plays, both very much worth seeing. They're very different plays, but what they have in common is that they're written and performed by women, telling their own personal, authentic stories. Produced by two companies whose work I want to support based on their mission ("Raw Sugar creates imaginative, adventurous productions led by feminists" and "Theatre Corrobora is a group of young artists who strive to create meaningful, challenging, and intelligent works of original theater by and about young women"), Fadeaway Girl and The Critic and the Drama Queen are both funny, thoughtful, and engaging new plays, and you should go see them (five performances this weekend only!).

Fringe Festival 2016: "It Always Rained in Paris"

Day: 9

Show: 40

Title: It Always Rained in Paris

Category: Drama

By: Theatre Corrobora

Written by: Hailey Colwell

Location: Phoenix Theater

Summary: A woman on the verge of divorcing her French husband invites the girl she nannied for 15 years ago in Paris to come to America to be a nanny for her children.

Highlights: Playwright Hailey Colwell was inspired to write this play after spending the last year working as a nanny in a wealthy neighborhood in Paris. I don't know how a 20-something writes so well about the feelings of nostalgia and regret that come with a few more years of life experience. This is a story tinged with nostalgia, as Ellie (Anna Olson) remembers her year in Paris, where she met her husband Nic (Bill Williamson). After realizing they love the idea of each other and the time they spent together in Paris more than the person they each have become, they're in the process of divorcing. Ellie invites the now grown-up Michele (Dani Pazurek) to America look after her children Gabriele (Louisa Schirmacher) and Bastien (Huxley Westemeier) in hopes that the connection to Paris will somehow help. In a way it does, as Ellie confronts her reasons for being so obsessed with Paris, yet never wanting to go back, and finally begins to get unstuck. The cast beautifully brings this story and these very human characters to life, and live music by John Hilsen on keyboard perfectly sets the tone of nostalgic melancholy.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Girlhood"

Day: 5

Show: 21

Title: Girlhood

Category: Comedy

By: The Snelling Fire Brigade

Written by: Hailey Colwell (age 11) and Hailey Colwell (age 21)

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: A young girl's journal comes to life interspersed with scenes from her present life ten years later.

Highlights: Writer Hailey Colwell turned her childhood journal (from age 11 to 15) into a sweet and poignant play about the hopes, dreams, and disappointments of growing up. Like the movie Boyhood that presumably inspired the name, not much happens, but all of the non-happenings add up to a life. Young Hailey is consumed with friends, school, sports, the school play, and missing her mom. Adult Hailey has similar interests but is also facing the more serious issues of relationships, college, and a career. She's inspired by finding her journal and remembering the dreams she once had that she's since become disillusioned about. Hailey is played by three equally appealing young women of varying ages who look like they could be the same person - Chloe Stromberg, Michaela Stromberg, and Corinne Nugent (I'm assuming at least the first two are related). We also see some journal scenes acted out by the ensemble, along with scenes from the college-aged Hailey's life that relate to the journal entries being read. Along with youthful frivolities, young Hailey has some deeper thoughts, and adult Hailey has done a great job constructing a narrative around them.