"Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story" by Wayward Theatre at the James J. Hill House

For an alternative (or complement) to the Guthrie Theater's annual production of A Christmas Carol, head across the river and see what the creative minds at Wayward Theatre Company are bringing to this classic story. Not only are they focusing on the ghostly aspects of the story and doing it in the gorgeous (and slightly spooky on a good day) James J. Hill House, but they're also performing in ten different locations around the house with three staggered groups of 30-person audiences walking around to the different locations. I always enjoy ambulatory site-specific theater, and this Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story is intricately planned, well executed, and provides an immersive (but not interactive) experience into this familiar and beloved tale of redemption. With three performance times every Wednesday through Sunday (except for Christmas Eve and Day) through New Year's Day, you have plenty of opportunities to follow Scrooge on his journey. But with only 30 tickets per show, and some performances already selling out, don't wait too long to secure your ticket.

"Macbeth" by Wayward Theatre Company at the James J. Hill House

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's creepiest and darkest plays. Which makes it a perfect choice to produce during Halloween season, at the James J. Hill House which, while elegant during the day, is a bit creepy after hours. Wayward Theatre Company, experts at site-specific theater, is doing not only that, but also moving the audience around the house to eight different performance locations. For a three-hour play, the walking around adds interest and keeps the blood flowing. This intimate and immersive (but not interactive) show feels immediate and brings out all of the horror of this tale of unbridled greed.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: Wrap-Up and Favorites

Well #TCTheater friends, we made it through another Minnesota Fringe Festival - 11 whirlwind days of theater, dance, comedy, clowning, storytelling, and so much more. I saw a total of 36 shows this year, which is actually my lowest total in the last 5 years, but I'm OK with that. At this point I'm getting better at choosing shows, so I feel like I saw 36 really good shows. And yes, there are many good or great shows I missed, but such is the nature of Fringe. I also noticed a very exciting trend this year, which is more shows by and about women. Of the 36 shows I saw, 20 were written (or co-written) by women, 19 were directed by women, 21 featured all or mostly female casts, and many dealt specifically with women's issues. This trend of more than half of shows being written and directed by women is one I would love to see continue throughout the theater season.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "Far Away by Caryl Churchill"

Day: 8

Show: 29

Title: Far Away by Caryl Churchill

Category: Drama / Horror / Political Content

By: Wayward Theatre Company

Directed by: Sarah Nargang

Location: Rarig Center Arena

Summary: A terrifying post-apocolyptic world in which countries, animals, vocations, and even nature take sides in a brutal war.

Highlights: Wow, this one is super creepy cool. And admittedly, I didn't fully understand what happened until I talked to a friend who had read it and looked at the credits. Which just makes me want to see it again, because there's so much there. It starts off innocently enough, with a young girl staying at her aunt's house who's harmlessly folding laundry. When the girl tells her aunt of a scene of blood and people held captive just outside the house, her aunt assures here that her uncle is helping people, and only killing "traitors." Cut to a factory of people making hats, for some unknown nefarious purpose (yes, nefarious hats), and the young girl is now grown up and a new hat maker, learning the ways of the company. In the final scene all hell has broken loose, literally, with a full-on bloody war between ever changing sides. There's loads of symbolism that would take more space and thought than I have time to give it to unpack. The story is fluidly and stylistically told by the ensemble, even the props (whitewashed boxes of different sizes frequently moved around to create different environments and bright, beautiful, weird hats) and costumes (shades of white and gray) help to to the story. But perhaps my favorite part of the play is the four-piece band that plays during scene changes, original songs (I assume?) so haunting and cool that I hope they're a real band so I can buy all of their albums (music direction by Tim McVean). This is an odd, disturbing, and perplexing little play (it's Caryl Churchill, so of course it is), thoughtfully, hauntingly, beautifully brought to life by Wayward Theatre.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"The Weir" by Wayward Theatre at Urban Growler Brewing

Sitting in a pub, drinking beer, listening to one of my favorite songs by my favorite musician Glen Hansard ("Revelate," which more accurately is by The Frames), about to watch an Irish play - this pretty much describes my ideal Tuesday night. I love Irish culture, I love beer, and I love site-specific theater. Irish playwright Conor McPherson's play The Weir is pretty much just five people sitting in a pub trading stories, and the cozy space at Urban Growler Brewing (the first woman-owned microbrewery in Minnesota!) was chosen wisely by Wayward Theatre (which has also brought us Tartuffe at the James J. Hill House and Ghost Train at the Minnesota Transportation Museum). Head to Urban Growler (off 280 and University in St. Paul), grab a beverage from the tap room (or even a pre-show dinner, from the smell of it they have great food too), head back to the pub/theater space, and settle in for some good craic.

Minnesota Fringe Festival: Five-Fifths of Jurassic Park at the Ritz Theater

Hey theater friends, the Minnesota Fringe Festival is less than three months away! The largest unjuried theater festival in the nation begins August 3, runs for 11 days, and usually includes about 170 shows at a dozen or so venues around town. The kick-off event (after the lottery, which was held earlier this year and determined who will perform in the festival) is the annual Five-Fifths show, a fundraiser that showcases all that is wonderful about MN Fringe. The crazy brilliant people at the Fringe take a popular movie, slice it into five parts, and give each part to a company to do a Fringe-style adaptation. Then the five fifths are mashed together to make one crazy whole. It's great ridiculous fun and really gives you a taste of what the Fringe has to offer, in addition to raising money to help "adventurous artists meet adventurous audiences."

"Ghost Train" by Wayward Theatre and Mission Theatre at the Minnesota Transportation Museum

Wayward Theatre Company, the company that recently brought us an "innovatively imagined and well executed" Tartuffe at the James J. Hill House, is now partnering with Mission Theatre Company to bring us the deliciously fun and spooky Ghost Train in another one of 19th century railroad millionaire James J. Hill's buildings. The Jackson Street Roundhouse was once a maintenance facility for the Great Northern Railway, and now houses the Minnesota Transportation Museum. Filled with old trains and displays about the long ago era of train travel, it's perhaps the coolest space in which I've ever experienced theater. Or maybe that's just my inner Sheldon Cooper talking. But there's no doubt that surrounded by all of this historic equipment and memorabilia, it's quite easy to be transported back to the 1920s by this comedy/melodrama/thriller play and its terrific cast and detailed design.

"Tartuffe" by Wayward Theatre Company at the James J Hill House

I love seeing theater in non-traditional theater spaces; it shakes me out of the usual and allows me to see theater in a different way. These days, it's becoming a necessity for the many nomadic theater companies in town to look outside the box when planning to mount a show (see also Frank Theatre's Good Person of Setzuan in an abandoned Rainbow Foods). Happily, the James J. Hill House seems to be quite amenable to hosting theatrical events; I've seen three plays there in the last six months. It's a gorgeous and historic building, and lends itself quite well to a variety of projects, from a comic opera like Marriage of Figaro, to a creepy horror tale like Bluebeard's Dollhouse, to a 17th Century French comedy. The latter can currently be seen in the grand surroundings on St. Paul's Summit Avenue (once the home of more millionaires than any other street in the country), in the form of new-to-me Wayward Theatre Company's innovatively imagined and well-executed Tartuffe. I can't help thinking the Hill family would be thrilled to know people are experiencing wonderful theater in their home.