MN Fringe Festival-Part One

Being here in Minneapolis is a thrill. The atmosphere and personalities are all so positive, passionate and energetic. Everyone we meet, and you can't help meeting an enormous amount of people being out-of-towners, is always talking about the last thing they saw, and what they hear is a must-see. So for this blog, we'll go through a few things people have written about Winnemucca, and also give some nods to the best shows we've seen.

We've had three performances of Winnemucca, with an average audience of about 20 people, but that doesn't mean people aren't buzzing about our show. Everyone we talk to somehow says, "Oh right, the Jonah story I can't pronounce the title of! That's definitely on my list!" After the first weekend is when all the buzz of your first shows is supposed to set in, and those second week shows are supposed to fill up according to the word-of-mouth, so we're excited to see what kind of audiences we bring in for tonight and Wednesday's closing performance.

Here are a few quotes from some people who have liked our show, with links to full reviews:

"Enormously compelling.... Very Highly Recommended," Matthew Everett, TC Daily Planet, 08/01/09. Read the whole review here!

"The dialogue is by turns witty, poetic, and profane; the set is simple but evocative; the acting is uniformly excellent.... They're only here 'til Wednesday, folks-catch it while you can," Phillip Andrew Bennett Low, TC Daily Planet, 08/01/09. Read the whole review here!

Below are quotes from some of the user reviews, little reviews people can post on the site after having seen our show. These are posted by Fringe-goers, and have a lot to do with how your word of mouth picks up. They are rated between 0 and 5 kittens, and you can read them all by visitng our MN Fringe Festival homepage here!:

"DeJesus channels an incredible amount of subtlety and complexity through Jonah's befuddled interaction with this new world. Jenni Putney gives a fine turn as Suede Lucy, one of the casino's dancers. Will Brill brings the most incredible role, though...as Brill's characterization walks a razor's edge between charm and malice...it hardly seems like acting," Derek Miller, 5 Kittens.

"Creative and intriguing. After the show I talked with friends and family and everyone got something different from it. It kept me thinking for days afterwards. I am looking forward to more of these incredible Shelby Company's plays in the future. A must see," Dolores Kent, 5 Kittens.

"With its lovely, understated language and well developed characters, Winnemucca really succeeds in creating a grounded and engrossing world. There is some air of mystery that surrounds the world of the show which gives it this great energy that makes you not want to look away. I\'m sure there are many great things to come from this company of talented and boisterous folks," Zoe Schwartz, 5 Kittens.

"Each actor had a terrific performance, but I must say that Will Brill stole the show with his smarmy, volatile portrayal of Big Chet. A must see," AJ Sass, 5 Kittens.

And now to the shows we've loved and want everyone to see:

Auntie Dorris' You May Not Want to Know But I'm Gonna Tel You Anyway A-Thon: Created by our good friend Zoe Schwartz and also starring the uproarious Alan Metoskie, Auntie Dorris takes you on the ride of her life with fun monologues, witty banter with her accompanist and long-time lost love Frankie, her Russian pianist, and wonderful song-and-dances. With a glass of whiskey in her right, and a microphone in her left, Dorris takes on the story of her life, including her shoe-shining father who fled to London and her reunion with him on Oprah, a replay of a vaudeville number she did with her dead twin sister Debbie on the fateful evening she dropped dead on stage (cleverly using a mannequin in place of her twin), and a great audience schmoozing in the middle of "Baby, It's cold Outside" and duet with Frankie that quickly becomes a solo, with Dorris singing both parts. The show and performers are both hilarious, but there are a few touching and tender moments you can't help but feel for Dorris and the tragedies of her life. Playing at Intermedia Arts through Aug 8.

Storm Still: This creative and wildly entertaining adaptation of King Lear by the Nonsense Company is one of the best we've seen. With incredible sound design, 3 wonderful actors, and a sense of humor and knack for the unexpected, this show makes use of a school room at the Waldorf School as it's setting, with various school children who have been acting out King Lear for years. Ryan Higgins as Lear is wonderful, who has touching conversations backstage waiting to go on with his fool, Rick Burkhardt in a grand performance with nuance and realism (despite this wacky interpretation). Andy Gricevich, who rounds out the cast as Poor Tom, delivers tremendous monologues to the audience while the two others take your attention showing you various images and resetting the stage, all with that same incredible sound design surrounding you. It is certainly an attack of the senses, with even taste and touch fitting into the the two minutes of intermission where they pass around a tray of cookies and gooey edible eyes, where our only complaint comes in: the cookies were stale. The crowning moment was at the end of the show, for the past 90 minutes we hearing of the war and storm raging outside, an actual storm rattles the walls of the tiny school room, flashes of lightning invade the relative darkness of the house, and the sounds of heavy rain and thunder underscore the final text of Storm Still with an appropriateness you rarely see in theatre. It was one of those serendipitous instances when the very real outside world complements the engrossing world of the play at exactly the right moment. Can't wait to see this one at PS-122 in NYC, who commissioned the piece, where we'll have a better chance of catching the intricacies of the show and where there will be fresher cookies.