"Red Speedo" by Walking Shadow Theatre Company at the Hamline University Pool

Just a few days after seeing an incredible site-specific performance of The Courtroom by Jungle Theater in a Hamline University courtroom classroom (which will be performed at the Jungle for the next few weeks), I returned to the lovely St. Paul campus for another incredible site-specific performance. Walking Shadow Theatre Company (which recently held a Feast at Black Forest Inn) is performing the Lucas Hnath play Red Speedo at Hamline's competitive swimming pool. The play is about a competitive swimmer who admits to his brother that he's been doping, and all of the action takes place at the pool. So why not stage it at a pool?! I love site-specific theater, because half of the work is done for you. You don't have to imagine you're in a courtroom or a pool, because you actually are. Then it's just sit back and enjoy the show as it plays out in a location where the story actually takes place. With Red Speedo, there's a lot to enjoy - a smart and concise script that deals with thorny issues, a strong four-person cast performing just a few feet in front of you, and a realistic and immersive design (caution: you might get splashed). Put on your flip flops and head to the pool weekends through July 1.

"Kodachrome" streaming from Locally Grown Theatre

One good thing to come out of this extended intermission from live theater is discovering new theater companies. I had not previously heard of Locally Grown Theatre, a community theater in "Cottage Grove, St. Paul Park, Newport, Grey Cloud Island, and the surrounding area," but this week I watched a virtual play in the zoom style of theater and quite enjoyed it. Kodachrome is a sweet little Our Town-ish play about life in a small town, with all the mundanity and profundity that entails. Even though they're each performing in their own little box, the seven-person cast (although disappointingly lacking in diversity) all give wonderful performances that create a feeling of community in this story of love and loss.

"Mary Poppins" at Lakeshore Players Theatre

Do you know who your local community theater is? There are so many great community theaters in the #TCTheater area that it's impossible to keep track of them all. But I encourage everyone to find one in your area and support them. There are so many people working so hard for little reward other than seeing your smiling face in the audience. My local community theater is Lakeshore Players Theatre* in White Bear Lake, which opened a gorgeous new building about a year ago. The final production in their first full season in their new space is Mary Poppins, a show that celebrates imagination, determination, play, and family. I'll admit that the biggest draw to see this show was seeing one of my #TCTheater favorites Quinn Shadko as Mary Poppins, but the whole show is just darling. If you're in the Northeast metro be sure to visit them in the Hanifl Performing Arts Center, or check out what theater is happening in your neighborhood.

"Sense and Sensiblity" at Lyric Arts

The new adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, which premiered in 2014 and played at the Guthrie in 2016, has made its way to Lyric Arts' Main Street Stage. As I wrote in 2016, playwright and actor Kate Hamill has adapted the beloved novel "with theatricality, wit, and purpose" (she also adapted Little Women, which premiered at the Jungle last fall, and Pride and Prejudice, just announced as part of Park Square Theatre's 2019-2020 season). Now is a great time for these women's stories written by women to be adapted for today's audience by a young female playwright; audiences are hungry for it. Lyric's production is a delightful and charming version of this sisterhood story.

"The Best Brothers" by Loudmouth Collective at Open Eye Figure Theatre

Consider this my annual plug for Loudmouth Collective, one of my favorite new theater companies, if you can still call them "new" after four seasons of smart, intense, funny, beautifully executed theater. They only do two shows a year (often including one at the Fringe), and typically only run for two weekends, so you need to be quick to catch them. And trust me, you will be rewarded. I've been with them since the beginning and they never disappoint. Firstly, their choice of plays is interesting and excellent, small-cast (often one or two actors), smartly written, bitingly funny or darkly absurd or heart-breakingly beautiful or some combination thereof. Secondly, the production always brings out the best in the play thanks to the great artists involved. Daniel MacIvor's two-person drama about brothers coming together after the death of their mother seems tailor made for Loudmouth. It would behoove you to get your tickets now to see this funny, bittersweet, and well-acted gem before it's gone!

Fringe Festival 2015: "Pretty Girls Make Graves"

Day: 1

Show: 4

Title: Pretty Girls Make Graves

Category: Something Different

By: Loudmouth Collective

Written by: Sam Landman

Location: Phoenix Theater

Summary: Two women meet after a man they both loved died, and bond over '80s bands, boxed wine, and vintage exercise equipment.

Highlights: I never miss a Loudmouth Collective show. They specialize in smart, well-written, intense, small-cast shows that are funny or heartbreaking or both. Written by Artist in Residence Sam Landman (also check out his One-Act-A-Week project) and directed by Artistic Director Natalie Novacek, this new play falls neatly in Loudmouth's wheelhouse. It's one of those two-people-sitting-in-a-room-talking plays, which I love, especially when the talk is this smart and funny and real. After she finds out her boyfriend died, Carla (Emily Dussault) goes to his apartment and meets his sister BMX (Katie Willer). They discuss his love of Jethro Tull, Carla's love of The Smiths, and Carla's love of Duran Duran. But even if you, like me, don't get a single one of the music references (I spent the '80s watching sitcoms, not listening to music), you can still enjoy this little slice of life and exploration of two characters that feels very real, until it takes a surreal turn. See this show for sharp writing, directing, and acting - one of the more professional shows you'll see at the Fringe.

"A Bright New Boise" by Loudmouth Collective at Open Eye Figure Theatre

Loudmouth Collective is closing their third season with another show that is firmly in their wheelhouse of smart, deep, intense, often funny, always thought-provoking, small cast, beautifully directed and acted plays. I've been with them since the beginning, when the surprisingly sweet and touching Gruesome Playground Injuries landed on my favorites list that year. Since then they've done a couple of stellar one-man shows, an absurd comedy, and a Fringe show about talking cats. A Bright New Boise fits in well with that group of plays and helps to further define Loudmouth's point of view, one that's definitely worth paying attention to. It's a beautifully complex play, at times funny, at times utterly devastating, and completely engrossing. I know it's only mid-January, but this is by far the best thing I've seen so far this year.

A Bright New Boise takes place in the break room of a Hobby Lobby in, yes, Boise. It doesn't take long to learn that new employee Will has a reason for being there - to reunite with his teenage son Alex, given up for adoption when he was a baby. Will has other secrets in his past that are slowly revealed throughout the course of the play, and is facing a big crisis of faith after the rapture cult he belonged to ended in tragedy. He's a broken man, trying to figure out a new way of living and having trouble letting go of the past. Having grown up in foster care, Alex has troubles of his own and isn't so willing to let Will in. He slowly agrees to, but on his terms, and protective older brother Leroy is there to intercede if need be. Will meets a new friend in fellow employee Anna, who tries to get him to open up. All of this drama is happening under the supervision of Pauline, who just wants to make this the best Hobby Lobby it can be and is frustrated when her employees' issues get in the way of that.

This isn't a play with a happy ending or really any sort of closure. It just ends, and life goes on. It's the kind of play where you can easily imagine these characters' lives occurring before, after, and outside of the space of the play. They all have lives fully lived, the details of which are merely hinted at in some cases, but the feeling of which is heavily present. The world of the play is so completely engrossing that intermission came as a shock, jarring me back to reality after being completely in this world. The play is long enough that it probably needs an intermission, but I wish it didn't because the typical intermission chatter and phone-checking just distracted me from this world and these people I found so fascinating.

The tone that director Natalie Novacek has set for the piece is so perfect, and walks that line between comedy and intense drama so well. I especially love how the scenes are carried into the scene changes. As the lights darken, the characters remain in the moment for a few breaths, before slowly picking up and moving towards the next scene. Nothing is forced or rushed, but plays out in its own time, with beautiful moments of silence and awkwardness. Open Eye features an adorably tiny stage with an arch, and usually things take place under and in front of the arch. But in this case the break room set is set behind the arch, giving the impression of peering through a peep hole into this perfectly specific and well-defined diorama of a world.

Anna Hickey, Spencer Harrison Levin, and Adam Whisner

This excellent cast is headlined by a beautifully subtle performance by Adam Whisner as Will. He's a quiet man with not a whole lot going on externally, but so much going on internally, all of it brilliantly conveyed by Adam in the hesitating way he speaks, the eye movements, the awkward way he moves around people. Will's past isn't fully explained until the end of the play, but it's clear from the moment we meet him that this is a man who's deeply damaged and lost. There's so much that's big and loud in theater, it's refreshingly lovely to see a performance that's so quiet but equally as dramatic and full of meaning.

The other star of the show is Spencer Harrison Levin as Alex. He's only a senior in high school (although a performing arts high school), but it's already obvious that he's a true talent. His performance as this troubled teen is so believable and natural, funny and heart-breaking. As Pauline, Karen Weise-Thompson is, as always, hilarious, providing much needed comic relief, but she also makes this woman who's proud of her work and her store real and not just a caricature. Rounding out the cast are Zach Garcia as Leroy and Anna Hickey as Anna, who also give great performances in these supporting roles.

Loudmouth Collective does consistently great work - smart choices, excellent casts, and cheap tickets - just $15 with special savings on some nights. The only thing I don't like about Loudmouth Collective is that they only do two shows a year with typically short runs. There are only eight performances of A Bright New Boise over two weekends. If you've never seen Loudmouth before, I highly recommend you check them out to see some smart, funny, thought-provoking, devastating, beautiful theater. This is the kind of show that will stay with you for a while.

"Fuddy Meers" by Loudmouth Collective at nimbus theatre

It's fun to see multiple works by the same playwright, and look for similarities and differences between them. Loudmouth Collective's Fuddy Meers is the third play by David Lindsay-Abaire that I've seen in the last year. I could easily see the similarities between Rabbit Hole and Good People; both are intense family dramas dealing with serious issues with humor and realism. At first glance Fuddy Meers seems to be a bit of an anomaly. The situations are surreal and wildly comic - a woman who wakes every morning with amnesia, the damaged and crazy man who kidnaps her, her mother who speaks in mostly nonsensical sentences, a man who speaks through a sock puppet. While one could easily see oneself and one's friends and families in the characters and scenes in the former two plays, it's a bit of a stretch with Fuddy Meers. But by the end of the play, I could more easily see how it fit with the others - the same relatable and real characters, just in more absurd situations.

Fuddy Meers is part mystery, part madcap comedy, and part touching family drama. The mystery comes in as we join amnesiac Claire (Noë Tallen, very charming and open) in her journey to discover who she is and what happened to her. She wakes every morning with no memory, and is therefore happy and childlike, with no memory of the pain she's experienced. Her genial husband Richard (Leif Jurgensen) patiently explains the situation to her, while her surly teenage son Kenny (a completely natural Spencer Harrison Levin) just wants to go about his normal surly teenage life. Claire is surprised by a man (an effectively creepy Matt Sciple) who claims he's there to rescue her from her husband, and takes her to her mother Gertie's house. Gertie has suffered a stroke and has trouble forming sentences (in a quite brilliant performance by Karen Weise-Thompson, who believes every word she's saying, even if the words make no sense). They soon meet the crazy man's friend/accomplice Millet and his hand puppet (Paul Rutledge, equally good as both). Meanwhile, Richard and Kenny go looking for Claire and are waylaid by a cop (Katie Willer). They all end up at Gertie's house, which is where the madcap comedy ensues as the plan goes wrong, guns go off, puppets disclose truths, and everyone reaches their wit's end. The puzzle pieces begin to fall into place, and we learn just what happened and how everyone fits in. In the end, the touching family drama can be seen through the man who loves his wife and the son who loves his mother, and just want her to return to them, which has become a daily process.

Loudmouth Collective is a newish theater company, in just their second season, but all of their work that I've seen has been great - interesting choices of smart, well-written, complex plays, and wonderful actors. This cast of seven is large for them; previous pieces have been one- or two-person shows. It's a nice ensemble and they work and play well together, as directed by Artistic Director Natalie Novacek. A fun feature are the dancing scene changes which keep the mood light and the momentum going, and keep the audience from getting bored as furniture is shuffled about.

Performances continue this weekend and next at nimbus theatre's NE Minneapolis space, with ticket prices just $15 (or $10 with a Fringe button). Definitely worth checking out for an inexpensive and entertaining night at the theater.

"Cul-de-Sac" by Loudmouth Collective at Open Eye Figure Theatre

Loudmouth Collective is a new theater company that specializes in small ensemble or solo pieces. They open their second season with the latter - a solo play called Cul-de-Sac, featuring Wade A. Vaughn playing nine different characters. It's a bit of a murder mystery, but really the murder is an excuse to explore these characters, as each gets a chance to tell their own story. At a ticket price of $15 for a 90-minute show in an intimate space, featuring great writing and acting, it's a bargain and a new, cool, accessible kind of theater.

In Cul-de-Sac, Leonard tells his story from the other side - he has been murdered in his home. His neighbors add their perspectives of the story, as does his murderer. Leonard is a sympathetic character, as we hear differing opinions of him from his neighbors in addition to hearing his own truth directly from him. Playing all of these roles is Wade Vaughn, who made a great impression in last year's Ivey award-winning Compleat Female Stage Beauty. Anytime I've seen Wade on stage, it's almost like a one-man show; he commands the stage in a way that makes everything else fall away. Here, there is nothing else on stage with him - no furniture or costume changes, his only props are a lighter and a watch. He (with help from director Natalie Novacek) has created a specific physicality and voice for each of the characters, from a 13-year-old girl (who is complex in the way that only 13-year-old girls are complex) to an elderly man. Each one of them talks about their relationship with Leonard, but in doing so they convey something about themselves and their life. The writing creates a voice for each of them, and Wade gives them a physical presence. In one neighborhood party scene he slips back and forth between the characters at a dizzying speed. Watching him slip into and out of each one's skin is fascinating and compelling, as the 90 minutes fly by. The writing by Daniel MacIvor is at times beautiful, describing sound as a ball of energy that travels around a neighborhood, and comparing that to an old-fashioned letter traveling from sender to recipient through many hands. And it's funny too at times.

This is a sort run, eight performances only, and the next Loudmouth show is not until next January, so if you like your theater short and succinct, potent and poignant, raw and compelling, go check them out now while you can. (More information and reservations here.)

"Thom Pain (based on nothing)" by Loudmouth Collective at Open Eye Figure Theater

We create community.
We have fun.
We're small.
We want to share a drink.
We get it.
We love language.
We don't waste your time.
We are sick of apathy.
We tell stories.

This is how the new theater company Loudmouth Collective describes themselves. I think all of those things are fantastic, as are all of their shows that I've seen. OK technically Thom Pain (based on nothing) is the first Loudmouth Collective production I've seen, but their first show was a remount of one of my favorite shows of 2012, The Peanut Butter Factory's Gruesome Playground Injuries, and Artistic Director Natalie Novacek (who directs this piece) also directed one of my favorite Fringe Fest shows of last year, Joe Dowling's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on the Moon, Featuring Kate Mulgrew as Lady Capulet. So I feel like I've got the gist of what they're all about. And that is: interesting, intelligent, funny, a little bizarre, thought-provoking, unique, meaningful theater. It's good stuff, friends, check it out.

I can't really tell you what this play is about. As the title says, it's based on nothing. In this one-man show, a character called Thom Pain tells stories directly to the audience for 70 minutes straight. Stories about a sad little boy, a dog, bees, a love gone wrong. Stories that draw you in, painting pictures with words, and then snap you back to reality. It's sort of faux-interactive; Thom talks to people in the crowd, but it's all part of the show. It's always a little scary when the house lights go up, but don't be afraid, you're among friends. I just hope you're paying attention.

As Thom Pain, Sam Landman gives a terrific performance, the kind of performance that makes you forget that this is an actor playing a part, and begin to think that he's really just this crazy/profound guy going on a 70-minute existential rant. It's a pretty remarkable feat just to perform this piece that's so dense with words, but Sam also manages to convey a range of emotions - pain, anger, confusion, loss, frustration, longing. It's intense and captivating, and quite fascinating to watch.


This is my first time attending a theater production at Open Eye Figure Theatre, although I was there once for a concert. It's a great little space. Small and intimate, with a brick arch over the stage, it's a nice place to watch theater. The stage is completely bare for this show, except for a dictionary on a stand. The lighting (by Stephanie Richards) is the only thing that creates the mood; Thom is almost in conversation with the lights.

I'm really at a loss for what else to say about this piece, partly because I'm still processing it, and party because I don't want to spoil any of the delightfully perplexing surprises in the show if you go see it. And if you're looking for something unique and different, you definitely should go see it. Thom Pain (based on nothing) plays for one more weekend at the Open Eye Figure Theatre; reserve your tickets here. And remember - pay attention!

Fringe Festival 2012: Joe Dowling's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on the Moon, Featuring Kate Mulgrew as Lady Capulet

Day: 1

Show: 3

Title: Joe Dowling's William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on the Moon, Featuring Kate Mulgrew as Lady Capulet

By: The Peanut Butter Factory

Written by: Christopher Kehoe

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: In this play-within-a-play, a renowned local theater is doing a completely ridiculous version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, set on the moon with the Capulets as aliens, the Montagues as humans, and the Friar as a robot, complete with stunt casting (for those non-Trekkie's like myself, Kate Mulgrew played Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager). Five audience members give us their varying opinions and experiences with the play - a critic, a Star Trek fangirl, an understudy, a professor, and man who's attending the play with a woman who is not his wife.

Highlights: This is by far the best of the four shows I saw on my first day at the Fringe. First, the brilliant writing by Christopher Kehoe (who's also hilarious as the pretentious theater critic), in which he very successfully weaves together certain pivotal scenes from Romeo and Juliet with the commentators critiques. He also uses the actors' real names and backgrounds as fodder for the satire (e.g., Alex Brightwell really did recently graduate from the U of M/Guthrie BFA program, Max Wojtanowicz really did appear in the Children's Theater's "Ivey-Award-winning" production of Romeo and Juliet). This play pokes fun at just about everything about this sort of big budget spectacle theater, but in a good-hearted way (see the lovely note below about the real Joe Dowling, Artistic Director of the Guthrie Theater). It also illustrates that everyone's experience with theater, or any art form, is different, depending on what we bring to the theater that day. Whether it's "I have to pee," or our education and past experiences, or the person we're sitting next to, it all affects what we get out of the show. What is seen as crap and a waste of time to most of the audience turns out to be, for one man, what "saved my life." And that's the beauty of art. I have to mention the cast that is all-around fantastic (even the robot!), from the play-within-a-play actors who manage to give such convincing, if slightly over-the-top, performances of this classic play seemingly oblivious to the craziness going on around them that I almost wish I could see the entire fictional production, to the five outsiders who lets us see the play through their eyes, especially Dawn Brodey as the professor who lectures her students about the obvious (to her) misogyny of the piece. This is the second play produced by The Peanut Butter Factory (a producing company, not a theater company) and directed by Natalie Novaceck that I've loved (see also Gruesome Playground Injuries), and it makes me excited to see what they'll do next.

Tip: If you go to see this show (and you should), you might want to consider buying tickets in advance. I went to the first performance and it was almost sold out. This show clearly had a lot of pre-show buzz, which is only going to increase as people see it.

Read more of my fringe fest reflections...

a note from the playwright about the play's namesake
(click on image for a larger view)

"Gruesome Playground Injuries" presented by The Peanut Butter Factory at Intermedia Arts

The Peanut Butter Factory is not a theater company.  It's a production company that basically provides the infrastructure for independent theater artists so that they can present their work, without being attached to a theater company (read more about it here).  Sounds pretty cool to me, and with some familiar names on the list of Producing Associates (like Bradley Greenwald), I knew I had stumbled onto a good thing.  I was invited to attend their current production, Gruesome Playground Injuries, by the director, Natalie Novacek.  I decided to check it out, expecting it to be a fun, light-hearted look at friendship and growing up.  But it was so much more than that.  It was unexpectedly poignant, heartfelt, moving, and really very sweet.

Kayleen and Doug meet in their school nurse's office at the age of 8, he having "broken his face," and she having thrown up due to a "sensitive stomach."  The play jumps forward and backward in time from there, visiting important moments in their relationship, which all seem to be marked by some injury or illness.  Doug is accident prone, or more accurately he's one of those daredevil kids that constantly gets himself into situations where he gets hurt.  Leeny (as only Doug calls her) has injuries and scars that are more internal.  She takes out her life's anguish by cutting herself, eventually ending up in a mental hospital.  Through it all, these two friends are there for each other, despite often going years without seeing each other.  To say they love each other unconditionally doesn't even scratch the surface.  They know each other as well as they know themselves, and love each other as an extension of themselves.  If Doug and Kayleen had a theme song, it would be this from Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson: "It's not blood, it's a metaphor for love.  These aren't veins just the beating of my heart.  This fever isn't real, it represents how I feel, my pain transformed into art."


Kayleen visits Doug after one of his more gruesome injuries
(photo by Justin D. Gallo Photography)

Unfortunately I've never had a 30-year friendship like this, but there is much in the story I can relate to.  I'm the same age as these characters, so the timeline feels familiar (marked with music of the day).  I also went to a Catholic grade school, and was traumatized when my best friend in first grade fell off the monkey bars during recess and smashed her face up.  I can still see it clearly; gruesome playground injuries stay with you.  And the scene in which Doug and Kayleen are 13 years old and at a school dance brought back that awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that only a 7th grade dance can give you.

Doug and Kayleen share their scars
(photo by Justin D. Gallo Photography)

The story moves between timepoints seamlessly, and even if it were not printed in the program, the audience would know approximately where these characters are in their lives, based on accessories (eye patch, bow in the hair) and the way the actors inhabit their characters.  Adam Whisner and Leigha Horton (whom I saw in Minnesota Middle Finger at the Fringe last summer) bare their souls (and their bodies) on stage, and you really can't ask much more of an actor.  They have a believable chemistry, and successfully portray the different ages from 8 to 38.  Between scenes they change costumes and injuries on the side of the stage, in full view of the audience.  They were chatting and laughing, sharing inside jokes, and I wasn't sure if it was in character or not.  Either way it added to the feeling of familiarity between these two people. 

This is why I do this, friends.  To go to an out of the way, under the radar theater with zero expectations, and be totally surprised and delighted and touched and moved.  It doesn't get much better than that.  That's why I love theater; it'll get you when and where you least expect it.  Only two performances remain of this hidden gem, catch it while you still can!  And at just $10 a ticket, you won't find a better theater deal in town.

*I received one free ticket to attend the show.  But because I enjoyed it so much and think that the whole structure of it is pretty cool, I donated to their Kickstarter campaign, as you can do too if you wish!