#minnesotafringe

[rndyounghowze]

Martin Dockery Gives Us What We Need To Hear “Right Now”

This al fresco monologue of the #mnfringe starts with a tick and ends with enlightenment.

Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Minnesota Fringe

Forty years from now we’ll be describing this show to our therapist. They’ll probably be charging us extra when we say that it started with crickets, then a man’s voice, and then a graphic description of a tick lodged on a man’s nether regions. However they’ll really think we’re insane when we say that all in all the experience was therapeutic.

That was how the monologue that Martin Dockery titled “Right Now” chose to start out the show. You get more and more uncomfortable and you start to wonder if you really can sit through all of this. I mean he talks about the tick on his most floppy of bits for a long time. As you bear with it (the monologue not the floppy bit) Dockery dives deeper into his life and we get somewhere deeper.

You see what Dockery likes to do is put you in a state of uncomfort, confusion, tension, or uneasiness to get you into the appropriate emotional headspace for the world of his show. He wants to bring you on a certain journey and yes it did have to start with a tick on his private parts. Even we didn’t start there he couldn’t have brought us further into the rest of it. We couldn’t have been in the right headspace to talk about his beard or about living in a fishing village since lockdown or being the evil Spock.

Because what Dockery is really talking about is this present mess we’ve been living in, slowly getting older, and that feeling that we’ve all felt that we’ve stepped into the Twilight Zone. What he’s really talking about is finding a sense of peace in this world where there’s no normal. What he’s really talking about are the little moments of beauty like a child playing on a lawn while in the greater landscape chaos ensues.

Or maybe I’m giving Dockery too much credit and that’s the journey I went on listening to him. Maybe Dockery was only a backseat driver in the car with me telling me the route he was taking to this oasis in a wasteland. Maybe but maybe not. Whatever this was I have to say something I never thought I would say: Thanks for the story that opened with your Johnson. Now never make me type that sentence again.

To see more about Martin Dockery go here. To see the digital fringe before it’s too late go here. To buy a button and save the Fringe go here!

[rndyounghowze]

The Champagne Drops Take Us Back To The In-Between Years

Who knew that time travel was possible through the power of nostalgia and ukulele? Only on #mnfringe

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Minnesota Fringe

In their homes and front porches two singers decided to step into a musical time machine of their own making and go back to their teen years. Reading old journals, singing songs, and answering questions out of a hat Leslie Vincent and Emily Dussault bring us back to The In-Between Years.

We had just been coming off the high that was TV Tunes with Leslie Vincent so it was very cool to see one of her other partners in crime. Both are passionate and witty performers and not afraid to look a little silly. It was very interesting to see what their pasts would inspire them to create. It was endearing to see them be so generous and open with their pasts. All of this came together as the perfect cocktail of a night’s entertainment.

At first I thought it would be weird to deep dive into nostalgia right now but it was actually quite refreshing. Emily and Leslie were in middle school about the same time that I was (Dana was a bit older) and it was refreshing to hear them play the songs of my childhood. (Okay now that’s a phrase I never thought I would say). I’m also a big fan of ukulele covers being a huge advocate for the accessibility and versatility of the little instrument.

The digital venue seems perfect for an online cabaret or digital night. It’s a platform where things don’t have to always be linear and narrative and you can take advantage of pre recorded segments to do acts that would have been difficult to segue into in a physical environment. Dana and I come from two different ends when it comes to pre recorded segments. Dana is a movie person first theatre second so she tends to think there’s a fine line between pre recorded segments and a movie masquerading as a digital play. I’m of the mindset that as long as people performing live are controlling the clips we’ll never really get there. While I’ve seen several shows that illustrate their point I think this performance was a perfect example of my point. Leslie and Emily somewhat seamlessly shifted between videos and their own performances to better curate our experience. To me this was a perfect balance.

Emily and Leslie’s original music evoked a musical that I hope to see one day. There was wit and charm and angst but also hopes and dreams and youthful innocence. They each made me want to dig into old journals of my own or write a letter to my past self and hope someday he reads it. It made me wish that anything was possible again. Thanks so much to the Champagne drops for giving me that.

To learn more about the Champagne Drops go here. To go to the digital hub go here. To save the Fringe and buy a button then stab these words!

[rndyounghowze]

The Universe Preserves: A Critical Analysis of Killjoy, Ohio

A show filmed in two separate houses illustrates a key principle of how our brain creates story at #mnfringe

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Minnesota Fringe

Queen City Flash is trying to show us the dramatic magic that can be created in your mind with just poetic language and minimal theatre techniques. Using narration and special tricks ingeniously created for the socially distanced stage they remind us that the real play is the one that happens on the backs of our eyelids. The true theatre isn’t the building or the lights or the sets it’s the artist creating an experience just for you even if you’re one in a hundred watching.

There are two ways that you can look at the zoom window. It can be said that whatever happens in the frame is the literal world. But that’s very limiting. I choose to see it as everything outside the frame is where the real magic is happening.

Imagine a magician doing a cups and balls act. Even though we “know” that the magician has really palmed the ball and put it in his pocket the minute it goes out of our sight our imagination says that ball is in the cup. Our brains sense the pattern and follow along with the story whether we like it or not. So when he picks up the cup and shows that the ball has disappeared we are a hundred percent amazed. Our brains worked with the magician to tell us that story.

Likewise our brains work with Trey and Jordan to tell this story. Somehow when Jordan takes a postcard and extends her hand out of frame and Trey brings his hand into the frame holding an identical postcard our brain “knows” that there are really just two identical postcards and that the two actors are really miles away in separate rooms. Trey even shows you this by filming himself walking into the closet and showing us what’s inside. But our imaginations write a different story. It writes a narrative for us that the two actors must only be a few feet from each other passing things back and forth. Your brain is a third collaborator with these two actors in their work making the play for them.

It’s technically what’s been going in our heads whenever we see good theatre. Our brain “knows” we’re in a theatre building but our imagination tells us when an actor walks out that door that he’s really going outside. Our brain tells us that there is an invisible fourth wall in between us and the actor. It’s always been working with our artists to make art with them. To tell you the truth great digital theatre is theatre that would work in just about any stage. However the digital platform shrinks the stage so that more and more of that magical “backstage” exists. So the most satisfying digital theatre is theatre that is twenty percent what we physically see and eighty percent what our imagination fills in for us. Our brains make the magic the platform just heightens it.

People have gotten a little bit testy about digital theatre and what it means going forward in the future. I can sympathize with them. Imagine making your living in the arts and now that space, that part of your life is now off limits. Imagine having whole seasons and plans that have been Bermuda Triangled away and a certain sect of people are now applauding a new form of theatre that you can’t take place in. It’s like you woke up asMarty McFly and Biff is in charge. You want to jump in your Delorean, go backwards in time, and fix it. But we can’t. We’re all going to be like the lost class of ‘96 for a long while. But there is a little bit of a path forward.

I would tell anyone mourning their disappeared seasons to watch this show. It’s practical stage craft applied to a new medium which relies on the power of the mind. This show exists both in this world and the one left behind. Just like a tree with a house inside you just have to squint your eyes to see it.

To see this show on the digital hub go here. To see more about Queen City Flash go here. To see the curse word laden version of this post then go to our Young-Howze Unfiltered Blog. To save the Fringe and buy a button then go here.

[rndyounghowze]

They Don’t Bite: A Critical Analysis of Love and Other Lures By Dr. Dour and Peach

This Monster Hunting Musical Duo Take #mnfringe by storm with a show that’s fun for them and fun for us.

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Minnesota Fringe

Dr. Dour and Peach (who have two very cool friends Toby Mulford and Rachel Spiknall-Mulford) have been creating a musically driven and monster themed show that has been taking music halls, burlesque shows, vaudeville acts, and Fringe Festivals by storm. Their commedia dell'arte vibe is no laughing matter even if their physical brand of comedy is a chuckle riot. They are veteran physical theatre performers steeped in all the different styles. Commedia is an aesthetic that predates the Renaissance but they also bring in comedy bits that are reminiscent of the Laurel and Hardy Heyday and old fashioned clowning. Throw in some songs about monsters and sirens and trolls and the like and you have a show that’s downright fun. You can also tell that it’s fun for them even though they take the work dead seriously.

They have carefully constructed cunningly crafted characters. They know them by heart and become a second skin that they put on. Peach is a source of naive chaos who charges in head first even if she loses the plot sometimes. Dr. Dour is the veritable straight man who feels that he knows everything and is always right even if he has to teach the audience Latin so that they can understand his song lyrics. The characters transcend one play or performance. When you’re performing this way all you have is your scene partner and your character. At this level it could be like playing free jazz on a tightrope without a net. If something goes wrong in performance you can’t just fix it. You have to fix it the exact way your character would because that second skin is sacred. If you do it correctly then no one knows if you messed up or if that was the best scene in the show.

Us as the audience one hundred percent buy into these two and it's because we have a case of “they’re not trapped in there with you, you're trapped in there with them”. They own the stage, in this case their house, and make it their own and make it a little corner of wacky paradise.You are invited into their world and you start believing in trolls coming after you or dogs on the highways of Tennessee. They believe in the power of their characters so much that they make monsters exist. I’m completely down for a world more of their ilk than the monstrous reality outside my window.

Outside of “conventional” theatre is this “Fringe” that has been using techniques as old as the dark ages in ways that feel as new as your morning coffee. Working off of only what can be done with their physical skill, verbal wit, and musical prowess they create theatre that’s not the straight plays of the American Theatre Canon. It’s way richer, more vibrant, and way more fun. It’s almost what you would call the source code of “situational” comedy.

It’s great to see two professionals who love theatre so much and create funny theatre that’s fun to watch.

To Learn More About Dour and Peach go here. To see their show on the Digital Hub Go hit these words. They also have a web series.To save the Fringe and Buy a Button go here.

[rndyounghowze]

Hellish Reunion by Feral Theatre Company was a MotherLovin Thing

The first family of familial dysfunction are now in the afterlife. Awkward….

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Minnesota Fringe

The one absolute great thing about Fringe Festivals is that they are down for just about anything. You could be naked in a bathtub covered in lard reciting Celine Dion lyrics in a Kermit the Frog voice and there will be some Fringe veteran out there willing to pay money to see it. I can’t tell you how much Dana and I were down for Hellish Reunion by Feral Theatre Company. The title was interesting and we’re down for anything. So when we sat down to watch it we saw a production that started off strong but ultimately like all Greek Theatre has a fatal flaw. Because we’re reviewers that love to build up instead of tear down though we decided to put on our New Play Development hats and do a pseudo Liz Lerman analysis of the production. So here we go!

You know who Oedipus is right? He’s the one of the OG Model of a MotherLoving Patriarch. Killed his dad and married his mom and when he found out he did just about what any of us would do: he gouged his eyes out. So now he, Mom, and Dad are now in some kind of afterlife and have to deal with each other as they await some kind of reincarnation.

Dana and I really attached to the minimalism of the set and the choice to put Jocasta and Polybus in modern clothes. We kinda wish that they had done the same for Oedipus.

The best thing that I can say about the play was that I love the character work that happened between the mother and the father characters. I felt that work could have been done more with Oedipus and the rest of the trio. Also it seems that when Freud shows up that the acting chemistry never changes, as if this addition doesn’t heighten the characters troubles at all even though the lines they are saying say it does. Diving into more character work in a future production would be a great thing.

We had some questions that came up in the writing: They say they’re in Hell but in Ancient Greece wouldn’t that be Hades or Tartarus? They try to explain that all afterlives are all doing some kind of timeshare but why aren’t they in some kind of afterlife not in the Judeo Christian worldview? What if they were in a hell that applauded mother-loving behavior?

Also what would be added to the play if no one cussed? Cussing is great but sometimes it can be seen as a crutch we use to make our dialogue more edgy. So what if in a further draft you had to create that aesthetic without any profanity. It’s worth looking into.

I want you guys to listen to me when I say that I was here for the premise. All in all it was as solid an idea as any other fringe show out there. But I felt the execution of the play was not doing that premise any justice. Dana put the nail on the head when they said that it seemed they didn’t go far enough into absurdity. If this play is absurdist then it’s too real and if it’s meant to be realistic then it’s too absurd. So what we get are characters saying lines and making choices that we don’t buy into. By the time the ending came around the audience had already cashed in their chips and gone home.

We really think this is because when you put up a title that bold you have to put up a production that’s worthy of it. We kinda hope that a future production of this play goes even more into crazy town. Cast all the characters as men or women. Put all of the lines in verse. Have them do their lines while walking on a thousand mouse traps do something that makes us feel the Hell and feel the craziness that birthed this Crazy play. Trust your fringe audience and go further and when you do give Dana and I a call so we can review it again.

You can see the video of this play here. Click those words so you can catch more from Feral Theatre Project On the digital hub. Save the Fringe and buy a button here. Wanna see the sweary version of this review then go to our Unfiltered Blog here.

[rndyounghowze]

Can We Start Over?: A Critical Analysis of Paul and Erika’s House Show

They’ve Fired the Spoon, Given the Plate a Monologue, and Struck an Authentic Chord in Our Hearts.

By Ricky and Dana Young-Howze

Minnesota Fringe

Paul and Erika of Theatre Mobile show the monotony that we’re experiencing by doing a show. You’re stuck in the house for so long that you swear that the dish wares are talking to you or heckling you. In the show they highlight the chaos, monotony, redundancy, everything we’ve come to recognize during this present mess.

During this whole video of a funny couple trying to produce a video of a show within some weird limitations you see a commentary and send up of the whole “digital theatre” movement. All of a sudden there is pressure to be doing bigger and better things and having flashy effects. What if that sn’t you? What if on some kind of fundamental level that’s just not your true artistic self.

For Paul and Erika they keep wanting to start over. Each time they become something different. Maybe this time it will work. Maybe this time it will be the thing that they need. Maybe this time they will have the perfect show that needs no stops or edits. Finally it pared down all they way to just them and a guitar telling the story of a funny guy in a funny town and your heart starts to warm and a smile creeps onto your face and for the first time in a log time your realize that you’re happy and you haven’t thought about the outside world once. All of this came about because just as they became honest artistically they also became honest about what was really bothering us.

There are several moments in the past several months where we just wanted to start over. We tried to add more and more stuff and go on a journey of self improvement but to no avail. There is still something gnawing at us and just like Paul and Erika we have to admit that we really do miss the way things were. We really do miss all the things that are so gone they’re practically invisible in our lives today. We just have to admit that we miss it and somehow living this way just isn’t us. It’s not who we are at our core. However like Paul and Erika we have to find an authentic state of being for ourselves.

So in that vein...Do you want to start over?

You can find this show as part of the Minnesota Fringe Digital Hub. You should go see it here. Also you should Save the Fringe by buying a button here.