  See also:
Your Guide to effective Fringing by Max Sparber
The Visible Fringe by Max Sparber
Fringe Must-Sees: a Pulse Guide
Considering the determination and creativity she’s applied during her six-year tenure, you have to believe that if Minnesota Fringe Festival executive director Leah Cooper reinvented the wheel, it’d actually wind up being rounder. Not to knock her predecessors, but Cooper has transformed the event from a funky-little-fest-that-could into a juggernaut, and did it without compromising on the art. In fact, she’s increasingly broadened the Fringe’s artistry and steadily got it off life support and on strong financial footing—when’s the last time you heard of art and solvency going hand in hand? She changed spoken-word participation from a novelty act on the Fringe sidelines into Spoken Word Fringe, which has since become an audience magnet. She instituted Teen Fringe, strengthened the Kid Fringe, included previously ignored spaces like Pillsbury House Theatre and In The Heart of the Beast Mask and Puppet Theatre. She’s attracted high-profile spots like Mixed Blood Theatre and Illusion Theater. There’s more, but you get the idea—the woman has no sense of what it is to leave well enough alone and has made the whole project a lot better for it.
 And Cooper is at it again, implementing an idea she got from the Orlando
Fringe Festival. The preview event, Fringe-For-All, on June 26, was a hands-down
triumph in Minneapolis: The purpose was to get the behinds in the seats so as
many people as possible could get a sneak peek, then go home to friends and
family and run their mouths about it. And it worked: You couldn’t have
gotten any more bodies in the cavernous Theatre de la Jeune Lune digs with a
greased shoehorn. Staff had to set up extra rows of chairs and then, in front
of that, sit people on the floor. With such a turnout for a mere preview, Cooper
and company could conceivably hold the actual Fringe in tents on the playing
field at the Metrodome.
The
evening presented 30 three-minute excerpts from this year’s shows. And
naturally, as with the Fringe itself, the quality varied. Some of the stuff
was great (“Mittens
for Fat Kids,” “Moment
of Life,” “Deviled
Eggs”), some of it good (“It’s
Hard Being Tall—Blackman Changing Hats,” “Best
of the 24-Hour Play Projects,” “The
Wacky Chicken Show”) some so-so and a couple of acts that left you
counting light fixtures in the ceiling.
“Mittens for Fat Kids” is by a guy named Ben Sandell, billing himself
as Leaky Pen Inc. and doing some of the best damned stand-up this side of the
big-time. His show, a mix of jokes and storytelling, will cover cute kids, atheism,
doomsday and death. The press kit info comes with an advisory: language not
suitable for children of any size. He kept it clean as a whistle for the preview
and basically gave a clinic on how to keep a crowd completely in stitches with
pinpoint timing so sharp it seemed effortless. You may well want to go see this
guy a couple of times. At the Acadia Café. Corner of Nicollet and Franklin
Aves., Mpls. Sat., Aug. 5 at 8:30 p.m., Sun Aug. 6 at 4 p.m., Tue., Aug. 8 at
5:30 p.m. and Thu., Aug. 10 at 10 p.m.
If you’re the least bit curious about dance, but, like me, always felt
you were too dumb to understand, so what’s the point in going, you should
check out choreographer/dancer Danielle L. Robinson-Prater’s “Moment
of Life” by four members (Robinson-Prater, Jill Hargreaves, Nate Saul,
Sara Stevenson) of her ensemble DRP Dance. If you don’t know a pirouette
or plié from a pair of pliers, you’ll still be able to appreciate
the fluid movement. These performers are so in tune with their bodies, you’ll
definitely be in tune with the piece. At the Southern Theater. 1420 Washington
Ave., Mpls. Sat., Aug. 5 at 5:30 p.m., Sun., Aug. 6 at 5:30 p.m., Mon., Aug.
7 at 7 p.m., Thu., Aug. 10 at 7 p.m. and Sun., Aug. 13 at 7 p.m.
 Four
Humours Theatre has a delightfully absurdist premise in “Deviled Eggs.”
Satan shows up on Earth and struggles to conceive the antichrist in spite of
a crippling case of erectile dysfunction. The four member cast is excellent
at underplaying a script laced with dry wit. And there is an absolutely priceless
moment that deftly shows just how masturbatory male attention often is toward
females. Not recommended for men who can’t enjoy a good joke at their
own expense. At U of M Rarig Center Thrust on the University of Minnesota, Twin
Cities Campus. Sat., Aug. 5, 8:30 p.m., Mon., Aug.7 at 5:30 p.m., Tue., Aug.
8 at 10 p.m., Sat., Aug. 12 at 10 p.m. and Sun., Aug. 13 at 4 p.m.
Cooper herself has attempted to bow out on the festival for the last two years,
but she couldn’t quite tear herself away. This time, though, she won’t
be coming back for an encore: applications were being accepted in June. “I’ve
stayed on one more year since my prior announcement about leaving,” Cooper
reflects, “because we had some trouble in the development area that needed
to be addressed and it has been fabulously addressed by Dawn Mori, our marketing
and development director of the last two years. So, now things are on very stable
ground.” Well, there’s no two ways about it. Her last hurrah at
the helm, just from Fringe-For-All alone, stands as one helluva swan song. And
I don’t envy whoever comes along behind her, ‘cause they’ve
sure got one tough act to follow. || (Dwight
Hobbes)
See also:
Your
Guide to effective Fringing by Max Sparber
The Visible
Fringe by Max Sparber
Fringe Must-Sees:
a Pulse Guide
|
