"What are you guys doing for the Fringe this year?"
It's a natural question, I suppose. We hit the MN Fringe two years in a row, and came out with a pretty big hit last year. Naturally, people are curious.
Alas, we must report that Perpetual Motion will not be featured in in our home Fringe this year. Sorry. We spent a lot of money, energy, and tears getting The Depth of the Ocean up to the Toronto Fringe, and, as it turns out, we didn't have much left to give the MN Fringe a go.
But, never fear, folks! We are brainstorming, regrouping, and planning on coming on strong next year with a new show, maybe even one that exists on its own outside of a Fringe Festival! Huzzah!
In the meantime, those hard-working men and women from Perpetual Motion Theatre Company are out there working their butts off for other theatre companies. Allow me to elucidate:
(1) Alia Mortensen will be appearing in the MN Fringe in Who We Found Instead at the Pillsbury House. She plays a slavishly-dedicated soldier stuck defending an abandoned golf course in Afgahnistan, and she is hilarious. (Derek Miller also makes his grand stage managing debut on this show. Trust me, he is stage managing the hell out of this show.) See the Fringe Festival site or the Warm Gun Productions Myspace page for more information. After that, Alia gets ready to head off to Costa Rica for three months to exercise horses on an organic farm. No, really. That's the truth.
(2) Eric Sharp is busy putting together a staged reading of Chay Yew's Porcelain. (more information will be forthcoming). Mr. Sharp will also be appearing in Theatre Mu's Bahala Na at Mixed Blood Theatre, September to October. See the Mu website.
(3) Mark Sweeney is deep in the middle of rehearsals for Bloomington Civic Theater's A Little Night Music, opening next month.(Now, keep in mind that he is learning the elaborate songs and dances for this show while still working full timing and training for the Twin Cities Marathon. Impressed, yet? I am.) Visit BCT's website for more.
(4) Derek Miller will be wearing masks and squirming around like a giant newt while performing in Sandbox Theatre's War With the Newts October to November. If you visit Sandbox Theatre's website you might figure out what the hell that's all about. He will also be teaching puppetry to kids at Youth Performance Company this fall, and working on getting a writing residency somewhere far from Minnesota.
(5) Erin Appel continues her work/meditation at the Diamond Way Buddhist Center, doing her part to spread enlightenment through the Twin Cities.
Special thanks to those who made this Fringe fun and interesting.
Many thanks to the following:
Peter Shortridge: Without your generosity, we wouldn't be here right now. We can never thank you enough.
Theatre du Mississippi: Thanks for helping Peter to help us. We owe you.
Bridget at the Fringe office: We never expected so much help from the Fringe office. You made the whole process 10,000 times smoother than any other Fringe we looked at this summer.
Erin Klee: Stage manager extraordinaire, Toronto expert, and American ex-pat. We never would have found the Surplus store or the nude beach or any number of other cool things in the city without you. Thanks for spending part of your summer with us, and we expect to see you in Minneapolis sometime in the future.
Casssandra: Our wonderful box office manager. You were given one of the most difficult BYO Venues, and you handled it wonderfully. (Also, you're cute as a button, and that counts for something, too.) Thanks for putting off your nightly count so that you could watch the show.
Cathy Hughes, and all the lifeguards at the Athletic Centre: Your venue was amazing, and you gave us so much more than we asked or paid for. You let us come in early, shut off the pool pumps, and even lowered the water lower just to help us out. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Kaji and Olia: Our first Toronto friends! Kaji, the first Glaswegian I ever met that I could understand, and Olia, born in Ukraine and most recently of California, you were both enjoyed immensely. Good luck with the new apartment together, and thanks for coming to the show.
Ted and Elizabeth of Evidance on CIUT: Thanks for the radio interview. I'm glad that you guys liked the show.
John Kaplan of Now Magazine: Thanks for the interview and the preview in your publication. Sorry that you couldn't be the one to actually review our show for Now.
Frank and Danielle from CBC Radio: Thanks for the second radio interview. We never actually caught it on CBC, but several audience members heard it and came because of it.
Gord and Moses: Your debate over the usefulness of pi was something I never expected to see at Fringe Central. You're both fascinating people. More thanks to Klee for bringing you along to the show.
Heidi, Ken and the rest of the Diamond Way Buddhists of Toronto: If only every person in the world were as kind and supportive as you guys... Heidi, thanks for your guided tour of Kensington Market. Ken, thanks for showing us a great place for brunch. And thanks to the rest for making that night at the Rower's Pub so enjoyable.
Raymond: Thanks for not kicking Alia out of her second coffee shop of the day, and thanks for giving her the low-down on Toronto. Also thanks for plugging our show at the Jewish Centre.
Ewan: Thanks for bringing a book of Keats to a bar. That was cool.
Ryan Paulsen of Pentecostal Wisconsin: Thanks for teaching us the true meaning of "oh."
Jimmy Hogg of Curriculum Vitae: Aside from being a fantastically funny man, you were the first of our fellow performers to plug our show at your own show. We tried to return the favor. Also, we learned a hell of a lot about how to flyer properly by studying your tireless technique. We look forward to seeing you at our home Fringe again soon.
Clare and Dan of Die Roten Punkte: Your comedy/punk rock show not only kicks ass, but also made us laugh for the entire week after we saw it. We still quote it and sing the songs. After you develop your new show in Australia, swing on out to Minneapolis. We'll have the city plastered with posters ahead of time, should you decide to come.
The entire cast of Yabu No Naka: Thank you so much for performing the most beautiful and interesting show at the Festival, and for having the balls to produce a Butoh play in 4 different languages at a festival dominated by sketch comedy and musicals. You guys rock, and the above offer to Die Roten Punkte stands for you as well.
Terry: Round as a beach ball and gay as Pride Week in San Francisco, you regailed us with stories about Soho in the 1960s that may very well have been lies. Even though we grew annoyed with the fact that you would not stop talking to us as we tried to sunbathe at the nude beach, we all had to agree that you were a character that we could never forget. We hope you get to swim back in Syracuse.
That wonderful family from Tennessee: You came up from the south for a family reunion in Detroit, and decided on a whim to swing up to Toronto with your sons in tow just for the Fringe Festival. That is the most amazing parenting I have ever seen. We hope you enjoyed the show.
Grossman's Tavern: Thanks for being just about everything a blues bar should be: a slightly dingy hole-in-the-wall with surprisingly great music.
Paige and the band playing at Grossman's: When you sat down you looked like a couple of frat guys about to break into covers of Jack Johnson tunes. Turns out, you're pretty damn good bluesmen. Kudos to your drummer for playing with a broken arm (and for smiling continuously at Klee).
Leslie from Two Figs for Don Quixote...: Thanks for the hula-hooping and the One-Less-Car stickers.
The dancers of Found and Lost: Thanks for the rainbow tattoos. We will become Rockers.
Eric, Derek and Alia will be showing up in the studios tomorrow for an interview on Evi-Dance. This will be broadcasted in Toronto on CIUT 89.5 at 9am.
Man, the media in Toronto are no slouches. They are out there reviewing the hell out of the Fringe.
From Toronto's BlogTo.com: Presented by Perpetual Motion Theatre Company, this show made quite a splash at the 2006 Minnesota Fringe (sorry,could not resist...). Performed entirely in water, "The Depth of the Ocean" employs a bare minimum of props, and focuses on fusing the classic dialogue-driven theatre with physical, movement-based expression. The acting is superb, the characters are engagingly real, and the dialogue is uncomplicated and natural, yet clever. The ending, however, seems both somewhat predictable (though perhaps I should say inevitable) and abrupt. It leaves many questions unanswered (which is fine - worthwhile theatre must be thought-provoking) and many unasked (now that is a pity). Despite these weaknesses, the show is well worth seeing.
Opening Night, Reviews and letting off some steam.
I start to type "Opening Night" into my subject for this blog and "Opening Night, Reviews and letting off some steam" is what my computer fills in. So, I'll take it. Well, we opened last night to an audience of about fifty. This is pretty good for a Weds night at 9:30. The pacing feels a little loose, but we can't complain for getting through the show in the deepest water we have ever worked in. We can ussually cheat a little off of the floor, not anymore. We really are battling the 'Depth of the Ocean'
Our first review comes down the pipeline this morning and it harkens back to the beginning of our run in Minneapolis; it is not the most glowing, but not terrible either. It also appears to come from one of the toughest publications in town. However, our first audience review is very encouraging and written from a former Minnesotan. So, we remain energized and enthusiastic for the weekend ahead of us. Please SPREAD THE WORD!!
Derek's interview with NOW Magazine hits stands today in Toronto. (Derek's note: "The actual interview lasted 40 minutes, and I thank Jon Kaplan for editing down my mountain of rambling.")
The Torontoist mentions us in their BYOV preview section. (Derek's note: "Even if they did get the number of performers wrong, they did say that they wished they had thought of the idea for the show first.")
The road from Chicago to Toronto is long, especially if it envolves Chicago construction and a border inspection. That's right, we were stopped and inspected at the border. I guess five twenty-somethings going to a 'theatre festival' seemed kind of suspicious. One of the funnier moments comes when the immigration officials search through our props- A single purse containing one pill bottle full of tic tacs. We knew they would find our stash.
We arrive in Toronto 13 hours after we left Chicago. We are tired, but still moving . . .
Packed up and goodbye'd, we hit the road ten minutes before scheduled, pick up Miss Appel and get out of town.
The morning road is as clear as the sky ahead of us and we are in high spirits. Then Mark sees it a mile down the road, glistening in the early summer sun, a long orange and yellow omen on wheels leading us to our destination.
Mark: is that the wienermobile? Derek: Maybe . . . (Mark gently pushes down on the gas peddle as the shiney yellow mobile hides in a bend ahead of us) Eric: What? Erin: Maybe . . hmm. Derek: No, it's just a tanker Mark: Wait, are you sure? (putting the peddle to the metal) Mark: wait, waaaaait, wait . . . YES!
and there it was, in its long awkward glory traveling at 65 miles an hour down 94. Slicing its way through the hills of Wisconsin. We honk, we take pictures, and we know that this "Wienermobile" is a great omen for the trip that lies ahead. Pictures to come soon!
Two rest stops, one viewing of SeaLab2021 and no sick passengers later, we arrive to Mark's Parent's place in IL. We munch on an afternoon BBQ and all eat too much. Then, most of us head into the city to see old friends.
Eric tries to eat his last bite of Mrs. Sweeney's cheesey potatoes.
and pretty soon, we will be out of the country . . .
creative
