Happy MN, Gay Banditos, Poor dancers, and more!

News
Greetings! -------- Happy Minnesota is putting up their Happy Cafe! show this September somewhere on University Avenue in St Paul. And they’re looking for a bunch of actors, designers, builders and other staff. Paying jobs, a worthwhile community project, and a very motivated Tyler Olsen at the helm sounds like a good opportunity. Happy Cafe job info. -------- The Gay Banditos The folks of the Mechanical Division have a show in this year’s MN Fringe Festival called "The Gay Banditos.” Based on the name, coupled with their production history and the show description, the show will likely be intentionally offensive. That’s not something I find terribly compelling. However, according to their press release all of the show's profits will be going towards Minnesotans United for All Families and their fight against the Marriage Amendment (up for a vote this November). The Gay Banditos show info “Join The Mechanical Division for another crazy Fringe adventure, and this time do it for a great cause: TMD will donate 100% of the net profits from its 2012 Minnesota Fringe Festival show to Minnesotans United for All Families. With a marriage amendment vote coming up, TMD (producers of past MN Fringe hits "Cat", "The Return of LICK!" and "Cannibal! The Musical") decided it was past time to take a public stand for gay rights -- while still staying true to their outrageous, satirical, and off-color style, of course. "The Gay Banditos" was born out of a Lewis Black comedy bit in which the stand-up comedian discusses the ridiculousness of being afraid of homosexuals. He imagines a group of gay banditos traveling across the land, destroying American families one sashay at a time. TMD takes this idea one step further with a story that follows the Miller family and their deliciously lewd description of how their lives were destroyed forever by this exposure to "extreme gayness". This is The Mechanical Division's sixth appearance in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. The production includes local theatre artists Sarah Bizek, Bobby Gardner, Christine Karki, Tom Karki, Patrick Kozicky, and Ben Thietje.” Is the donating of the show's profits a way to get more latitude from audiences for outrageous portrayals of stereotypes on stage? Or is it just a lovely way to use profits, while still getting to do the kind of theater the Mechanical Division is all about? -------- The Poorest Art: Dance & Money This is an article written by Lightsey Darst for the Huffington Post arts section that was published in June. I just stumbled my way to it and thought it might be of interest to Minnesota Playlist readers as it makes the argument that dance in America couldn’t exist if it had to survive on income from dance alone. -------- MPR’s Wits sees full time leadership from the charming and twitter happy John Moe and seeks a national audience. David Brauer, writing for MinnPost, has a nice description of where ‘Wits’ is now and where it might be headed. No more half-wits -------- Summer Dance Camp at the Cowles Center Journey Through Dance and Zenon are offering some intensive dance camps for young people over the next few weeks. 2012 Teaching Artists: 
Christian Adeti -  African Dance
 Giselle Mejia – Latin Dance 
Christopher Yaeger – Harlem Renaissance 
Jason “J-Sun” Noer – Hip Hop Dates:
 July 23rd – July 27th
 Ages 10-14 years old
 9am – 12pm July 30th – August 3rd 
Ages 6-10 years old 
1pm – 4pm -------- On July 1st Night of New Works this weekend and next at the Bryant-Lake bowl theater. The performances will consist of three short works each night. From Savage Umbrella: "Playwright Russell Dugger’s new piece A Gamer’s Guide to the 5 Stages of Grief is a play about being tethered to technology. Video games are such a huge part of everyday entertainment now. But what happens when we use these fantasy worlds to cope with our real life problems? When does virtual reality become actual reality?   Composer Candace Bilyk’s new work, The Golden Carp, is an opera about a fairy who falls in love with a beguiling creature from the water. Bilyk’s music provides twisted love songs, dark lyrics, and a look into the deep.   Playwright and director Christina Lein’s new work, STOP!, is a movement/dance exploration of the power struggles in public education. Lein’s piece weighs the effect of policies and politics versus the personal." -------- Well, that’s some things that have happened and will happen. I hope you enjoy theater in an air conditioned building over the next week. -Levi
Headshot of Levi Weinhagen
Levi Weinhagen
Levi Weinhagen is a comedy writer and theater maker. He is co-founder of the all-ages theater company Comedy Suitcase. Levi is producer and host of Pratfalls of Parenting, a podcast featuring conversations with artists about the relationship between being an artist and being a parent.