Fringe Festival, Bedlam theater, Patton Oswalt and more! New and Notes!

Howdy Chums! -------- Bedlam theater has finally put enough pieces in place that they can announce their new St Paul space. It’s really to see Bedlam put down some new roots and have that be a part of the growing development in St Paul’s Lowertown. Bedlam is known for drawing crazy, creative weirdos so my main question is will their Minneapolis weirdos head to St Paul or will a whole new slew of creative weirdos emerge in their St Paul space? It’s likely to be a mix of both. Here's an MPR piece about the new Bedlam space announcement. And here's something from Jay Gabler at TC Daily Planet asking if this is a good move by Bedlam or too full of risk. -------- I know of at least 165 shows opening in Minneapolis in the next week. The majority of them will be original, new work. That’s crazy. And it happens every August. I am, of course, talking about the Minnesota Fringe Festival which starts this Thursday, August 2nd, and runs through next Sunday, August 12th. We’ll have some folks writing about various elements of the festival as it happens and the Minnesota Playlist Twitter feed will certainly be a good place to go for real time Fringe info. One trend I’ve noticed about this years Fringe Festival is the use of Kickstarter to fund shows. This has certainly been done in previous years but I think there’s more folks doing it this year and the amounts sought also seem higher. I did a quick search on Kickstarter and came up with four shows being produced for the 2012 MN fringe festival. There’s probably more that I missed but here are the four I found: Kafkaesque: A Musical Metamorphosis Fruit Fly the Musical Font of Knowledge Paved with Good Intentions I’d love to know how the folks behind these projects feel using Kickstarter has helped them come up with a stronger product. Have you considered using Kickstarter to fund your theater projects? -------- Do you have shoes on? If so, it might be a good idea to remove them before reading Patton Oswalt’s keynote address for Montreal’s ‘Just for Laughs’ comedy festival because he’s going to knock your socks off and they could tear right through your shoes. At last year’s ‘Just for Laughs’ comedy festival comedian Marc Maron gave a very personal, very funny, and quite moving keynote address that really spoke to stand-up comics. This year, Patton Oswalt delivered two letters. One to comedians and one to gatekeepers of comedy. But I think the letters really speak to all artists and all gatekeepers of what artists make. For me these letters are full of insights about the changing landscape we work on as creators and full of inspiration about what we’re capable of doing on our own without any structural support. I hope you get inspired by them, as well. Patton Oswalt's Letters to Both Sides -------- Are you or someone you know a costumer or choreographer? Willing to work with middle school students? Do you want a job? If you answered yes to the above questions then you should know that Anoka Middle school for the Arts is hiring costumers and a choreographer. Check out their posting on our classified section -------- Have you noticed a trend towards video trailers for upcoming stage shows in Minnesota? I’ve seen what feels like a steep increase in video content about shows and the making of shows. As much as I believe in using new technology to connect with audiences I haven’t done much of this for my own work. But that may be the result of scrambling to get things done and not having any real support team to work on marketing and communication for shows. Is this something that’s becoming the norm? Will we get to a time when it’s weird for someone not to make a trailer for their live show? This recent article in Fast Company magazine argues that short videos are taking over the world of marketing. Short-form video is the future for marketing -------- I’m not sure if there’s ever a time when there’s not some journalist writing an article about artists trying to make a living. Here’s a new one from the Guardian UK that actually has some good personal stories and experiences and covers a bunch of different kinds of artists. It’s cites some concrete statistics but they’re mostly from the UK so if any of the numbers are disheartening we can probably just tell ourselves things are different in the US. Can you make any kind of living as an artist? -------- The Minneapolis City Council is working to make it easier and more compelling for film and audio producers to work in the city. I remember the days of Grumpy Old Men when filming in Minnesota seemed to be on the rise and inevitable. This recent article in MinnPost talks about the last decade of struggle between the large amount of talent in Minnesota and the even larger amount of red tape needed to make films in Minnesota. Wanted: More Minnesota-made movies -------- One last personal item before I wrap up for this weeks blog. I’ve got my own little show in this years Fringe Festival. It’s called The Gentlemen’s Pratfall Club. It’ll be at the Southern theater. We got in off the waiting list six weeks before things start this Thursday so this show has been particularly challenging to put together. Additionally, as a result of the short notice this show will be performed by just me and my writing partner, Joshua Scrimshaw. We’ve made several shows together over the last few years but this is the first time we’ve done something with just the two of us. I’m really nervous and excited to get this show in front of an audience. It’s possibly the most personal and yet somehow physically demanding show I’ve ever put together. I’m excited for my 6 year old daughter to see it, I’m excited for my theater making peers to see it, and I’m excited for the unique fringe festival audiences to see it. I hope you’ll be in the audience even if it’s just because the show you really wanted to see was sold out. Alright, that’s enough self-serving vulnerability. I hope you have a week full of inspiration and unexpected success. -Levi