BLOG: The Great Theater Party is Over

The Fringe Fallout It was a crazy eleven days, full of anticipation, hope, disappointment, surprise, wonder and downright confusion, but the 2014 Minnesota Fringe Festival has come to an end. We've obsessed over our reviews, fretted over the encores, partied at the Varsity, and ended the festival in the the most dignified manner possible: a bunch of drunk theater people swarming the Dinkytown McDonald's at 2:00am on a Monday morning. Personally, I'm exhausted. In 11 days, I performed 6 times and took in 32 other shows. Some of it was great. Some of it was mediocre. Some of it was awesomely inexplicable. Of course, there will always be Fringe critics who argue that our festival should be juried, like the New York Festival to ensure "quality"; but based on this description from HowlRound the content of the NY festival doesn't sound all that different from ours. Since the Fringe has no awards, we can't say that anyone "won" anything, though people do kind of view the 'audience choice' encores as the sort-of winners. You could also say that whoever sold the most tickets 'won' the Fringe, in which case, I'm happy to say that it was an enthusiastic group of Bollywood dancers who never produced a show before. But the real winner was the Fringe itself. In its first go-round with a new Executive Director, Jeff Larson, this beast of a Festival sailed on just fine. In fact, it set a new record for ticket sales. So, They Just Keep Singing Like That? I've never been a musical theatre guy. Sure, I strapped on some tap shoes and learned a few jaunty tunes in high school, but since that time, no one has been too eager to see me sing and dance. It's all right. I'm not bitter about it. I'll never be fully employed in a theme park musical, and I will just have to live with that. Scott Miller (self described "Bad Boy of Musical Theatre"), wrote a blog post recently detailing why right now may be the best time for musical theatre since the so-called "Golden Age" of the '40s-'60s. He makes some good points. The genre does seem to be moving out a fairly conservative rut and expanding into new territory. The instant access of the internet is affecting the development and form. This is all good and well, but how prepared are we, really, for the musical theatre arms race? America has always been innovative when it comes to singing and dancing our little hearts out, but how can we compete with China? The giant nation that once attempted to destroy "bourgeoise art" is about to fully mechanize and merchandize the bourgeoise. China has started construction on a giant theater production facility, meant to churn out productions to complete in the growing Pacific rim musical market. If we can't match this, we'll have a musical theatre gap! The Man Is Keeping Them Down If the government won't do it, then, by God, the people will have to do it themselves. Except that, there's still that pesky government, with its laws and rules. Since 1997, the Caravan Stage Company has been sailing around the world, performing on a custom-built, flat-bottom ship. Currently docked in New York, the Canadian company just found out that the licensing of their ship may be changed, which would render the venture more expensive than the company can afford. What's a rag-tag bunch of vagabonds to do? Keep vagabonding, apparently. Caravan has been away from Canadian waters for a decade, and they have decided to stay out of them indefinitely if it appears that their ship will be impounded. On the other side of the world, an occupation is coming to an end. Three years ago, rumors swirled that Teatro Valle, a public theatre in Rome, was going to be privatized. In response, a group of theatre artists occupied the building and took over operations. In America, you would expect such a thing to end in a hail of bullets and/or litigation. In Italy, the occupiers have basically been running the place unimpeded. However, Italian officials have decided to end the experiment, not by busting down doors and kicking those hippies to curb, but possibly by incorporating the experimental model they set up into the existing system of public theaters. What?! How am I supposed to frame a peaceful settlement with a transformative and mutually-beneficial outcome between parties as some sort of life or death struggle with easily-identified heroes and villains? Thanks for being confusing, Italy. You're Invited! Speaking of transformative and mutually-beneficial outcomes, things are going to changing around here. Minnesota Playlist has looked basically the same for far too long, and now the powers that be are finally doing something about it. The launch of the site's new design is coming soon, and the people who run the place (not me; I don't run jack around here) are inviting you to help take part in the transformation. But that's not the only internet innovation going on in the Minnesota theater scene. The Minnesota Theater Alliance has been working on creating an online resource for theater companies to exchange sets, props, costumes and other materials, and I'm happy to report that the new Arts Market will be launching soon. They've got a party to invite you to, as well. If you haven't had enough participating yet, then the Alliance has one more event for you to drop in on. Ben Krywosz, Artistic Director of Nautilus Music-Theater, will be facilitating a discussion on how celebrate Shakespeare by getting all of his plays produced. If you're down with that, feel free to sign up. Scentless Apprentice If you want to stay on the cutting edge of what's hip in theater, then you have to hire a scent designer; but will you were super hip, you would also hire an interpreter for the asnomic.