Tag: acting

Wish You Were Here Improv Comedy About Loss and Friendship at Strike Theater in NE Minneapolis

Strike Theater sits in the middle of a long long building that is not filled with other theaters. It’s a massive building on a long dark seemingly deserted street in NE Minneapolis. It doesn’t look like the building a theater should be in, it looks like a place you go to have something welded, like for a trailer or something? Anyway, follow your GPS and don’t second guess it, there’s a sign to assure you that you are in the right place. Once inside you’ll feel like you are in a more familiar space, unless of course you are a welder by trade in which case, this might feel really disorienting to you. But I think that’s a relatively small number of you, most have been to other black box theaters and the site of the the concession area and small theater with chairs lined up in front of a designated performance space or “stage” in theater speak. Chances are if you are at Strike you have come to laugh, and In my experience it’s a good bet you will.

The show I took in tonight is one they have performed before and it’s titled Wish You Were Here. It’s a long form Improv comedy in which on any given night the member of the cast who is dead changes. The structure is that a group of friends have gathered in memory of their departed friend. We get flashbacks of the dead friend sometimes monologuing sometimes interacting with characters. Those alternate with the present gathering, where everyone tries to establish characters of their own while also trying to get a read on the characters their fellow performers are creating. It generally leads to a few moments that don’t go anywhere but more often than not things build upon what has come before and there tend to be some running jokes that work and that everyone can utilize at some point. The problem with improv is that what I saw tonight will be different than what you see Friday or Saturday night. For one, a different member of the cast will be dead, may they rest in peace. So describing specific bits, or characters is fruitless. But the premise and the cast are what make a show like this work. The premise is as good as any others it’s riff with possibilities and has the potential to get into so really black comedy.

The cast is filled with folks you’ve seen in other shows around town at Strike, Phoenix and Huge and many other places and changes somewhat between shows. Ours included the multitalented and family favorite Shanan Custer. Our Dead friend was Madde Gibba, with a hilarious recurring bit of making her friends look right in her eyes as she did things, like eat soup, or pee in the ocean. Also in the cast list are Molly chase, Javier Morillo, Duck Washington, Katy Kessler, Eric Heiberg, Rita Boersma, and Sam Landman. The last is a reminder to always ask who the cast is for each night and always pick the one Sam Landman is in. I didn’t get Landman and it was still a good time with lots of laughs. Odds are in your favor now that you will get Landman and or Duck Washington another favorite. Wish You Were Here runs Friday and Saturday evening at 7:30 at Strike Theater for not a lot more information, but to purchase tickets go to https://www.strike.theater/shows.html

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/

I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. We also produce the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat!! which you can access through this link or wherever you enjoy podcasts https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/ . We post biweekly longer form episodes that will focus on interviews and discussions around theater topics. There is also shorter episodes in which we Bloggers tell you what we think you should get out and see as well as what we have on our schedules that we are most looking forward too.

The Hatmaker’s Wife From Ten Thousand Things

Kimberly Richardson, Jim Lichtscheidl, Michelle De Joya, and Clay Man Soo. Photo by Tom Wallace

The Hatmaker’s Wife is only my second show from acclaimed theater company Ten Thousand Things and they are quickly becoming one of my favorite Theater Companies. Performed in the round with minimal sets, props and costumes, basically whatever they can fit in a Van, the focus on connection with the audience. The lights are on the only concession to creating mood or atmosphere is the accompaniment of live music, the focus is on the story and the performers skills in communicating it. One of the goals of this company is to provide access to theater to those who would not ordinarily have it. Part of the reason for the way they stage their shows is so they can travel with them and perform anywhere. Their schedule is divided into traveling dates out in the community which are free of charge and then two Thursday thru Sunday Weekends and two Minneapolis location which are paid admission, which help to fun the free performances. It’s a beautiful mission and it aligns perfectly with that of The Stages of MN, which is to create new theatergoing audiences. There are two steps to accomplishing that goal, the first is to get people who don’t make theatergoing a regular part of their lives into a seat at a performance. The second is to present something that will make them want to see another show. Ten Thousand Things does both of these steps incredibly well.

The Hatmaker’s Wife is at once complex and simple. Like a fairytale for adults with a straight forward message, but told through jumps backward and forward in time. The narrative technique does not confuse the audience but enriches the story adding layers of meaning and emotion in what is otherwise on the surface mainly comedic. This blend creates an entertaining work that has an emotional resonance by the end beyond what one expects given the humorous tone of the play. This is a story not of our world, but one very similar. Voice played by Michelle De Joya moves into a rental house with her boyfriend Gabe played by Clay Man Soo only to discover that the Wall, who is played by Tyson Forbes, has a story to share with her. Feeding her pages that flashback to the story of Hetchman, the Hatmaker of the title, and his Wife, who are played by the wonderfully physical comedic actors Jim Lichtscheidl and Kimberly Richardson. Hetchman loves his hat more than anything else in the world, his wife longs for a hat of her own, but Hetchman does not provide her with one. One day his hat goes missing and Hetchman is sad, next his wife goes missing and Hetchman is sad that his hat is still missing. His neighbor and best friend Meckel, played by Pedro Bayon, tries to help Hetchman to find his wife and convince him that she is the more important of the two things that have gone missing from his life. It’s a story that uses fantastical ideas to remind us of what is really important and how we can lose sight of that at times in our lives.

To engage an audience fully and tell a story without the usual trappings of lighting and sets means you have to have the best material and talent. The Hatmaker’s Wife Written by Lauren Yee is a wonderful script and the direction by Joel Sass displays that has a perfect understanding of the material and how to bring it to life. You couldn’t ask for better casting than Jim Lichtscheidl and Kimberly Richardson. They open the play with a nearly, perhaps entirely, wordless scene that relies on the their gifts as physical performers, of which they are among the very top in the Twin Cities. I have noted and wondered at their talents in Physical Comedy in past performances, Lichtscheidl recently in Dinner For One at Jungle Theater and Richardson so memorably in The Red Shoes at Open Eye Theatre, which impressed me so much I went back a second time. For them alone the show is worth seeing, everyone else is gravy on top, but it’s a rich and flavorful gravy that brings out all the nuances of the play. Tyson Forbes along with playing Wall, which magically talks, also plays Golem a symbolic creature from Jewish folklore is a costume designed by Sonya Berlovitz. Forbes does nice work covered in a massive costume without a face giving the Golem a personality and presence through movement and body language alone.

The Hatmaker’s Wife is a thoroughly entertaining and magical night at the theater with a superb cast performing a work that feels timeless in the way a fairytale does. It runs through March 17th at various locations, for more information, performance locations and to purchase tickets go to https://tenthousandthings.org/our-season/hatmakers-wife/

Don’t want to miss a single review from The Stages of MN? You can subscribe and have every post sent directly to your email. To subscribe on your computer: from the home page on the right, enter your email address and click subscribe. On your mobile device scroll to the bottom of the page and do the same. You can also follow me on Facebook, @thestagesofmn click follow and on Instagram thestagesofmn. You can also read some of my reviews syndicated on the MN Playlist website https://minnesotaplaylist.com/

I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by my colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. We also produce the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat!! which you can access through this link or wherever you enjoy podcasts https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/ . We post biweekly longer form episodes that will focus on interviews and discussions around theater topics. There is also shorter episodes in which we Bloggers tell you what we think you should get out and see as well as what we have on our schedules that we are most looking forward too.