Once more, into the breech of Fringe. A sometimes maddening rush of trying to see some of the 20+ shows happening while trying to draw audience to your shows.
The St. Louis theatre community didn't do the Fringe any favors this year - there were about half-a dozen other shows opening independently of Fringe, and that surely hurt everyone's audiences. Also, critics tend to ignore or dismiss the Fringe. Unfortunate, since some of the satire of these shows were aimed directly at them, or at theatre companies in general that they needed to take note of.
But Fringe is a prime opportunity to present something original, to express yourself (as they say) artistically, under a different, legitimate banner. I chose to resurrect a couple of shows I'd written before - a script called AUDITION which we'd one at one of the original theatre calls. And I also had SHE-BEAST, written but not performed. So I had two shows that dealt with the audition process. I turned AUDITION into OUR WOKE TOWN, and wrote a new one, CALLBACK, JACK where I could vent some of my building frustration with St. Louis theatre.
Colleen Backer was a quick choice for the cast. She'd been in the original AUDITION, and I absolutely needed her for the Mabel role in SHE-BEAST. Colleen is well known as one of the best and funniest comic actors in town (or anywhere), and after our grim July show, Pinter's OLD TIMES, she was also willing to jump into this.
Patience Davis had been recommended to me, and she was a go for the show, too. Also part of the team was Linda Menard, our stage manager. She worked with Midnight over 20 years ago with our first presentation of THE HUNCHBACK VARIATIONS, and she's been behind the scenes for many of our shows. But she proclaimed that this would be her last stage managing gig. Glad she went out on a fun one. Think it was fun for all of us, and hopefully for audiences.
Joe Hanrahan
|
Now Playing 