by Rachel Reiva | 8/3/09 • I saw three teen shows on Aug. 1st and here are my reviews.
Free Bird Productions: Stalled: An Elevator Story
Elevator, n: a metal cage; transports between two somewheres. But what if it stalls? Find out in this comedy as seven unlucky strangers await their rescue. Sometimes nowhere is exactly where you are meant to be.
 the teen fringer is the blog of rachel reiva, one of seven bloggers covering the minnesota fringe festival for the daily planet. |
When I first sat in the audience and saw the bare frame of the elevator, it was simple and it worked. It really did give the Closter phobic feeling to it when the characters entered the stage. What was great to see was that some characters entered from the audience. For example the girl in front of me texting on her phone surprised me when she got up from her seat and went to the stage. The characters each had their own sort of quirky personalities which were fun to watch.
There were drawbacks to the production. First, the comedy wasn’t consistent. There was some dead spots in it where you weren’t sure where the characters were taking their conversations. Second, it kept getting away from the crisis of the situation. At one point I was thinking they should try to contact the maintence people again. The writer shouldn’t have taken the reality t.v. show route with it. I think the plot of people being stuck in an elevator is pretty solid. Finally I thought it didn’t give the characters consistent stories. It seemed that with each story that it became more random and obscure.
But the show had some really good moments. And that I think that it is still a creative idea, and that the writer should experiment more with other life situations similar to being stuck in an elevator.
The Bakery Theater Company: Thin Mint
Secrets, Sexuality, and the Pinewood Derby. A troop’s misadventure to scatter the ashes of a fellow Boy Scout on Chessapeake Hills takes a turn for the worst when they become entangled with “Thin Mint dealers”.
This show was something else. It had it’s good moments. I like the beginning with the guy character with angel wings. He seemed to create this really fun mood of the show especially when he introduced the characters. I liked some moments in the show. The song was definitely the highlight. The acting was great and the cast really did seem to be enjoying acting for the people.
My main notes are that the humor just got way too much and was too disconnected toward the end. I was wondering how come they got so far from the story line? It’s one thing to have the song, if they added more I think it would have been a bit better. But with the whole killing everybody, just got too weird and the ending reminding me of a scene out of the show t.v. show Lost.
Asian Media Access: The 4 winds
Without cell phones, without iPods and without the internet… four teen must save the world. They travel through time and space to a world of myth and legend where they come face to face with an ancient evil.
Both the dancing and the plotline was really interesting. The beginning swinging sleeves dance was nice to see, and the costumes were really fantastic. The comic reliefs were cute to watch and they had a good energy throughout the show.
The main drawbacks with this show are that the cast members really weren’t putting enough emotion in the words. It all seemed to be played at one level and I didn’t see any variety in how they played their characters. I also thought that the hip hop dance wasn’t really needed. It just seemed like it was added in and the dancers didn’t seem to put the energy into it unlike with the fan dances, and the swinging sleeves. Finally the show needed a more definite ending. I didn’t know that it ended until the dancers came in to bow.
Despite the drawbacks, it was great to see the portrayal of an Asian myth and to add the present time past lives aspect to it. That was really creative. I also like the Dragon Ball Z reference which I couldn’t help but giggle at. Over all I could see that a lot of effort was put into the show.
Well, that’s it for now Fringers, I’ll post reviews of the ones I saw on Sunday soon. I also will catch some shows this week in the evenings. Till next time!
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