Thespians with Mankato ties bring diverse mix of shows to Fringe Festival

By Amanda Dyslin

For $400 and a long-enough attention span to mail an application on deadline, anybody can have a show in the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

The annual two-week event that stages more than 150 unique shows, from plays to interpretive dance, is so popular with thespians wanting to showcase their work the Fringe folks decided the best way to handle the demand was to operate on a lottery system. That means the productions staged across Minneapolis at 23 participating venues are chosen randomly, and the best and worst shows make it in.

On one hand, the system is much more grass roots and fair and there’s little chance for favoritism to rule the lineup. On the other hand, it stings a bit when you’ve paid $12 to see a show that turns out to be a group of kids reading high school level essays about the most influential person in their lives.

Regardless, every year the Fringe delivers an array of performances from people across the country and Canada. And a sample from the theatrical grab bag comes from right here in Mankato.

Four performance groups with Mankato ties will stage productions ranging from a musical about cannibalism to stand-up comedy.

Here’s a look at the locals.

Dueling preachers

Randy Wyatt — who upon completion of his thesis this summer will have earned his master of fine arts in directing from Minnesota State University — has quite the repertoire.

He’s written a number of plays, he’s directed even more, and he’s a Fringe Festival regular.

Wyatt had a bunch of plays to choose from to put on at this year’s Fringe. Lucky for him, a friend chose the show for him.

Jason Kruger read the script for “Swindling Jehovah,” which Wyatt wrote a few years ago, and practically begged Wyatt to do it for the Fringe and let him be involved. He even got a sponsor to pay for it.

The play stood up to the test of time, so Wyatt thought, “Why not?”

Wyatt wrote the dark comedy after seeing street preachers visit various college campuses in Grand Rapids, Mich., where Wyatt earned his bachelor’s. The preachers would spout off about the Bible and sinners and crowds gathered to watch.

“It was kind of eerie,” said Wyatt, who first staged the play at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids. “There’s this shadowy violence behind what they were saying. ... I would sit around and watch this and wonder what people were getting out of this.”

The play, with the entire cast and crew made up of MSU students and graduates, is about two street preachers feuding over a street corner. An urban burnout with a loaded gun, a homeless man (played by Kruger) and a crowd of instigating onlookers also are added into the mix.

In 2004, Wyatt wrote two shows for the Fringe — “Sonata Blue,” a drama he directed about the relationship between two women connected by a dead man, and the children’s show “Brave Little Tailor.” In 2005, he co-wrote a one-man show called “Do Not Pass Go,” about a guy growing up gay in Wisconsin.

Hey Stella!

Imagine if Brad Pitt and Woody Allen had a secret affair, said playwright Jeff Baenen.

That would give you an idea of the perceived absurdity of the alleged affair between tough-guy movie icon Marlon Brando and not-so-tough TV nerd Wally Cox.

The hush-hush Hollywood legend provided the fodder for Jeff Baenen’s premiere Fringe Festival play, “Bud ’n’ Wally: A True (Love) Story.”

The Minneapolis Associated Press broadcast editor wanted to explore the rumored relationship partly because of Brando’s iconic status from starring in movies such as “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “The Godfather.” Cox is best known for voicing the cartoon character Underdog and appearing regularly on “Hollywood Squares” in the 1960s and ’70s.

“I’m trying to go beneath the surface of a Hollywood legend to reveal the private side of the rebel star of stage and screen,” Baenen wrote about the show. “Brando (nicknamed Bud) personified manliness, yet his best friend was this mild-mannered comedian.”

The play begins with Brando, played by MSU theater student Tharen Callahan, near death. He’s being reunited with Cox’s ghost, who confronts Brando about his troubled life.

Cox had died at age 48 in 1973, and Brando kept his ashes for 30 years, sometimes under his car seat, before having them scattered with his own in Death Valley in 2004.

Dinner and dancing

If you can make light of a human being eating another human being, you can make light of anything.

Leave it to the co-creator of “South Park,” Trey Parker, to pull off such an endeavor, combining song and dance with cannibalism in “Cannibal! The Musical.” And leave it to The Mechanical Division, a less than 1-year-old theater ensemble in the Twin Cities whose goal is to put on innovative, cutting-edge shows to take Parker’s vision to the next level.

The group is made up of MSU alumni who have worked together for years. Ben Thietje, a 2001 graduate, did the choreography for “Cannibal!” and part of the cast is made up of current students.

The musical follows Alfred Packer and fellow miners in search of gold during the dead of winter in the Colorado territory. Lost and without food, they resort to eating each other. Oh, and they sing and dance, too.

The Mechanical Division — founded by Thietje and 2001 MSU grad Amanda White — adapted the musical, which proved to be a difficult task. The musical was originally a film, and adapting it as a play required significant rewrites.

“One example is in the movie, all the Indians are played by Asian actors, which is kind of the joke,” Thietje said. “But when casting, we didn’t have any Asian actors audition.”

So they ended up rewriting lines and casting the Indians as Valley girls instead.

The group performed the musical in January in downtown St. Paul and received good reviews. They sold out more than half the shows.

“We knew it had a cult following,” he said. “It’s this really cheesy musical. It’s just the stupidest thing in the world. But we did it really well and with really talented people.”

The Mechanical Division will perform “Cannibal!” for three weeks following the Fringe at Loading Dock Theater in St. Paul.

Last year they performed “Lick!” a story about a fictitious dance group at the Fringe.

Upcoming shows include “Matt and Ben,” “Say You Love Satan,” “Stones in His Pockets” and a Christmas version of “Lick!”

For updated information visit www.mechanicaldivision.com.

Big-kid jokes

Last fall, Ben Sandell realized he wasn’t getting any younger.

He knew if he was going to pursue his dream of becoming a comedian, the time was now.

So, Sandell, 24, a Free Press staff writer at the time, traded in his pen for the Twin Cities open-mic scene.

“What’s weird is that I came up with this idea to do stand-up on a whim,” he said. “I felt like I had to do it. I don’t know where that impulse came from.”

It’s an understatement to say many of his friends and family were surprised at his decision — partially because of his somewhat soft-spoken and timid demeanor.

But before long he overcame his anxiety and was up on the stage hitting open-mic nights across the Twin Cities about three or four times a week.

The process hasn’t been without bumps. He’s constantly testing new material. Sometimes he gets laughs. Other times, not so much.

Usually, only about one-third of his material works.

“You write a joke and you can have all the confidence in the world and your family and friends can laugh at it, but then you can take it on the stage and get silence,” Sandell said. “You never know until you test the joke out if it is going to be a good response from the audience.”

After about nine months on the stage, he’s preparing for his most daunting endeavor yet: a 50-minute set at the Fringe. The show, called “Mittens for Fat Kids,” will be a compilation of his best material about cute kids, atheism, doomsday and death.

Each night he’s hoping for a crowd of about 70 people, including relatives, friends and former co-workers. Which makes Sandell excited, but understandably nervous, too.

“You think, ‘God this is an opportunity to embarrass myself,’” he said. “But that’s keeping me practicing.”

For more information about Sandell, visit his Web site at www.bensandell.com.