Twin Cities Horror Festival XIII - Schaulust

This year's Twin Cities Horror Festival is celebrating its 13th year and this festival is truly an outstanding selection of short horror theater.

We've seen 10 of the 11 shows so far (and you can read our reviews for Day One, Day Two, and Day Three here) and Schaulust by Keith Hovis Productions is our final show. 

Twin Cities Horror Festival XIII - Day Three: The Alchemist's Bargain, Gh0stChaser04, and The Wrench

It's been a weekend of fun at the Twin Cities Horror Festival. Check out our reviews of Day One and Day Two. We caught three shows today and it was another delightful horror theater fest!

First up was The Alchemist's Bargain by Phantom Chorus Theatre and we couldn't have asked for a better show to get us in the mood for a theater marathon. We fondly remember Phantom Chorus's take on Frankenstein, Victor Invictus, at the 2022 TCHF. 

It's the Spookiest Time of the Theater Year! Twin Cities Horror Festival Season XI

Updated 10/23/22

You've heard us sing the spooky praises of Twin Cities Horror Fest for years. Won't you join us this year for the most delightful, spooky, chilling, hilarious, gory theater you'll see all year? We've been expecting you...

MN Fringe 2019: Day Four - Hovis, Old Radio and SCARES

Day Four was another amazing day at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. It doesn't hurt that every show we saw was at Rarig. (Now if they only had a bar....) And such a good line-up!

Edith Gets High By Devious Mechanics (Rarig Center Arena)
What can we say about Keith Hovis that we haven't already said? You know, like this: "Keith Hovis, playwright and composer, is a master of mixing the macabre and the funny with clever, melodic songs" (TCHF VI: A Morbid History of Sons and Daughters). Or perhaps "Go see this. Keith Hovis is a young genius, and this show is just as dark and delightful as his Teenage Misery. The music is fun and the lyrics are hilarious." (Fringe 2017: Jefferson Township Sparkling Junior Beauty Pageant).  "The lyrics are marvelously clever, the music is tuneful, the melodies are memorable, the arrangements are beautifully done." (Teenage Misery) We could GO ON. So go see it already!

You're still here? Fine. Debra Berger is endlessly engaging as Edith, Ryan Lear is wildly hilarious, and the entire ensemble (Lizzie Gardner, Kiko Laureano, Cameron Reeves, and Colleen Somerville Leeman) brings humor and harmonies for days. Director Allison Witham creates a video game world with minimal props and inventive movement, and her work makes the most of the challenging Rarig Arena space. So go!

Frankenstein: Two Centuries By Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society (Rarig Center Thrust)
The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society celebrates the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with two original radio scripts, performed with live music and sound effects. The first script, by Tim Uren, is in the style of the radio show Escape! and is a dramatic depiction of a scenario after the end of the novel. The second script, by Joshua English Scrimshaw, is sillier and lighter, incorporating other monsters from the Universal horror movies. This script is in the style of Inner Sanctum, a show that (according to MORLS--check out the podcast!) was extremely popular. The punny banter between The Host and the Lipton Tea Lady is kind of bonkers in a delightful way, and Scrimshaw and Shanan Custer make the most of it. All of the cast, including Eric Webster, Uren, and Joe Weismann are excellent, and the music and sound effects complete the picture. Even thinking about the effective breaking neck sound effect makes me cringe a day later. Also, Shanan Custer as Elsa Lanchester is genius and we'd happily watch that performance for days.

Hello Mother By Haunt Armada (Rarig Center Xperimental)
Hello Mother was created by Haunt Armada, a group that knows from scaring people. What starts as an urban legend/ghost story told during a power outage becomes frighteningly real for two stepbrothers (Phillip Zawieruszynski and Zane Perren) who don’t get along. The group finds ways to use the entire Rarig Xperimental space, so there might be a figure appearing from a hidden space, or another breathing creepily behind you. They also use light–and the lack of light–very effectively, and perform the simple scene changes with a speed that keeps the tension high. The story itself isn’t terribly original, but a ghost story doesn’t have to be if it’s as scary as this one. Not for the faint of heart, but if you enjoy a good scare, it’s a winner! Also, there's skittering. SKITTERING!

Summer Theater for DAYS - Jefferson Township etc.

Leslie Vincent and Kelly Houlehan in
Jefferson Township Sparkling Junior Talent Pageant

Periodically, the utter abundance of fabulous theater in the Twin Cities gets a little overwhelming. In order to help you, our dear readers, sort through the opportunities, here's our list of what we're looking forward to this summer.

NUMBER ONE: 

Jefferson Township Sparkling Junior Talent Pageant
Jun 14 – Jul 28, 2019

Andy Boss Stage at Park Square Theatre

Why we're excited: We saw this at the Minnesota Fringe in 2017 (twice) and here's what we had to say and we'll say it again and LOUDER.

Go see this. Keith Hovis is a young genius, and this show is just as dark and delightful as his Teenage Misery. The music is fun and the lyrics are hilarious. And the CAST. Kelly Houlehan plays and sings crazy like no one else, and Ryan London Levin, as her reluctant partner in crime and pageantry is delightful to watch. Leslie Vincent is frighteningly perfect as the small town beauty queen hanging on to her crown with all her might. Zach Garcia is perfect as the ex-jock who might just be the most level-headed of the group. Amazingly, in the span of an hour, Hovis fits a clear story, fully-realized characters, and oh, so many jokes! You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll laugh again.

NOTE: This was sitting in our blog drafts for an age and we're just coming back to it. We were going to add a bunch more shows, but although there is a lot of great theater coming up, we were not remotely as excited about them as we were about this one! So go!! Darn it!

TCHF VII: A Morbid History of Sons and Daughters

Show: A Morbid History of Sons and Daughters
By: The Vincent Hovis Experience

Eep. Kids in masks. Yikes.

Genre: Music, Psychological

What's It All About:
"There's a sickness in our blood. A desire for something sinister that is passed down from generation to generation. An impulse that turns into a want that turns into a need. You are cordially invited to The Ritual. Five people gather to tell interweaving tales of tendencies they have spent a lifetime trying to contain. But sometimes, we all need a little release. And nothing can make you feel more at home than seeing the light drain from a person's eyes. A Morbid History of Sons & Daughters is an exploration of lineage and the darkest recesses of the human mind.'"

What We Thought:
Even if we didn't see everything in the Twin Cities Horror Fest, this show would have been at the top of our list. Musical theater plus horror? Yes, please. Plus, this ensemble-created show features a particularly amazing ensemble: Gracie Kay Anderson, Keith Hovis, Derek Lee Miller, Amanda Verstegen and Leslie Vincent.

Keith Hovis, playwright and composer, is a master of mixing the macabre and the funny with clever, melodic songs (see Teenage Misery and Jefferson Township Sparkling Junior Talent Pageant, coming to Park Square Theatre in June 2019). Leslie Vincent's gorgeous and unique voice is particularly suited to his work, lending a bit of sweetness to even the most sinister of songs. Add in Derek Lee Miller and director Allison Witham (who we've admired for ages thanks to their Transatlantic Love Affair work) and we were sold.

The show starts with campers telling spooky stories of serial killers around a campfire, then moves to interweaving vignettes of those killers and their victims. Darker in tone (and lighting) and less funny than we expected, Morbid History has created a world of fully fleshed-out (ha!) and interconnected tales that is pleasantly surprising for an original, ensemble-created, hour-long show. The performances are universally excellent and the songs are intriguing--I'd like to hear them again. Here's hoping this show goes on to a more developed production, but in the meantime, we'll just have to go see it again!

Public Exposure by Market Garden Theatre

A bracing antidote to the holiday season's surfeit of sweetness, Public Exposure is a play that starts strong and maintains that drive all the way to the end.

The play is written by Keith Hovis, who also wrote the brilliant musical Teenage Misery. This piece is very different from that tongue-in-cheek horror-musical mashup, but provides ample evidence that Hovis is a playwright to watch.

Produced by Market Garden Theater, the Public Exposure experience starts with a rather adventurous trek to the performance space. In a neighborhood that seems to house mostly artists' spaces, you'll finally find the virtually unmarked but correct building. You'll follow a long series of stairways and hallways to get to the room called Maker Space Northeast. The unconventional space looks like a mess as you take a seat in an assortment of chairs hugging the walls of the space. Seating is truly limited, so definitely reserve tickets and arrive early if you attend.

But then the play begins, and it's all worth it. God bless small theater in unconventional spaces! The play opens and we are in the place where Ford (Nick Wolf) has been living (and partying) since losing his job. His friend and coworker Jen (Marci Lucht) comes to see him and gradually the story unfolds as she tries to interest him in a new business enterprise--basically, the opposite of online reputation defenders. When Hannah, another coworker, (Marika Proctor) drops by, things get increasingly complicated.

More than anything, the beauty in this play is in the tight, acerbic and witty script by Keith Hovis, who is SO on my ones to watch list. Considering this is the first time that this play has been performed, it's amazingly polished. The dialogue feels natural, even as the characters discuss the online ruination of others. And the other wonderful thing about this show is the ability to see such terrific talent up close and in-depth. All three actors do a kick-ass job.

Yay new plays! Yay fresh new talent!