Railing Forward at the MN Fringe Festival

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Yesterday began my stretch at this years MN Fringe Festival with Masterminds Dameun Strange and Erinn Liebhard for 'Railing Forward and other works', and it was spectacualur! They've put together a piece that jumps off of the story of John Henry and explores the growth of technology through rhythm, dance, a 13 piece orchestra and photography by Michele Spaise.

The production also features other works including 'Dream Variations', a song cycle inspired by Langston Hughes works. The ladder piece features another assortment of musicians including vocalist Sarah M Greer and myself, giving voice to Langston's words and some beatbox for good measure. I'm also performing some of my own work to open up and close the show. I've written two new pieces just for this event and I'm super excited to share them here, alongside such a high minded collaboration and presentation of music, photography and movement. Listen for 'Trains, Planes and Automobiles'(from my latest and greatest 'Architextual Design'), 'The Definitive Telling of John Henry's Tale' and 'Dream sequence #3'. Check out the facebook event page here for dates and times. Also check out the Strange Liebhard site for more info on their collab and this production.

It's been a while since I contributed to the Fringe, so this should be lots of crazy, artsy fun. Last time I took part in this staple Twin Cities arts event, it must've been in...2005 (living in Chicago and rolling with the Hermit Arts Crew to teh Cities), for Idris Goodwin's one act, 'Close to Victory' where I played a beat boxin', percussionizin', pot smokin' street artist by the name of "Special Ron". Although it wasn't my favorite performance of mine on stage, it had it's moments and was a lot of fun. I've had the pleasure of acting in a couple of my old buddy Idris' plays and it was always a blast. I wish there was footage of 'Pluto' and 'Sidewalk Etiquette'(much better work on my part, and definitely deeper, sharper pieces of Goodwin's) on youtube, but I'll have to settle for the video from the '05 Fringe show. On youtube, I think it's in 3 or 4 parts, it's been so long since I've seen it! So, if you're intrigued, follow side links and such for the other parts, they should turn up one way or another...





and here's another piece we did (in character) at The Ball's Cabaret Fringe Sampler that same year.

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