Texas Premiere!

Poster v1

This is Water was kind enough to fly me in to see a performance of The Man in Her Dreams. It was fascinating to see how different it was from the Minneapolis production. For one thing, it had a much lower budget: folding chairs made up the bulk of the set. The conceit that director Andrew Roblyer came up with was to pretend that the performance was taking place in an actual prison, and the audience members were visitors who had to go through security, adhere to a strict dress code, and leave their cell phones outside the theater. I loved it.
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My Sin, My Soul…

I’m hosting the final PROMPT show of the 2015-2016 season. Produced by Story Arts of Minnesota, PROMPT features stories based on, inspired by, or tangentially related to classic works, and the theme for this month’s show is Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita.
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PROMPT: My Sin, My Soul (Lolita)
Saturday, May 21st, 2016, 7pm
at The Fox Egg Gallery
3730 Chicago Avenue S., Minneapolis
hosted by Katherine Glover
featuring Sandra Erskine, phillip low, Paul Canada Nemeth, and Caty Schmitter.

Celebrity Exception in Minneapolis

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at the Phoenix Theater in May, 2016:
An Evening of Two New One Act Plays

Celebrity Exception
written by Katherine Glover
directed by Callie Meiners

What They Don’t Know
written by Nissa Norland
directed by Andrea Nicholson

Celebrity Exception is a goofy comedy about the unwritten relationship rule that everyone gets the one exception to fidelity – a chosen celebrity. Because it’s not like you’ll ever meet them. Right?

What They Don’t Know takes a turn for the dramatic with a relationship with a darker problem. We sometimes live in shame due to what people don’t know about us. Perhaps keeping your secret is worse than revealing the truth.

at the Phoenix Theater, 2605 Hennepin Ave.
May 26, 27 & 28 at 7:30pm; May 29 at 2:00pm
Buy tickets.

A Great and Happy People

This is a fabulous new project I’m involved in: American Civic Forum‘s performance series featuring speeches, court rulings, letters and other documents from American history, grouped around different themes.

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2016 Shows:
Monday, January 18: Civil Rights
Monday, March 14: Science
Monday, May 23: Sacrifice and Peace
Monday, July 4: Rebellion and Union
Monday, September 12: Struggle and Invention

All shows 7pm at the Phoenix Theater, 2605 Hennepin Ave. in Minneapolis.

Announcing the 2015 Br!nk Playwrights…

BrinkMy latest full-length play The Sweeter the Crime has been selected for a workshop and a series of readings with Renaissance Theaterworks in Milwaukee.

The BR!NK award “is presented annually to Midwestern female playwrights to develop and advance their work.” I am one of two playwrights chosen this year; I’ll be spending a week there workshopping the play in August and will return in September for the readings. The full announcement is here.

Celebrity Exception in Ottawa

I spent a glorious weekend at the Ottawa Fringe Festival, catching up with my fellow touring artists and hanging out with the cast and crew of Celebrity Exception, which I managed to see three times. The actors were delightful and managed to do something new and surprising with every performance; they kept the audience laughing from start to finish.

Reviewers were also impressed. Mariette Delevallée of Apartment 613 called Celebrity Exception “hilarious,” “original,” “well-written,” and “naughty,” while Allan Mackey of On Stage said it “continually subverts what you’re expecting.”

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Chillin’ with the cast in front of our promo-poster.

Celebrity Exception
at Ottawa Fringe, June 17-28 2015
produced by Black Sheep Theatre
written by Katherine Glover
directed by Dave Dawson
starring Mike Kosowan, Robin Hodge, Jonah Lerner and Alexis Scott.

New Jobs, New Writing

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I came back from Chile and decided that, for the sake of future bike trips (which WILL happen), I should learn some stuff, so I got a job as a bike mechanic. Then the place where I’ve been a substitute ESL teacher for almost ten years offered me my own class, teaching four nights a week — so it’s been busy.

But my creative endeavors are not dead! I haven’t had nearly as much time for writing lately as I would like, but after next week I’ll only be working at the bike shop one day a week, and then I’ll have more time for the three new projects I’ve been batting around in my brain — two plays and a solo show.

I’ve also got work going up in June:

The One Minute Play Festival
June 20-21, 2015
Produced by Walking Shadow Theatre Company and the Southern Theater

Celebrity Exception, by Katherine Glover
at the Ottawa Fringe Festival
June 17-28, 2015
Produced by Black Sheep Theatre

Big Fun Radio Funtime
June 14, 2015
Produced by Fearless Comedy Productions

Adopted Again

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On one of the ferry rides I’d met this guy named Walter. He told me he lived in Petrohue and I should come visit once I finished the Carretera. At the time, this wasn’t on my itinerary, and by the time I realized I’d have time after all, I’d lost the card he gave me.

Literally within ten seconds of arriving, however, I heard someone call my name. I turned, and there was Walter.

His grandfather acquired a chunk of land some seventy years ago, and now around fifteen different families have built their houses there, all of them related. Some, like Walter, live there year-round and work in tourism, while others have jobs in Puerto Montt or Santiago, but come back in summer so the children can run around like crazy people and play. It seems like a pretty sweet life. Plus, there are always tourists passing through and camping there, which is how several of Walter’s sisters and cousins and other relatives met their spouses.
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I stayed for three days; Walter’s family basically adopted me. They even had me out selling “kuchen” (cake, a German word that has stuck in Southern Chile). It went within five minutes. I tried to imagine doing that at home — baking something, putting it on a plate, going outside and shouting, “Cake! Cake for sale!” I just don’t think that would work in the city.

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Petrohue is gorgeous. Some day I want to climb the volcano there. Walter says he has a friend who’s a guide and who would give me a discount — you need a guide for the ice-climbing at the top.

There is no question that I want to go back to Chile; the only question is when. Perhaps Amy and Brian, the friends who initially proposed the trip, will come with me next time. We shall see. And I’d like to do other bike trips, though I don’t know where yet.

In the meantime, I am preparing — I came home and got a part-time job as a bike mechanic.

Adjusting to Urban Life

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Lago Llanquihue

Puerto Varas is undeniably beautiful, but being there was a bit of a culture shock. Everything screams, “Hey, tourists! Come in here and give us your money!” There are hotels everywhere, restaurants with menus in English, and a massive casino. The campsite I stayed at cost more than twice as much as any other place I camped, but was about a tenth as friendly. The owners (managers more likely; the owner could live in Miami for all I know) never told me their names, and the only guest who talked to me was a four year old girl (“What are you doing? What’s your name? Who did you marry?”) and then later on, her parents.

I can’t really fault the place; after all, I normally don’t expect to meet people when I stay at hotels, and I certainly don’t resent being asked for my passport and entry papers or having to fill out forms. I had simply gotten used to a different kind of traveling, and a very different kind of environment.

Towns like Puyuhuapi, according to the tiny museum they have there, were formed when the Chilean government offered free land to anyone who was willing to settle in the middle of nowhere. In Puyuhuapi’s case, some young German guys took advantage of this offer and immigrated in the 1930s. The place was completely isolated and only reachable by water; there’s a picture of the first Jeep coming over with its front tires in one small boat and its back tires in another. When the Carretera was constructed, local residents pushed to have it routed through Puyuhuapi, finally giving them road access to the rest of Chile. And the road is still largely dirt and rock, often without services of any kind for miles and miles.

What this means is, people help each other. I told Marilyn I was astounded by her generosity, that I could never be as nice as her family, but when a bus broke down in front of me and the driver asked me for rope, I didn’t hesitate. Not because I’m nice, but because we are in the middle of nowhere and other people have saved my ass repeatedly and I instinctively feel that it is in my own self-interest to promote a culture where people help each other. If the same thing had happened in Puerto Varas, I would have probably looked at that same $4 strap I gave him and thought, buy your own damn rope. Find a mechanic; call a tow-truck; this is not my problem.

That might be my favorite thing about the Carretera — the sense that everyone is in this together. And, though I was always grateful to arrive at sections that were paved, I do wonder if the road improvements currently underway will change that culture. Hopefully not.

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A wacky museum in Puerto Varas stuffed with art and random old things.

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Across the street from the museum.