Audience Reviews for Celebrity Exception

Minnesota Fringe audiences gave us an average rating of FIVE STARS!!!! (Click on “Read the Reviews.”) They called us “hilarious,” “marvelous,” “wonderful,” and all sorts of other great things, and one patron said, “I laughed through the entire thing.”

My favorite audience review came from Andrew Troth, who wrote:

A taut, surprising script that uses a whimsical premise to delve into real emotion… underneath the many laughs lies a very worthwhile, non-cliché exploration of relationships.

There was only one negative review, and it addressed my own biggest concern with the script. [NOTE: spoilers ahead.] After praising the actors and director, user Kippler Donovan asked:

…Did Xander Lucas rape Mark? He brought him up to his hotel room even though they were going out for drinks, Mark seemed uncomfortable the whole time until they were liquored up, then gave in. I see some reviews mention “flexible sexuality” but that came at a price. I don’t remember Mark ever saying “no” outright, so maybe consent was there, but it was very murky. All played for laughs? Sexual assault prevails

I have had real concerns about this moment and tried to make Mark’s consent very clear and explicit. The level of drunkenness and the way the scene plays out physically can make a difference, and I do think the script provides enough evidence that Mark is willing, but Xander’s behavior, while I wouldn’t call it assault, is definitely manipulative and predatory.

Praise for “It is So Ordered”

And more good news: It is So Ordered was proclaimed “A Must See” by infamous theater critic Dominic Papatola…

Must See: Don’t let the fact that this is an hour-long oral interpretation of a half-dozen Supreme Court opinions dissuade you. Some of the cases are mundane (such as Antonin Scalia’s snarky meditation on golf). Some are landmark (John Harlan’s sole, heartfelt dissent in the Plessy versus Ferguson case that blighted the nation with its “separate but equal” doctrine). But the writings show the pulse and the passion of the law as interpreted by the nation’s highest court over more than a century. You’ll walk out a little smarter… and a little more appreciative of our maddening and magnificent system.

Of course, I wasn’t in the opening night performance, but I will be in all of the others. (It’s the same show, just with different performers reading the material.)

Celebrity Exception in “Picks of the Pack”

Mpls St. Paul Magazine included Celebrity Exception as #3 on its preview list, Minnesota Fringe: Picks of the Pack.

Up-and-coming local playwright Katherine Glover has paid her dues on the Fringe circuit, playing more than thirty shows in the U.S. and Canada. Solo storytelling is her strength, but this time out she’s written a four-hander about a couple who are negotiating the idea of getting a free pass to sleep with the celebrity of their choice. The X factor: Who does the celebrity want to sleep with? Hint: The LGBT crowd will love this one.

We also got pre-Fringe shout-outs in City Pages and The Colu.mn.

The show opens tonight at 10pm at HUGE Theater.

Celebrity Exception at Minnesota Fringe

Celebrity Exception

You get one, Kaya insists: one celebrity you can have sex with and it isn’t cheating. Her boyfriend disagrees. But when Kayla’s pick, movie star Xander Lucas, comes to town, Kayla isn’t the one he’s after…

Celebrity Exception
Written by Katherine Glover
Directed by Callie Meiners

Featuring:
Corey DiNardo as Mark
Lizi Shea as Kayla
Emily Rose Duea as Steph/Liza Janneson
Daniel Flohr as Xander Lucas

At HUGE Theater
3037 Lyndale Ave S.
Friday 8/5 at 10pm
Sunday 8/7 at 7pm
Tuesday 8/9 at 8:30pm
Thursday 8/11 at 5:30pm
Sunday 8/14 at 5:30pm

Tickets and info available at fringefestival.org

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.
See more

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.