Jay Gabler‘s review is up at the Twin Cities Daily Planet, and it’s our best so far.  He says…

The ensemble of actors onstage…in Walking Shadow’s searing production are as collectively compelling as any cast I’ve seen this year, in anything.

In the hands of Balcom and his cast, LaBute’s play is appropriately chilly but also heartbreakingly human. It’s an exceptionally powerful show.

Read the full review at TC Daily Planet.

Playwright T. James Belich has reviewed Some Girl(s) on his blog, and he gives it “five out of five stars.”

Wethern gives a wonderful performance, oozing good intentions, and aptly portraying Guy’s inability to figure out how to connect to these different woman.

Each of the woman gives a strong performance as well, particularly Anna Sundberg’s fun-loving Tyler

…everything seems to flow so seamlessly together, credit must go out to the director…Brian Balcom

Read the full review at Mr. Belich’s blog.

Photo by Aaron Fenster

Some Girl(s) had a great opening last night!  The audience seemed to confirm our suspicions that we have a pretty good play on our hands, and our first review is already out.  John Olive reviewed us favorably at How Was The Show.  Enjoy my “rumpled aplomb,” won’t you?

Read John Olive’s review of Some Girl(s) on HowWasTheShow.com.

We also got a mention from Dominic Papatola in a Pioneer Press piece about non-Christmasy shows going on right now.  Unfortunately, he makes a factual error, saying my character Guy is “approaching 40″ (He’s just into his 30′s), but I’m not gonna quibble with good press.

Visit walkingshadowcompany.org to make your reservation for Some Girl(s)!  Also, this upcoming Monday is our Pay What You Can performance.

There was a Spotlight on us in yesterday’s Star Tribune, with a big photo and everything.  Thanks, Star Tribune!  Here’s the online version (sans picture): http://bit.ly/4Goppd

Tonight is our first rehearsal in the space, and I’m pretty excited.  After being waylaid by illness, I’m back in good health and ready to leap into tech rehearsal.  During Friday night’s rehearsal, I literally had no voice, so our wonderful stage manager Penny spoke my lines while I rehearsed the staging silently.  It was actually useful for me, though, in that it forced me to focus on the physical aspects of my performance.

Thankfully, my voice returned in time for my audition for The Jungle Theater (my first for the company) yesterday.  I felt very good about my audition — I actually had a good time, which can’t always be said about auditions — and it was a pleasure to finally meet Bain Boehlke.

Remember everybody, Some Girl(s) opens this Friday night! Make your reservations: www.walkingshadowcompany.org

If you follow what’s going on at The Playwrights’ Center here in Minneapolis, you’re probably aware that there’ll be a reading of Polish playwright Malgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk’s The Death of the Squirrel Man on Wednesday, 11/11, at 7:00 PM.  Well, guess what:  I will be in said reading. Whoohoo!

So, come on down to the PWC for a FREE reading of an excellent, fascinating play.  The cast also includes Tracey Maloney, Maggie Chestovich, Nathan Christopher, Brian Goranson, Sherwin Resurreccion, and EJ Subkoviak.

Click here for more information or to make reservations.

If you missed our interview about Some Girl(s) on Jazz 88 this morning, you can listen to the whole thing online now:  http://bit.ly/2xbTx4

Thanks to Ed Jones for having us in and recording the interview, and thanks to Walking Shadow’s John Heimbuch for posting it.

Tonight at 7:00 PM is Theatre Pro Rata‘s second free play reading.  Last week, we read the absurd Kitty Kitty Kitty;  this time, we’re reading Mary Stuart.  And as before, you get free homebrew beer by Scott Strand!  Here’s the info:

Schiller’s Mary Stuart by David Harrower
October 14, 2009, 7:00 P.M.
at The Gremlin Theatre

One of European theatre’s major plays, Friedrich von Schiller’s masterpiece hinges on a brilliantly imagined meeting between Mary, Queen of Scots – focus of simmering Catholic dissent and her cousin Elizabeth, Queen of England, who has imprisoned her. Isolated by their duplicitous male courtiers, the women collide headlong, each wrestling with the rank, ambition and destiny their births have bestowed, against a thrilling background of intrigue, plot and counter-plot.

Featuring: Amber Bjork, Andy Chambers, Matthew Glover, Grant Henderson, Daniel Joeck, Ben Layne, Carin Leonard-Gorrill, Michael Postle, Ariana Prusak, Keith Prusak & Clarence Wethern

In related news:

This will be the closing weekend of Theatre Pro Rata’s current play, José Rivera’s Marisol.  It’s gotten great reviews from The Star Tribune, City Pages, and TC Daily Planet, and it deserves a nice, big audience.  There’s some impressive work, including some really stunning design. GO SEE IT!

Come to the Gremlin Theatre at 7:00 tonight for the first of Theatre Pro Rata’s playreading series!  Funny play!  Snacks!  Great homebrew beer!  FREE!

Here’s the scoop from Pro Rata’s website:

Take a Peek into the Pro Rata Process!

Have a drink and give us your two cents.

We have an exclusive new playreading series where our friends can get a sneak peek into the Pro Rata process.

At 7:00 on the first two Wednesdays of each mainstage run we will read and discuss plays being considered for our upcoming seasons.

Admission is free! Donations are welcome!

Snacks and Scott Strand’s award winning homebrewed beer will be served.

And here’s the low-down on tonight’s play:

Kitty Kitty Kitty by Noah Haidle
October 7, 2009, 7:00 P.M.
at The Gremlin Theatre

Kitty, a suicidal housecat, finds his true love in his clone, the first successfully cloned housecat, Kitty Kitty. They give each other hand jobs, but Kitty Kitty doesn’t love Kitty back. So Kitty decides to make another clone of himself, the title character Kitty Kitty Kitty. But something goes wrong in the cloning process, and he makes more copies of himself, each one more retarded than the last. The final clone, Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty, communicates in nothing but grunts and yells and drool. Kitty Kitty Kitty is a comedy about love, unrequited love, regret and hand jobs.

Featuring: Andy Chambers, Matthew Glover, Grant Henderson, Erik Hoover, Christopher Kehoe, Carin Leonard-Gorrill, Natalie Novacek & Clarence Wethern

On a related note, Pro Rata’s current show Marisol is getting some great reviews.  The Star Tribune and the TC Daily Planet have praised the production. I saw the show on opening night, and it’s pretty intense. Go to Pro Rata’s website for more info: http://www.theatreprorata.org

I’ll be appearing in Commedia Beauregard’s Master Works: The Goya Plays, an evening of 10-minute plays inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya.

Michael Venske, Kate Gunther, and I will be performing in The Chinchillas by Tom Poole, directed by Michael Agnew (GTC Dramatic Dialogues).  It’s a very funny play, and to be honest, it hits me pretty close to home.

Here’s Goya’s “Los Chinchillas,” which inspired the play:

The show runs at Bryant-Lake Bowl for four consecutive Fridays, beginning this Friday, October 2nd.  Tickets are $12 in advance or with a Fringe button, $15 at the door.

Click here for tickets!

There’s a nerd blog I read called Topless Robot, and they recently gave birth to a new internet meme.  If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably already seen this stuff.

They do a weekly feature called “Fan Fiction Friday,” wherein they pluck the most horrific fan fiction from the internet and post it with amusing commentary.  Last week, the author was none too pleased and made his outrage known.  Go read the extremely hilarious post at Topless Robot before you do anything else.  I’ll wait.

One of my favorite “WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?” pics is Grimlock opining about Bay’s Transformers.

I made some of my own:

And here’s one from a pic I took of Bill Stiteler:

And finally, my friend, Twin Cities actress Amber Bjork: