Nibblers: A Musical With Sharks -- Part 1

Joy Donley has had her share of Fringe success (Last year's Seussical was the second highest attended show of the MN Fringe Festival 2004). Her husband has done pretty well for himself in the Twin Cities theatre realm, as well (Michael Pearce Donley is one of the fellas who brings you Triple Espresso). One might think that putting a show together for this year's Fringe Festival would be a piece of cake for this duo, but every show has its little adventures, and even the most established veterans have to face challenges. For instance, when I first contacted Joy about featuring her show in my column, I mentioned that I would like to follow her company through the process of getting ready for being in the Festival.

"Ha --funny you should ask about the process of getting ready for the Fringe. My lead actor, a boy of 12 years, just had to drop the show because of severe panic attacks! There's nothing like having some drop out on the FIRST DAY OF REHEARSAL... But how weird is that?!" Donley has had her adventures set for her from day one with this show.

Really when I think about it, a guess panic isn't an inappropriate emotion to be dealing with when the focus of the play is SHARKS! Especially this week when there have been two major shark attacks in Florida that have made the national news (apparently 23 attacks is an average year, so a couple a week isn't that big of a deal, but the coverage certainly makes it seem so... not to mention, it's a pretty big deal to the 14-year old girl who died...but, anyway...)

Yep, this musical is about sharks. Well, really it's about kids who get left by their parents in Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America. The play started out as a story told to the children of playwright Brook Berry. When the Donleys approached him about writing a show, he took his story melded it with Michael's music, and here they are. Now, I tell my 6-year old daughter stories at bed time, but they normally don't involve parental abandonment and large predators. Not that those aren't good topics for children's stories. The Brothers Grimm seem to have done pretty well with both of those topics. However, I know my daughter and she's an unfortunate product of modern children's television which gets rid of villains in most storylines and deals with problem solving instead of good versus evil storylines. Needless to say, a shark tale is going to be something that makes her panic, too.

Anyway... despite the fact that my little girl would not probably join me at a showing of Nibblers, I am looking forward to the show. And more importantly, since there is no guarantee that I will get to see it, I look forward to bringing you updates over the next few weeks about how the show is coming together. This company is responsible for some pretty high quality Fringing since 2002, and this is going to be another top notch show. Call it a hunch.

Allright then... a bit of the random:

• Well, maybe not so random... To finish up on a thought from above. I am sick of what dic is doing to old children's shows. My daughter now has Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears videos. These are shows from my youth. I have a very special place in my heart for them. The Purple Pie Man was a special favorite of mine when I was in 2nd grade (that's 1981-82, folks!). The videos now no longer have the villainous characters that were formerly part of the shows. That's just wrong. This is akin to when I was teaching for one of this community's largest educational theatres, and they were against the shows with the kids having any real conflict in them. C'mon people! Plot structure requires conflict! Beginning-middle-end requires the middle to be made of conflict, or you have no story! I have no problem with teaching kids that violence isn't the answer, I was raised in a Quaker household, after all. But it is horribly wrong to teach kids that conflict doesn't happen. For instance, the video Spring for Strawberry Shortcake involves a story wherein Spring doesn't come on time. The reason? Did the Purple Pie Man work some evil magic to make it perpetually winter? No. Some little fairy got lost. That's anti-climactic. Not to mention, because you don't find that out until the end (hope this doesn't spoil the movie for ya!) it ends up being a deus ex machina ending, and one that essentially negates the last hour's worth of viewing. Curse you, dic entertainment!
• One of my cats has taken to sleeping next to me with his front paws wrapped around my left arm. While it is sometimes painful, due to claw marks, it is cute as all get-out being used as a small furry creature's Teddy Bear.
• "Oz never did give nuthin' to the Tin Man that he didn't, didn't already have..." --Tim Man by America
• I listen to KFAN from time to time, and although it is a sports radio station, one of the things that makes me so happy is how little time Dan "The Common Man" Cole and Dan Barriero actually spend talking about sports.
• A fact please! Sure, here ya go (www.hookedonfacts.com): "About twenty-five percent of the population sneeze when they are exposed to light. " -- This can't be right. Wouldn't one fourth of the population being in perpetual sneeze then? There have to be more details to make this statement at all remotely true. Perhaps the statement ought to really read, "About twenty-five percent of the population sneeze when they are exposed to light and forcibly shoving black pepper up their noses." Or maybe it's a statement that is only taking into account a certain population, not the population of the Earth as a whole. So then it might read, "About twenty-five percent of the population of those in attedance at this year's People With Really Odd Allergies Convention sneeze when they are exposed to light." I can't fathom any other way that this statement is a fact at all.
• Only 5 days until I'm in Sunny Spain!