Manna Fest
Aug. 6th, 2007 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerThere used to be a set of bring-your-own venue shows at the Fringe called the Spiritual Fringe, all of which had themes related to religion, ethics, or spirituality. The Spiritual Fringe is a separate thing this year, hosted by Augsburg College, called Manna Fest. My friend Elizabeth has a play in this festival, called Witnessing to a Murder. I went to see it tonight.
It's kind of odd to see someone you know well on stage playing a role, but it's even odder to see someone you know on stage playing herself. The play is about Elizabeth witnessing a murder, and recovering from the trauma of witnessing a murder, and about her (Quaker) spirituality. As I noted to Ed, it's lots of different aspects of Elizabeth that you might not encounter right away if you were just meeting her, compressed into 45 minutes.
It's a compelling story, and she tells it movingly but unsentimentally. It's interesting both for the story of the murder itself and for the mysticism with a quirky sense of humor. ("Sweet Jesus, did you want me to kick him in the crotch? I mean, he was wide open.")
She'll be performing it two more times (Friday at 10 pm and Sunday at 4 pm) on the Augsburg College campus. There's a big theater building that's right across the street from the HealthPartners Riverside Clinic, and most of the venues seem to be in there. They have signs, and apparently you're allowed to park in any of the lots on campus.
This was actually the second time today I was in that neighborhood: I took Kiera to the clinic in early afternoon because she had a sore throat and was running a fever. She turned out to have strep. Poor kiddo.
It's kind of odd to see someone you know well on stage playing a role, but it's even odder to see someone you know on stage playing herself. The play is about Elizabeth witnessing a murder, and recovering from the trauma of witnessing a murder, and about her (Quaker) spirituality. As I noted to Ed, it's lots of different aspects of Elizabeth that you might not encounter right away if you were just meeting her, compressed into 45 minutes.
It's a compelling story, and she tells it movingly but unsentimentally. It's interesting both for the story of the murder itself and for the mysticism with a quirky sense of humor. ("Sweet Jesus, did you want me to kick him in the crotch? I mean, he was wide open.")
She'll be performing it two more times (Friday at 10 pm and Sunday at 4 pm) on the Augsburg College campus. There's a big theater building that's right across the street from the HealthPartners Riverside Clinic, and most of the venues seem to be in there. They have signs, and apparently you're allowed to park in any of the lots on campus.
This was actually the second time today I was in that neighborhood: I took Kiera to the clinic in early afternoon because she had a sore throat and was running a fever. She turned out to have strep. Poor kiddo.
