The Rake: Straight Talk

You're No Fun

Max Ross — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:32:45 -0500

After a flamboyantly successful run at the Bedlam Theatre earlier this spring, You're No Fun has been whittled down for a Fringe staging. The play centers around a present-day hobo who comes back to town, and finds that his ex-girlfriend has written a musical about his life. It is a tale of star-crossed lovers that, like any worthwhile addition to the tragic genre, features dancing dinosaurs. The Rake caught up with Samantha Johns - director of both versions- and Savannah Reich -the original writer - to talk a bit about the incarnation and reincarnation of the show.

Political Theater Starring a Convicted Felon

Rich Goldsmith — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:07:51 -0500

With their previous entries into the Minnesota Fringe all selling out by the end of their respective festivals, the Four Humors troupe has become something of an August favorite in Minnesota theater. This will be their fourth year participating in the Fringe, and the group is affiliated with three shows that will be playing around town through August 10th.

An Interview with the Writer and Directors of "Orange"

Brandon Root — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:34:25 -0500

I was excited to be able to catch up with Rachel Teagle and Ben Egerman, two friends of mine and veterans of the Carleton College theater scene. As newcomers to the Fringe, they were kind enough to lend some of their perspective, caffeine induced hysteria, and details about their new show, Orange.

An Actor Speaks

Jill Yablonski — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:45:21 -0500

It wouldn't be too surprising for a first-time Fringe performer to feel a little overwhelmed with the whole experience. Ten minutes to load in, an exact amount of time to perform your show, then ten minutes to load out. If you run longer than the time allotted, you get the lights turned off on you. This stress, on top of my day job and internship, could be enough to overwhelm me, but I just don't have the time.

Ten Ways to ______ Your Congresswoman

Jill Yablonski — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:46:40 -0500

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**While there are scores of bloggers out there committed solely to Fringe Festival reviews, The Rake is striving to offer you a unique, insiders' perspective. We won't tell you, "Be sure not to miss...!" What we will provide is a behind the scenes glimpse of life as a local actor, director, everyday- theater-goer. The Rake will be featuring interviews, personal accounts, reviews by wholly unqualified theater reviewers (aka Spazz Dad) and maybe even a guest appearance or two on Dude Weather.**

A Rakish Interview with Best-Selling Author Darin Strauss

Max Ross — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:10:26 -0500

"If you don't belong to a book club," Ron Charles wrote in The Washington Post last week, "Darin Strauss's bitter and brilliant new novel is reason enough to start one." The novel - Strauss's third - marks a departure from the author's previous books, both of which were (somewhat incidentally) historical fiction. More Than It Hurts You sets us in über-modern Long Island, a place where George Clooney, Austin Powers, and "Everybody Loves Raymond" all figure into the collective consciousness (while Fitzgerald and Tolstoy hide in the shadows).

The Man Behind Bigger, Stronger, Faster

Cristina Cordova — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 09:29:30 -0500

Thanks for taking the time to talk to The Rake. I throughly enjoyed the film. How did you get into film, particularly documentary film making?

Well, it's interesting, I didn't ever want to make a documentary, but my brothers and I had been talking about the whole steroid issue, and I was already a filmmaker at the USC film school. I was also probably the only filmmaker who is a power lifter (I can bench press 500 lbs) so between lifting weights and making movies and it was the kind of the time to put them both together I guess.

Meet Local Filmmaker Jon Springer

Cristina Cordova — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:15:17 -0500

Local filmmaker Jon Springer's new film The Hagstone Demon will be shown as a free sneak preview Thursday, May 8, at the Riverview Theater. The film stars Mark Borchardt, the subject of the Sundance award-winning documentary American Movie, which made him a cult celebrity of the indie film set.

Errol Morris Speaks

Cristina Cordova — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:19:30 -0500

In his latest documentary, Standard Operating Procedure, Errol Morris is addressing questions no one has bothered to ask and finding answers no one has bothered to tell.

The Surreal Bourgeois Life of Eluded Love

Cristina Cordova — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:50:05 -0500

Ra'mon-Lawrence A. Coleman
Hometown: Chicago, Il. (born and raised on the South Side)

Meet Aaron

Cristina Cordova — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:07:11 -0500

Aaron Eckhart doesn't like too much attention. It makes him uncomfortable, which oddly enough, isn't such an odd thing for an actor. Sure, there are artists that live for the limelight, but then there are others that live for the art (not that you can't live for both, mind you). Eckhart is not a spotlight fiend. That much is clear. He doesn't look uncomfortable, mind you, but he tells me so; and it's clear from his quiet, pensive approach that he's not out for the big headline, that he's not going to flex his muscles to impress me.

Crispin Glover — What Is It?

Cristina Cordova — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:29:55 -0600

I should have known better, having so many questions about a film with an elusive question for a title — and cult actor Crispin Glover as writer, director, and supporting character. I know, I know. But Glover describes What Is It?, a film featuring a number of actors with Down's Syndrome, as "the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe and how to get home," all while

Ad Man

Lisa Pahl — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:25:00 -0600

Not long ago, Colle+McVoy, the second-oldest ad agency in Minnesota, was thought to be a stodgy place; mostly it created ads for agricultural products, a decidedly un-sexy category. But last fall, observers got to scratching their heads when the agency won top honors at “The Show,” an annual awards ceremony from the Advertising Federation of Minnesota, for its work for the Erbert & Gerbert’s chain of sub shops. Colle+McVoy also walked away with the most awards, sixty-nine in all.

Strike Anywhere

Cristina Cordova — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:30:29 -0600

Not content as one of the world’s foremost cartoonists (don’t call her a graphic novelist—she loathes that designation), Marjane Satrapi has now made the leap into directing movies, starting with an animated adaptation of her highly acclaimed Persepolis. This modestly budgeted film is a brilliant hybrid of black-and-white and color, fable and memoir, at turns hilarious, deeply moving, and sad.

The All-Seeing Eye

cristina — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:02:57 -0500

If you had to pick one person as the ultimate observer of the past, present, and future of design—from cereal boxes to sneakers to web architecture—it’d be hard to go wrong with Steven Heller. His name is on more than two hundred books as author, co-author, editor, or contributor; he produces a continual flow of articles, commentary, and criticism for magazines; now posts online at The Daily Heller; and was until recently the longtime senior art director for the New York Times Book Review. (Those obits for the main newspaper?

Short Timer

admin — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Walker Art Center director Kathy Halbreich might be the most admired museum director in America,” wrote Tyler Green last year on his influential Modern Art Notes blog.

Frank with Relish

admin — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0500

The Sheep Census

admin — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Magical Thinker

admin — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0500

The World’s Toughest Indian

admin — Tue, 29 May 2007 00:00:00 -0500

When Sherman Alexie came to town last month to promote
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The Patriotic Pragmatist

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500

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The Doctor is In

admin — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0500

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Dan Slager

admin — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0600

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David Rathman

admin — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:00:00 -0600

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Katherine Lanpher

admin — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0600

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Richard Linklater

admin — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0600

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Robert Wittman

admin — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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Joan Jett

admin — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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Paul Shambroom

admin — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0500

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