A huge THANK YOU to Table Salt Productions! And almost March...

Got the chance to finally see "After the Apple", a women's playwright festival produced by Table Salt Productions. What's neater than neat? Seeing something you wrote, said by other people. Brilliant, funny other people. Seeing what a director does with those words. (Wishing you had taken certain words out. No one uses the word "construct" in conversation.)

Seeing why we do plays/performances/pretend to be other people and things in costumes vs. read to ourselves. Got it. Got it. (IT MAKES EVERYTHING IMPORTANT. YOU BREATHE TOGETHER. AN AUDIENCE IS A PARTICIPANT, NOT JUST AN OBSERVER. IT'S AN ACT OF GENEROSITY ON BOTH SIDES. And then someone performs in such a way that you have to step back and marvel a little. You are a good actor, actor.) :)

Also, just great to see 10 other short plays by OTHER female playwrights. Interesting. Inspirational. Creative-inducing.

Very very lucky and so grateful to Table Salt for this opportunity. Nifty!

*****

I will be back at HUGE Theater this coming Saturday for Off Book! Very excited. Last Saturday was too much fun.

Also, coming up, the return of The Theater of Public Policy!! Making policy sexy for over a year. Mondays in March and April, 6:30 p.m. at HUGE Theater. (I'll be in the March 11th performance*, featuring Nancy Jost of the West Central Initiative, talking about the Case for Universal Pre-K. I would encourage everyone to check these shows out. These shows de-jargon policy in a beautiful way.)



Thanks, friends! Hoping to see you soon!

*Unless something very exciting happens. 

Off Book! and more.. :)

What's more fun than fun?

OffBook at HUGE Theater.

Tonight was the second time I've played - - once before as an improviser, and now as an actor. Lovely show, lovely peeps: so lucky!

Got to run tech (i.e. make the lights go up and down and THEN play a CD!) at the Brave New Workshop Student Union this last Thursday for "You're Making That Up!"

A very very nice and patient man let me give him a hug.

(He decided to look scared. I was told to look "HUGGIES!". THIS IS INCREDIBLY APPROPRIATE.)

Anywhoo, please keep your ears open for "You're Making That Up!" It's a incredibly fun show, filled with smart dead-FUNNY people, and it was an honor to be privy to such delight.

"After the Apple", a festival of women playwrights, produced by the amazing folk at Table Salt Productions, runs through Feb. 23rd at the Playwrights Center!

A lovely review here!









Hoping your February is treating you beautifully!

Oh yes...

More student shorts that I've been a part of (plus one non-student short) are getting edited and posted! W00t indeed!

You're welcome. 

(no really.. everyone's doing a really lovely job.. it's amazing what people can do in such a short amount of time.) 

And here's the second one!

******

SHOWS! 

Baby Game (kind of Brain Game, but different)

By the lovely folks at Tablesalt Productions

This Friday, January 18th, 7:30 p.m.

Lowry Lab Theater in beautiful St. Paul. 

Off Book

As HUGE Theater puts it, "Off Book pairs one actor that has learned (and will stick to) one half of a scripted scene with an improviser that has no idea what the script is and has to improvise along."

So much fun. So happy to be a part of this production again. 

This Saturday, January 19th, 8 p.m.

HUGE Theater in beautiful Minneapolis. 

HUGE Theater's 2nd Anniversary Show

Saturday January 26th, 8 p.m.

HUGE Theater in beautiful Minneapolis. 

Wait for it.. it'll be amazing. Promise. 

Thanks, friends.. Hoping your 2013 is treating you beautifully!

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!!!!

Indeed! Hoping your 2012 closed beautifully, and that your 2013 is delightful!

What's up for January? .. erm.

Performance-wise, looking forward to HUGE THEATER'S 2nd ANNIVERSARY!!!! Performance details to come... January 26th, 2013.. Probably at 8 p.m.. Definitely at HUGE Theater. Watch for it, beautifuls.. :)

One of the student pilots I did has now posted..

The Skeeter & Benji Show! Pilot Episode from Raven Johnson on Vimeo.

And, goddamn, here's an improv set with the amazing Butch Roy, our duo known as Adorable. :)

Much love to you all, friends.. 

December December...

Hi friends! Just a quick update:

 - Levi Weinhagen is the kindest and most patient interviewers around. I'm completely honored to be a part of his Pratfalls of Parenting podcast. Meep!

 - Freshwater Theatre's anthology "For Better Or Worse" is now available on Amazon! (I wrote one of the pieces in it.. Exciting!)

 - Another of my small plays will be featured in Table Salt Production's "After the Apple", which is an evening of short plays by local women playwrights, directed by local women directors. Neat? Neat.

 - I'll be at HUGE Theater, Saturday Dec. 29th, 8 p.m., for the last "Family Dinner". This show has been a complete delight. Please join us! :)

 - Finished directing a play at Humboldt High School in St. Paul. We did it! Actually, THEY did it. Congrats to all involved!!

A Mystery Cafe gig, some last teaching.. and then it's 2013. January 2013. This still sort of blows my mind.

Hoping your holidays are beautiful!!

Ah, Toronto.. and a SURPRISE HOLY CRAP!

Hi friends!

The Toronto Improv Festival was great. Generous awesome crowd, generous awesome organizers. We appeared, did a show in a lovely giant blackbox theater, got our first non-alcoholic suggestion (which was lovely!), reunited with the excellent Meghan Wolff (who rocked it), secured crepes, and then walked back to our hotel, dodging mummies and drunk Power Rangers. Canada believes in Halloween. :)

ANNOUNCEMENT! HOLY CRAP!

Mike Doughty will be our Armando for a special performance at HUGE Theater.

If you're not sure who Mike Doughty is, think former Soul Coughing front man, amazing solo artist, writer, storyteller and good god. (Also think me listening obsessively, between the years 1995 and.. 2010? I've hung out with this guy's voice a lot.)

If you're not sure what an Armando is, don't worry: it just means that he's going to tell stories (!!! and he's an excellent storyteller), and then we shall improvise inspired by said stories.

If you're not sure what HUGE is, what better time to check it out, indeed? :)

Am I excited? Indeedy do. So very.

Armando Night featuring Mike Doughty.
THIS Friday Nov. 2nd
10:30 p.m., $20, HUGE Theater.

November is for turkeys and the funny.

October was fun. So much fun. But it's not over yet!

The beautiful Emily Schmidt and I head to the Toronto Improv Festival! Our duo, Ladies Who Drink, performs on Saturday October 27th at 9 p.m. I'm so damned excited to play with her, neither of us have been to that side of Canada, Toronto looks amazing, I get to take an airport shuttle. Meep!

Creature Feature has a special Halloween performance! 8 p.m., October 31st, HUGE Theater.

Family Dinner starts up in November. Ohmygod, the cast makes me so happy. It's what it says it is: an improvised holiday dinner. It'll be wonderful and terrible. Please come! Saturdays, 8 p.m., HUGE Theater.

Adorable will be performing sometime during the IMPROV-A-THON, Thursday November 15th, HUGE Theater. It might be in the middle of the night. Please come in your PJs (and it's Give To The Max Day! Important!)

The Theater of Public Policy continues to be awesome.. (I'll be performing with them on Thursday November 15th, 7 p.m.,  HUGE Theater.)


And I think I'm involved with a mysterious show called the Nightmare Video Project, Saturday November 17th, 10:30 p.m., HUGE Theater.

Finally, the All Star Variety Show Bonanza returns, Monday November 3rd! I have the honor of looking at the cast list. Good good. It'll be great. 7 p.m., Bryant-Lake Bowl.

Thanks, friends! Stay sane during these election times and see you in a bit. :)