|
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE MATING
Joseph Scrimshaw: Author, Co-Producer, and "Jeffrey"
Joseph is a Minneapolis based writer, actor, and independent theater producer. With his brother, Joshua, he is one half of
The Scrimshaw Brothers Comedy Team (City Pages' Artists of the Year-2002). As a solo artist, Joseph has had several top-ten best-selling shows in the MN Fringe Festival including The Worst Show in the Fringe, Adventures in Mating, Die, Clowns, Die!, and the #1 best-selling Macbeth's Awesome Scottish Castle Party. Joseph is a resident performer of Children's Theater at Old Gem Theater in New Richmond, Wisconsin; and has also performed with the MN Shakespeare Company, Bedlam Theater, Mystery Cafe, History Theater, and the Chicago Improv Festival. Joseph has written plays, monologues and sketches for the MN Historical Society, Thirst Theater, Old Gem, Zamzow Media, History Theater, Minnesota Public Radio and The Current. Joseph is now officially an internationally produced playwright with productions of Mating produced in England and an upcoming performance of Worst Show in Lima, Peru.
Mo Perry: "Miranda"
By day, Mo is an admin assistant at the University of MN, as well as a
student of Arabic. By night, she toils on the Twin Cities small
theater circuit. Recent credits include Anton in Show Business and
Amadeus for Starting Gate Productions, Uncle Vanya, Twelfth Night, and
Ghosts at Theatre in the Round, Macbeth's Awesome Scottish Castle
Party, (the top-selling show of the '07 MN Fringe Festival), and
Looking for Normal at the Minneapolis Theater Garage. Mo was named
Lavender Magazine's Best Supporting Actress of 2007 for her work in
Anton in Show Business, and Pioneer Press cited her as "one to
watch" in 2008, along with Mr. Scrimshaw. Lucky for you, you can now
watch them both, together, for 12 measly dollars. Talk about a deal.
Jim Robinson: "The Waiter"
Jim is thrilled to be stepping into Adventures in Mating this spring, having admired the Scrimshaws' work over the past two centuries. Jim is an alumnus of the Brave New Workshop and the Disney Cruise Line's Off-Beat Comedy Club. More recently he co-wrote Julie Grover's Fringe extravaganza Results Not Typical (where he also offered himself up as the Male Prop) and also co-wrote and performed in the hit interactive show We Gotta Bingo in downtown St. Paul. As a founding member of Hang Kitty Productions, Jim worked with the luminous Shanan Wexler and the gifted Dennis Curley to write and perform in Pride and Plot of Pointlessness: Or, the Betrothal of Euphemia Waterfowl, the Stupidest Girl in the Whole of England, a long-titled play with a short, sold-out run at the BNW's Summer Series in 2006. Jim was also seen by dozens of people in Ordinary People, but Not with Huge Theater; SOS with Mainly Me Productions, and War of the Worlds: the Musical with Hometown Theater. When he's not on stage, Jim teaches psychology at the College of St. Catherine and the University of St. Thomas. He hails from Riverside, California.
Sara Scrimshaw: Co-producer and Choreographer if there is ever a musical version of the show
Sara Scrimshaw can be found on both sides of the curtain. On the arts management side, Sara works at the James J. Hill House, a historic site within the Minnesota Historical Society, is co-producing Adventures in Mating with her husband, Joseph, and works as a freelance audience development consultant. She completed her Master's degree in Arts Management at City University in London, UK, in 2006. Sara also performs regularly as a dancer (and occasionally as a singer, actor, runway model, or whatever else is needed). She is currently dancing with DRP Dance and will appear with John Munger's Third Rabbit Dance Ensemble in their spring show this May.
Tim Uren: "The Waiter Understudy"
Tim is a Minneapolis based actor and comedian. Tim has written and performed several successful one man shows at the MN Fringe Festival including 10,000 Comic Books, Michigan Disasters, and 2006's hit H.P. Lovecraft's The Rats in the Walls at the Mill City Museum. Tim’s been an actor/comedian in the Twin Cities for over ten years having woked with folks like Stevie Ray's, the Brave New Workshop, and The Scrimshaw Brothers. Every now and again, he performs a solo improvisational performance called 300 Comic Books at Improv-a-Go-Go. He's appeared in Fun with Law's Soulless, Bloodsucking Lawyers and Hardcover Theater's London After Midnight. The nice folks at Circus Minimus Puppetry have been kind enough to work with Tim on occasion. Tim has also taking a liking to doing shows for kids at the Old Gem Theater in New Richmond, Wi. where he has played such roles as Johnny Appleseed, Captain Hook, Santa Claus, a bear, a goat, two pigs and many others.
Shanan Wexler: "Miranda Understudy"
Shanan Wexler is a veteran of the Brave New Workshop, where she wrote and performed in 14 sketch comedy revues, the more recent of which, Das Bootylicious, was named a Top Critics Choice for Best New Play 2004 by the Star Tribune. With Hardcover Theater, Shanan co-wrote and performed in all five episodes of their hit Victorian serial London After Midnight. Shanan also co-wrote and now performs in the Actors Theater of Minnesota's interactive comedy hit We Gotta Bingo at the Lowry Theater in St. Paul, now in its second year. Other notable projects include last year's successful ode to Jane Austen in Pride and Plot of Pointlessness with Hang Kitty Productions as well as Love Letters with Workhouse Theater as part of their Reader's Theater Series.
Joe Wiener: "Jeffrey Understudy"
Joe is very excited to work with Scrimshaw Inc. Joe grew up in St. Paul, went off to UW-Madison to get a degree in theater, then returned to Minneapolis to work as an actor. Most recently he has appeared in Contents Under Pressure for Teatro del Pueblo's Politcal Theater Festival, P.S. Your Cat is Dead for Starting Gate Productions, and A Walk in the Woods for the St. Croix Festival Theatre. He has also appeared in numerous commercials and advertisements all over the country. He knows nothing about manatees.
Alayne Hopkins: "Miranda Emeritus"
Alayne doesn't even bother trying to be as funny as Mr. Scrimshaw and Mr. Johnson, as it's nearly impossible, but she's happy to be sharing the stage with them again for Adventures in Mating--part deux. She's recently appeared as Iraqi insurgent Margaret in the comedy Angelina Jolie is a Zionist Whore, or Plan 9 from Baghdad and as Marguerite in Red Noses with Ten Thousand Things. Other recent roles include Ms. Blanc in Sandbox Theater's Koogoomanooki; Princess Leonide in The Triumph of Love at Park Square; and Mimi in An Empty Plate at the Cafe du Grand Boeuf with Girl Friday Productions. Additional Park Square credits include: Noises Off, The Glass Menagerie, Communicating Doors
and Last Night of Ballyhoo. She has also performed with The History Theater: Hiding in the Open, Meet Me at the Fair; Frank Theater: Adventures of Herculina, Threepenny Opera; the Minnesota Jewish Theater: Shadow of the Valley and Substance of Fire; as well as with Illusion Theater; Red Eye; Shakespeare in the Park and 15 Head.
Craig Johnson: "The Waiter Emeritus"
Craig is pleased to be serving Joseph and Alayne again and
again and again, having originated the role of the Waiter at the 2005 Minnesota Fringe Festival, where critical response to his work was perhaps best summed up in the hopefully rhetorical query, "Who doesn't love Craig Johnson?" Craig and Joseph first appeared together (with David Mann) in Joseph's luminous 2002-2003 Fringe Festival hit, The Worst Show in the Fringe, and later in the BLB show, The Worst Holiday Pageant Ever (also with David Mann). Craig recently played the title role in History Theatre's The Lutefisk Champ and Other Frozen Holiday Tales (once again with David Mann and featuring material written by Joseph Scrimshaw), and he appeared as Malvolio in Theatre in the Round's Twelfth
Night (directed by David Mann and featuring Joseph's brother Joshua Scrimshaw). On occasion Craig actually does shows without David Mann or any Scrimshaw, such as Park Square Theatre's The Triumph of Love (with Alayne Hopkins). Craig works for the Minnesota Historical Society (as does Joseph Scrimshaw) at the James J. Hill House (with Sara Scrimshaw, Joseph's wife). There are times when Craig needs to get away, and then he directs or acts for the Commonweal Theatre Company (Lanesboro), Jon Hassler Theatre (Plainview), the Paul Bunyan Playhouse (Bemidji--"the Paris of northern Minnesota"), and even the Mayo Clinic (Rochester and Jacksonville). Craig directed the recent Torch Theater Company hit, The Miracle Worker, without any involvement of the people parenthetically mentioned above. Craig attends the Ivey Awards every year.
|
"YOU ARE STUPID. YOU ARE VERY, VERY STUPID. YOU ARE SO STUPID YOU APPARENTLY DON'T KNOW ANY SYNONYMS FOR STUPID."
-The Waiter from
Scene Five Point Six
All photos by Ted Roseen
|
