Quest

Kay Kirscht & Tom Cassidy

Edgy Storytelling: What are you searching for? The Beauty of Christ? Perfect Chi? World Peace? Your Car Keys? Was it something you lost, or never realized? Kay Kirscht gathers noted spoken word artists phillip low, Allison Broeren, Wonder Dave and Nancy Donoval…deep believers, all pure of heart…and sends them all after The Grail. Adult content, dangerous thoughts - for age 16 and up.

Cast:

Nancy Donoval (alternating for Allison Broeren the first weekend) also stars in “Date Rape for Beginners: A Seriously Funny Tale of Trauma and Recovery.” Nancy (who presented Fringe Festival hits “Monster Movies with my Undead Dad,” as well as “Dancing Rats & Vampire Moms.” - is a professional storyteller, teacher, corporate consultant, award-winning recording artist and six-time presenter at the National Storytelling Conference. http://web.mac.com/NancyDonoval/

Allison Broeren has always been accused of being a bit of a storyteller. Her family and friends constantly roll their eyes and say, ‘The truth is in there somewhere.’ When she is not busy spinning yarns she is the co-Slam Master of the Minneapolis Poetry Slam at Kieran’s Irish Pub. Allison comes from a competitive speech background and performed her first one woman show, All the Things I Never Told My Mother, in the 2007 Iowa and Minnesota Fringe Festivals. She has also performed in Women Stand Up! A Comedy Cabaret, been on KFAI’s Write On! Radio, and finished a writing mentorship through Intermedia Arts and SASE: The Write Place. http://www.rockstarstorytellers.com/index_files/Page359.htm

Wonder Dave is a performer, writer, and frequent PoetrySlam contender and emcee who lives in the Twin Cities. The following mini-review describes him better than I ever could: “Wonder Dave Crady is a firecracker - a joyous, take-no-prisoners, reveling in his geekdom, won’t back down from a fight against intolerance firecracker. I think I’m a little in love with Wonder Dave after this show.” -Matthew Everett - fringefestival.org review of “Two Queers and a Chubby.” http://www.myspace.com/wdpoetry

phillip andrew bennett low is a playwright and poet, storyteller and mime, theatre critic and libertarian activist. He lurks ominously in the desert wilds of St. Louis Park, feasting upon the hygienically-prepared flesh of the once-living. He is a veteran of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, FoolFest, and the Iowa and Minnesota Fringe Festivals, where his one-man show “Descendant of Dragons” was the best-selling show in its venue and honored with a coveted Encore slot. He is a co-founder of the Rockstar Storytellers and founder and producer of Maximum Verbosity, a garage-band-like theatre troupe that he and some friends created a few years back while nobody was looking. For more information: http://www.maximumverbosityonline.org/. During this Festival, he’s producing and teching a remount of Holly Davis’ “The All-You-Can-Eat Spiritual Buffet” — as well as writing, producing, and performing a show called “Jesus: The Lost Years”, based on the apocryphal infancy gospels. phillip will also do a set with the Rockstar Storytellers June 6, and on June 15th will remount “Descendant of Dragons” on a double-bill with Allegra Lingo’s “I Hate Kenny G.”

Kay Kirscht has been storytelling for over 14 years (and seriously weird for a lot longer than that), appearing in productions for Cheap Theatre, Experiments in Storytelling, Northstar Storytelling events as well as in showcases for the past three Fringe Festivals (”The Pope Stole My Pretzel,” “Sh*t Up Louder,” and “The *F* Quotient”). Kay sometimes shows up at local open mic Balls Cabaret. She produced and co-emceed the monthly Spoken Word venue, “VeRbOsE,” at Acadia Cafe (2000-2003). Kay currently has artwork hanging around various Dunn Bros. coffeeshops, and - on a nice summer day - you might find her out drawing on sidewalks in chalk. kaybird01.livejournal.com

Schedule:

Friday, May 23, 8:30 PM
Sunday, May 25, 4:00 PM
Wednesday, May 28, 8:30 PM
Saturday, May 31, 4:00 PM
Sunday, June 01, 4:00 PM

Location:

Chapel

Press Material:

web site

Rate this show:

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7 Reviews for Quest

  1. Kay has put together a stellar lineup of spoken word artists, each with a unique viewpoint. Very engaging - but I miss seeing Tom C. onstage. When is name is listed on the card you expect to see him perform. Great job, though, and this is some of Kay’s best work!

    Comment by Vickijoan — May 26, 2008 @ 4:01 pm

  2. Kay here - yeah, I miss Tom, too…we are co-producers. Way busy schedule prevented him from putting up his own show this year. When SitH requested producer info, didn’t realize folks would think he was performing. Also didn’t realize how prominent this info would be on the website! It’s one bit you *can’t* change once you enter your show.

    Comment by Kay Kirscht — May 26, 2008 @ 10:34 pm

  3. Kay and Tom,

    You have put together a wonderful group of artists, each one a star in their own right, each as individualistic as they come, each conveying powerful emotions often balanced with humor. The poetry and the storytelling made it a well balanced show. It held me throughout.

    Comment by Joan Calof — May 27, 2008 @ 1:11 am

  4. The linguistic and theological irony of saying that this show is a truly catholic experience is just too hard to resist. I was tremendously impressed by the range of the performers I saw on Sunday. Who knew you could approach the Grail so many different ways? Who knew you could buy it on ebay? People get confused sometimes when we refer to storytelling “concerts” - will there be music? - but this was a concert in the best sense of the term. Variations on a theme, each of which illuminates or counterpoints some aspect of the other. Not that you don’t have to work at it sometimes to make connections. That’s part of the joy of engaging the material.

    Comment by Paula — May 28, 2008 @ 1:40 pm

  5. Wonderful troupe with the sort of lopsided views of search and destroy, search and cherish, search and continue to search that we all use to keep the quest as important as it is. These performers make it clear that the journey is as important as the destination. Everyone in this showcase knows what they’re doing - at least with the process - on many different rungs! Spirits for all.

    Comment by Inge — May 29, 2008 @ 2:27 pm

  6. What a great show! Kay and phillip started the night with pieces that had me thinking about my own spiritual journey. phillip and Wonder Dave planted amazing images in my mind. Allison was phenomenal! Her piece was funny, warm, vulnerable and honest. It moved me to tears.
    Wonder Dave was great, as always, with some really heart-felt and vulnerable poems.

    I left that night with my own poetry and stories running through my head - there is nothing like an excellent performance to inspire another. Thank you for this excellent show!

    Comment by Katie Knutson — May 29, 2008 @ 4:45 pm

  7. Seek and ye shall find and there is much to find in the Quest show. Kay Kirscht showed us Mary Magdeline,”you were always good with your heart.” Wonder Dave left me in wonder, achingly beautiful words read very well. Phillip Low leaves me breathless as I try keep up with the thoughts racing through his mind, tumbling out and astounding me. Nancy Donaval spun us through “deckands” as she encapsulated changes and shapes of her faith over the years with such humor! People, please, don’t miss this show!

    Comment by Nan Montgomery — May 30, 2008 @ 10:16 pm

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