There's A Crack in Everything - An evening of Music and Poetry from Here

Butch Roy Many many people owe many many things to Butch Roy, and happily so. Co-Founder of HUGE Theater, creator of Improv A Go Go, executive director of the Twin Cities Improv Festival, Butch is a powerhouse who creates things. He also has the most jaw-dropping stories one could ever hope to hear.

@fivemanjob

Mary Jo Pehl What a dream to live in the same town as Mary Jo Pehl! A "former writer and villain" on much beloved Mystery Science Theater 3000, she's a writer, an actor, an author, a voice actor, a producer (Mary Jo Pehl's Garage for the Performing Arts just celebrated another season!), and at all times, a brilliant dream.

@maryjopehl

Jen Scott Jen Scott is a Twin Cities based musician, theater maker, and teaching artist. She's worked as an actor, improviser, performer, playwright, director, storyteller, talk show host, producer, and musician. Jen writes a song-a-week as Penny and the Bandits: you can see some of Jen and her 2 minute songs at www.pennyandthebandits.com and at @pennyandthebandits. She also produces the variety show for kids and their grown ups, Bring Your Kids!, and has heard and forgotten more knock knock jokes than she dares admits.

April 2023 Performance

Daniel Bonespur/Dan Dukich (@danielbonespur) Local musician Daniel Bonespur is a composer, sound designer and musician whose work has been heard on stages all across North America and Europe. He has been recognized by The Kennedy Center with a Distinguished Achievement in Sound Design Award, supported by Nautilus Music-Theatre's Composer-Librettist Studio and is a recipient of MRAC's Next Step Fund. Dan is also a songwriter who records and performs with the moniker Daniel Bonespur.

"Daniel Bonespur is a trip without ever sounding like anything but a sweetheart. A pitch-perfect voice with a wry perspective and fanciful sense of storytelling that builds on that of The Magnetic Fields’ Stephen Merritt."

(Tyler Berd, Spark & Fizz)

“...Dukich somehow manages to never end up where he’s started – at no point... do you feel like you are exploring the same territory twice.”

(Jon Behm, reviler.org)

https://www.facebook.com/FishyWobbitz

Felicia Cooper is a Twin Cities-based pupeeter, theatre artist, and fabricator. She helps to produce the Minneapolis Fringe Festival, CrankieFest, and, in her own words, makes "puppet shows for children, with a very loose definition of both puppets and children."

@@felicia__cooper

Spencer Retelle (aka The Other Jeannie Retelle) is a Twin Cities based drag artist, storyteller, cast member of the Hot Pink Saloon and Queerdo Minneapolis, co-hosts the America's Next Top Model podcast Standards of Beauty, and is resident soup witch of Sad Boy Soups.

@theotherjeannieretelle

Will Roberts is a Twin Cities-based bassist, singer, songwriter, improviser, performer, and the best maths teacher you'll ever hope to find. He's currently in Paris, studying with bass master François Rabbath.

Jen Scott is a Twin Cities based musician, theater maker, and teaching artist. She's worked as an actor, improviser, performer, playwright, director, storyteller, talk show host, producer, and musician.

She’s a COMPAS teaching artist, has been an artist-in-residence at Pillsbury House + Theater, and also has taught for HUGE Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Park Square Theatre, the Brave New Workshop, and others. Recent on-stage credits include work with HUGE Theater, Uprising Theatre Company, Hennepin Theater Trust, Red Eye Theater, Four Humors Theater, and others. Jen writes a song-a-week as Penny and the Bandits: you can see some of Jen and her 2 minute songs at www.pennyandthebandits.com and at @pennyandthebandits.

September 2022 Performance

Daniel Bonespur/Dan Dukich (@danielbonespur) Local musician Daniel Bonespur is a composer, sound designer and musician whose work has been heard on stages all across North America and Europe. He has been recognized by The Kennedy Center with a Distinguished Achievement in Sound Design Award, supported by Nautilus Music-Theatre's Composer-Librettist Studio and is a recipient of MRAC's Next Step Fund. Dan is also a songwriter who records and performs with the moniker Daniel Bonespur.

"Daniel Bonespur is a trip without ever sounding like anything but a sweetheart. A pitch-perfect voice with a wry perspective and fanciful sense of storytelling that builds on that of The Magnetic Fields’ Stephen Merritt."

(Tyler Berd, Spark & Fizz)

“...Dukich somehow manages to never end up where he’s started – at no point... do you feel like you are exploring the same territory twice.”

(Jon Behm, reviler.org)

MJ Matheson is a Twin Cities-based stand up, improviser, and all around amazing person. Host of Easy Speak at Volsteads, MJ can also be seen at HUGE Theater performing as part of the long-running Bearded Company.

@LordMatheson

Danna Sheridan is a Twin Cities based storyteller, performer, improviser, and Fringe Festival darling. She's a 2022 Strike Theater Grand Storyslam Slam winner and a 2022 Minnesota Fringe Festival Golden Lanyard winner for her solo hit, "5 Dates."

@Dannadoesindy

Jen Scott is a Twin Cities based musician, theater maker, and teaching artist. She's worked as an actor, improviser, performer, playwright, director, storyteller, talk show host, producer, and musician.

She’s a COMPAS teaching artist, has been an artist-in-residence at Pillsbury House + Theater, and also has taught for HUGE Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Park Square Theatre, the Brave New Workshop, and others. Recent on-stage credits include work with HUGE Theater, Uprising Theatre Company, Hennepin Theater Trust, Red Eye Theater, Four Humors Theater, and others. Jen writes a song-a-week as Penny and the Bandits: you can see some of Jen and her 2 minute songs at www.pennyandthebandits.com and at @pennyandthebandits.

https://www.jamesrone.com

July 2022 Performance

James Rone (@jamesronemusic) is a songwriter, performing artist, and educator. During the last two decades, Rone’s music has ranged from power-pop (The Seagraves) to soul-revival (The Robinson Caruso Organization) to pop-rock (School For Girls). His music has been used in podcasts (Filmspotting), short films (Bookman), collaborative theater (Sandbox Theater’s Unspeakable Things) and children’s musicals (I Don’t Want To Go To Bed). James Rone is also very very funny.

@jamesronemusic

Co-founder of Strike Theater, a non-profit dedicated to growing the Twin Cities improv, sketch comedy, and storytelling, Brave New Workshop alum Mike Fotis (@mike_fotis) is very very funny. He wrote and performed in the radio show Wits, has produced multiple multiple Fringe shows, appeared in the Netflix series Lady Dynamite, and is a founding member of the veteran improv troupe “The Mess”.

@mike_fotis

Many many thanks to Sam Landman for stepping in!!

https://www.instagram.com/slandman/

Jen Scott is a Twin Cities based musician, theater maker, and teaching artist. She's worked as an actor, improviser, performer, playwright, director, storyteller, talk show host, producer, and musician.

She’s a COMPAS teaching artist, has been an artist-in-residence at Pillsbury House + Theater, and also has taught for HUGE Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Park Square Theatre, the Brave New Workshop, and others. Recent on-stage credits include work with HUGE Theater, Uprising Theatre Company, Hennepin Theater Trust, Red Eye Theater, Four Humors Theater, and others. Jen writes a song a week as Penny and the Bandits: you can see some of Jen and her 2 minute songs at @pennyandthebandits.

@pennyandthebandits

https://pennyandthebandits.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/user-379827788

https://www.divervanavery.com/

April 2022 Performance

Diver Van Avery (@diverdivingalltheday) is a writer and public artist living in the Powderhorn neighborhood of South Minneapolis. Seeking to infuse the poetic into the public, Diver is passionate about projects that impact people and policy in the pursuit of dismantling white supremacy.

Diver has been the Artist and Community Coordinator at Pillsbury House + Theatre and taught with Higher Education Consortium of Urban Affairs. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University and is pursuing a Masters in Counseling and Psychological Services.

In all of her creative and professional roles, Diver is passionate about racial equity and gender liberation and pursues or creates artistic opportunities for emerging, queer, and/or artists of color to re-shape the world. She is currently at work on her debut novel. Diver is proud to be a single parent by choice and is inspired to co-create a more just world with ancestors and descendants as guides.

@diverdivingalltheday

Miré Regulus (@archetypical_woman) is a mover, writer, and theater performance artist. Past associations include @rkology, a spoken word and music group, and performances at Patrick's Cabaret and the Center for Independent Artists. Miré directs, most notably performance pieces by Mankwe Ndosi and Gabrielle Civil. She developed new work in Red Eye's Works In Progress series and studied with the Change Exchange program on L.A.'s Skid Row. In 2009, she was a recipient of Pillsbury House's Naked Stages grant and created work for Laurie Carlos' Late Nite series in 2011. Her work is marked by poetical prose, rich language and non-linear structure.

@archetypical_woman

Daniel Bonespur/Dan Dukich (@danielbonespur) Local musician Daniel Bonespur is a composer, sound designer and musician whose work has been heard on stages all across North America and Europe. He has been recognized by The Kennedy Center with a Distinguished Achievement in Sound Design Award, supported by Nautilus Music-Theatre's Composer-Librettist Studio and is a recipient of MRAC's Next Step Fund. Dan is also a songwriter who records and performs with the moniker Daniel Bonespur.

"Daniel Bonespur is a trip without ever sounding like anything but a sweetheart. A pitch-perfect voice with a wry perspective and fanciful sense of storytelling that builds on that of The Magnetic Fields’ Stephen Merritt."

(Tyler Berd, Spark & Fizz)

“...Dukich somehow manages to never end up where he’s started – at no point... do you feel like you are exploring the same territory twice.”

(Jon Behm, reviler.org)

https://silversmithmusic.com/

Silversmith (@silversmith_music) is a music and performance-maker based in Minneapolis. She has toured internationally with Emily Johnson/Catalyst and has performed &/or collaborated with various luminaries in Minneapolis and New York City, her previous home, in addition to performing Off-Broadway and in Meredith Monk’s Songs of Ascension at BAM. Margot holds an MFA in Contemporary Performance from Naropa University, a BA in Dance from Wesleyan University, and has studied at the Juilliard School and the European American Musical Alliance in Paris. Her first album, Soft Skills, will be released in July 2022 - preorder at silversmithmusic.com.

@silversmith_music

https://www.facebook.com/silversmithmusicnow/

Jen Scott is a Twin Cities based musician, theater maker, and teaching artist. She's worked as an actor, improviser, performer, playwright, director, storyteller, talk show host, producer, and musician.

She’s a COMPAS teaching artist, has been an artist-in-residence at Pillsbury House + Theater, and also has taught for HUGE Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Park Square Theatre, the Brave New Workshop, and others. Recent on-stage credits include work with HUGE Theater, Uprising Theatre Company, Hennepin Theater Trust, Red Eye Theater, Four Humors Theater, and others. Jen writes a song a week as Penny and the Bandits: you can see some of Jen and her 2 minute songs at @pennyandthebandits.

@pennyandthebandit

https://pennyandthebandits.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/user-379827788