BANNED cast bow at 2024 Edinburgh Fringe |
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe comes to an end
Friday, August 9, 2024
Greenside announces BANNED 4 Star Scotsman review
Denise’s husband has started wearing women’s clothes. Ana has surprised herself by falling for male-identifying gender guru Carl. Above all, Theo wants to capture their eight-strong gender identity group’s lives and loves in a brand new musical, to be staged at a prestigious international festival (sound familiar?).
There’s no denying the sheer ambition of April Alsup’s big, bold musical, in terms of its web of intertwining storylines, its eclectic and diverse characters, and the sensitive issues of gender and sexuality it attempts to address. There’s no denying, either, the sheer panache and energy with which it’s pulled off by its eager, energetic, ten-piece Denver-based company – no fewer than nine actor/singers, plus Alsup delivering an impassioned keyboard part.
Alsup’s songs are strong and memorable, in nicely complex arrangements too – tunes are swapped back and forth in complicated ensemble numbers, and the cast offers glowing harmonies as well as vivid solos. Eli Harvey is a troubled and vulnerable Ana, with a voice as honest and open as their character, while Tracy Denver makes a petulant Denise, at first horrified at her husband’s new apparel interests though later easing reluctantly towards acceptance. Online dating gets a merciless take-down, while the pleasures of sex are dutifully celebrated.
Despite the stage-filling collection of disparate characters – nicely choreographed by Heather Westenskow – there’s nonetheless a convincing overall story arc, as well as fulfilling individual plotlines for several of them (even if others inevitably feel a little underwritten). Best of all, however, BANNED offers a deeply human perspective on issues of gender and sexual identity, its flawed characters navigating their own mistake-filled routes through pronouns, preferences and plenty more. It’s a complex, compassionate show of missteps and misunderstandings, and one that warmly applies the tolerance it requests of others onto its own damaged but likeable characters.
By David Kettle
Read the complete review
Friday, July 12, 2024
BANNED the Musical opens 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival at Greenside press launch
BANNED cast opening the 2024 Fringe Festival |
BANNED cast opening the 2024 Fringe Festival |
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
BANNED preview tickets now available at Vintage Theatre website
BANNED the Musical - Edinburgh Preview
Thursday July 25 - Sunday July 28th
Vintage Theatre: TICKETS AVAILABLE
$15 General Admission Tickets |
BANNED is a modern-day musical that follows a group of gender misfits through the events leading up to their debut at a local performing arts festival. The polarizing discourse around gender today goes beyond opinions and has real consequences in society. The characters in BANNED go online to live out their dreams and escape the harsh realities of the world. We witness the juxtaposition of their psyche online and offline, we experience their inner struggles with intimacy, authenticity and acceptance. If the root cause of inequality is marginalization, the remedy is inclusion.
Saturday, June 8, 2024
BANNED program flipbook Riddles Court performances
Converting a Microsoft Word document into a PDF and then an interactive flipbook is an eco-friendly way to provide your show's programs to your audience. The process is fairly straight forward and it's a "win-win" for audience goers, producers and most of all our environment. The only downside is it requires the user to have some sort of electronic device connected to the Internet.
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Early blocking and choreography rehearsal
We're in the preliminary stages of mounting the BANNED show now. Fortunately, we're at the same venue in Edinburgh as last year and we have all the basic dimensions of the stage and understand the subtle nuances of our theater's footprint. It feels like we're more comfortable locking our moves in this year, but early rehearsals always seem to go through scheduling conflicts.
Here's a short video of the first chorus.
It's important to take videos of your rehearsals so everyone in the troupe can review the progress. Typically, directors start with scene 1 and go from there so it's easy to setup a secure video directory with straight forward filenames. The song "The World Wide Web" is near the beginning of the show and it's all hands on deck. Everyone in the cast has a "mobile phone" and can be seen texting online throughout the song.
Thursday, May 2, 2024
BANNED! mobile phone props for Edinburgh Fringe
Here's a video of the final prototypes working in unison.
Making a realistic phone was pretty easy, we found some relatively thin puck lights that fit nicely between two electrical wall plates at Home Depot. It was like making a puck light sandwich! Using wall mounting machine screws and a nut to fasten them together, we added some foam padding to reduce vibration and stress. Then, it was off to the local arts and craft store (Michaels) for some personal design paper with an adhesive backing to differentiate each phone.
Please see our BANNED! website to purchase tickets and learn more. See you in Edinburgh!