Rockstar Storytellers is a collective of solo performers from a variety of disciplines — spoken word, stand-up, slam poetry, improv, creative non-fiction, sketch comedy, playwriting… hell, we’ve even got a mime. Get to know the company members below! [Special thanks to Craig VanDerSchaegen, Rockstar Photographer!]
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A director, stage manager, musician and spoken word artist, Laura Bidgood has showcased her artistic talents at numerous theatres and groups around the Twin Cities including Minnesota Public Radio, Rockstar Storytellers, Women Stand Up!, Monday Night Comedy, The Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company, Lyric Arts, Chameleon Theatre Circle, Bloomington Civic Theatre and the Dakota Valley Symphony, in addition to performing at open mics around town and, really, in front of any crowd she can find.
For more information, visit Laura’s website.
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Allison Broeren is the current co-Managing Director of the Rockstar Storytellers, SlamMaster of the nationally ranked Poetry SlamMN!, and founder of Story SlamMN! at Kieran’s Irish Pub. She’s described by City Pages as “[the force] behind the Twin Cities competitive poetry scene… bombastic, kinetic, and most importantly, highly entertaining.” Allison is excited to be bringing the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam to Minneapolis as the host city coordinator. She is also big into blending business and the arts and uses her MBA to help consult with artists so they can thrive, not just survive. Allison hosts, performs, and plans shows all over the Twin Cities and has produced four successful Fringe Festival shows by Mumble Mumble Productions. Sometimes she manages to sneak off the stage at Kieran’s and has appeared at Women Stand Up! A Comedy Cabaret, the Minnesota Book Awards, KFAI’s “Write On! Radio”, MPR, and on tables at house parties throughout the tri-state area.
For more information, visit the SlamMN Facebook page.
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Rob Callahan is a handsome Minneapolis-based writer whose work has appeared in Cracked, l’etoile Magazine and Secrets of the City. His published works of fiction include the 2008 novel Hellbound Snowballs and the 2011 chapbook Grave Whisperer. When not slinging idioms with the Rockstar Storytellers, he can be found posing as a professional science fiction writer and humorist. A local newspaper article once called him a “nerd icon” while referring to a popular local musician as “crushworthy”, but that was probably just a print error. They clearly meant it the other way round. (The Rockstar Storytellers do not endorse Rob Callahan’s interpretation of certain facts, namely these.)
For more information, visit Banthese Books.
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Allegra Lingo was first published at the age of 13, then promptly forgot she could write until taking a writing class in college, and hasn’t stopped since. She has performed in eight Minnesota Fringes, including five full-length solo shows, and her work has been featured on MPR and various stages around Minnesota. She spent two years on the road as the sax player for Buckets and Tap Shoes, performing in 21 states and two shows in Helsinki, Finland. She is also the co-founder of the Rockstar Storytellers.
For more information, visit Allegra’s website.
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phillip andrew bennett low is a Chinese-American playwright, poet, mime, theatre critic, and libertarian activist. His main claims to fame are as the founder of the touring theatre troupe Maximum Verbosity, and as co-founder of the Rockstar Storytellers.
For more information, visit the Maximum Verbosity website.
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Curt Lund‘s literary work has hit stages, pages and airwaves including Minnesota Public Radio, McSweeney’s, the Minnesota Book Awards, CBC Radio Canada, the Minneapolis Geek Slam, Literary Death Match, Cheap Theatre, Walker Art Center, Northstar Storytelling League’s Tellebration!, First Person Arts, seven consecutive Minnesota Fringe Festivals and GLBT Pride festivals in three states. Not to mention countless other benefit and cabaret appearances in glamorous locales from Vegas to Vermillion.
For more information, visit Curt’s website.
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Courtney McLean is an actress, writer, storyteller, improviser, and comedy musician. She is a proud original member and current co-managing director of Rockstar Storytellers. Courtney McLean is a member of the Minneapolis cast of Celebrity Autobiography, and her one-woman shows, Normal-C and Super Glossy! have toured to Fringe Festivals across the nation. Courtney has worked with Ferrari McSpeedy, Four Humors Theater, Sandbox Theatre, Theatre Arlo, Girl Friday Productions, and Maximum Verbosity, among others, and she’s performed on Salon Saloon, Sample Night Live, MPR’s “In The Loop”, and Women Stand-Up. She is a student of the Upright Citizens’ Brigade in New York City and Minneapolis’ Brave New Institute. She is the bandleader of Courtney McClean & The Dirty Curls, pioneers of naughtybilly: sexually explicit comedy country music. Courtney is also the co-host of Scholasticus Intoxicus, a bi-weekly trivia game show live at the 331 Club..
For more information, visit Courtney’s website.
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Tom Reed is a Minneapolis actor, improvisor and comedian who has performed regularly at Brave New Workshop, Comedy Sportz and Stevie Ray’s and is a frequent host of Sample Night Live as crooning sensation Lounge-asaurus Rex. Reed starred as Princeton in Mixed Blood Theatre’s production of Avenue Q and created Fringe Festival musical parody hits Disney Dethroned, Bite Me Twilight and Parry Hotter and the Half-Drunk Twins. His performance experience also includes films, choirs, competing with Minnesota Slam Poetry national teams and an unusually inclusive production of The Vagina Monologues. Reed grew up near the tiny town of Kent, MN on a small organic farm and graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead.
For more information, visit Tom’s blog.
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Amy Salloway has been called “hilariously self-loathing”, “gifted at creating comedy from pain and embarrassment”, and “the queen of self-deprecation”, and she takes all of that as a compliment. Amy’s widely acclaimed stage productions have toured to dozens of Fringes, solo festivals, theatres, performance events and booked gigs in the US, Canada and beyond. Amy’s performed her work on MPR’s “In the Loop” and CBC’s “Definitely Not The Opera”, and served as lead writer for Interact Center for the Arts’ musicals “Future Perfect” and “The Broken Brain Summit” — the latter of which won a 2008 Ivey Award for Originality. She was awarded a VSA Artist Recognition Grant in 2007.
For more information, visit Amy’s website.
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A former newspaper reporter and humor columnist, Ben San Del features at comedy clubs and colleges throughout the Midwest, including the renowned Acme Comedy Co. in Minneapolis. San Del won Acme’s Funniest Person in the Twin Cities Contest in 2006 and has since become a fixture in the Twin Cities comedy and theater scenes. In 2010, his show “A Nice Guy’s Guide to Awkward Sex” was the fifth best-selling performance (out of 169) in the Minnesota Fringe Festival.
For more information, visit Ben’s website.
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Joseph Scrimshaw is a critically acclaimed writer/actor/comedian and the Creative Director of comedy theater company, Joking Envelope. Joseph has had multiple top ten best-selling shows at the Minnesota Fringe Festival including “Adventures in Mating”, “An Inconvenient Squirrel” and “The Damn Audition”. Outside the festival, Joseph and/or his plays have performed in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco, Orlando, the UK, Bulgaria, Peru, the middle of the Caribbean Sea, and various bars across the entire expanse of South Minneapolis. He also makes jokes on Twitter at @JosephScrimshaw.
For more information, visit Joking Envelope.
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Founding members (no longer active, but may pop in from time to time as special guests): |
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Mike Fotis is one of the Twin Cities’ premier comic performers. In improv circles, he’s known as an educator and member of Ferrari McSpeedy and Fingergun. Fotis also co-created such popular stage comedies as “Punk Rock Omaha” and “Speech!”.
For more information, visit Mike’s blog.
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Dave Mondy is a writer/performer/producer who has been oft-honored for his work in multiple genres. He has received four Solas awards for travel writing; his nationally-toured solo show received the Best Solo Comedy award at the San Francisco Fringe Festival; his much-lauded memoir/fiction can be enjoyed in a variety of media — heard on many pubic radio programs, seen online as a commissioned video series for The Smart Set, read in several literary periodicals, and seen in multiple MN Fringe Festivals. He is the creator of the Radio All Stars (City Pages ‘A List’), Sin Cities 7 (a Pioneer Press ‘Must See’), and The Entertainment Machine.
For more information, visit Dave’s website.
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Rik Reppe: Performer, writer, raconteur, occasional business geek.
For more information, visit Rik’s blog.
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HISTORY:
Rockstar Storytellers was founded in August 2007 to provide a forum for solo artists to come together to find new audiences for our work, push each other creatively, and further our own endeavors with the support and fellowship of others doing the same thing.
In August 2007, Allegra Lingo and phillip andrew bennett low were, as usual, drinking beer at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. They waxed superlative about how much they love the Fringe because it gives them a chance to talk with and bounce ideas off of other solo performers in town. Then they commenced bemoaning the fact that there wasn’t a group they could join to serve the same purpose the other 51 weeks of the year. Out of drunken hazes comes genius sometimes, and phillip and Allegra decided to start their own group, and invite their favorite fellow solo performers to join them in this adventure. Thus Rockstar Storytellers was born.
