In coming up with the idea behind his second Minnesota Fringe Festival show, Make America Gray Again!, John Orenstein stuck to what he knows.
A retired lawyer who has been active in the Minnesota State Bar Association Senior Lawyers and Judges section, said the group often talks about what happens when retirement happens.
“When you’re no longer doing what you’ve been doing all those years, people sense this loss of or a threat to their identity and their sense of relevance and their sense of where their life had meaning for them,” he said. “And it makes the psychological transition much more difficult than anticipated. It made me think it would be a good idea for a musical.”
Dan (Eric Lee) is on the ground during a rehearsal of the song “Born to Jog,” in the Minnesota Fringe Festival Show “Make America Gray Again!” (Courtesy)
In the show, Dan (played by Eric Lee) looks for purpose in his (forced) retirement. Advised by a talking book, he encounters corporate America, the Heritage Foundation, militant baby boomers, God, and the meaning of life. Also – like all of us at some point – he dies.
Make American Gray Again! plays at the Phoenix Theater (2605 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis) Aug. 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9.
Lee also starred in Orenstein’s first foray into Fringe, 2023’s Extreme Roadshow. In the time since that show Orenstein – who wrote the book, music and lyrics for this new show – said the he learned that writing isn’t about how clever or witty you are, but if you can create something for others to join in with you in collaboration.
“If you can create something that allows actors to really do something special as they bring it to life, or where a director can look at this and say, ‘Boy, this makes me come up with this vision,’ that’s when you’re doing really good theater,” he said. “The writing has to be good, but it has to be a platform for others, because everybody wants to put their stamp on something. This time around, I would write things and think somebody can really run with this in a way I wasn’t thinking of two years ago.”
Despite having written a show before, Orenstein said this time was more challenging.
“The first time, I think I just had these pent-up ideas just ready to get out there,” he said. “And this time, it’s not like the well ran dry, but I had to work harder to come up [with ideas].”
Orenstein said he had four or five false starts before coming up with the show’s concept.
“I started by writing things that were maybe musically impressive, but not very good theater,” he said. “I wrote a couple pieces and just junked them. They weren’t going to be good for audiences. They were just good for me.
“Somebody wrote about musicals that their rule of thumb is if you can’t say it, sing it. And if you can’t sing it, dance it. So there were things that I couldn’t say effectively in text, but I could say in song. And then as far as dance goes, I’m a dance illiterate. So I just figured, well, somebody can take this further with choreography, but not me.”
Bella Maldonado is choreographing the show, and Barbara Weiner is directing. Both were also involved in Extreme Roadshow. And like all Fringe shows, it has a one-hour time limit, which Orenstein is grateful for.
“That discipline helps you really boil down what you need to do,” he said. “Plus, it spares me the pain of trying to write a two-act musical, which I’m not sure I could do.”
Tickets for Make American Gray Again! are available online.
