Good Ones Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 11, 2024

PR Contact: Micael Gauger

micael.gauger@gmail.com

206 - 910 - 4020

SHAMBLES THEATRE COMPANY UNVEILS PROVOCATIVE NEW COMEDY

GOOD ONES

PREMIERING AT MINNESOTA FRINGE FESTIVAL 2024

Minneapolis, MN (August 2024) – Shambles Theatre Company is thrilled to debut their original production, GOOD ONES, at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Running from August 1st through August 8th, this three-person physical comedy satirizes inaction and virtue signaling among self-identified progressives, all cleverly disguised behind the mask of "Minnesota Nice."

GOOD ONES features three prophetic pranksters gleefully celebrating you, the audience. The celebration quickly becomes a hall of funhouse mirrors as they begin to unveil the insidious ways in which “Minnesota Nice” conceals ugly truths. These wise anti-clowns whisk you through familiar settings where Minneapolis liberals signal their brightest virtues: an open house in North, a jog through Calhoun-Isles, canoeing the Boundary Waters, a kindergarten classroom in Edina, and of course, at therapy. The trio highlight tragically missed opportunities as they shapeshift into passive onlookers across time, from the early settlers witnessing the Mankato Massacre, to local residents watching the murder of George Floyd, to a near future where activist neighbors are disappeared by state sanctioned Christian nationalists. With searing satire, parody, song, audience interaction, and irresistible charm, GOOD ONES is a raucous and revealing ride through all the rationalizations of inaction. Today, as wide-spread apathy, passivity, fear, and overwhelm seem close to winning, this piece asks what it will take for us to break free of our inertia, to take bold action, and to truly be one of the good ones. 

GOOD ONES is based in bouffon, a rarely-seen form of highly physical and extremely irreverent comedic satire designed to undermine apathy and inspire discourse. The origins of contemporary bouffon practice can be traced to the legendary theatre pedagogue, Jacques Lecoq, at his namesake’s school in Paris during the late ‘70s. For this production, Shambles brought on acclaimed Boston-based deviser and director, Nathaniel Justiniano, the multi-award winning founder of North America’s premier bouffon company, Naked Empire Bouffon Company.

GOOD ONES premieres August 1st at 10pm at Huge Improv Theater.

Co-creator and performer, Micael Gauger says, “Since moving to the midwest in 2019 I have been continually surprised at the way Minnesota Nice is not very nice. Months after moving here, George Floyd was murdered. The engagement levels at that moment were incredible. Over the years I’ve seen a wave of white well-meaning action slowly dwindle. I am complicit in this inaction and polarization as well. I may not be native to Minnesota but I have used this ‘niceness’ as a weapon. I’m excited to be creating a satire that can both challenge and inspire in a more explicit way.”

The creative team for GOOD ONES features Micael Gauger

(co-creator/performer/producer), Nathaniel Justiniano (co-creator/director), Kaitlen Osburn

(co-creator/performer), and Luke Fanning (co-creator/performer), The Ensemble (costumes).

Micael Gauger [she/her] is a multi-award-winning theater actor and deviser hailing from Seattle, Washington. As a queer individual of a fundamentalist Baptist upbringing, she is passionate about making room and space for deeper conversations in her community. Micael has created, produced, and performed in three previous Fringe shows. She co-created and produced BEND THE RULES, EAT THE HEAD, which won Best of the 2015 SF Fringe and was an Official Selection at Berkeley’s inaugural BLAST Festival. She also received the Sold Out Audience Award for NOT UNTIL THEY’RE DEAD at the San Francisco Fringe Festival and produced A JINGLE JANGLE MORNING at the 2023 Minnesota Fringe Festival. Micael is an alumna of the Neo-Futurists, a volunteer with Clowns Without Borders, and has performed with Naked Empire Bouffon, Take Three's Big Stick Shindig and Fox & Beggar Theatre among many other companies. She trained at the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. Additionally, she is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, a Fulbright Fellow, and holds an MA in International Peace Studies from American University.

Nathaniel Justiniano [he/him+] is a queer Cali-Rican actor, deviser, movement designer, educator, activist, and the founding Artistic Director of Naked Empire Bouffon Company. Naked Empire started in San Francisco in 2009 with an activist mission to devise hilarious, cutting, and visually-provocative satires to catalyze urgent discourse. Under Justiniano's leadership, Naked Empire has toured across the continent with award-winning new works and training intensives becoming North America’s premier bouffon company. Their productions have been awarded Best of the Fringe three times in San Francisco, the Talk of the Fringe Award in Vancouver, the Artist’s Choice Award in Edmonton, as well as Official Selections from the Toronto Festival of Clowns, Vancouver’s Dancing on the Edge Festival, Victoria’s UNOFest, Berkeley’s Blast Festival, and Xfest in Edwardsville, Illinois. The company uses bouffon, a rarely-seen form of highly physical and extremely irreverent comedic satire leading the Huffington Post to praise the work as “devilishly dangerous theatre.”

Kaitlen Osburn [she/her] is a theater artist and arts administrator who wears many hats. Production highlights from her career include an original devised tragedy; an election night hullabaloo; and, shockingly, a recent high school production of Cats. Kaitlen has authored over 30 plays for youth, a full-length musical, and is currently the Drama Program Director at Roseville Area High School. She has an MFA in Ensemble-Devised Theater from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theater and has studied clowning, bouffon, improv, puppetry, and commedia all around the nation. 

Luke Fanning [he/him] is a queer burgeoning clown and actor originally from Hastings, Nebraska. An improv comedy dynamo by night (HUGE theater) and ardent political activist by even later night, Luke's caustic wit has been fracturing the status quo since his fervent campaigning for Bernie in 2016 (tweeted about him once.) He is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Botswana 2019.

Thursday August 1st until Thursday August 8th (Five performances only)

Thu, 8/1 @ 10pm

Sun, 8/4 @ 2:30pm

Mon, 8/5 @ 7pm

Wed, 8/7 @ 8:30pm

Thu, 8/8 @ 5:30pm

Purchase tickets at: https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/good-ones#tickets

Ticket pricing options:

$20 Pre Sale Ticket - Individual + $5 Fringe Button

Press Contact: Micael Gauger

micaelgauger@gmail.com

206 - 910 - 4020

Instagram: @shamblestheatreco

Photos available at https://sites.google.com/view/spektakulartheatre/good-ones

Contact Micael for full resolution and image credits.

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