Too Many Notes

Reviews

Video Trailer

Cast and Crew

Charlie Bethel

Sir Gawain (voice-over - Camelot Is Crumbling)
Charlie Bethel was an actor/writer with four critically acclaimed solo shows to his credit. He also worked as a stage manager, producer, electrician, milliner, director, and properties and set dressing artist. His solo work delighted audiences large and small, educated and not, well-heeled and plain spun. He was a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, and came from a long line of talkers. He passed from this plane of existence in 2017, leaving behind a legacy of adaptations and collaborations that still leave ripples among his colleagues in the storytelling world to this day.

Elizabeth Byrd

Artistic Associate (voice-over - The Concept of Anxiety)
Elizabeth Byrd is a classically trained ensemble and solo singer who has performed in nationally recognized semi-professional and collegiate choirs. She is also trained in classical piano and has composed background or incidental music for a number of productions, as well as collaborating in the composition of a full operetta. She is one of the oldest members of Maximum Verbosity and has been acting as editor and dramaturg since the company's inception.

Tom Cassidy

illustrator (slideshow - On the Concept of Irony)
Tom Cassidy aka Musicmaster has been an active participant in mail-art since 1973 and his artworks and written pieces have appeared in publications, galleries and museums around the world. He co-founded the performance troupe The Impossibilists in Portland, OR, hosted MTN’s Access to Art, co-edited the Minnesota Center for Book Arts’ vispoeologee – an anthology of visual literature, hosted open mikes for 25 years, and is on the boards of Cheap Theatre and Rain Taxi.

Kay Kirscht

illustrator (slideshow - Get Thee Behind Me Santa)
Kay Kirscht is a Minneapolis cartoonist and performer. Currently enjoying the transition from paper and pen to digital media. Spent four years drawing live on cable access TV (MTN) with three other cartoonists on "Philo." She spent many years drawing in chalk on sidewalks for the Minnesota Fringe Festival and also appeared in several storytelling shows. In addition, she produced a weekly comic strip for the Minnesota Daily - 1982-1984: "The Death of Rasputin" (after the first half year, shortened strip title to "Rasputin") - that featured gratuitous cartoon violence, survival, and triumph.

phillip andrew bennett low

writer/performer
phillip andrew bennett low is a Chinese-American playwright and poet, storyteller and mime, theatre critic and libertarian activist. His solo performances have won acclaim from Minneapolis to Atlanta, New York to LA - even as far as Melbourne, Australia. He was the co-founder of the Rockstar Storytellers (a supergroup of bestselling Twin Cities spoken-word artists), founder and producer of the touring theatre troupe Maximum Verbosity, and founder and host of the country's only recurring open-mic dedicated to speculative fiction, The Not-So-Silent Planet, and its associated podcast. He has published collections of political humor, comic fantasy, and horror.

J Roth

composer (The Gray and the Gold)
J Roth is a musician and educator based in the Twin Cities. More about his endeavors can be found at walkingboxes.com. Of the score for "The Gray and the Gold," all the instruments were tuned into previously unfamiliar configurations inspired by the world of phillip's devising. Of the instruments, in addition to guitars, the following were employed: koto (Japanese), domra (Russian), oud (Egyptian), erhu and bamboo jaw harp (Cambodian).

More Information

"My dear fellow, there are in fact only so many notes the ear can hear in the course of an evening. I think I'm right in saying that, aren't I, Court Composer...? My dear young man, don't take it too hard...there are simply too many notes, that's all. Cut a few and it will be perfect."
- Emperor Joseph II, Amadeus

Friday, August 4th at 10pm
Get Thee Behind Me, Santa: An Inexcusably Filthy Children's Time-Travel Farce for Adults Only
(comic fantasy)
It’s December 21st, 2012, and something’s gone terribly wrong with the timeline. Now it’s up to Saint Nicholas, a soft-boiled detective, and an unknown carpenter’s son named Jesus of Nazareth to set things right in this giddily blasphemous collection of literary parodies!

"This show is absurd, funny, silly, and chock full of Bible references that make even those who got straight A's in Catechism class have to be impressed. [phillip] is an immensely capable performer, slipping in and out of various characters with the ease of a professional angler making a cast."

Sunday, August 6th at 5:30pm
The Concept of Anxiety
(short sci-fi)
Death and the deathless. Dragon shadows. Medicinal dreams and time machines. Your biological clock is ticking, and it's time to get metaphysical in this verbose cabaret of macabre geekery. Fondly dedicated to everyone who is dying. Especially you.

"...his presence on stage, his careful pacing and his masterful storytelling combine for an interesting show...topics include God, suicide, Einstein, doctors, power, pop culture and The Meaning of Life."

Tuesday, August 8th at 8:30pm
The Gray and the Gold
(dark fantasy)
A gray-man, skin dirt-gray, sets out into the desert to find a golden maiden, stopping for long palavers with a pale man along his way. Tale of some colorful folk, say I, with tongues of gold, whatever their skins may be.

"...an engaging but dark tale of a wandering man on a quest full of talking wolves, cryptic cannibals, unexpected zombies, and bad dreams; first rate experimentation..."

Saturday, August 12th at 1pm
On the Concept of Irony (with No Reference to Socrates)
(comic horror)
What happens when human folly runs face-first into apocalypse? Stolen placentas, political genies, sad puppies, Elder Gods, cryogenically frozen comedians...welcome to this year's grotesque anthology of comic horror, with no mention whatsoever of a certain ancient Greek philosopher.

"...one of his strongest offerings to date...delivered by a master storyteller with great dexterity and timing...in a period in our history when words have become debased, devalued, and demonized, here is an artist who values [them]..."

Sunday, August 13th at 7pm
Camelot Is Crumbling: An Arthurian Nightmare
(medieval romance)
The murderous son of King Arthur recounts his history with the court to his dying father, while Arthur's greatest knight traverses a post-war landscape to find his queen. Both reflect on how their actions brought about the death of the dream in this brooding one-man tale of light and darkness.

"low's greatest achievement with this show, in which he alternates between the characters of Lancelot and Mordred, is the creation of a dank, mossy mood. By the end of the show, you may be surprised to put your hand on the theater wall and not feel cold stone and dead vines. low's intense monologues, playing tricks with time and place, are thick with layers of meaning; this is a show that would reward multiple viewings."

For more information on past and future Maximum Verbosity productions, check out our website!
Many of the stories I perform are collected in my books, available from Amazon.com.