Oh Leigha... two squeeeing fan girls can't be wrong.

Oh boy

2006-03-09T01:20:00.000-08:00

I am terribly excited to announce that I will be attending the world premiere of The Monster of Phantom Lake, Leigha's first feature film.

Did you know that now this can likely get on the IMDB?

Lottery

2006-02-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

Oh joy! Oh rapture! The Ministry of Cultural Warfare has a slot in the 2006 Fringe Festival!

You know what that means: Leigha.

Sigh...

2005-08-09T23:32:00.000-07:00

Fringe is half over, and we haven't seen a single show.

We have, however, managed to listen to Fringe podcasts, featuring the lovely Leigha Horton as the Voice of the Fringe.

Comedy for Choice

2005-06-04T16:10:00.000-07:00

We're sad to see that Leigha will not be performing at this year's NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota fundraiser, Comedy for Choice.

Fringe 2005

2005-03-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

We aren't feeling very optimistic about the Fringe this year, sadly. Let's tick off the points:

1. Fringe applications were done by lottery this year. Though we understand the logic behind it, we think it's a bad idea.

2. Thanks to said lottery, many of the reliable regulars and a few excellent newcomers are stuck on the waiting list...below some of far lesser...quality. We're not just talking Fringe insider gossip here (we're certainly not insiders), we're talking tried-and-true theatre talent of the Twin Cities. Yes, Fringe is about diversity and everyone getting a crack at it, but if it's all mediocre and nobody goes to it, Fringe will be even more in the hole than it already is. And the constant pledge drive at every show is already more than a little irritating (much like turning on MPR during one of their monthly drives). So, what to expect? Hard to say (10 Foot 5 Productions and Ferrari McSpeedy are on the waiting list, as are Ari Hoptman and Amy Salloway, yet someone is doing An Actor's Nightmare as a Fringe show, and Look Ma, I Wrote A Play got in. And where are all of the Illusion Theatre's plays? No justice.).

3. Look Ma No Pants is over. What will replace it? Will there be another late-night show? We can't stand the thought of Fringe ending at 11 p.m. every night. Plus, it's doubtful there are any other shows out there that allow us to remove our pants (which is probably a good thing...great job cornering the market on that one, Scrimshaws).

4. The Ministry of Cultural Warfare didn't even apply this year. No Leigha. This is a bigger tragedy than anything...we hope she appears in some other show.

Add to all that the fact that ticket prices will undoubtedly go up, and those insufferable buttons will remain required, and, well, it's not looking like a lovely August.

But, luckily, there is some good to counteract the bad:

1. We can rely on some excellent productions: Tim Uren & Jen Scott have a show (and a house! How cute is that?), Joe Scrimshaw is doing another one-man show, and Kevin Kling is, of course, there. The Tenth Muse Theatre Company is in, as well.

2. Fringe will be eleven days long rather than the standard ten. We saw over fifty plays last year...what's an extra day going to do?

3. New venue - Mixed Blood Theatre. Lovely space, though out of the way as compared to the other venues. Perhaps a Mixed Blood Day of Fringe will be necessary.

4. We did not show up on the Fringe website's audience shots slideshow (though we were quite close a number of times). We are leery of having our photos on the internet, which is why you've yet to see the lovely photo of us and Leigha taken at the final Look Ma No Pants performance (and not in a Say Anything way, either).

Fringe may be a wash. We shall see.

Hooray!

2005-02-06T21:22:00.000-08:00

The latest and greatest news about Leigha is, of course, that she has a boyfriend. We hope he knows how lucky he is.

See Leigha!

2004-11-18T13:36:00.000-08:00

Hardcover Theater presents:
BEHIND A MASK
a tale of suspense by Louisa May Alcott

The new governess seemed so humble and submissive. How did she become so powerful? Is it too late to stop her? Love, deceit, betrayal, violence – don’t miss this fast-paced, surprising story, never before seen onstage!

Adapted and directed by Steve Schroer

Featuring Leigha Horton as Jean Muir (!)

Music by Hiram Titus

For more info about the show, visit this website.

WHEN: Nov. 19 – Dec. 12, 2004

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

WHERE: The Playwrights' Center, 2301 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis

TICKETS: $15; $12 students/seniors. Call 612-581-2229.

Squeeeee!! This is in our neighborhood!

Update!

2004-10-19T01:11:00.000-07:00

At long last, an update*!

Leigha will be performing in the Minneapolis premiere of Laura's Bush by the mysterious Jane Martin. It's at the Mixed Blood Theatre on Wednesday, October 20th, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5. For reservations and information, call Starting Gate Theater at 651-645-3503.

You know you want to see Leigha, and Mixed Blood is a fantastic place to do so.

*We do intend to recap Fringe, but real life is getting in our way. We break from this in December.

Sadness

2004-08-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

Fringe is over, ydelek is back in New York, and it's awfully sad.

We'll be sure to do some summation squeeeing in the coming days/weeks as time permits, including the story of how we were outed and also our meeting of Leigha (She came up to us and said, "I'm Leigha Horton." Like we didn't already know! So cute!) and subsequent photographing.

Leigha sighting!!!

2004-08-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

Our cover has been blown.

And now if there are any more Leigha sightings during this last day of the Fringe Festival, there will be ydelek and Gibeonstar sightings as well. In other words, the 4th wall has been shattered as well as our anonymity.

I'm a little afraid, but we must continue Fringing.

Yipes.

2004-08-15T02:15:00.000-07:00

What a night!

holy fucking shit

2004-08-15T00:57:00.000-07:00

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leighaness

2004-08-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

ydelek had not one, but two conversations with Leigha yesterday. During one, she made me go wait in line to get in. During the other, I was hanging with the hubby and MIA at the Loring. *sigh*

I did get my fill of Leigha squeeing during the Ministry of Cultural Warfare's show, which was pretty good. Some bits, in fact, were absolutely excellent (Matthew Foster's story specifically). It doesn't compare to last year's Industrials, however, but really, what could top that? Leigha was brilliant as a skinhead/gay protector, a worried mother, and a Peace Corps volunteer.

We also saw Leigha during the Scrimshaw Brothers' performance of Look Ma No Pants later that evening at the Loring Playhouse. She stayed for the MOCW's guest bit, and then left. Damn! We brought flowers for her, but were too chicken to actually give them to her in person without running away (and we debated this point for an entire half-hour beforehand, much to the amusement of those sitting around us). So instead, we gave them to someone else we find squee-worthy (though not quite as squee-worthy as Leigha) - Tim Uren. ydelek threw the flowers into his arms as we exited the theatre (and by "exited" I mean "ran away giggling"). The look on his face was priceless.

Leigha sighting!!!

2004-08-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

In addition to acting, seeing shows, and her day job, Leigha has been giving back to the Fringe as a volunteer. (How sweet!) I spotted her working the ticket booth at the Loring Playhouse yesterday, doing one of her 10 shifts.(Squeeeeeeeee!) Anything else I could say at this point involves more than anyone's yearly allowance of squeeing, thus I will say no more except Gibeonstar is jealously bitter.

Fringe photos

2004-08-11T23:18:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Scott Pakudaitis, here are some Leigha photos from the Ministry of Cultural Warfare's show, In Defense of Sin (My Friends' Best Stories):

Thanks, Scott!

Fun Leigha fact we learned today: Leigha and I share a birthday (day, not year). Tom Cruise and Tom Stoppard also share our birthday. Squeeeeee!

Leigha Sighting!!!!!

2004-08-11T01:51:00.000-07:00

The Fringe doesn't feel like it has officially began until two things happen:

The first sighting of the "Hippie Couple." I have reasons to believe that of the Fringe ultrapass fanatics, everyone knows this couple (and I secretly fear that everyone at one point knew me as 1/2 of that asian-boy and non-minnesotan-white-chick couple. The Hippie Couple know me in this way. And I feel as if I should carry around a poster sized image of my stuck-working-in-New-York-and-can't-Fringe-in-Minneapolis-this-year Asian boyfriend, just so I'll stick out just a bit in the fringing crowd. Of course, maybe I should stop outing myself and continue to be a member of the slightly anonymous masses.) although being sweet Minnesotans they never really talk to the hippie couple.... The Fringe has officially begun when I share a show with them, and compare notes about the crap and the wonderful.
The first sighting of Leigha *squee*. This hadn't actually happened until last night (Monday) ....

Of course after I booked my ticket out to Minneapolis the Fringe schedule comes out telling me the horrible truth that I was going to be trapped inside of a metal box of stale air in the sky, whilst the MoCW's show was on stage. booooh. I was a little heartbroken (especially as one of Leigha's squeeing fans) that I wasn't going to be able to see her until her Wednesday show, which is a rather cruel fate.

This is the place where the Theatre gods smile at me, and I find myself standing in a line on Monday to pick up tickets and *gasp* Leigha Horton is right behind me. Of course being the ultra squeeeing fangirl dork, I'm too star struck to actually say a word. I have two major fears which cause me to hold my tongue:

If I said anything it would be difficult to keep from making a fool out of myself and girlishly squeeing aloud. (I wonder how strange it would be for someone like her to have a gushing babbling fan. I know film actors have crazy legions of fans, but do local stage actors have star-struck fans?)
I fear that my crush on Leigha is on the actress and not the actual person... as if maybe "Leigha the real person" does not match up with the intelligent Leigha the person that I've derived from her involvement with MoCW. In my rosy version of Leigha, what would happen if it was discovered that she was a heavy smoker or only a blank canvas that expresses the words written by someone else? For fear of the disappointment, I'll continue to believe my little version of her.....

Hmmmm, I feel like I really need to complete this post and go to sleep, as the lateness of the hour + my desire to fill an entire post with just squeeeee = an extended ramble that was derailed from the beginning that perhaps I shouldn't post. Should the Leigha sightings be a dodgeball-style post from my cell phone, and thus immediately alert the world that she is at this specific theatre right now? (People do do this with other celebs.... But I'm unsure how interesting that would be on a blog and also fear it would sound rather stalkerish, if I'd report that Leigha was spotted in aisle 9 of Uptown Lunds.) If I had a camera phone would it even be appropriate to covertly snap pictures (ugh, that sounds creepy)? Or should I swoon and turn into a puddle? Honestly, I should just go to sleep...

Fringe!

2004-08-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

Leigha is in a show at the Fringe Festival called In Defense of Sin (My Friends' Best Stories). It sold out on its first night! It is showing again on Wednesday, and we will be there!

We are possibly going to bring flowers to Leigha, but fear that is too creepy. We don't even know her, and she has no idea that she has a fan club or a fan blog (at least, not that we know). We'll probably bring them anyway, though, because who doesn't like flowers?

More from Montreal

2004-07-02T01:31:00.000-07:00

A short review of Leigha's show, The Unbearable Lightness of Being American, from various reviewers (we can't determine who):

"The Unbearable Lightness of Being American - Leigha Horton is incredible--intelligent, provocative, self-reflecting, and funny, too! Her 13 scenes via a multi-media approach were clever to the point of irony! A thinking person's comedienne! Get an agent and shamelessly self-promote--you're a winner and more audiences need to see your talent!"

Squee!

And, a photo of Leigha in the beer tent at the Montreal Fringe, swiped from Matthew Foster's blog:

Fringe schedule!

2004-07-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, oh yes! The Ministry of Cultural Warfare, home of Leigha, is performing in the Minnesota Fringe!

The show is called In Defense of Sin (My Friends' Best Stories), and we hear it is just that...Matthew Foster was gathering stories at parties with other theatre kids, so maybe we'll hear some we know (we are hoping for the one about the dead cat)!

Five shows, five nights...can we make it to all of them? You bet we can!

Canada loves Leigha

2004-06-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

(the full article from the Montreal Mirror)

Sneer campaign

>> The Unbearable Lightness of Being American takes the piss out of all things USA

Making fun of Americans is hardly foreign in these parts. Chalk it up to an inferiority complex if you want, but it's not like those fatsos ever do it themselves. Well, okay, they do - take Minnesota's Ministry of Cultural Warfare, in town this week for the Fringe, for one.

What's appealing about this Minneapolis company, beyond their poking fun at the right, is their poking fun at the left. Their one-woman show, The Unbearable Lightness of Being American dishes up 13 snippets of Americana, satirizing everything from war to malls to fleeting lesbian chic. "You know when all of the sudden it became über-cool to be gay?" says actress Leigha Horton. "One of my favourite monologues to do is about this clueless valley girl talking about the love of her life, Emily, who she just met on Wednesday. We take pot shots at lots of things. If we're going to be attacking other people, we should definitely attack ourselves."

"My favourite thing that's been said about the play is that I'd picked my targets so democratically it felt patriotic," says Ministry writer and mastermind Matthew Foster. "The only thing all the characters have in common is that they're all women. They range from very annoying university students, to the cat lady who's anxious about becoming middle aged - it's 13 aspects about American society that bug the hell out of me."

Foster, who claims to be wearing a John Kerry baseball cap on the other end of the phone, could almost pass off as Canadian, peppering his sentences with "I guess," expressing his disdain toward Stephen Harper and hope for the Flames (this was Monday), theorizing that Canadian Stanley Cup victories coincide with Democrat victories in the U.S. "Well my friends in other states call Minnesota ‘Baja Ontario,'" he justifies. I asked him if he's proud to be an American. "I guess I'm not really proud to be an American," he says. "I'm proud to be a Midwesterner, and I'm proud to be from North America. You add that North there and it gets rid of the nationalist bullshit that comes with saying you're proud to be an American."

As for Horton: "I love being an American, but I'm not proud right now. I love the fact that we can criticize our president openly and not, oh, dissappear, but the things that Americans have done to other countries… there are so many things that don't get press attention, at least here, that we're doing all the time and that's really frustrating. I think that right now America's in a really gross transition, and I hope it turns out okay.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING AMERICAN, JUNE 11–20 AT VENUE 4 (BAIN ST-MICHEL, 4247 ST-DOMINIQUE), SEE PROGRAM FOR PRICES AND SHOWTIMES
» Matthew Woodley

Montreal knows that Leigha rocks

2004-06-14T22:55:00.000-07:00

Leigha on the cover of the Montreal Mirror!

There is also an article (at the bottom of the page) about her show, The Unbearable Lightness of Being American (exerpts of which she did at NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota's Comedy for Choice), which she performed at Le Festival St. Ambroise Fringe de Montreal.

Leigha the star!

2004-06-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Leigha is performing in a one-woman show right now (well, ok, Friday). We haven't seen it yet but expect it to be awesome, as always.

Leigha sighting

2004-06-08T10:10:00.000-07:00

Leigha performed at NARAL: Pro-Choice Minnesota's 5th Annual Comedy for Choice.

Leigha was, of course, brilliant and funny and the best performer behind the genius Kevin Kling (but he's awfully hard to beat, even for someone as great as Leigha). And she's pro-choice.

What a woman!

Obligatory disclaimer

2004-05-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

This blog is dedicated to Leigha Horton, an actress in the Twin Cities metro area. It's for Leigha sightings, Leigha news, Leigha reviews, and Leigha gossip. It is also for Leigha squeeing.

It is run by two fangirls who think Leigha Horton is the best thing since sliced bread. She's just that great. We're both straight and in relationships (one married, one long-term), so it's not some creepy sexual thing (though Leigha is hot!). We're also not stalking her, at least not in a bad way (we do enjoy knowing all we can about her, though).

All great performers need fans, and we are some of Leigha's.

2004-05-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

squeeeeeeeee

Oh Leigha... two squeeeing fan girls can't be wrong.

Oh boy

Lottery

Sigh...

Comedy for Choice

Fringe 2005

Hooray!

See Leigha!

Update!

Sadness

Leigha sighting!!!

Yipes.

holy fucking shit

Leighaness

Leigha sighting!!!

Fringe photos

Leigha Sighting!!!!!

Fringe!

More from Montreal

Fringe schedule!

Canada loves Leigha

Sneer campaign

>> The Unbearable Lightness of Being American takes the piss out of all things USA

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING AMERICAN, JUNE 11–20 AT VENUE 4 (BAIN ST-MICHEL, 4247 ST-DOMINIQUE), SEE PROGRAM FOR PRICES AND SHOWTIMES » Matthew Woodley

Montreal knows that Leigha rocks

Leigha the star!

Leigha sighting

Obligatory disclaimer

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING AMERICAN, JUNE 11–20 AT VENUE 4 (BAIN ST-MICHEL, 4247 ST-DOMINIQUE), SEE PROGRAM FOR PRICES AND SHOWTIMES
» Matthew Woodley