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High Flight, at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, 2015

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Photo by Mathieu Lindquist
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Photo by Mathieu Lindquist
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Photo by Mathieu Lindquist
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Photo by Mathieu Lindquist
As part of the 2015 MN Fringe Festival we collaborated with choreographer Windy Bowlsby (Jumpin' Jack Kerouac) and writer Ben Tallen (Tedious Brief Productions) on a dance and live brass quintet piece themed around the disappearance of our founder and friend, Mike Bratlie, whose small plane went off radar in June of 2012.

Called "High Flight," it also used the words of the poem by John Gillespie Magee Jr.*

"High Flight hit nearly every Fringe box: We had an artist moving outside of her usual comfort zone to produce a highly personal work. Carin Bratlie Wethern took a personal tragedy — the disappearance of her father while flying a private plane — and made it a meditation on loss and recovery. That this came to life via a brass band and was interpreted by moments of dance made it an almost a Platonic ideal of a Fringe show. It also made it a memorable and emotionally charged hour of theater." - City Pages

"An inspired meditation on uncertain loss... smart, moving, and occasionally funny ... a gorgeous production". - L'etoile Magazine

"Deeply felt and often emotionally raw ... [with] inventive visual language and profound humanity." - The Star Tribune

"A perfect example of the best of the Minnesota Fringe Festival... haunting, beautiful...part eulogy for a lost friend and part meditation of loss itself, High Flight packs a wallop throughout." - City Pages

"A beautiful expression of the experience... moving, emotional, and poignant." - Cherry & Spoon

"10 Shows You Shouldn't Miss at the MN Fringe." - The Star Tribune

TC Daily Planet lists High Flight as one of the Top Ten he's excited to see.
Minnesota Monthly lists High Flight in its Guide to the Fringe.
L'etoile Magagine lists High Flight as a Sure Bet.
Cherry & Spoon lists High Flight on her Must See List.

choreographer: Windy Bowlsby 
writer: Ben Tallen 
music director: Carin Bratlie Wethern
dancers: Joshua Engebretson, Derek Meyer, Danielle Ricci, Rachel Schlee, Noe Tallen 


Thanks to the folks who donated to our Indiegogo campaign.  
You helped make High Flight happen!
   Ryan Alexander 
   Matthew G. Anderson
   Julia N Carlis
   Clara Costello
   Robin Gillette
   Christine "Kit" Gordon
   J-D Harrington
   Ariel Leaf
   Cali Mastny
   MaryLynn Mennicke
   menke004
   Daniel Pinkerton
   Steve Soler
   David & Ronni Tallen
   Andrew Troth
   David & Karen Trudeau
   Clarence Wethern
   Natalie Wenz
   Green Sea Productions
*"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
Where never lark, or even eagle flew --
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."
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Phoenix Memories Photography
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Mikes' Brass are Five of a Kind

Trumpet: Linda Dobberstein 
Trumpet: Joshua Horn 
French Horn: David Mills-Rittmann
Trombone: Neil Baumgartner
Tuba: Carin Bratlie Wethern