Film Review: Glob Lessons
by Karen Pecota

Long-time friends and stage performers, Nicole Rodenburg and Collin Froeber, collaborate to write, direct, act and produce a comedic-drama feature in GLOB LESSONS. The two grew up in Fargo, North Dakota and became best friends after being paired together in drama class to write a sketch about their sophomore year in high school in 2002. Nicole recalls, "We quickly realized that our brains worked almost frighteningly in sync, and we began making short films together on Colin's old DV camera." Continuing, "This brought us the most joy of our young lives but when it came time for us to graduate, we did not see a path forward to making movies." But theater would play an important role in their lives going forward.

The two were reunited in 2013, where Nicole acted onstage in New York and Colin had finished doing a two-person traveling children's theatre tour out of a minivan...similar to the story of GLOB LESSONS.

Nicole and Colin had never made a "real" movie but when they began their screenwriting journey with GLOB LESSONS that grew into making a feature narrative, they never could have imagined the impact they would make on kids from their hometown. Nicole says, "Our production allowed us to give a gift that we wish we could've given our younger selves--we offered two day-long Young Filmmakers Workshops for kids in our community back home, giving them a firsthand, visceral experience of filmmaking, hopefully illuminating a path, even just a little bit, for the future filmmakers of tomorrow."

Synopsis:

Two unlikely stage actors, Jesse (Nicole Rodenburg) and Alan (Colinn Froeber) find themselves paired together in a low-budget, two-person traveling children's theater tour, performing in rural schools and libraries. The company they work for provides a van, costumes, scripted play writes and a schedule for their travels across the Upper Midwest, in the dead of winter.

Their first performance is a disaster mainly because they don't know each other, nor the scripted material having no practice performing together. The long wintery journey gives Jesse and Alan time for their stories to be revealed and though cautious, a unique trust grows. Their relationship deepens while listening to each other share good and traumatic aspects of their past.

Jesse and Alan hate performing the terrible scripts the theater company makes them use in their performances. Accidentally, on one occasion, the two had to perform an unscripted and spontaneous version of one of their told tales. Much to their surprise, they received the best response from their audience of youngsters with heartfelt laughter and serious engagement to the story being told.

Jesse and Alan go rogue and re-write their own scripts into true crowd-pleasing shows. The two begin to enjoy their new-found creativity on tour but tragically the theater company announces bankruptcy, ending their employment.

Devastated by the news, Alan enters a "Sexy Man" contest at a local bar and wins a pocket full of cash, enough to buy them a van, set materials and costumes. Jesse and Alan begin to pursue the idea of going into business for themselves, but this can't happen until each give up their unrealistic dreams of a different future, they each were hoping to continue after the theater tour.

At the onset of a well-executed last show of the tour, a teacher asks if they could perform at the local library that evening. Thrilled to be wanted Jesse and Alan begin a new journey as they ride off, not into the sunset, but a blizzard, excited to be sharing a future together full of new adventures.