Fringe 2009 - Jailbait Fringe

Kidding. I just needed a catchy headline. But technically, shows by teens and for teens - the Teen Fringe - would qualify.

Teen Fringe, same issue as Kids Fringe, and again, for the first time I can recall. Not enough to teen entries to fill the slots set aside, so they all get in, and a couple of extra slots end up in the general lottery for the rest of the crowd. Win, win.

Only six Teen Fringe entries this year. And they are...

#1

(yes, that person was really on the ball - no pun intended - getting their application in, back in November)

Ruth Glaeser and Company


“Thank You and Have A Nice Day” - The life of employees in a department store picking up people’s clothes, making out in the dressing rooom, etc. Done through dance, song and action.

(well, yes, action of all kinds apparently. I guess I worked in the wrong department stores when I was in retail...)

(and the next two aren’t slouches either in the early application department...)

#20

Youth Performance Company

(of Goddess Menses, The Talk, and Boy Show fame - I’m a big fan of this group)

“Call It Swing” - Set in real time...

(Call Jack Bauer - or Hardcover Theater)

... it describes the hour before the longest Nazi raid of teen swing clubs in 1941, from inside the club.

(Nazis. Definitely call Jack Bauer)

#60

Free Bird Productions

“Stalled - An Elevator Story” - Eight strangers are forced to get to know each other when their elevator stalls.

(I will resist the obvious “ups and downs,” and “going down” jokes. Well, almost.)

#247

Caity Shea Violette

“Paisley Poppies” - A bizarre comedy featuring a teenage girl and her best friend, a stalker and her overly Minnesotan mother. Their reality drastically changes after a sudden turn of events.

(Ah, punctuation. It makes me think that the teenage girl’s best friend might indeed be a stalker, as well as also being her overly Minnesotan mother. Or maybe the stalker has an overly Minnesotan mother. By the way, what exactly is an overly Minnesotan mother? Should we be expecting hot dish jokes? Also doesn’t everyone’s reality always drastically change after a sudden turn of events? Isn’t that what sudden turns of events do? It does sound bizarre. Plus, paisley poppies make me think 1960s or 1970s. Lot of material to chew over here...)

#299

SteppingStone Theatre

“In Another’s Size” - Fast forward (or rewind) your life to high school.

(Sweet Jesus, please, no.)

Imagine a boy likes a girl who is really him

(so is there a word missing or is a boy in love with himself as a girl?)

who knows a cheerleader who is really a depressed boy

(well, can’t boys be cheerleaders anyway? But a depressed cheerleader would really have to work extra hard, I guess.)

who knows a basketball player who is really another girl

(again, can’t girls already be basketball players?)

who is “friends” with a dumb blonde who is really a perfectionist.

(I don’t think dumb and perfectionist are mutually exclusive to begin with)

Welcome to John Hughes High.

(Welcome to a lawsuit from John Hughes’ handlers)

(So to review, there’s a boy who’s really a girl, and that boy/girl is friends with a girl cheerleader who’s really a depressed boy, and that girl/boy knows a basketball player - who for the sake of argument we’ll assume is a boy, but he’s really a girl...

So the boy/girl who’s in love with himself/herself, knows the girl/boy cheerleader, who in turn knows the boy/girl basketball player who is friends, but not really, with a dumb blond of unspecified gender, who is also a perfectionist.

Makes total sense.

I like gender confusion as much as the next theater person, so I’ll give ‘em a break and stop teasing them and see how it all turns out)

#305

The Bakery Theatre Company

(who brought us last year's popular Fringe show Audish)

“Thin Mint” - Lies, sexuality and the Pinewood Derby. A troop’s misadventure to bury a fellow Boy Scout.

(Oh. My. God. I am so there.)
(Theater about theater, not my thing, but this, embarrassingly enough, totally is)