Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Fringe 2017 - Top 10 - #4 - A Resister’s Handbook (for holding onto optimism in shitty times)


As an union leader, Javier Morillo has always held that organizing is a vocation of optimists. Facing attacks against immigrants and workers, he asks how do we hold onto optimism in today's really crappy world?

I’ve got enough fatalism and pessimism to go with my politics already, thank you very much.  It’s why I’m skipping a lot of the political content in the festival that looks like it’s already given up.  This show looks different.  I’ve seen Javier’s storytelling before, so I know that’ll be good.  And I’m kind of surprised I haven’t had producer Levi Weinhagen on this list before.  Probably because he’s always been partnered with a Scrimshaw, I thought I had him covered.  (And he’ll be doing pratfalls with Joshua in Intermediate Physical Comedy for Advanced Beginners, so I can see his work onstage as well as here behind the scenes.)  So, how do we hold onto optimism in today’s really crappy world?  I’m all ears.

(Random shout-out: another political-minded show, a Fringe 2017 adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' sadly prophetic novel It Can't Happen Here, which almost made the cut - special note on It Can't Happen Here, it's a fundraiser for the ACLU; the two dozen artists working on this project are doing it for free, so all their profits from ticket sales will be going to one of the main legal fronts of the resistance, the American Civil Liberties Union.)

And here's some handy links to the full list of pre-Fringe top 10, and 11-20, returning favorites, and all the random shout outs in these Top 10/Top 20 posts - links all gathered in a single list to take you to fuller posts and Fringe pages.  Enjoy!

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