Fringe 2019 - Top 10 - #7 - Moon River – Ducdame Theatre (Paige Quinlivan) – Ritz Studio

Description - In 1944, the moon disappeared from the sky. 16 years later, a greaser and a square are drawn together by fate in an homage to butch/femme identity that queers the fraught legacy of contemporary fantasy.

As a playwright myself, I love seeing new plays at Fringe time.  It’s where I run across things I love like the work Shelby Company does.  So the fact that this is a new play is a plus.  And the fact that it’s got queer content is another plus - in this case, a central lesbian couple around which the story revolves.  And the premise is fascinating.

But also, again, their Fringe preview really kicked ass.  I don’t think the three minute segment they presented is pulled directly from the play as is.  I think they pulled key lines and brief character interactions from different parts of the script and created a super sharp summary of basic relationships and key plot points that get the story started.  They might have even introduced the entire cast.  One snippet flowed right into the next in a way that was easy to follow and very intriguing.  It was a great way to sell the production in just under three minutes.  I wish all previews were this good *and* informative.

I’m really looking forward to seeing this show.  It was almost the very first thing I was going to see at the Fringe this year until my scheduling puzzle took a different turn.  But you could make it your opening night first Fringe show and beat me to it.

(Side note - the name of the theater company also grabbed me, because it's from my favorite Shakespeare play, As You Like It.  It's a joke that Jacques plays on the good Duke's merry men, getting them to sing lyrics to a song with words they don't understand.  They ask him what the word "ducdame" means, and he replies, "'Tis a Greek invocation, to call fools into a circle.")

First show - Thursday, August 1, 2019, 5:30pm - Ritz Theater Studio



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 - Schedule Day 6 - Tuesday, August 6, 2019

5:30pm - The Overview Effect - Octoberdandy Productions (Jen Scott, Eric Heiberg, Damian Johnson) - Strike Theater

7:00pm - Moon River - Ducdame Theatre (Paige Quinlivan) - Ritz Studio
(2019 Fringe Top 10, #7 - reasons why)

8:30pm - Sandcastles - Emma Wick - Ritz Studio

10:00pm - Bo and Howie Are DTF (Defining Their Friendship) - Bo (Kinney) and Howie (Hamlin) Have a Theater Company - Strike Theater

This is my first Fringe without Mom at my side, so I could use some company.

If you're planning on seeing any of these shows at these times and would like to join me, please do.   If you have my phone number, feel free to text or email me to coordinate.  If you have my email, send me a message.  If you don't have either, you can message me through facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Or, you know, just show up.  That works, too.  I'd welcome a friendly face (or two, or three) to help get me through this Fringe.  It's going to be tough.  Thanks.



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 - Schedule Day 5 - Monday, August 5, 2019

5:30pm - Chorus - Michael Rogers - Rarig Thrust

7:00pm - Fool Muun Komming! [BeBgWunderful/ YEsyes/ 4sure.Hi5. TruLuv; SpankSpank: SOfun_Grate_Times] - Sam Kruger - Mixed Blood Theater
(2019 Fringe Top 20, #14 - reasons why)

8:30pm - Stand Up Eight - Kingfisher Theatre Company (Heather Fones, Callista Wengel) - Theatre in the Round Players (TRP)

10:00pm - Mad As Nell: or How To Lose a Bly in Ten Days - Rinky Dink Productions (Josh Carson) - Rarig Thrust



This is my first Fringe without Mom at my side, so I could use some company.

If you're planning on seeing any of these shows at these times and would like to join me, please do.   If you have my phone number, feel free to text or email me to coordinate.  If you have my email, send me a message.  If you don't have either, you can message me through facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Or, you know, just show up.  That works, too.  I'd welcome a friendly face (or two, or three) to help get me through this Fringe.  It's going to be tough.  Thanks.



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 - Schedule Day 4 - Sunday, August 4, 2019

1:00pm - Ancient Future Division: Battle for the Existence Yeti - 5th Wheel Productions - Southern Theater
(2019 Fringe Top 20, #15 - reasons why)

2:30pm - Tess Jones, Space Archeologist - MDK Productions (Michael D. Krefting) - Rarig Arena

4:00pm - The Bisexual Unicorn and Other Mythological Creatures - Jena Young Productions - Theatre in the Round Players (TRP)

5:30pm - All Is Bright - Shelby Company - Mixed Blood Theater
(Returning Favorite from 2009-2014 - reasons why)

7:00pm - Quiet Riot - Broken Box Mime Theater - Augsburg Mainstage
(2019 Fringe Top 20, #17 - reasons why)

8:30pm - A Man’s Guide for Appropriate Behavior in the 21st Century - One T Productions (Scot Froelich) - Augsburg Studio

10:00pm - The Kid - Rachel Buhman - Augsburg Mainstage



This is my first Fringe without Mom at my side, so I could use some company.

If you're planning on seeing any of these shows at these times and would like to join me, please do.   If you have my phone number, feel free to text or email me to coordinate.  If you have my email, send me a message.  If you don't have either, you can message me through facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Or, you know, just show up.  That works, too.  I'd welcome a friendly face (or two, or three) to help get me through this Fringe.  It's going to be tough.  Thanks.



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 - Schedule Day 3 - Saturday, August 3, 2019

1:00pm - Size - Sommerville Productions - Theatre in the Round Players

2:30pm - Write Me A Song - The Salvage Project (Jeromy Darling) - Augsburg Studio
(I saw this twice the last time it was here)

4:00pm - Botanical Dancing - LC Creations (Lily Conforti) - Southern Theater
(2019 Fringe Top 10 #4 - reasons why)

5:30pm - A Confederate Widow In Hell - Breaker/Fixer Productions (Willi Carlisle, Joseph Fletcher) - Southern Theater
(2019 Fringe Top 20, #12 - reasons why)

7:00pm - Ploys for Ensemble Glitz and Crisis Actors - Toot - Southern Theater
(2019 Fringe Top 10 #3 - reasons why)

8:30pm - First Comes Love - Stephanie M. Hipple - Theatre in the Round Players
(2019 Fringe Top 10 #5 - reasons why)

10:00pm - A Cult Classic - Sheep Theater - Southern Theater



This is my first Fringe without Mom at my side, so I could use some company.

If you're planning on seeing any of these shows at these times and would like to join me, please do.   If you have my phone number, feel free to text or email me to coordinate.  If you have my email, send me a message.  If you don't have either, you can message me through facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Or, you know, just show up.  That works, too.  I'd welcome a friendly face (or two, or three) to help get me through this Fringe.  It's going to be tough.  Thanks.

For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 - Schedule Day 2 - Friday, August 2, 2019

5:30pm - Reclaiming My Time - Jezebel Theater Company (Callie Meiners) - Crane Theater

7:00pm - SplitScreen - Sterling Melcher and Meg Kirchhoff - Crane Theater
(2019 Fringe Top 10, #10 - reasons why)

8:30pm - A Tension To Detail - That's Enough Drama (Gerard Harris) - Ritz Theater Mainstage
(2019 Fringe Top 10 #1 - reasons why)

(or, honestly, you could stay at the Crane at 8:30pm and see You Are Cordially Invited to the Life and Death of Edward Lear - The Winding Sheet Outfit)

10:00pm - Origin Story - The Dying Theatre (Alex Goebel) - Crane Theater
(2019 Fringe Top 10, #8 - reasons why)


This is my first Fringe without Mom at my side, so I could use some company.

If you're planning on seeing any of these shows at these times and would like to join me, please do.   If you have my phone number, feel free to text or email me to coordinate.  If you have my email, send me a message.  If you don't have either, you can message me through facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Or, you know, just show up.  That works, too.  I'd welcome a friendly face (or two, or three) to help get me through this Fringe.  It's going to be tough.  Thanks.



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 - Schedule Day 1 - Thursday, August 1, 2019

5:30pm - Swords and Sorcery: The Improvised Fantasy Campaign - The Bearded Company - Theatre In The Round Players (TRP)

7:00pm - Stoopidity - Ian McCarthy, Michael McKitt, Domino D'Lorion - Rarig Xperimental
(2019 Fringe Top 10 #2 - reasons why)

8:30pm - Get Thee Behind Me Santa: An Inexcusably Filthy Children’s Time-Travel Farce for Adults Only - Maximum Verbosity (phillip andrew bennett low) - Rarig Xperimental

10:00pm - Operation: Immigration - Wandering Jew Productions (Avi Aharoni) - Mixed Blood Theater


This is my first Fringe without Mom at my side, so I could use some company.

If you're planning on seeing any of these shows at these times and would like to join me, please do.   If you have my phone number, feel free to text or email me to coordinate.  If you have my email, send me a message.  If you don't have either, you can message me through facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Or, you know, just show up.  That works, too.  I'd welcome a friendly face (or two, or three) to help get me through this Fringe.  It's going to be tough.  Thanks.



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 Top 20 - #15 - Ancient Future Division: Battle for the Existence Yeti – Fifth Wheel Productions – Southern

Description - ANCIENT FUTURE DIVISION! GO! Follow the adventures of three trainee Time Rangers trying to escape paradoxes to defeat the cold-blooded Time Lizard and save existence!

Some further description -

Ancient Future Division was formed to fulfill a show obligation after another improv group fell through. From this inauspicious start, AFD seized the opportunity and their audiences. Combining madcap sci-fi elements with high energy and a sense of play on stage, AFD exudes fun throughout all of space-time whenever they take the stage.   In their new scripted show, AFD is excited to play in a bigger cardboard box to explore their imaginative ideas in ways that wouldn’t have been practical in improv; more characters, more puppets, more lizards.

This is another example of a Fringe preview doing a show some good.  There’s a whole bunch of different groups of improv comedy artists producing Fringe offerings this year, both scripted and unscripted.  This means a lot of potentially great material to choose from, since most improvisers know their stuff, and have been honing their craft for a little while (or a long while) in front of audiences already. 

You could make the argument that improv is the ultimate live performance because it’s not just a little different here and there each show - every performance is completely different from beginning to end, never the same twice, created and vanished in the same performance.  The ephemeral nature of improv might be why some improv artists also play around with scripted performance, as they’re doing here. 

But a lot of the time, because of the improv comedy roots, the script that results is often super-inventive, with twists and turns you might not expect, but still always emanating from the characters they’ve created.  (Think a Ferrari McSpeedy scripted Fringe show from years past.). So, solid, very funny, often weird storytelling.  And the artists doing the work have figured out a way to work together over time in their improv work that a random set of people brought together for a short rehearsal period don’t always have the luck to discover in their process.

That was the feel I got from this weird little time-traveling sci fi trio in their preview, which made me think it might be a fun change of pace for my schedule, and a way to start working improv into the mix.

Didn’t have a clue who they were before I saw them in previews, but what I saw piqued my curiosity, so what the hell.  They’re on the list.

First show - Friday, August 2, 2019, 7pm - Southern Theater




For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 Top 10 - #6 - Nerd Rage! The Great Debates – Wonder Dave and Komedio Comedy – Crane

Description - The funniest nerds to duke it out about he nerdy stuff you want debated! Batman vs Sailor Moon?! Which Disney Princess wins in a cage match?! Steven Universe vs Adventure Time?! Who makes the better boy band the Ninja Turtles or the Transformers?! It's up to you!

Way back when, when Laura Bidgood and Curt Lund were first hitting the Fringe stages and making a name for themselves, they had a show called Two Queers And A Chubby.  And queer number 2 was Wonder Dave Crady - spoken word artist and storyteller.  I developed a bit of an artistic nerd crush on Wonder Dave, bought some of his poetry, both on the page and recorded.  He moved out west to San Francisco a while back, but it looks like he’s coming for a visit (friends in tow) with this new Fringe show.

Further details from the More Information tab on their Fringe show page:

An evening of interactive comedy debates!  Have a nerdy debate you need settled once and for all? Bring your topics for suggestion! Join some of the nerdiest stand-up comics, writers, and even professional wrestlers for a raucous, no-holds-barred free-for-all, as they debate some of the biggest and hottest topics in all of geekdom. You decide the topics and we debate! All will be settled -- are you ready to rage?

While my brother would probably be a better audience for the nerd debates that make up this show, I’ll still know more than enough to get by.  And I already know I’m going to enjoy the company.  So I’m up for whatever Wonder Dave and his nerdy compatriots are serving.

First show - Thursday, August 1, 2019, 10pm - Crane Theater


For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 Top 20 - #16 - Beat. - W.A.R. Theater - Crane

Description: An adaptation of the true story of the murder that bonded and changed a generation of America's greatest writers.

I’ve missed both of W.A.R. Theater’s Fringe shows thus far, including their 2017 hit De Hjertelose.  I did catch their one non-Fringe outing so far, ben and trish, with mixed results. 

However, their Fringe preview for Beat. was impressive and strange (someone else I talked to the other day was equally baffled but intrigued by it).  It didn’t make a whole lot of sense out of context but it was a large number of bodies onstage working tightly in unison, incorporating movement, music, simple costumes and acting to evoke a feeling and compel those watching.  It had a very “Transatlantic Love Affair” feel to it.  That’s a high bar, but I like them shooting for it.

Their expanded synopsis of the show makes the case:

“Jack Kerouac. William S. Burroughs. Allen Ginsberg. Three of the greatest American writers...and the dark, shared secret of their youth.

Based off of text, letters, and journal entries that have only recently come to light, "Beat." tells the complicated story of Lucien Carr and David Kammerer, whose murder rocked the friendship group of ‘The Beat Writers’ and scandalized the nation. Utilizing ensemble-created movement, original music, and rhythmic poetry, "Beat." asks the question - when our complicated lives end, who gets to tell our story?”
(Apparently, in this case, these folks get to tell the story.)

The whole concept of “newfound murder mystery in the midst of a group of cultural figures we think we already know well” is enticing.  So they’re on the list.

Side note: Could someone explain to me what “Channeling the W.A.R. of the individual to serve the community" means?  It’s their company tag line but try as I might, I can’t find something online that tells me what the W.A.R. stands for.

First show - Thursday, August 1, 2019, 7pm - Crane Theater



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 Top 10 - #5 - First Comes Love - Stephanie M. Hipple - TRP

Description: Out of tragedy, beauty can sometimes follow. A tender memory piece that reflects on the 2016 shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest incident of violence against LGBTQIA people in US History.

Given my current situation, this choice might seem counter-intuitive.  A play about those lost in the Pulse Nightclub massacre, sure, that’ll cheer me up.  A theatrical memorial, sure, that’s not risky.  But this also falls in the category of watching a lot of shows with queer content this year.  And it’s about remembering that those killed were people, not statistics in another mass shooting - also that they were human beings, being gay didn’t make them any less so.  It’s why they and Pulse were targeted, so we should acknowledge that, and push back, by spending time remembering who they were, and keeping their memory alive.

In the publicity packet the Fringe provides, the artist said the following (a variation of the write-up on the More Information tab of their Fringe show page):

Homeless, the playwright visited Lake Eola, which was a memorial site for those lost and injured at Pulse, the week of the shooting.  She arrived at 10:30 at night, after the memorial service was done.  Around the edge of the lake were foot-high candles, about 4 feet apart.  Just offshore, out on the water in front of each candle, there was a swan afloat with its head bowed.  Which is very unusual, since the swans of Lake Eola normally retire at sundown.  But there they were, one swan, afloat, facing each candle on shore, as far as the eye could see.  In her grief, the playwright knew that the swans of Lake Eola were standing sentry and comforting those souls lost.  They knew, they felt, they understood.
The Fringe preview had a similar feel to that anecdote, quiet grace and comfort, and featured one of the performers from The Womyn’s Mysteries which Mom enjoyed so much in last year’s Fringe.  So that’s another plus.

I’m very curious to see how this concept manifests itself.

First show - Saturday, August 3, 2019, 8:30pm - Theatre In The Round Players (TRP)



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, But You Probably Should

Here's a list of links to entries about Fringe 2019 shows that, due to the unusual circumstances of the Fringe for me this year, I don't have the emotional strength to deal with.  But they're still very good shows, with quality artists, and in any other year I would be seeing them.  This is just not that year.

First, an explanation of why this year is different...

Dear 2019 Fringe, It's Not You, It's Me

Then a list of the shows I can't process right now, but should be just fine for anyone not in my position (i.e., nearly all the rest of you) - (alphabetical by show titled, updated as I post new entries):

Cat Confidential: The Secret Lives of the Mothers of Lions

Visitation





For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 - Returning Favorites

Here's a collection of links to all the entries about old friends from past years' Top 10 and Top 20 list who I'm excited to see coming back again for Fringe 2019 (updated as I post new entries):

All Is Bright - Shelby Company

For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 Top 20, #17 - A Two-fer from Broken Box Mime Theater - Destination: Everywhere, and Quiet Riot

Description for Destination: Everywhere - Comprised of original tales and interactive shorts by NYC's favorite silent storytellers, DESTINATION: EVERYWHERE is a boisterous, hour-long adventure that invites families to journey through invisible worlds -(at the Barker Center, Family Fringe)

Description for Quiet Riot - Set to a rip-roarin' soundtrack and wordless as they are badass, the award-winning mimes of BKBX remix the classic French medium in their heart-thumping and lol-inducing collection of original shorts - (at Augsburg MainStage)

I know, I know.  Mimes.  The minute I type the word “mime,” I can picture you running away, screaming.  (Right up there with clowns for some people.). But just like dance, the Fringe over the years has helped me learn to appreciate, dare I say even enjoy, mimes (and clowns).  Good ones, anyway.  And the artists of Broken Box Mime Theater appear to be some of the good ones.  So give ‘em a chance.

If you want you can call them “a New York City-based collaborative physical theater company that performs original short plays without spoken language” - that’s what they sometimes call themselves.

Destination: Everywhere, for the Family Fringe, was developed on a tour through the midwest in 2018.

Quiet Riot is sort of a “Best Of” compilation of creations from previous productions.

Why did they float to the top of the pile in my Fringe scheduling ideas?

“It will not be cheesy, it will not be pretentious.”

That’s from the short video introduction to their company -
https://youtu.be/h3T1xpfHH5I

There’s also a trailer specifically for Destination: Everywhere that’s kind of charming - https://youtu.be/Y3PwDo5BKQg

I was sent a very enthusiastic email and press release about both shows from the artistic director of the company, and unlike a lot of enthusiastic press releases, these folks have the credentials to back it up.

Their very friendly and informative website maps out an impressively successful journey thus far.  They’ve only been around since 2011 but have amassed quite an array of awards, grants, residencies, reviews and productions.

I just like their attitude about their art.  They want other people to love it just as much as they do, but they realize it’s on them to reach the audience, not the other way around, which is admirable, and the way more artists should conduct themselves:

“Broken Box Mime Theater aims to activate the imagination of our audiences, contemporize the art of mime, and remind us all of the power of simple storytelling.

Broken Box Mime Theater (BKBX) is an NYC-based non-profit that collaboratively creates original, contemporary plays through mime.  Set to lights and music, our pieces range from realistic to metaphorical, heart-wrenching to hilarious, cinematic to intimate and everything in between, held together by the belief that great theater requires little ornamentation, only great vision.

Without the use of props, sets, costumes, or words, our stories are told only with our bodies.  It is this process of “essentializing” Story that is, ultimately, what makes our work both dynamic and compelling. Each audience member is cast as our Final Playwright, projecting onto our white face-paint and seemingly blank stage their own memories and visions.”

The Family Fringe show Destination: Everywhere has the cast putting on their face makeup as the audience comes in, and a mini-mime workshop for the kids at the end of show.  Also, there’s a narrator to introduce each of the segments, and the idea of what mime is and how it works, so that kids don’t wonder “Hey, why isn’t anybody talking? Where are the props?”  They call these “mime-troductions” which I have to admit is kind of adorable.

First show - Destination: Everywhere - (THIS) Saturday, July 27, 2019, 7pm - Barker Center for Dance (it’s Family Fringe, so three shows this weekend, two shows next weekend, then they’re done, first weekend of the regular Fringe, so catch ‘em while you can)

First show - Quiet Riot - Thursday, August 1, 2019, 7pm - Augsburg MainStage (they’re just opening weekend of the regular Fringe, they’re done in the first half of the festival, last show Tuesday, August 6th, so don’t wait, or they’ll be gone)


For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 Top 10, #4 - Botanical Dancing - LC Creations - Southern Theater

Description: Permanent visuals spill into the world of performance art as dancers take the stage with paint and markers to articulate ecological concepts. This thrilling culmination promises no shortage of groovy fun.

This is a prime example of how a good preview can help you.  Like all the dance offerings in the Fringe, this one was on my radar in a general way, because I’m always looking to mix things up on my schedule and get some dance in the mix as much as possible.

But their preview really elevated them for me.  And I wasn’t the only one.  When someone asked after the first round of previews were done for the night, “Was there anyone you didn’t already have an opinion about that now you really want to see their show?”  My response was Botanical Dancing.  And other folks agreed.

I honestly couldn’t hear the performer who was speaking all that well over on the side of the audience as I was during the preview, but that didn’t really matter.  I missed her talking about the details of the “gimmick” of their show - the incorporation of painting and drawing into the movement, and the inspiration of ecological themes - but I already knew that from perusing the Fringe website (they have more of a write-up and photos of their process, on the More Information tag of their Fringe show page).

The thing that sold me was that the dancers not only clearly knew what they were doing movement-wise, they were also having fun, and that enthusiasm and joy in their art, and the impulse to share it, translated to the audience watching them.  At least it did for me.

So it’s good dance, but they’ve also got other things going on, including a friendly attitude that draws you in (no pun intended).  I’m very much looking forward to seeing the full show.

First show - Saturday, August 3, 2019, 4pm - Southern Theater



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 Shows I Just Can’t Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should - part 2

Cat Confidential: The Secret Lives of the Mothers of Lions – Weggel Productions - TRP

Description: The co-creator of best-selling Fringe franchise “Couple Fight” brings you a variety show starring the mothers of CATS! Treat yourself to music, storytelling and sketches by 10 talented and mighty women.

Their Fringe show page goes on to say:

“Take Couple Fight, but take out the couples, and add piles and piles of cats. That's what you get with Cat Confidential. Ten talented women will weave honest stories, beautiful music, and hilarious sketches through an hour of cat-themed content. Whether you love cats or whether you hate them (but why would you, you MONSTER), the show will delight you, tickle your funny bone, and make you feel all the feels. Just like our cats do.”

Anna Weggel has assembled a lot of great collaborators including Lauren Anderson in the director’s chair and Heather Meyer as one of the writer performers, just for starters.

This show is tailor-made for Mom.  One of her great regrets when she was hospitalized was that she didn’t have the daily companionship of her cat, Aurora.  And unlike the dog, the cat wasn’t great about traveling for a visit.  Mom did get to see Aurora through FaceTime (though I’m sure the cat was very confused and a little annoyed that I kept following her around the house with a phone).  Mom was really looking forward to a chance to sit in her chair or lie down in her own bed again and nap with the cat by her side.  But the planned home visit didn’t materialize before Mom died.  Every day, though, she’d get out her phone and look at pictures of the cat, and show them to the staff and her fellow patients.

So, I know Cat Confidential is a comedy, but if I go, I’m just going to sit there crying, and not quietly.  (Hell, the publicity image makes me cry - and that’s not its intended purpose.)  So it’s best if I stay away from this one, at least this year.  If it goes well, like Couple Fight, perhaps there will be a sequel I’ll have the strength to enjoy in future years.

But you should go see it now, really.  With artists this good, the comedy is bound to work on you just the way it was intended.  If you need a laugh, this would be a reliable place to find one.

First show - Friday, August 2, 2019, 8:30pm - Theatre In the Round Players (TRP)



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 - Returning Favorite - Shelby Company - All Is Bright - Mixed Blood

Description: During SantaCon, an annual Christmas pub crawl, three costume-clad partiers are totally stoked to pound brews, knock back shots, and maybe reckon with the crushing emptiness of existence.

Fringe memory can be like that of a goldfish sometimes.  Shelby Company, a theater group based out of New York, was a regular fixture in the Minnesota Fringe for six years running (every year from 2009 to 2014).  But they haven’t been back since 2014, so a lot of Fringe-goers might not know or remember them.  Trust me, they’re the best.  If you’ve never seen them, you should treat yourself.  If you’ve been missing them like I have, rejoice, they’ve returned.

Shelby Company blew my mind with a comedic metaphysical meditation on good, evil, faith, and a person’s purpose in life for their first Fringe visit in Dan Moyer’s play Winnemucca (three days in the belly).  The following year Moyer and Jonathan A. Goldberg contributed a series of bizarre comedy shorts that got scrambled from performance to performance in both cast and content called Uncle Shelby’s Traveling Treasure Trunk.  Shelby gave Goldberg the playwriting reins all to himself the year after that with the buzzed about baseball play, Sousepaw (the unlikely pairing of an alcoholic pitcher trying to make a comeback, and Reptile Girl from the local circus, in the early 1910s).  The following year, Goldberg served up the naughty noir comedy Font of Knowledge.  After that, Shelby brought Moyer back with a new script of his own, Fallsway (I’m still kicking myself for not writing a review of Fallsway at the time.  It was gorgeous, a 21st century Our Town.  Yeah, I had my own Fringe show to worry about that year, but damn, I should have written something down).  Lastly, Goldberg and Shelby returned with the clever, spooky love story, Real Dead Ghosts.

I’ve missed them quite a lot.  So had Mom.  We were both very happy to hear they were coming back again.  I’m sorry she won’t get a chance to see them again.  But, as with everything this year, I’ll be her proxy.

The press packet from the Fringe on Shelby included the following:

"Shelby Company is thrilled to return to Minnesota Fringe, where they debuted Winnemucca, Sousepaw, and Fallsway, among others. Playwright Dan Moyer premieres a new play, All is Bright, directed by frequent collaborator Jess Chayes, who helmed a sold-out run of Moyer’s play Half Moon Bay at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York."

Another short description of the show goes:

"During a Christmas pub crawl, three partiers try to change their lives. Or at least get some pizza."

And a more expansive description gives a bit more detail:

"Set during SantaCon, the annual pub crawl infamous for its Yuletide debauchery, All is Bright examines the kind of loneliness only the most social of situations can inspire. Can people ever change? Or does the chance to do so just pass us by, like a crowd of drunk Santas."

The cast includes Grayson DeJesus, from Winnemucca back in the day, and James B. Kennedy, the pitcher from Sousepaw.

I need a Shelby Company/Dan Moyer theater fix more this year than I can adequately express.  I’m so glad they’re back.

See All Is Bright.  Don’t even wait for the reviews.  Just see it.  I know I’ll be there.

First Show - Sunday, August 4, 2019, 5:30pm - Mixed Blood Theater



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)

Fringe 2019 Top 20 - #18 - Relic - Jesse Factor - Crane Theater

Description: Dance artist Jesse Factor drags the ghosts of celebrity into the present to remnants of a forgotten Joan Crawford interview looped together in an original score by Andy Hasenpflug.

The reasons for this one are pretty basic.

As stated before, I need to see more queer content in the Fringe.

I also stock up on my quota of dance for the year at the Fringe.

It’s hard to get much queerer than a dancer out of New York who used to be part of Martha Graham’s dance company performing original choreography set to a background of original music spliced together with sound from an interview of classic Hollywood diva Joan Crawford (aka, Mommie Dearest).

An extended description of the production says,  

“RELIC is about celebrity, legend, and how we remember and recycle the artifice and truth of a diva. An androgynous figure, ghostly white and alien-like, struts, convulses, and mourns to an original score looped from remnants of a forgotten Joan Crawford interview. Shifting between the tragic and the comic, the result is a solo fantasia on vanity, beauty, and memory, that re-animates the past on its own terms.”

Jesse Factor and composer Andy Hasenpflug both have some serious credentials, just check out their bios on the Cast and Crew tab.

For a taste of the show to come, check out the trailer on the Video tab.

It’s something different, it’s dance, it’s queer.  Count me in.

First show - Saturday, August 3, 2019, 10pm - Crane Theater



For a quick list of links to my other postings, check out my Top 10 and Top 11-20 new Fringe artists to check out for Fringe 2019.  There's also Returning Favorites, and Fringe Shows I Just Can't Watch Right Now, but You Probably Should.  If you want to keep me company, during my first Fringe without Mom, I'll be posting my schedule here.  Also, here's some links if you want to hit all the Fringe 2019 blog posts, or see the full Fringe Archive from years past (just keep scrolling down, or hit the different years in the archive listing for the full blog on the right side of the screen and zero in on July and August)