The Happiest Medium » Fringe Festival 2010

They’re Baaaaaaaack! The Best Of Fringe Festival 2010 Returns For Fringe Encore

Karen Tortora-Lee — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:44:40 +0000

Nothing feels better than taking that final bow, and hearing the applause going on and on . . . begging you to come out one more time. For some very special shows of Fringe, that’s exactly what gets to happen and we at The Happiest Medium are very pleased that some of our very favorites from the Festival are being called back again.

The 2010 Fringe Encore Series

What We Saw:

The Secretaries

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/13 @ 10:00
9/15 @ 9:30
9/22 @ 9:30
9/23 @ 10:00

What We Said

This play simultaneously celebrates and skewers the female rituals . . . Fun from start to finish The Secretaries will make you laugh at old stereotypes, new rituals, and the concept of how far one will go just to fit in.(Read Full Review Here)

The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/11 @ 8:00
9/12 @ 5:00
9/15 @ 7:00
9/19 @ 8:00

What We Said

This Festival does not deal with the aftermath by ignoring the terrible things that happened, but rather by taking on the weighty challenge of finding all the Good that was done there, and how people faced the adversity and even the absurdity of the situations at the time with a positive outlook by trying to make the best of a horrible situation. (Read Full Review Here)

Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/9 @ 7:00
9/11 @ 10:30
9/17 @ 9:30
9/18 @ 10:30

What We Said

No matter how hard you try you can never predict the next twist and turn of this laugh out loud show. (Read Full Review Here)

PigPen Presents: The Nightmare Story

Venue: The Players Theater

9/10 @ 9:30
9/11 @ 5:00
9/11 @ 9:30
9/12 @ 6:00

What We Said

These young men are triple threats – actors, musicians and singers – and all of their talents bob and weave amid each other flawlessly. Whether it is the way they tell their story by finishing each others sentences, or the way their voices harmonize till they find that golden spot, or the way their instruments can fill up the room and drive emotion to the surface. These men have perfected the art of the ensemble. (Read Full Review Here)

Also – Don’t Miss Your Chance To Catch (click on dates to purchase tickets):

Hearts Full of Blood

Venue: The Players Theater

9/09 @ 9:30
9/10 @ 7:00
9/12 @ 3:00
9/14 @ 8:00

South Pathetic

Venue: The Players Theater

9/15 @ 8:00
9/17 @ 9:30
9/18 @ 10:00
9/19 @ 3:00

Saving Throw Versus Love

Venue: The Players Theater

9/20 @ 9:30
9/22 @ 7:00
9/25 @ 9:30
9/26 @ 7:00

When Last We Flew

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/9 @ 9:30
9/11 @ 5:00
9/12 @ 8:00
9/16 @ 7:00

POPE! An Epic Musical

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/16 @ 9:30
9/24 @ 7:00
9/25 @ 10:30
9/26 @ 4:00

Faye Lane’s Beauty Shop Stories

Venue: Soho Playhouse – The Huron Club
9/09 @ 9:30 9/12 @ 6:00 9/15 @ 3:00 9/17 @ 10:00 9/23 @ 9:30

Amsterdam Abortion Survivor

Venue: Soho Playhouse – Huron Club

9/10 @ 9:30
9/12 @ 8:00
9/16 @ 10:00
9/17 @ 8:00
9/19 @ 8:00

Viva Los Bastarditos!

Venue: Lucille Lortel Theater

9/19 @ 2:00
9/20 @ 9:30
9/22 @ 7:00
9/26 @ 7:00

Made in Taiwan

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/10 @ 7:00
9/14 @ 9:30
9/17 @ 7:00
9/18 @ 8:00

Over and Over

Venue: The Players Theater

9/18 @ 8:00
9/22 @ 9:30
9/24 @ 7:00
9/25 @ 5:00

Getting Even With Shakespeare

Venue: The Players Theater

9/21 @ 8:00
9/24 @ 9:00
9/25 @ 7:30
9/26 @ 4:00

Running

Venue: The Players Theater

9/16 @ 7:00
9/18 @ 2:00
9/19 @ 5:30
9/20 @ 7:00

Lost and Found

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/18 @ 5:00
9/21 @ 8:00
9/24 @ 9:30
9/25 @ 7:00

How My Mother Died of Cancer, and Other Bedtime Stories

Venue: The Players Theater

9/9 @ 7:00
9/11 @ 7:00
9/12 @ 8:00
9/13 @ 8:00

The Twentieth-Century Way

Venue: The Players Theater

9/16 @ 9:30
9/17 @ 7:00
9/18 @ 5:00
9/19 @ 8:00

BUNKED!: A New Musical

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/19 @ 5:00
9/20 @ 7:00
9/23 @ 7:00
9/25 @ 4:00

Just In Time – The Judy Holliday Story

Venue: The Lucille Lortel Theater

9/10 @ 9:30
9/13 @ 7:00
9/14 @ 7:00
9/15 @ 3:00

Dream Of The Marionettes Is Still Very Much A Dream (Fringe Festival 2010)

Lina Zeldovich — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:18:40 +0000

Costume ensembles are just about the only thing that carries Dream of Marionettes as a show. Perhaps the idea of adding a burlesque spirit to a marionettes’ rebellion against an abusive puppeteer who exploited his dolls and threatened to throw them in the furnace seemed like a new twist on the old Pinocchio tale, but the script is simply too flat.

When the dolls get a hold of their Stromboli’s magic wand, they turn the old, bald and goateed owner into a marionette himself, force him to obey their orders and make fun of him in every way imaginable. Nothing wrong with some healthy femme fatale domination, especially when it comes to burlesque, but it’s just never gets funny. In fact, every joke is a cliché, every song sounds like something we’ve heard before and the story comes out lame. Even the promised burlesque part doesn’t seem to really “take” – barely anyone takes any clothes off during the show.

The Bottom Line? The Marionette’s cast, which actually does know how to sing and dance, and the truly great costume designer were the highlights of the show.

————–

Dream of the Marionettes / Le Reve des Marionettes
Les Marionettes Productions

Written by Johanna Divine and Christy Leichty; Music by Johanna Divine and Daniel Coolik
Directed by Steven Cooper and Christy Leichty
Choreography by John Vincent

Final performance: Sunday, August 29th at 2:30pm

www.DreamOfTheMarionettes.com

Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa (66 E 4th St)

The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival: A Festival Of Brightness In The Eye Of The Storm (Fringe Festival 2010)

Stephen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:02:56 +0000

One year after Hurricane Katrina struck, the mayor of New Orleans wanted to put on The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Hour. Public outrage stopped it from ever airing, but here is another attempt.

Rob Florence’s The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival directed by Dann Fink gives us a positive story of 5 people who experienced Katrina and made a difference. This difference is either to themselves, to their family, to their neighbors (in the normal sense of people who lived next door as well as the classic Biblical sense of whoever needs help), and to the city itself. Their “comedy” is not making light of what happened, but rather about not being beat by a situation which so many of the people in this play recalled as “post-apocalyptic”.

I say “people” rather than “characters” because all the stories are from 5 distinct people and are 100 % true, free of the biases of media exaggeration or bureaucratic exaggeration.

Comedy, in a Classical sense, is not about making light of something and diminishing it, but rather the Greeks and Romans defined the word “comedy” as stage-plays with happy endings. These plays were often important in forming public opinion and were very important works for learning how to deal with important situations. What situation could be more important to the people of New Orleans than dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina?

In this story we have 5 viewpoints, often seeing the same events from different angle, or outlooks. In many ways it is like 5 one-act plays broken apart and mixed and then synced up to the beat of New Orleans’ metamorphosis in reaction to the cataclysm and into its recovery.

There is Antoinette (played by Lizan Mitchell) a grandmother to a “special” grand daughter (who she had raised to be independent and self sufficient). She’s never used that word . . . “special” . . . until she needed it to help get her to granddaughter to safety. Antoinette is also owner of the well known Mother-in-law Bar. During the days, waiting for the national guard to come in and restore order to the city, she uses well organized supplies to help those in need nearby, and her shotgun to fire into air to deter looters of her bar. She also concentrated everything she had in her to be savvy, pleasant, resourceful and otherwise working to keep herself together for her grand daughter’s sake.

There is Judy (played by Maureen Silliman) who is a loving daughter who (being loyal and just wanting to be helpful) cooked up several days food for her father and was getting ready to go across town to wait out the storm with him, when she finds out he has just died. Her nephew is going crazy texting message after message to make sure she is all right and so she goes out in the street to find someone to teach her how to text. The only people there are some strange looking young folks with tattoos and piercings , but she needs help and in the end she shows them a beat up old car that doesn’t quite run and they have a amazing mechanic and Gulf War driver as well as a Wiccan making strange prayers, and they drive out of New Orleans right on the crests of the rising water.

Raymond (played by Evander Duck) was rushed out right away and was given a plane ticket and the choice to go anywhere in the country. He visits some cousins in California and is glad to see them and have these wonderful experiences he wouldn’t have had without Katrina, but also he is glad to get home once he can make his way back. That realization – that someone his age could have something different happen – gives him fresh prospects on living in his twilight years.

There is Sheldon (Philip Hoffman) helping his parents and a wild bunch of people hysterical for help go through the airport of darkness in the middle of the city. It is strange how we can laugh at what makes us cry, but by keeping his head he helps many others.

There is also Rodney (played by Gary Cowling) who, by being well connected and well off, shows us how having resources can help many and move things along. Also it shows how the authorities were suspicious but then helpful as a result of him just knowing how to be prepared. See his humorous interludes with the media and the “criminal element”.

I’d like to encourage anyone I haven’t won over to try and buy their tickets now, because I’m sure the last show this Sunday will sell out. Again to all involved, great job at making a moving and very positive tale of how to see the best in a horrible situation.

~~~

The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival
Batture Productions
Writer: Rob Florence
Director: Dann Fink

1h 30m
www.KatrinaComedy.net
VENUE #16: The SoHo Playhouse
Sun 29 @ 4:15

23 Feet In 12 Minutes: The Death And Rebirth Of New Orleans (Fringe Festival 2010)

Stephen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:26:33 +0000

6 Characters Based On 60 Interviews in 60 Minutes Equals Countless Emotions

Deanna Pacelli is a hero. Or several of them actually, and also a victim, and often enough some observers. In 23 Feet in 12 Minutes Deanna puts on many characters and pulls stories from many moving moments as she recounts the events starting with Hurricane Katrina from the eyes of 6 characters drawn from more than 60 accounts of what happened after the storm hit, the water rose, and chaos spread.

What did everyone have in common in New Orleans five years ago? Well there’s Katrina, but more than that is a tragedy more akin to David Brin’s novel, The Postman, where the real tragedy becomes what happens when society breaks down. Playwright Mari Brown has done a beautiful job of meshing the stories of many perspectives in a chaotic situation into a cohesive set of story lines that switch off with a pacing so rhythmic and precise so that the intensity of the story can truly be felt by the audience as the speed of transitions between characters ebbs and flows. David Travis the director is sure to have been expert in helping the writer’s vision become the remarkable reality created by Deanna Pacelli (who by the way was in New Orleans post-Katrina as well).

In 23 Feet in 12 Minutes we see this happen quickly at first as the destruction of the storm takes place, then more slowly but in many ways worse as the normal material of society falls apart when normal rules no longer apply.

When this happens we see two things happen: The first is the opportunity to be criminal, to do wrong upon your fellow human beings. We see this through the eyes of characters who had been raped, or robbed or killed in fires set by roving bands during those dark times. We see it in people whose job it is to keep order instead keeping up prisons while someone else figures out what to do.

The second is the opportunity for people to become heroic, to go outside of the normal comfort zone. This is shown through characters who create calm where it is needed, who right injustices, who build houses and try to organize infrastructure. Or sometimes, who simply surviving by making things seem normal and human. Little things, like offering a drink to share on their porch goes a long way.

In both cases we see everyone become superhuman: wearing masks of either the hero, the villain or – as was the case of more than 1800 people – the martyr.

Finally when help began to arrive our heroes’ patience as well as their sanity were severely frayed and often broke as conditions and situations became more than anyone could bear.

But things were dealt with heroically by the people in Mari Brown’s play – overwhelming or not. As was said by one character, this was his “1825th day of recovery” and rebuilding takes place every day. As another said, “maybe we should just finish this funeral, throw dirt on the coffin and go on with our lives”. And at last – by the blues singer who begins and end the show – ”some day when I’m good and ready I’ll be buried in this city”. But until then he may as well experience all there is to life.

Thankfully for many people who have been touched by Katrina throughout the 5 years since it swept through so many lives, 23 Feet in 12 Minutes gave some of them an opportunity to put on a new mask: that of the storyteller.

Hope you can all make it to one of the 3 remaining shows so a good catharsis can be had by all.

~~~

23 Feet in 12 Minutes: The Death and Rebirth of New Orleans
Word on the Street Productions
Writer: Mari Brown
Director: David Travis

1h 0m

www.wordonthestreetplays.org
VENUE #11: Players Loft
Fri 27 @ 7:45 Sat 28 @ 3:30 Sun 29 @ 1:15

The Secretaries – Do As I Say, Do As I Do (Fringe Festival 2010)

Karen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:23:48 +0000

Boy, do I remember what it was like to be the new gal around the office – to not have the routine down yet, to get sneered at for ordering from wrong place for lunch (“We don’t use them ever since the egg salad incident . . . but that was before your time”) or to be thought of as stuck up for taking lunch alone in the park . . . or (even worse) not taking a cigarette break with the other girls from the admin pool. One false step and you’re branded some sort of outcast who thinks she’s better than everyone else. Offices can be tough, and a Clique of Secretaries who treat the office like High School all over again can be murder. And in this new production of The Five Lesbian Brothers’ 1994 dark comedy The Secretaries(directed by Mark Finley) Murder is exactly what it is.

In the mill town of Big Bone, Oregon opportunities are scarce so you’ll take the best job you can get – even if you’ve got advanced degrees and a decently high IQ. When we first meet The Secretaries of the Cooney Lumber Company they’re as synchronized as Swiss watches. They speak in stereo, have the same goals and dreams (among them – To be Secretary of the Month), and all gulp down that can of Slim-Fast for breakfast lunch and dinner (although for some it goes down a littler easier than for others). When newbie Patty (Elizabeth Whitney) arrives on the scene she’s at first confounded by, but also mesmerized by the shorthand these gals have with each other. Will she ever fit in?

As the days move forward (the passage of time is marked on the “_______ days with out an accident” chart) the clique grows a little more ominous with each day. There’s the typical “All About Eve” type backstabbing: Girls are quick to point out each other’s flaws – pleasantly plump Peaches (Elizabeth Bell) is so distraught by her own inability to fore go the “sensible dinner” which the Slim-Fast meal plan recommends that she actually asks to be punched every time she’s observed eating solid foods. Alpha Bitch Ashley (Karen Stanion) who’s been secretary of the month every month running now has to hand over her crown to Patty which obviously drives her a little crazy.

This play simultaneously celebrates and skewers the female rituals – and all of them are represented here, from the desire to dress alike to the sudden way every moment is spent together to the odd physiological mystery of how women who stick with each other long enough all wind up on the same cycle. There are slumber parties, games of twister, impromptu bi-curious experiments with the resident lesbian, Dawn (Virginia Baeta) and they’re all lead by – and in league with – their boss Susan (Jamie Heinlein) who gives them pointers on how to dress, what to do, where to go . . . and ultimately even makes them sign contracts promising they’ll stay celibate.

So, what happens when five woman who don’t have an unexpressed thought hit that certain day of the month? Why hasn’t there ever been more than 29 days without an accident? How did these gals all wind up with a Lumberman’s jacket? What’s the little secret that keeps them all so bonded? What’s the best way to get blood out of a towel? And what is that chainsaw doing in the corner?

Fun from start to finish The Secretaries will make you laugh at old stereotypes, new rituals, and the concept of how far one will go just to fit in.

~~~

The Secretaries

TOSOS
Writer: The Five Lesbian Brothers–Maureen Angelos, Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey and Lisa Kron
Director: Mark Finley

1h 30m

www.thesecretariestosos.com
VENUE #12: Lucille Lortel Theatre

Click below to purchase tickets:
Sun 29 @ NOON

Insurmountable Simplicities: Philosophers Say The Darndest Things (Fringe Festival 2010)

Stephen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:20:54 +0000

Are you who you think you are or just who others say you are? Are you a combination somewhere in the middle – or none of the above? How do you get caught in a rectilinear paradox? Can’t you just do what the sign says no matter where it’s saying it?

Insurmountable Simplicities (written by Roberto Casati and Achille Varzi, adapted and directed by Natalie Glick) is a very fast paced play with witty dialogue and superb acting which helps us pull apart various layers of philosophical conundrums.

Using six stories enacted by four thoughtful and intelligent actors (Alex Herrald, Victoria Pollack, Richard LaFleur, Alice Winslow) their points are made humorously rather than pedantically and in a way that really struck a chord with me. Here a brief synopsis of each of the concept plays performed in Insurmountable Simplicities.

Zombie Sleeping Pills
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to just turn off your consciousness on a boring ordeal like an airplane, but be productive and experiential at the same time? Enter Zombie Sleeping Pills. Just your consciousness sleeps while the rest of you can exercise your thinking processes, determining whether or not this is such a good idea from a practical, existential as well as a human and emotional level.

The Poet As A Young Man
A time traveler goes back through the ages to determine the origins of one the greatest poets in history. Before a certain point in his life he was unremarkable, but within days he will be one of the most amazing minds the world has ever known. What makes the standard into the extraordinary? The tricks of perception we can have when we truly come face to face with ourselves are sometimes enough to help us turn the corner of our experience to the profound.

Risky Cake
What about that cake? Audience participation and crowd sourcing is taken to the extreme as the prisoner’s diligent is enacted before our very eyes for just the cost of a piece of cake. How can ultimate knowledge help in a situation where nothing is knowable except our guess of what will be free will? Find out more at the play.

Self Reference Self Explained
What if the nature of what goes into a discussion were talking with itself? Find out the the nature of truth and pardox in this amazingly thoughtful and laugh out loud philosophical narration with four voices.

Verbatim
With media always trying to give us advice ask yourself this: If you always did what you read would you ever get anywhere? This sketch answers this from many different directions in the Costoldi & Bros. Fancy Bowtie Shop.

Room 88
If all your perception suddenly became a perfect mirror things wouldn’t be so perfect. It’s as if we look at Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave with some modern sensibilities, but don’t know what to do when we realize we are truly alone in our perceptions after all.

I’d suggest making the time to see the comedic philosophical sketches with original music composed and performed by Duncan Wood. Just 2 more shows – catch it while you can. You won’t be sorry.

~~~

Insurmountable Simplicities
All Gone Theatre Company
Writer: Roberto Casati and Achille Varzi, Adapted by Natalie Glick
Director: Natalie Glick

0h 50m
www.insimplicitiesplay.com
VENUE #1: Dixon Place

Click on the link below to purchase tickets:

Sat 28 @ 3:30 Sun 29 @ 4:15

American Gypsy – The Trick To Success (Fringe Festival 2010)

Karen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:31:43 +0000

What is a magician really? Is he an illusionist? A storyteller? A dream-weaver? A showman? A creator?

Is he meant to astonish you? Amuse you? Entertain you? Scare you a little? Touch your soul a little?

A lot of magicians are giving away the “how” these days - but in Ben Whiting’s solo show, American Gypsy, he’s more intent on giving you the “why” – not just through his own magic, but through the stories and illusions of his own mentor, Jim Cellini . . . and of the man at whose feet his mentor studied – Tony Slydini.

In American Gypsy Ben Whiting becomes three generations of creatively different – but magically kindred – men who come together to invoke the gods of slight-of-hand, trickery and mischief in order to find the common thread that runs through their disappearing silk handkerchiefs.

Whiting himself is a charming, rakish, entertaining man for whom patter in between magic tricks comes quite easily. His charismatic, easygoing manner immediately draws you in, and the slight of hand ain’t bad either. The show really gets cooking, however, when Whiting takes the audience back with him to the time he met the man who taught him what magic was really all about – Cellini - a simple Busker whose less than flashy exterior hid the enormous talent that roiled just below the surface. The two men met and spoke for hours not in a mahogany lined room filled with books, but in a pancake house. It was the first of many meetings.

When Whiting excitedly admits during this conversation that he is taking a trick bigger, larger, grander than he’s ever seen anyone do before, he is shocked when Cellini tells him that the best magic is the simplest. ”It’s the job of the magician to make the difficult look easy, and the easy look beautiful”.

As Whiting channels The Old Busker the show takes on a different tone, and it now becomes Cellini’s story; we journey with the man back to when he met HIS mentor, Tony Slydini . . . when he became Slydini’s apprentice. Though the use of a very funny (but also very, very good) card trick show Cellini shows how he became apprentice to this suave, elegant magician of the day who’s hope was to train him to perform for kings.

American Gypsy exposes the truth about magic – that it’s not the deception but the connection that makes magic so . . . well . . . magical. Magic may be all about the art of misdirection, but American Gypsy is directed right at the audience.

The real magic of American Gypsy is not how easily Ben Whiting can maneuver ropes, balls, handkerchiefs, cups, rings, paper and cards all while switching through three generations of illusionists but rather how easily he can make your heart disappear – and then reveal it in the palm of his hand.

~~~

American Gypsy
MagicMouth Theatre Company
Writer: Ben Whiting
Director: Two-Time Emmy Award Winner, Alexander “Sandy” Marshall

1h 15m
Staycation:
www.magicmouth.org
VENUE #3: The Kraine Theater

Click on the link below to purchase tickets

Fri 27 @ 7 Sun 29 @ NOON

The Mad 7: You Are Now Exactly As I Am (Fringe Festival 2010)

Stephen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:06:21 +0000

After beginning a normal day at work, in the middle of his most fulfilling time (morning coffee) Elliott (Yehuda Hyman) is approached by a blind man wearing headphones and knocking his stick in rhythm to an unknown beat. He hands Elliott his headphones and out of curiosity, Elliott accepts and is prepared to listen to … Nothing, there was nothing on the headphones. He leaves the old man to his delusions and goes about his way.

As he gets back to his cubicle and on his way to deliver the report he was rushing the entire morning to get to his supervisor he runs into a flamboyantly deaf woman who points and tells him that his answers are leaving him right down the street. Suddenly in a rush of some sort of compulsion as well as the joy of curiosity and interest in his life he doesn’t remember feeling for as long as he remembers, Elliott is guided by the the rest of the Mad 7 out the door, through the city off on a bus, to a strange old hotel with a funny little room, and cozy little bed with a mysterious suitcase that appeared when he wasn’t looking. Later, after walking for days through lands both real and imaginary and still not having a morsel to eat, Elliott is tempted again by the forces of darkness to eat the forbidden food of the Cafe Toledo where not only do they take American Express “they take everything”.

The Mad 7 shows us hope wrapped up in a query covered up in a koan and infiltrated with Mystery.

The most repeated phrase in this play is:“You should now be exactly as I am.”

Pretty scary or inconsequential a statement depending on how you look at it. But Hyman’s plays asks: What if instead of taking it as an order or a suggestion we take it as an affirmation an agreement that we meet as strangers but leave as equals?

Sometimes we find a Garden where we least expect it.

Do believe you have a special destiny? A special story that will someday work upon you – evoking your greatest Self – which will touch the Mysterious and leave there Changed? Do you believe it will transform to a new level of understanding of the universe and make you a better participant than ever before? If so . . . how to touch the sphere of possibility?

Elliott seems to have stumbled onto such a path toward a greater personal enlightenment and purpose. The ”how” is the literal as well as the metaphorical journey of The Mad 7. The “why” is the same “why” we all have . . . and that is to become exactly who we might be, perceive beyond the limits of our normal vision into the future, beyond the limits of our normal lives, beyond the limits our current perception.

In short The Mad 7 is a parable about what it means to exist. Are we the sum of our activities, our societal standards, and our scope of our opinions? If we do not look for challenges to our reality are we really living it?

Yehuda Hyman, as one of the many other characters he plays, gives Elliott advice as one of the Mad 7.

Many times in a one man show, such as The Mad 7, we are awash with wonder that one person can have so many faces. But to have such a diversity as well as such a strong feeling of one on one solidarity among the different incarnations of virtues which are the Mad 7 is truly a wonder to behold.

In order to begin our journey to the realms of the ineffable we start with the common goal that we just want to get away from it all sometimes. Often times we think the way to do that is to be left alone, so we can keep our lives moving along (what we think is) the right track. Yet is the path of least resistance really a path or merely a hole, where the longer we stay still the more firmly rooted we are to our preconceptions and our need for normality and stability? Often times this escape is merely so we may stay in the same place and appreciate our desire to have the same normalcy to return to. Other times we may have an experience like that of Elliot Green in The Mad 7.

Like Elliott, many could always use a redirection and re-exploration of their lives. So if you have the chance check out this play directed by Mara Isaacs. It still open for two more shows this Fringe Festival. Also I would encourage you to check out this link after you are done watching The Mad 7 as it is chock full of information and interviews to help explore further layers of this play later on.

~~~

THE MAD 7 – A Mystical Comedy with Ecstatic Dance
The Mad 7 Team
Writer: Yehuda Hyman
Director: Mara Isaacs
Choreographer: Yehuda Hyman

2h

www.themad7.com
VENUE #4: 4th Street Theatre
Click on a date below to purchase tickets:

Fri 27 @ 2 Sun 29 @ 1:45

The Conveniences Of Modern Living – Were You Just Kissing The Dryer? (Fringe Festival 2010)

Karen Tortora-Lee — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:11:58 +0000

The Conveniences of Modern Living

You know your marriage is on the rocks when your husband would rather spend time with The Dryer than with you.

I’m not talking about any ordinary dryer, mind you, in Daniel John Kelley and Emily Plumb’s The Conveniences of Modern Living Jessica Love plays about a cute a dryer as you’d ever want to have in your home. She’s earnest, sweet, thoughtful, and yearning for the day when she can go back to Sweden – specifically the Ikea Factory – birthplace, homeland and nirvana. Till then, she’s trapped here. But you think she has it tough? Let me tell you a little about the other folks who live in the apartment she’s housed in . . .

Agnes (Maya Baldwin) and her husband Harold (Rory Sheridan) were probably very happy once. Not tremendously rich (their shabby chic apartment speaks to Maya’s ability to stretch a dollar) and not tremendously in sync (their arguments show just how emotionally unavailable they’ve become for each other) but at some point they were a family, with a son. The fact that their child has passed away is made painfully and uncomfortably clear right up front, and the sorrow of this couple hangs between them like an unused jump rope – limp and sadly symbolic of a missing son.

Agnes fills her emptiness by taking on a babysitting gig . . . and a surrogate son of sorts – as any armchair psychiatrist could tell you. Bobson (Zack Palomo) is a fabulous, energetic, engaging young boy who almost immediately falls into a fantastic (and fantastical) routine with Agnes that has a way of ALMOST going too far but stays right in the realm of “awww, adorable!” Agnes’ need to love a child and Bobson’s need to love . . . well . . . ANYONE (more on that later) make them an awkward but strongly bonded pair. When they’re playing make-believe with Bobson declaring his love for his fair maiden from the mountain top of the couch theirs can be a fun relationship to watch play out.

Meanwhile, Harold’s at home, sharing a dark room that flickers with movie-intensity . . . he and Swedish Ikea-Made Dryer are sharing an evening of old movies and simple romance. Soon enough though they get hot and heavy and before you even start to wonder how a man and a dryer can get busy . . . trust me – they make it work. Honestly though, it’s Dryer’s ability to connect emotionally with Harold that he finds most appealing. In the wake of these lonely months it’s been hard for Harold and Agnes to really connect over anything.

The Conveniences of Modern Living is an absurdist, fun tale . . . for the first half. A man finding solace with his Dryer, a woman going on “dates” to the aquarium with a 10 year old boy who can whip up a love poem while the over-splash of the dolphin pool is still puddling from his tee shirt . . . sure it’s strange but the characters are well written, thoughtfully positioned and strongly acted (particularly Jessica Love as The Dryer and Zack Palomo as little Bobson) and you can understand how loneliness, grief and even simply leading a sheltered life can make you yearn for something you think you can find with another person.

Unfortunately, Conveniences brings in two more characters -Bobson’s parents – and a few more scenes – a frantic dinner party that goes from worse to oh-come-on-now. Pacing, energy, even comedy all go out the window when Bobson’s emotionally unavailable (one might go so far as to say ‘emotionally handicapped’) parents Bettina (Tavia Trepte) and Bernard (David Ian Lee) bring this show to a grinding halt. It’s literally as if another play comes in and takes over the one you were just enjoying. The actors themselves do a fine job – and in another play they’d be very well received. At this dinner party, however, these two characters created a jarring swerve that somehow didn’t work with the first half of the show. They do, however, go a long way to explain why Bobson has developed such a clinging attachment to the first adult who’s shown him a little attention.

With fumbling, distress, and oddness the quirkiness of the first half of the play suddenly gets lost amid the acrid nastiness of these bitter parents. The beauty of the innocence of a dryer and a boy suddenly become washed away in a tide of green sheets which – though fanciful and somewhat understandable in terms of bringing a theme full circle – takes too long and moves too far from the charm that it started with.

Still, Conveniences has some wonderful performances not to be missed – and ultimately finishes with a good message about finding what you seek in your own backyard.

~~~

The Conveniences of Modern Living
Jilted Pigeon Productions
Writer: Conceived, Developed and Created by Daniel John Kelley and Emily Plumb
Director: Emily Plumb

1h 30m

VENUE #10: Players Theatre

Click on the link below to purchase tickets:
Sat 28 @ NOON

“It’s A Wonderful Day To Be A Woman!” In Jurassic Parq (Fringe Festival 2010)

Lina Zeldovich — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:45:39 +0000

“A Jurassic Parq with a ‘q’,” is how the narrator who calls himself Morgan Freeman (Lee Seymour) — although he looks nothing like the actor — presents the show to the audience. “‘Q’ is for the question.” The dinosaurs will tell us the true story.

A baby-Velociraptor (Brandon Gill) is being released from a lab into a peaceful community of female dinosaurs (yes, you may remember in Jurassic Park they were all females … until they mutated) who are happily inhabiting their island paradise much like Adam and Eve before they committed the original sin – or perhaps like a bunch of Eves since there are no Adams. The matriarch community is lead and watched over by a pastor – a Velociraptor of Faith (John Jeffrey Martin) who favors the creationist theory that all dinosaurs were created in a lab.

The dinosaurs happily sing together “It’s a wonderful day to be a woman,” – until a terrible thing happens. T-Rex 1(Tara Novie) discovers that something is wrong with her. She’s grown a weird “hose” as she describes it. Her friend T-Rex 2 (Natalie Bradshaw), still a female, fusses over her, all in vain. The narrator Morgan Freeman steps in to explain ominously: “It’s the frog’s DNA.”

No one, even the pastor Velociraptor of Faith can explain what possessed the T-Rex 1, but Dilophasourus (Jay Frisby) whispers to the baby-Velociraptor that the pastor has a sister, Velociraptor of Science (Mary Ellen Ashley), who she banished from her sight – and who may have the answer. Baby-Velociraptor embarks on his quest for Velociraptor of Science, while the chaos starts tearing apart the peaceful predators’ community. The cursed T-Rex 1 completes her metamorphosis and becomes a male, accidently mating with Dilophasourus who happens to be nearby. The still female T-Rex 2 tramples in at the wrong moment. “Don’t move,” T-Rex 1 whispers to Dilophasourus. “If we don’t move, she can’t see us.”

But even a dinosaur can’t stand still forever so T-Rex 2 discovers the cross-species lovers and goes berserk. In her wrath, she runs across the small annoying human vehicle and crushes it to pieces. The saga continues as baby-Velociraptor returns with the Velociraptor of Science, who challenges the Velociraptor of Faith’s creationism and insists that science is the answer. Unfortunately the sisters’ are bound to never resolve their arguments: the furious humans shoot Velociraptor of Faith.

No matter how hard you try you can never predict the next twist and turn of this laugh out loud show. Although all the characters in the play except for Morgan Freeman are females, the actors are not. Jurassic Parq does not discriminate by gender. Velociraptor of Faith is played by a man, the mutated T-Rex 1 by a woman. The costumes – consisting of tights and short wrap-around skirts – are as hilarious as the lyrics. The stone hedge props “get you in the mood” before the show even begins. The synopsis of the play said “you should probably see it drunk,” – and you certainly should. Booze boosts your fantasy like nothing else. Especially when it comes to frog’s DNA.

~~~

Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical
Writer: Emma Barash, Marshall Pailet, Bryce Norbitz and Steve Wargo
Director: Marshall Pailet
Choreographer: Hayley Podschun

1h 20m
www.JurassicParq.blogspot.com
VENUE #7: The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ LA MAMA

Click on the date below to purchase tickets:
Wed 25 @ 7:45 Fri 27 @ 4

The Happiest Medium » Fringe Festival 2010

They’re Baaaaaaaack! The Best Of Fringe Festival 2010 Returns For Fringe Encore

Related Posts:

Dream Of The Marionettes Is Still Very Much A Dream (Fringe Festival 2010)

Related Posts:

The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival: A Festival Of Brightness In The Eye Of The Storm (Fringe Festival 2010)

Related Posts:

23 Feet In 12 Minutes: The Death And Rebirth Of New Orleans (Fringe Festival 2010)

Related Posts:

The Secretaries – Do As I Say, Do As I Do (Fringe Festival 2010)

Related Posts:

Insurmountable Simplicities: Philosophers Say The Darndest Things (Fringe Festival 2010)

Related Posts:

American Gypsy – The Trick To Success (Fringe Festival 2010)

Related Posts:

The Mad 7: You Are Now Exactly As I Am (Fringe Festival 2010)

Related Posts:

The Conveniences Of Modern Living – Were You Just Kissing The Dryer? (Fringe Festival 2010)

Related Posts:

“It’s A Wonderful Day To Be A Woman!” In Jurassic Parq (Fringe Festival 2010)

Related Posts: