There’s one more chance to see some of the most exciting Fringe Shows of the 2012 festival!   Beginning September 7th, the FringeNYC Encore Series will present 19 “Best of The Festival” shows in rotating repertory at SoHo Playhouse and The Huron Club (both located at 15 Vandam Street between 6th Avenue & Varick) as well as at The Players Theater (115 MacDougal Street between Bleecker and Houston Streets). Tickets are $18, available at 212-691-1555 or www.SohoPlayhouse.com
Below is the complete list – see which ones we reviewed to help you decide which show you’ll see … or see them all!

ALL MY CHILDREN
Writer: Matt Smith / Director: Bret Fetzer.
Max Poth takes “what-might-have-been” to extremes. He tracks down the now-grown children of long-ago girlfriends, and tells them he’s their real father (knowing that he’s not). A strange lark takes on a life of its own.
Huron Club. 9/12 at 8PM; 9/14 at 7PM; 9/16 at 5PM; 9/17 at 8PM

What we said: ” …this is sophisticated, sharp, and wise comedy, delivered by an actor at the top of his game. Miss it and you lose.” [read the full review by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson]

BELOW
Writer: Tess Howsam / Director: Karyn Joy DeYoung.
“Something’s dead.” Driven into a world of uncertainty, disease, and darkness, a group of survivors dwelling beneath an abandoned toxic metropolis are suddenly threatened by the arrival of a child-like stranger. Will they survive this new assault?
SoHo Playhouse. 9/8 at 8PM; 9/15 at 3PM; 9/23 at 8PM; 9/29 at 8PM

CANON IN D MINOR*
Writer: Jessica Liadsky / Director: Rachel Slaven.
Beth is lost after her best friend takes her own life in their final year of school. She glides the bow of her violin through the music that connected them in this tender and poetic story of friendship and forgiveness.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/15 at 8PM; 9/19 at 8PM; 9/27 at 7PM; 9/29 at 5PM; 9/30 at 5PM.

DANNY VISCONTI IS HILL-BENT: MY NIGHT WITH HILLARY CLINTON
Writer: Danny Visconti with Adam Wachter / Director: Connor Gallagher.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is Danny Visconti’s idol. After a chance meeting with the Secretary of State, Danny is immediately sucked into a scandalous night of booze, strippers, and prank-calling Michele Bachmann…all set to music!!
Huron Club. 9/10 at 8PM; 9/15 at 5PM; 9/27 at 7PM; 9/29 at 3PM; 9/30 at 8PM.

5 LESBIANS EATING A QUICHE*
Writer: Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood / Director: Sarah Gitenstein.

It’s 1956 and the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein are having their annual quiche breakfast. Will they be able to keep their cool when Communists threaten their idyllic town? “Sharp, smart and hysterically funny.” – Time Out Chicago.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/12 at 9:30PM; 9/23 at 5PM; 9/25 @ 8PM; 9/27 at 9PM; 9/28 at 9PM; 9/30 @ 8PM.

GAY CAMP*

Writer: Philip Mutz and Susan-Kate Heaney / Director: Phillip Fazio.
It’s gay. It’s camp. It’s Gay Camp! ‘Confused’ campers Josh and Anton are sent to be ‘cured’ at Camp Acceptance. Prepare for a deliciously evil headmaster, gay Twister, Santorum surprises, and more innuendos than you can shake a dildo at!
The Players Theatre. 9/21 at 10PM; 9/22 at 10PM; 9/27 at 10PM; 9/28 at 10PM.

HAVE I GOT A GIRL FOR YOU*
Writer: Josh Mesnik / Director: Sara Sahin.
How does a newly sober gay musical theatre actor get his life on track? He gets a job running a female escort agency of course! The hilarious true story of the most unlikely new member in the oldest profession.
The Players Theatre. 9/13 at 10PM; 9/14 at 10PM; 9/15 at 7:30PM; 9/21 at 7:30PM; 9/22 at 7:30PM.

INDEPENDENTS*
Writer: Marina Keegan, Music by Stephen Feigenbaum, Lyrics by Mark Sonnenblick / Director: Charlie Polinger.
Strapped for cash, burnout crewmembers of an antique tallship become Revolutionary War reenactors. Armed with a less-than-potent combination of Wikipedia and marijuana, they face disaster in this folk musical about friendship, adulthood, and whatever those three-cornered-hats are called.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/7 at 7PM; 9/8 at 5PM; 9/11 at 8PM; 9/14 at 9PM; 9/18 at 8PM; 9/21 at 7PM.

LENNON IN DENMARK
Writer: Vibeke Hastrup & Frede Gulbrandsen / Director: Frede Gulbrandsen.
An encounter between a young woman and John Lennon in a remote part of Denmark forever changes her life. But for the better? A journey of love, forgiveness, being stuck and letting go. It’s never too late to begin again.
Huron Club. 9/15 at 3PM; 9/16 at 8PM; 9/18 at 8PM; 9/20 at 7PM

MAHMOUD*
Writer: Tara Grammy and Tom Arthur Davis / Director: Tom Arthur Davis.
One Iranian actress, three characters: an Iranian engineer-cum-taxi driver, a fabulously gay Spaniard, and a pre-teen Iranian-Canadian girl. Their stories intertwine in unexpected ways in this personal and hilarious story. Learn more about Iranians, and maybe even yourself.
Huron Club. 9/22 at 8PM; 9/23 at 3PM; 9/25 at 8PM; 9/29 at 5PM; 9/30 at 5PM.

What we said: ”The stories begin to draw together and broader themes of cultural displacement, immigration, racism, and homophobia come into focus under a wider banner of -’what price personal liberty?’ ” [read the full review by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson]

NIGHTFALL ON MIRANGA ISLAND

Writer: Justin Moran and Jonathan Roufaeal, Music by Adam and Matt Podd / Director: Justin Moran, Music Direction: Adam and Matt Podd.
Somewhere off the coast of Guatemala: our swashbuckling hero, Declan Bruntfodder, has finally tracked the legendary pirate captain Vicious Martin LaFoe to his hideout on the lawless Miranga Island in a quest to find his sister kidnapped ten years ago.
The Players Theatre. 9/8 at 7:30PM; 9/13 at 7:30PM; 9/15 at 10PM; 9/28 at 7:30PM; 9/29 at 7:30PM

PIECES*

Writer: Chris Phillips / Director: Brian Zimmer
When an openly gay Hollywood power player is brutally murdered, his body parts distributed around the city of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles Public Defender Rory Dennis is assigned the defense of Shane Holloway, the damaged young man accused of the crime. While unlocking Shane’s past, Rory is forced to confront his own scorching ambivalence about his place in a community to which he’s lost almost all connection.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/7 at 9:30PM; 9/9 at 8PM; 9/12 at 8PM; 9/13 at 7PM; 9/16 at 8PM; 9/17 at 8PM.

What we said: ” … Pieces works as entertainment and as drama with teeth. Go, for pity’s sake, while you can. You should consider yourself lucky to be so bitten.” [Read the full review by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson]

PULP SHAKESPEARE*
Writer: Ben Tallen, Aaron Greer, Brian Watson-Jones &Jordan Monsell / Director: Jordan Monsell
“This lively and imaginative re-invention” (LA Weekly) imagines what it might be like had the cult film “Pulp Fiction” been written by William Shakespeare. Set in Elizabethan England, Pulp Shakespeare weaves the story of a pair of murderers, their boss’s alluring wife, and a desperate knight, all brought to life by a cast of acclaimed Los Angeles Shakespearean actors.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/19 at 8PM, 9/20 at 9PM, 9/22 at 3PM, 9/24 at 8PM, and 9/26 at 8PM.

What we said: ” … between the smooth directing skills, the flawless cast, and a darn good script, Pulp Shakespeare was hilariously engaging, and made me want to revisit the movie. “ [read the full review by Linnea Covington]

RATED M FOR MATURE
Writer: Greg Ayers / Director: Paul Dobie
Inspired by real events. This hard-hitting dark comedy follows Eric, a troubled teen bullied to the breaking point. He’s able to find refuge in an online game but when his computer is taken away, who will pay the price?
SoHo Playhouse. 9/10 at 8PM; 9/14 at 7PM; 9/16 at 5PM; 9/20 at 7PM; 9/22 at 5PM.

SALAMANDER STARTS OVER*
Writer: Armando Merlo, Director: Leigh Ann Pedra
The words every teenage punk dreads: All-Boys Catholic School. But this isn’t your average preparatory education. Eccentric teachers. Militant coaches. Dance-fighting students. Add these with the love of a Cuban mother and see how Salamander starts over.
Huron Club. 9/7 at 7PM; 9/9 at 8PM; 9/13 at 7PM; 9/15 at 8PM; 9/19 at 8PM; 9/28 at 7PM.

STANDBY – THE MUSICAL

Writer: Book and Lyrics by Alfred Solis, Music by Keith Robinson and Amy Baer, additional book and lyrics by Mark-Eugene Garcia / Director: Marc Connor Eardley
Five travelers, haunted by troubled pasts, await the flight of their lives. Their unresolved baggage lands them on standby, where the end of the line is the beginning of a journey to redemption in the afterlife.
The Players Theatre. 9/7 at 7:30PM; 9/14 at 7:30PM; 9/20 at 7:30; 9/27 at 7:30PM; 9/29 at 10PM.

SUPER SIDEKICK: THE MUSICAL

Writer: Gregory Crafts, music and lyrics by Michael Gordon Shapiro / Director: Steve Knight, Music Director: Stephen Bent
Adventure! Romance! Ninja koalas! Sorcerer Slurm has captured the greatest hero in the kingdom! Can lowly sidekick Inky save the day? “…perfect for small children, with audience participation, a perfect hour run-time and catchy musical numbers” -L.A. Theatre Review
SoHo Playhouse. 9/8 at 1PM; 9/9 at 1PM; 9/15 at 1PM; 9/16 at 1PM; 9/22 at 1PM; 9/23 at 1PM; 9/29 at 1PM; 9/30 at 1PM.

What we said: ” … with the fast pace, audience participation, and fun characters, if you have children this play is right up their alley. But, even as a grown woman I found it humorous, saucy, and a lot of fun.  [read the full review by Linnea Covington]

THIS TOO SHALL SUCK
Writer: Matt Graham

A merry romp through performance anxiety, professional Scrabble, stand-up comedy and the psych ward, Matt Graham’s one-man traumedy reveals his transformation from drunken bum into reclusive cat lady/professional gambler. How bad can it suck?
Huron Club. 9/11 at 8PM; 9/21 at 7PM; 9/23 at 8PM; 9/24 at 8PM

THE ZEBRA SHIRT OF LONELY CHILDREN*
Writer: Matthew Trumbull / Director: Matthew Freeman
In this comic monologue, Trumbull stumbles through a world of urn catalogs and last-minute eulogies. It explores the bond between Trumbull and his useful-minded father, Jonathan, a dying Minnesota engineer who donates his cadaver to science.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/8 at 8PM; 9/16 at 3PM; 9/23 at 5PM; 9/26 at 8PM; 9/29 at 8PM.

* Denotes FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award Winner.

Related Posts:

• Mahmoud – Selected As A Fringe Encore (Fringe Festival 2012)
• Snow White Zombie: Apocalypse – The End Is Nigh In Fairy Tale Land (Fringe Festival 2012)
• Bite The Apple – To Bite Or Not To Bite? (Fringe Festival 2012)
• Pulp Shakespeare – The Bard Would Be Proud (Fringe Festival 2012)
• Super Sidekick The Musical … Pawn (Fringe Festival 2012)

Chris Phillips‘s new play, Pieces, running briefly at The Cherry Lane Theatre as part of NY Fringe 2012, is a fine example of dramatic writing and boldly engaging theatrical entertainment. Set amidst the gay male milieu of haves and have nots, it concerns a grisly murder in Hollywood. Specifically it involves the fallout as experienced by five associated parties; a straight woman – the District Attorney, and four gay men – the defendant, his Defense Counsel, a friend, and an interested journalist. The plot is thick right from the start – an apparent clear case of guilt, an outraged populace calling for capital punishment, a D.A. with a broad humanitarian streak, a predatory, trouble-rousing reporter, and an ambivalent counsel figure. But Phillips delves deeper, teasing out the complicated emotional histories and psychological motivations of the principals, exposing the greater social ills that underpin personal actions or failures to act. Social, sexual, and psychological, it’s a dense investigation, unsparing of its characters, and not a little damning in its broader implications. It would not be an understatement to say that Phillips, writing as an insider, reams the contemporary gay male social world. Oh yeah; he tears it a new one!

Explicitly this is done in the character of Rory Dennis, the Defense Attorney, a prickly, emotionally defended, verbally excoriating personality with a treasure chest of issues about himself and, as he sees it, his gay male brethren. Dennis is a giant of a dramatic character – a real accomplishment for Phillips – and is powerfully embodied here by actor Jonathan Gibson who gives him all the steam required, and then some. There isn’t a stone Dennis hasn’t already turned and found under it something ugly, cruel, and repugnant. Lacerating and far-sighted as his views are, they hold him a helpless prisoner, remote from the deeper contact and comfort that human intimacy can offer. He would rather use everyone as a chess piece in his own personal game of exposé. Presently at a critical juncture in his life, the incidents surrounding this new case push, all at once, his splenetic and rather tender buttons. His sad case, tumbleweed rent toy, Shane Holloway; the pushy, crusading journalist, Nick Goff; and most exactingly, Shane’s suave, successful erstwhile benefactor and confident, Jonathan Nielson, all have it coming and they hear it, but trenchantly, from Dennis. As do we in the audience. It’s quite electrifying and  -plot development, character evolution, etc. aside – well worth the price of admission. Gibson grandstands passionately, sweatily, and there’s never a dull moment.

The opening sequences slyly encapsulate Phillips’s theme of casual social assessments. The play begins with a scene of the blood covered suspect surrendering to police. It swiftly moves to the initial client/defense lawyer consultation scenario, and the audience is lulled into a sense of familiarity, dismissal even of another standard courtroom drama cliché. Dennis, the lawyer, is himself a chilly, officious suit, someone perhaps who will be on the wrong side of the story rather than its centerpiece. Shane is an apathetic presence, devoid of individuality and therefore, interest. But then Phillips begins to twist the stuff, opening up characters and situations in fresh ways. The audience’s preconceptions are implicated, part of a dulled pattern of socialized response which the writer wants to overthrow. Despite all the sturm und drang, the wider themes invoked, there’s yet a murder mystery and a courtroom drama in this play. Demanding critics might opine that , as treatments, these stories don’t break fresh ground. They’re merely a trope. The conclusion, when it arrives, is a little abrupt, perfunctory; and the landing, given all the in flight turbulence, a little smooth. But perhaps that’s a measure of what has come before; if you dig up large parts of the rose garden, it can be difficult to see it just as a rose garden afterward.

Brian Zimmer directs with assurance, soliciting on point performances and keeping a wordy play animated, unencumbered, and paced. Technically everything flows, though there are some questions about character lighting and whether shadow is intentional during a few exchanges. It’s a treat when a chewy dramatic text meets with receptive and able performers. Phillips is sharp at characters and everyone here is honed to a high pitch. Dennis’s emotional tornado does not preclude the other actors from making their mark. Chris Salvatore (Shane), Joe Briggs (Goff), Paolo Andino (Nielson), and Nina Millin (D.A. Mary Hamilton) resolutely stand their ground and present fully rounded, humane performances. This suits in a fully rounded, humane play. Pieces works as entertainment and as drama with teeth. Go, for pity’s sake, while you can. You should consider yourself lucky to be so bitten.

~~~

Pieces
Revolve Productions
Writer: Chris Phillips
Director: Brian Zimmer
A brutal murder. A damaged suspect. A public defender unsure of his place in the gay community. Straight from a sold-out run in Los Angeles, PIECES takes no prisoners and pulls no punches. You have been warned.
2h 0m   National   Los Angeles, California
Drama
Staycation: Ripped from the Headlines   Celeb-reality TV in Hollywood
www.piecestheplay.com
VENUE #12: Cherry Lane Theatre
Sat 11 @ 12:30  Tue 14 @ 5:45  Wed 15 @ 6:30  Thu 16 @ 4:30  Sun 19 @ 8

Related Posts:

• Elysian Fields (Fringe Festival 2011)
• Final Schedule Announced for Fringe Encore Series
• The Dick And The Rose – Some Say Love, It Is A Flower (Fringe Festival 2012)
• Pink Milk (Fringe Festival 2012)
• Mad Women By John Fleck