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

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

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

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

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

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

Related Posts:

• The Hurricane Katrina Comedy Festival: A Festival Of Brightness In The Eye Of The Storm (Fringe Festival 2010)
• The Secretaries – Do As I Say, Do As I Do (Fringe Festival 2010)
• Women’s History Month: Celebrating Women In The Arts – Spotlight On Kathleen Warnock
• Dream Of The Marionettes Is Still Very Much A Dream (Fringe Festival 2010)
• 23 Feet In 12 Minutes: The Death And Rebirth Of New Orleans (Fringe Festival 2010)

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?

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.

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

Related Posts:

• They’re Baaaaaaaack! The Best Of Fringe Festival 2010 Returns For Fringe Encore
• Faye Lane’s Beauty Shop Stories – Know Your Worth
• Dream Of The Marionettes Is Still Very Much A Dream (Fringe Festival 2010)
• 23 Feet In 12 Minutes: The Death And Rebirth Of New Orleans (Fringe Festival 2010)
• The Secretaries – Do As I Say, Do As I Do (Fringe Festival 2010)