by Stephen Tortora-Lee on August 27, 2010
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.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 27, 2010
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.
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by Stephen Tortora-Lee on August 27, 2010
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”.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 26, 2010
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 . . .
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on August 24, 2010
When I was a child there were a few things you could count on, and one of them was that (in the days before VCRs – and yes, honey, I AM that old) if you waited long enough The Wizard of Oz was going to be on TV at some point that year. Back in the day, TV had that kind of power . . . it could make you wait expectantly for something and then give you the big reveal – making your heart beat faster for that one joyful night.
Seeing Friends Of Dorothy – An Oz Cabaret was a little bit like that and . . . I have a feeling that – just like the hallowed movie – we haven’t seen the last of it. Dorothy is a Fringe Encore if I ever saw one. So, while the show has packed up its rigging and its pasties, sit tight. Here’s a little breakdown of what will certainly come around again:
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by Lina Zeldovich on August 24, 2010
“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.
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by The Happiest Medium on August 23, 2010
The Happiest Medium Review by guest contributors Anjali Koppal and Saurabh Paranjape
In Chad Beckim’s frothy romantic comedy Cookie, it is hard not to cheer for mopey, instantly likable man-child Alan as he awkwardly navigates the unexpected pitfalls and redemptions of a hastily put-together ‘Green Card marriage’ scam. Told through a series of short and consistently entertaining vignettes, Cookie is a breezy story of unlikely love that also takes the occasional light-hearted jab at society’s unspoken racial stereotypes.
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by Antonio Miniño on August 22, 2010
One of the best things about the Fringe Festival is how it embraces diversity – it becomes one of the best summer reminders as to how culturally rich and fascinating this city can be. In Swaha: Rituals of Union Trinayan Dance Theater mixes tradition, with dance, storytelling and ritualistic precise movements that will evoke your senses and successfully accomplish the elephantine task of getting you out of your head, no verbal dialogue required.
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by Stephen Tortora-Lee on August 21, 2010
To see a World in a grain of sand,
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
William Blake
William Blake belongs on Off-Off-Broadway. Or at least he would have appreciated it, because of his belief that Art should be about Imagination rather than style and fashion of what people expect a work to be like just so that it can become more commercially acceptable. He said in response to his contemporaries, “I must create a system or be enslaved by another man’s.” He had strong beliefs in trying to touch the mind of God through soaring visions of what he believed beauty really was. By doing this, he was fundamental in the creation of Romanticism – which was the genesis of many other more modern movements in philosophy and the arts . . . either directly or by inspiration.
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by Lina Zeldovich on August 21, 2010
In Poligamy – a Hungarian indie feature film to be screened at the Astoria/LIC International Film Festival Oct 22-24, 2010 Dénes Orosz, a Hungarian director and producer,explores the ever-controversial subject of polygamy from the surprising angle of what would happen if someone’s coveted wish was miraculously fulfilled.
A young Hungarian couple, Andrash and Lilla, have been in a loving relationship long enough for a commitment. As a typical woman, Lilla wants marriage and children. As a stereotypical man, Andrash doesn’t know what he wants, but he feels he hadn’t played around enough and he wishes he would’ve. Then Lilla breaks the news of being pregnant and strange things start happening.
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