One of the unexpected delights of the recent Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival was Blood Sisters, a concert staging of an exciting original musical starring an all-African-American cast. Last last month the show returned to Orlando for a limited run, and it concludes its 3-performance engagement at the Parliament House's Footlights Theatre tonight (Saturday...
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The 2012 Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival is now nothing but a memory, following Monday night’s “patrons pick” finale. You can reminice about the Fringe with me in my latest Live Active Cultures column (available on newsstands today in the newest Orlando Weekly) where a share my experiences escorting the Big Nazo monster puppet...
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Swimming against the Fringe tide of fun-’n'-games, Mysterious Skin is a tidily put-together production of a play about falling apart. You may hear gusts of raucous laughter drifting in from other venues, but during Skin‘s 90-minute runtime, the Orange Venue is a roiling cauldron of emotional messiness. OK, it’s not all desperate — intense...
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I’ve never understood why some people are so afraid of clowns. Why harbor a phobia of something that’s meant to convey laughter and joy? Why not dread something genuinely threatening, like intimacy or Mandy Patinkin? This is among the subjects covered in On the Nose, a delightful and fascinating hour of education in all things...
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This past Saturday night, I missed Kevin J. Thornton’s 10:45 show, Strange Dreamz, by a scant three minutes. The gate was shut and they wouldn’t let me in. No amount of beseeching managed to move the door lady — they run a very tight ship at this year’s Fringe. OK, I thought, it’s been...
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According to the group’s website, Connected — An Interactive Experience purports to be a “theatrical experience that combines drama, choreography and technology to connect with performers on stage, with one another and to the deepest parts of themselves.” It’s a lofty ambition. But while these earnest young dancers and performers have a great deal...
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Writers David Strauss and Nicole Carson have conflated two mega-musicals from the Broadway pantheon – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Annie – and have come up with a hybrid: Annie Todd: The Demon Orphan of Fleet Street. Contrasting Sweeney’s dark negativity with Annie’s sunny optimism is a clever conceit, but the show doesn’t have...
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Despite its title, Dirk Darrow: NCSSI (Not Completely Serious Supernatural Investigator) is not a spoof of the entire CBS primetime schedule. Instead, it’s an hour of film noir led by a good, old-fashioned private dick — one with a sharp tongue and a head full of wonders. Our man Dirk claims to be hot on...
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In Orlando playwright Nichole Carson’s genially raunchy original comedy I’m Saving It For Paul, the year is 1964 and Martha (Robyn Scrivener) is the last 19-year-old virgin left in Atlantic City. Engaged to be married in three weeks, she doesn’t want her hothead fiancee (Anthony R. Smith) to be her first. Instead, she enlists...
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A few days ago, I was accosted by a Fringe patron I’ve never seen before. She wanted to know what’s good this year; I mentioned (among other things) Dance for Grandma, explaining that it revolves around a young man’s memories of his dearly departed nana. She leaned in conspiratorially and chuckled. “Doesn’t it make you...
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