Posted by Chris Klimek on Jul. 29, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Sam Rabinovitz and Sara Bickler in HAMLET REFRAMED, which won Best Drama at the Pick of the Fringe Awards Sunday night.
We have only just started to see straight again after Sunday night’s Captital Fringe Festival-concluding bacchanal, which is why it took so long for these video interviews we shot at Fort Fringe that night to see the light of day. We didn’t interview all the winners; just the ones who hung around to party after collecting their trophies (certificates). You’ve got to want it, you guys. But congratulations all the same to Katie Molinaro (On the Rag to Riches, Best Solo Performance), Verena Lucia and DC Aerial Collective, sharing the Best (and only) Dance award, Pointless Theatre for winning Best Experimental for Hugo Ball: The Super Spectacular Dada Adventure, and all concerned with the Who’s Your Baghdaddy? juggernaut, which won Best Overall.
We did not review Grain of Sand Theatre‘s Hamlet Reframed, which won the Best Drama award. Exchange forgiveness with us, noble Hamlet Reframed. Oh, wait: You haven’t done anything to us that warrants penance. Anyway, we hope this video with (in order of appearance) cast members Sara Bickler & Kelsy Meiklejohn, director Carl Brandt Long, and actor John Stange will atone for our sin-of-neglect against you.
Posted by Chris Klimek on Jul. 25, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Capital Fringe founding executive director Julianne Brienza and audience services manager Cory Ryan Frank at last night's festival-closing party.
It was a Capital Fringe Festival in which technically impressive shows—whether the technique on offer was digital or manual—were the talk of the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar.
And if it didn’t seem mildly, casually sexist to proclaim a festival in which six of the nine big award-winners were female-run companies The Year of the Woman, then we would go right on ahead and do that.
No more in the 2011 Capital Fringe Festival, because that’s done. But Ellouise Schoettler posts her tour dates on her site.
They say:”Genealogy Meets Entertainment as 75-year-old storyteller Ellouise Schoettler puts flesh on old family bones to weave this intriguing collage of romance, hunky heroes, love, loss and reunion. Come for fun – leave inspired. Don’t miss this surprise Capital Fringe gem!” Read more Hip Shot: My Diamond Jubilee
Remaining Fringe Performances:
None…but playing at Woolly Mammoth until Sunday, August 14
Running Time: 90 minutes
They say: “Can Christian Mohammed Schwartzelberg stay true to himself and still get the girl? Or will he lose her to the guy in leather pants? Set in Brooklyns indie music scene, its a rock musical comedy with heart. And ironic t-shirts.
Saturday, July 23, 9 p.m.
Sunday, July 24, 12:30 pm.
Sex on drugs, sex on love, sex from above (or rather, news of such delivered by the angels from on high). That’s what hookups explores—the spectrum of romantic couplings from the dawn of time through present-day one-night stands. And that’s how the play begins: An everyman slips out of the sheets of the air mattress that remains the focal point for the duration of the performance. Bashfully, he slips on his clothes in an attempt to make an undetected exit. Upon waking, the woman asleep launches into a barrage of questioning intended to foster intimacy, which of course comes off as comically clingy. Initially, hookups seems to rely heavily on stereotypes but quickly redeems itself with cutting dialogue that hits a little too close to home and send-ups of various historical pairings. Fitzwilliam Darcy struts around proclaiming “I am wearing a ruffled shirt!” until you realize he and Elizabeth are a modern day couple attempting Jane Austen role-play. Two hilariously awkward tweens visualize their deeply nerdy historical slash fiction pairing of Abraham Lincoln and a male innkeeper. An unbelieving Virgin Mary points out that most visitors that arrive in the night bearing a proclamation from God are usually murderous psychopaths. And in a nice nod to D.C.’s never-ending panda-pregnancy watch, two pandas fumble around in their confinement. (Too soon?) “Maybe I like boy pandas,” wonders the confused male half of the pair sporting corporate-sponsored names. “I can’t really tell the difference.”
Saturday, July 23, 9 p.m.
Sunday, July 24, 12:30 pm
They say: “What was Plato like in bed? Do pandas get performance anxiety? Who moved third base? And where did Romeo leave his hose? Find out at the original comedy Hookups. We’d love it if you came!”
They say:”God has had it. We’ve spent centuries desecrating Her favorite planet and She’s ready to bring another Great Flood. Can an extravagant director and clueless bunch of classical actors produce an eco-friendly farce in an hour and save the world???”
Posted by Chris Klimek on Jul. 23, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Fringe fanatic / anime enthusiast / competitve Bridge player / Whig Party member Lawrence Hayes at Fort Fringe Friday night
So I was talking with Capital Fringe Festival Supreme Allied Commander Julianne Brienza last night about her and her confederates’ decisive action to counter this soul-searing heatwave by cutting ticket prices from $17 to $12. Based on no data, and drawing upon the nigh-Greenspanian fiscal savvy that has made me the independently wealthy man of leisure that I am so, so not, I suggested she take the festival’s $300 All Accesspass and make it, say, $150, reasoning that they’d probably move a lot more of them.
Brienza had told me previously the festival only sells about 10 of these golden tickets, which authorize bearers to see as many shows as they want as many times as they want, each year. (It’s not possible to see every show in the festival unless you have the ability to be in two places at once.) Even at the price of three c-notes, they’re “a loss-leader,” she told me.
So who buys these passes?
Well! I had the good fortune to meet the fascinating Lawrence Hayes at Fort Fringe last night as he was waiting for the house to open for the 11:59 p.m. performance of Embodying Poe. From a bulging briefcase full of newspapers and glossy fliers for Baltimore’s upcoming Otakon anime and manga convention (“Otaku, Start Your Engines!”) he produced his dog-eared, heavily annotated copy of the festival guide, patiently explaining to me the calculus by which he had chosen the 42 shows he’ll have ticked off by the time the festival shuts down tomorrow night. (Unit cost: $7.14, if you care.) Read more Look Ye Now Upon the Kindly Face of Fringe Fanatacism
They say: “Sadie is turning 90. ‘Life is wonderful? Really? So where did everybody go? Living your life, it’s like open heart surgery: a big annoying pain!’” Read more Hip Shot: Open Hearts
The Mountain at Mount Vernon Church, 900 Massachusetts Ave NW
Remaining Performances:
Friday, July 22nd, 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 23rd, 7:30 p.m.
Running Time: 70 minutes
They say: Rob and Flick aka ‘Assembly Required,’ the edu-tainers and self-proclaimed artistic geniuses behind last year’s hit shlecture (that’s a show lecture) about musicals return with a new assembly that will teach you everything you need to know about comedy. Read more Hip Shot: Assembly Required: Comedy A to Y
