Sunday Open Thread
What’s on your mind, Fringepeople? Excited about a show we haven’t weighed in on? Cranky about the dearth of Diet Coke at the Baldacchino bar, or curious about exactly how Julianne defines “air-conditioned,” for the purposes of that “All Fringe venues are air-conditioned” claim? Aghast about the brewing press-release battle over that Beckett show?
The comments await: Light it up, people…
32 Comments
Leave a Reply
You can follow any responses to this entry through its comments RSS feed.
4:59 pm
fort fringe needs some serious money put into it for next year’s festival. i understand they’re going for the rustic, blackbox, worn in aesthetic, but the redrum looked fucking dangerous yesterday. put a little money into reconstruction costs. i dont like the feeling that asbestos might be falling on my head at any given moment…
4:59 pm
Elephant Man–the Musical was pretty good actually. (This comes from someone who sat bravely through the Devil’s Christmas Carol.) A competent, funny, and in the end loving sendoff.
5:06 pm
I showed up for May 39th/40th at 11:02. I’d paid in advance for my ticket, so it wasn’t even like I got to keep my $15. I get that there’s a policy of not letting people in late to shows when they might disturb the actors, but I really don’t see why two act shows can’t allow latecomers to be seated between acts or during a change in scenery. I’d dropped my friend off and parked the car and she was in the show, so I would have been ok waiting for a scenery change or the break between acts since I was there with her.
One of the ticket-takers wanted to ask the usher if seating me would be ok at some point, but the other ticket taker wouldn’t let her.
Sigh.
5:08 pm
The festival is great! I have attended every year and this is the first year that it has a real festival vibe. The fringe staff has done amazing work in the venues they created. I can not even imagine how hard they must of all worked..and continue to work. This is a unique DC event…about real people. The shows I have seen thus far have been packed and great…and yes, a tad warm…but that is okay…cause the work on the stage is quality and new and fresh!
5:41 pm
Not to blatantly disagree with the first post, but I love the “black box” vibe of this years fringe. Fringe is not about having expensive venues, and technical elements, it’s a place for theatre artists to explore and take risks they would not be able to take otherwise. And yes, this means you might have to sit in an un-air-conditioned room for an hour with the paint peeling off the walls. That’s what fringe is, and if you are expecting something else you are looking in the wrong place (and dare I say missing the true beauty of Fringe.)
6:49 pm
Its rustic ‘fringey’ charm notwithstanding, my principle gripes about the Bodega are that it isn’t ADA compliant, the sound bleed between us and the Apothecary downstairs is terrible, and that the air conditioners are fighting a valiant but losing battle against the heat. I applaud Fringe for their centrally locating the venues this year, but aren’t wheelchair access, soundproofing and functional HVAC a given (not to mention in the first case, the LAW)?
10:19 pm
As an out of town (Philadelphia) producer/performer, I am dying to get to DC to feel all the excitement, and check out the Warehouse Next Door! Unfortunately, postcards for my show, She Moved Through the Fair, are not in the box office, and won’t be until Wed 7/15, when I get into town. Please check out the show at capitalfringe.org! It was well-received at the preview perf on July 1st, and got a nice profile in DC examiner. There is another preview Wed 7/15 at the Baldocchino Tent at 7:30, and is a must-see for anyone who likes Irish theatre.
10:30 pm
I want to thank City Paper for your fine coverage. I also want to thank The Post for their increased coverage and to DC Theatre Scene for its fine coverage. It’s so nice to see the local press coming together to cover the entire festival.Thanks for all your hard work.
12:39 am
We’re thankful to have our show, Freakshow, in the festival and we’re having a great time!
There is just one thing I’d like to say on behalf of all the performers in the Baldacchino Gypsy tent venue: We would really, really appreciate it if people visiting the bar/cafe (where it is quite fun to hang out) would be extra quiet during performances. The tent has a funny acoustic thing (like those two spots in the Capitol dome) where the sound travels up to the top of the tent and then spills right into the venue. Even normal conversation can be loud. Thank you! (and come see Freakshow
1:42 am
The Sex, Dreams and Self Control guy looks interesting. And his quotes from all over the country make me think it might live up to the hype.
2:10 am
as for the venues: considering how little the fringe has to work with money wise, and what a HUGE undertaking it is to take on something like rebuilding a block of old abandoned buildings in the name of art (and revitalizing and important part of downtown) – i would suggest we give them a small break when we start criticizing the venues. As an “as you need me” volunteer, and a fringe artist, i’ve seen first hand the work they’ve put into putting this year together. they’re busting their humps, and trying to make everything work perfectly for everyone (you know, all 124 plays, all their techies, directors, producers and artists, a bevy of FAST musicians, a bar and cafe, and then some free previews for the fun of it).
The fringe is a work in progress, each year it redefines itself and refines itself. If you don’t like the venues, donate to the fringe so they can afford to renovate. and while you’re at it, come on down and throw a hand in as a volunteer. this is a community run festival: you are the community, help it run.
also, can’t wait for sex, dreams and self control. love talking with him in between shows (he’s from out of town and is very friendly). and i cannot recommend dizzy miss lizzy: the saints enough.
finally, a plug for my show: the all female 90 minute Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. It’s funny.
2:12 am
that was a plug for dizzy miss lizzy. upon re-reading it was hard to tell. i love dizzy miss lizzy. and captain squishy.
2:41 am
Really enjoyed Titus X today. I recommend reading the Wikipedia entry on Titus Andronicus before going because the plot is a bit complex. Props to the band for covering Fugazi’s Waiting Room before the show started.
Saw R&G are Dead and had to fan myself with the program because it was so warm in there. An annoying distraction from a good show.
Got a free ticket to see Magnum Opus. This was different from most operas that I’ve seen in many respects: it didn’t cost an arm and a leg; I didn’t need binoculars to see the action; it was in English with no sub/supertitles; it was only an hour long; and the entire orchestra could fit in my one bedroom apartment. It was pretty accessible as far as operas go, but after just seeing the furious punk rock speed of Titus X, Magnum Opus felt a little slow. Overall, I thought it was very good.
Finally, I saw tonight’s FAST music Big Gold Belt and the Cornell West Theory. Both bands were great, but the turnout was really low.
5:05 am
Regarding the venues and the ‘fringe is a work in progess’ comment…REALLY? This is year 4 of this festival. Will it be run better 4 more years from now?It doesn’t take a neurosurgeon to realize that running a bar next door to a make-shift performance space, at a busy intersection, in a non-air-conditioned tent might NOT be the smartest of ideas? Not to mention the holes in the roof of the new Redrum space.
I agree with ‘A Producer’ above!
I’m happy to be a part of the festival, but am honestly frightened to think what some patrons may walk away with, as an image of the DC theatre scene, after seeing some of these ‘rustic’ shows in ‘rustic’ venues.
7:57 am
My picks so far:
See it:
Coo Coo Cabaret. Whimsical, wonderful, and very well done. More accessible than last year’s Manifesto!, yet just as fun. Lots of very talented actors playing dumb at first and then ramping it up. Plus you can buy candy cigarettes for a buck!
See it:
Headscarf and the Angry Bitch. A great personality on stage, and while there were certainly glitches, much of the show worked. I found myself laughing heartily at a lot of the songs, even though I was a little confused at her attitudes towards homosexuality at first. An hour well spent.
Skip it:
Riding the Bull. I went for the banjo player; unfortunately, he played very little. The acting was good, but the script was incredibly lacking.
Skip it:
Self Service. This was one long run-on sentence. I felt like I was listening to a fairly boring stream of consciousness. Try some dramatic pauses to shape the script—you can’t just rely on the word AND. “This guy got out of the car and I looked him up and down and I wondered if he could be my dad and he came up to me and his car was really nice and…”
10:00 am
Ditto to Renee! DC probably gets some of the best, most extensive print and online theater coverage in the country, and of a really high quality. Thank you, Trey and others, for keeping it so good at the City Paper.
I really liked Riding the Bull — Jason McCool and Kate Debelak are wonderful actors. I would agree with Michal H that it’s not about banjo-strumming, but that wasn’t my motivation to see the show and I was more than satisfied with the acting and the script.
A lot of people in this thread have commented on whether the low-budget quality of Fringe is appealing, or a necessary evil, or a terrible injustice. I would urge the theater artists, donors and investors who work with the Fringe to request a full financial report from Julianne by November 2009, if there isn’t already one planned and promised.
I think this has been an ambitious, noteworthy and exceptionally successful effort artistically and socially — I would be really interested to know how financially successful it is and if the money is being accumulated and spent well. I suspect that it is, more or less, and I want to stress that — kudos to Julianne! But the only way to really know for sure, is to open the books and in the community spirit of the Fringe I would hope that could happen in an open and honest way. I also hope that we as an arts community can help make it a positive experience for Fringe and all its partners, to share a full financial reckoning publicly. Learning the financials is not, I would hope, an opportunity to second-guess how the money was spent. But it is a chance to help put solid, collaborative plans together for future Fringes (and probably a chance for some artists to learn more about how to do financial reporting and planning, based on Fringe’s example).
Okay, now I feel like an H&R Block commercial. Signing off, and looking forward to more in the coming two weeks!
10:46 am
I’ve seen the fringe photographer at a few shows – but no links to the photo blog yet? where is that stuff going up? I crave photos.
Re: the crappy “fringey” spaces, I’m in a show at redrum, and saw two shows at Bodega and one at Apothecary. (The Girls Inside – a short show but honest and earnest, Annabelle Lee – dance/poem abstraction, very beautiful and skilled performers, and 4:48 Psychosis). The heat and the crumbling walls and the sound bleed-over are, to me, part of why I go to fringe. It’s an intense, memorable, individual experience that you won’t get any other time of the year. It can feel a bit torturous and crazy maybe – but that’s fringe. The “all venues A/C” claim has been dubious from the beginning.
And if you can’t stand the heat, there’s tons of live theater all over town in lovely a/c venues… rorschach, forum, etc are producing regular shows right now.
11:47 am
Hi Suzyn,
I just emailed you at what I hope is the right address. I copied the producer/director, Christy Denny, to see if anything can be done on our end to get you into the show. So sorry they wouldn’t let you in.
Callie
12:37 pm
The Bodega was like a sauna. But the Mount is completely air conditioned and quite comfortable. Will definitely see “Pepe!” as the buzz for the show seems to be quite good — and the venue will be cool.
1:18 pm
jimmy & aubri:
Sex, Dreams and Self Control guy has great preview audio on his site:
http://www.sexdreamsandselfcontrol.net/
i was laughin out loud
and believe me i can use all the laughs i can get!
aubri: didn’t know your R&G Are Dead was all female. COOL
sara: “artists learn more about how to do financial reporting and planning, based on Fringe’s example”?!
WAY cool.
ps
Goethe Gallery is A/C 2!
beyond the fringe,
~~Hilary
myspace.com/2showsDisorderPlantPschic
5:11 pm
A few quick Pepe! notes:
The show is more than 40% sold — and we premiere this Wednesday — so purchasing tickets early is your best bet to see this really well executed original musical. Best availability is Friday, July 24 at 10:30pm (Carla Hall from Bravo TV’s “Top Chef” will appear that night). The show runs only 55 minutes from overture thru curtain call.
There is a great article and preview in Friday’s Washington Post. Read it at http://tinyurl.com/pepepost
We have uploaded a new video, created by Verizon’s FiOS channel: http://tinyurl.com/pepefios
And don;t forget our web site with photos and more videos at http://PepeMonkey.com or our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pepemusical
6:01 pm
Hi! I try not to comment on this blog as I like it to be filled with others voices. In regards to Sara’s comment about a full financial report by November 2009…we are a non-profit so our 990 is available to the public. I do plan on doing our first ever End of Year Report. You will be able to obtain this if you below to our list serve.
I have been – as well as the whole Fringe staff – blown away by our first weekend. The support, the mixing of people and art forms…it is an amazing statement on our community.
Yes, our venues are rough and tough. In October we had the United States Fringe Festival Association meeting at Fort Fringe. I gave other Festival Directors a tour of the building ( to be clear Doug Jemal owns The Fort & Trading Post…ans really nearly the whole block we are located on ) …and a guy from New York said “It would be a mortal sin to have this much unused space in New York.” In hearing that we embarked on building what we have for this years festival…and in doing so realized how outrageous it is to have this space in one city block in a major US city. It is a once in a life time experience…as our block will soon be developed in to a hotel, cinema and mall.
I hope readers here and other will enjoy the next two weeks of Fringe…next Saturday is the biggest day in Fringe’s history with 61 shows happening in one day.
My Best,
Julianne
10:07 pm
To clarify – I can deal with the crumbly walls, semi-functional AC. I can almost deal with my sound design for my show competing with the show downstairs. It’s Fringe.
But given that DC has many artists and performers with disabilities, to have Fringe venues that aren’t wheelchair accessible is unconscionable. To think that I have friends and colleagues that can’t see my show because they can’t negotiate the stairs is flat out appalling. How did this get overlooked in the planning stage? I think this deserves an answer.
11:41 pm
Producer, while I respect your concern regarding access for performers and audience members with disabilities, I must ask you a question. What is more important, the (admirable) ideal that all potential audience members be able to see a particular work, or that companies in need of a space be given that space to perform? I ask you with honest interest.
Terms like “unconscionable” and “appalling” are easy to throw around, but does anybody really think that the directors of the Festival lack conscience? I like to think they doing the best with what resources they have.
2:46 am
@FringeFan In response to your question for Producer, I’d say who the hell cares if companies perform in a “much needed” space if fans/fringers aren’t able to see the performance. Yes, not everyone depends on wheelchairs/canes/festival organizers with enough foresight to make it so art is accessible in the most literal sense. But making it so that “potential audience members be able to see a particular work” is THE point of Fringe. Perhaps you meant to devalue the theater experience for a certain subset of “potential audience members”? By alienating people in wheelcahirs, by keeping them out of performances, Fringe organizers have made a value judgment. And it’s one that makes me doubt the rhetoric of creativity, open mindedness, inclusion, etc. that surrounds Fringe. If limited resources is the issue, I’d be more than willing to pay more for my tickets if it meant more accessible venues.
8:14 am
FringeFan, I have friends and colleagues in Open Circle Theatre, a DC-based professional theatre company that focuses on performers with disabilities. The Artistic Director of that company, among other members, will not be able to see our show (unless you’d volunteer to carry her and her mechanical wheelchair up/down the stairs). As a producer, I can hire an ASL interpreter for hearing-impaired patrons. I can’t build a ramp, an elevator or an accessible bathroom.
This year’s Fringe organizers have otherwise done a bang-up job, but this issue is in my mind an (insert negative term of your choice) oversight.
2:02 am
well, after a few days of begging the folks i know to purge on r&g, and not seeing any words go up, i decided to stop being a hypocrite and put out what i thought.
4.48 enough has been said. it was lovely. don’t go after watching anything too funny. you won’t be able to appreciate it.
captain squishy’s yeehaw jamboree: i walked in with several expectations that were based on nothing more than the name of the show and the intro song they sang at the preview. they satisfied my needs and more. i now have in my mental song list a loving ode to bacon, and the most deliciously self centered song to hum while wandering this striped tie jungle. there were technical troubles the night i went, but i was warned in advance, which made it easy to excuse moments that seemed to rely on a light change to move the progress. a few moments of flat acting, a few scenes of dry exposition, but so many moments of brilliance, humor and pure entertainment, it still sits in my top 3 so far.
dizzy miss lizzy: the saints: it lives up to any hype they have. this is a solid group, with a great show. the closing song pales in comparison with the orestia’s closing song, but every moment fits together and entertains immensely.
live! girls! organize: disjointed, slow moving, predictable (albeit, because the subject material is familiar, what with it being based on a true story) – these are the adjectives my compatriots and i found ourselves coming up with for this show. the male lead is fun to watch, and his union builder foil plays well with her material and keeps the show moving at an entertaining speed. unfortunately, that’s only 1/3-1/2 the show. we have a lot of very predictable “hooker with a heart of gold” love story to live through, until the show abruptly stops. with half the characters driving the show only being heard of and never seen, it’s hard to completely invest, and rather 2 dimensional characters abound on stage. i wanted to like this show, but i can’t say that i did.
closet land: there are a lot of moments in this show that we later asked “did they need to do that?”. i think the answer is “yes”. this show has an uncanny ability to make its audience very uncomfortable, and that is a good thing. oppression, torture and abuse are not topics we should be comfortable with. even if the execution is sometimes off; even if you understand the point long before the actor’s monologue gets to it; even if you just don’t believe it, this show is still worth seeing. on the grounds that no matter what you think it WILL make you think.
what i want to know more about:
ANNABEL LEE
BAD HAMLET
DECONSTRUCTING THE MYTH OF THE BOOTY
IRISH AUTHORS HELD HOSTAGE
PLEASE LISTEN: A CHAOS MUSICAL
7:14 am
Aubri –
I do much of the scheduling and assigning for this blog, and you’ll be pleased to know that all the shows you want to know more about will be covered in due time — as will Rosencranz and Guildenstern.
Thanks for relying on us and chiming in!
-brian
2:56 pm
Aubri,
It sounds like you may have a blog in your future. An interesting thing I’ve noticed working my first Fringe show this year is that plenty is said about the proven groups, but little is said of the “smaller” or less well-known shows, by reviewers, blogs, or individuals. Isn’t Fringe supposed to be about trying new things, for both the artist and the audience? I know I’m guilty of going for big shows, but I’m also trying to spread my attention around over the next two weeks.
Full disclosure: I’m involved in one of those smaller shows (FREAKSHOW), and we would love it if more people wrote about their experiences seeing it. Not only because we think it’s worthy, but also because we love it so much and are so close to it that we want to talk about it! Discourse! Interaction! Community! These are all things we as theatre artists crave, I believe. And not just the positive things–though we love a positive review!–but the negatives, too. What didn’t work? What confused you? What did you flat-out hate? Did you agree with what the play is trying to say? If everyone keeps reviewing the same 5 shows, that dialogue dies.
Feel free to come see FREAKSHOW and let us know what you think of it. I promise to buy you a beer, even if you hate it.
Allyson Harkey
Pinky Swear Productions
2:29 am
@ Allyson
well, i wish i’d read this before i came to freakshow today, i’d have taken you up on that beer afterward
I am glad to say i was quite pleased with freakshow. i am trying to create some kind of value system by which i can express what i do and do not like, and how and why. it is not coming to me. so instead i will say this: at no point was i not interested or invested with what was happening. freakshow embraces the “fringier” qualities of this festival, taking its wins where it can get it, and relying on its audience to “see” the rest when need be. there is a part of me that deeply loves seeing something that’s playing fast and loose with performance art in general – not because they want to offend the audience, but because they know the audience doesn’t care nearly as much about a leaky tank as they do about a character’s relationship. i feel freakshow, captain squishy and dizzy miss lizzy all embrace this ethos, and it works in their favor.
at the end of the day, my compatriot and i labeled freakshow “a very nice way to spend an afternoon, and some of the best lines we’ve heard yet on stage” (i may start spending my free time doing that exercise, too!)
then we went to sex, dreams and self control. after talking with the artist, i am aware he would describe it as a sort of musical david sedaris type thing (the natty bo’s do muddle the memory when it comes to quotes). i would describe it as a wonderfully funny overshare by a good boy who does bad things from the midwest. with music.
i walked in with a lot of hopes and – even though i didn’t know what it would be about -z expectations. well, i was DEFINITELY not expecting what i got, but i am complaining. i will very rarely tout a one man show, but i will gladly tout this.
1:15 pm
Just wanted to say that I’m looking forward to coming back to the Capital Fringe–our show, “A. D.” opens on Wednesday, July 22 and runs every night through the end of the festival.
Check out our Facebook page, see the pretty poster, see a little bit of what the show’s about…
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=101346873610&ref=mf
See you all next week!
3:24 pm
@Aubri,
I’m sorry I missed you Wednesday! Or perhaps I didn’t… I think you were the woman passing out R&G postcards? I was sitting at the table with Stephanie.
I’m so glad you enjoyed FREAKSHOW. It’s not an easy show to watch, even without the heat and sirens, so I’m very proud that you felt invested in the characters and action. That’s really the ultimate goal, isn’t it?–for the audience to care what happens.
I’m hoping to see R&G, as my crazy schedule allows. If I make it, there’s definitely a beer for you afterwards! Have a wonderful rest of your run.
Allyson