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

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!

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.