Weekend Top 6 Picks for June 8 and 9, 2019

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Saturday June 8, 2019

11:30am to 1pm Free. Firelei Báez Artist Talk and Book Signing.  The Mennello Museum of American Art 900 E Princeton St, Orlando, Florida 32803. Artist
Firelei Báez will present a FREE talk, on the occasion of the Mennello
Museum of American Art’s new exhibit IMMERSION INTO COMPOUNDED TIME AND
THE PAINTINGS OF FIRELEI BÁEZ.
Please RSVP at bit.ly/fireleiartisttalk
Báez
is best known through her extraordinary paintings of lush
landscaped-figures, intricately patterned tignons, and otherworldly
bodies with striking eyes. Here, she considers the reality of ones
current social and the historic construction of cultural self in
America. These complex, inter sectional bodies and symbols alongside
large-scale portraits are painted in vibrant, swirling colors, which
intermingle time and character. For Báez, “identity is malleable,
negotiated,” and given strength by the female body and mythology of her
being.
IMMERSION INTO COMPOUNDED TIME AND THE PAINTINGS OF
FIRELEI BÁEZ is curated by Katherine Navarro, Mennello Museum of
American Art. A fully illustrated bilingual catalog on the exhibition
has been published, and will be available for purchase and artist
signing.
Firelei Báez was born in Santiago de los Caballeros,
Dominican Republic. She earned her BFA at The Cooper Union School of Art
in 2004, participated in The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
in 2008, and later earned her MFA at Hunter College in 2010. Báez
currently lives and works in New York City. She has held residencies at
The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace, The Lower East Side
Print Shop and The Bronx Museum’s Artist in the Marketplace. Báez has
had solo exhibitions at Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Pérez Art
Museum Miami, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, and the Kemper Museum
of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, among others. Báez was included in the
2018 Berlin Biennial, the United States Biennial Prospect.3, New
Orleans, the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time’s LA>LA exhibition at the
Museum of Latin American Art, Los Angeles and at the 2017 Venice
Biennale with the Pinchuk Art Foundation’s Future Generation’s Art Prize
exhibition. Her work is in the collections of the BNY Mellon Art
Collection, Pittsburgh, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Pérez Art Museum,
Miami, Sindika Dokolo Foundation Collection, Luanda, Angola, San Jose
Museum of Art, San Jose, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, and
Tiroche DeLeon Collection, Jaffa, Isreal. She is currently represented
by Kavi Gupta, Chicago and James Cohan, New York.

6:30 Silent Auction, 7pm Show. $20 General Admission. Play in a Day. Lake Howell High School 4200 Dike Road, Winter Park, Florida 32792.

Beth Marshall Presents PIAD 2019
This year’s PIAD features all women writers, directors and stage managers.
100 artists
78 women/22 Men
All proceeds benefit the BMP Theatre Scholarship Fund & TOP TEENS!
Sponsored by Pom Pom’s Tea House and Sandwicheria and Penguin Point Productions
Cost: VIP $25 (Front Two Rows/ Advance Seating/Raffle Tickets/First Dibs on Silent Auction)
General Audience-$20
Students-$10
*This show is asterisks for everything, so if this offends you, please take the time to leave now.
Tickets on Sale Now at BethMarshallPresents.com
PIAD PRODUCTION LEADERSHIP TEAM
Producing Artistic Direction – Beth Marshall
Production Stage Manager – Blue Estrella
Assistant Producer – Clark Levi
Assistant Production Manager – Gabriel Neil Barnert
Technical Director/Light Design – Jordan Laica
Assistant Technical Director – Dylan Molitor
Program/Logo/Projection Design – Ben Lowe
Box Office Manager – Chris Foster
Front of House/Silent Auction Manager – Jacyln Thomas
Assistant Front of House/Raffle Manger – Theresa Rogers
Website Manager – Winona Wiley
HOST
PEPE’ (In Drag as a Woman)
JUDGES
Kristen Neander
Andy Haynes
George Wallace
WRITERS/DIRECTORS/STAGE MANAGERS/ACTORS
TEAM 1
Writer: Irene L. Pynn
Director: Ashley Sox
Stage Manager: Kendall Myers
Actors: Josh Lefkowitz, Robert Cuhna, Jacoline Frank, Caiti Fallon, Alexa Carroll
TEAM 2
Writer: Katie Thayer
Director: Christine Robison-Laurence
Stage Manager: Emerson Short
Actors: Sharon Barnert, Sierra Vennes, Brenna Arden, Katie Stokes, Peri Goldberg
TEAM 3
Writer: Grace Trotta
Director: Veronica Nia Kelly
Assistant Director/Stage Manager: Kaitlyn Harrington
Actors: Alicia Salgado, Avis-Marie Barnes, Jazzlyn Whiddon, Matthew Gray
TEAM 4
Writer: Tracey Jane
Director: Roberta Emerson
Stage Manager: Olivia Winslow
Actors: Bennet Preuss, Ken Preuss, Melanie Leon, Jac Ledoux
TEAM 5
VOCI DANCE
Choreographer/Director: Genevieve Bernard
Dancers: Sarah Lockard, Katrina Soricelli, David Gabriel, Katherine Fabian
TEAM 6
Writer: Chanel Gomaa
Director: Jessica Hoehn
Stage Manager: Caitlin Eriser
Actors: Joshua Huff, Laura Powalisz, Anthony Morehead, Sarah Isola
TEAM 7
Writer: Vanessa Carmona
Director: Gail Chase
Stage Manager: Madisen Mckenzie
Actors: BeeJay Aubertin-Clinton, Noel Gates, Michelle Kurtiak, Tiffany Marie Ortiz
TEAM 8
Writer: Rose Helsinger
Director: Mackenzie Borglum
Assistant Director/Mentor: Paige Gober
Actors: Jackson Chase, Hanna Swindler, Vangeli Tsompanidis, Camryn Chiriboga
TEAM 9
Writer: Ciara Hannon
Director: Tara Kromer
Assistant Director/Stage Manager: Shonda L. Thurman
Actors: Eislinn Gracen, Bella Crider, Chloe Shaw, Delaney Polk
PRODUCTION CREWS
Stage Crew:
Leah Klasing
Dana Huss
Brooke Adragna
Justin Daniels
Quinn Hoeck
Jade Pryor
Props Crew:
David Brinkley
Meg Quiroga
Costume Crew:
Abby Lamarre
Meridith Clure
Ariana De Jesus
Isis Gonzalez
Emma Johnson
Allison Smith
Lindsea Loughlin
House Crew:
Concessions Manager/SM Swing – Destiny Sam
Usher/Raffle – Emillie Scheetz
Usher/Raffle – Faith Ridgeway
Silent Auction – Stella Maria Rodriguez-Fernandez
Silent Auction – Destiny Gonzalez
House – Nikolaj Thankski
House – Lindsea Loughlin

7:30pm to 11:30pm Welcome Potluck for Deirdre Coyle. Kerouac House 1418 Clouser Ave, Orlando, Florida 32804.

You
are invited to join us in welcoming Kerouac House Summer resident
Deirdre Coyle. This event is a potluck dinner, so please bring something
to eat and/or drink and share.
Deirdre Coyle is a writer living
in Brooklyn. Her fiction and essays have appeared in The New Republic,
Electric Literature, Literary Hub, Hobart, Joyland, and elsewhere. She
is a columnist at Unwinnable Monthly. Her website is DeirdreCoyle.com.

Sunday June 9, 2019

12:30pm to 2:30pm Free. Love and Kindness on the Lawn.  Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts 445 S Magnolia Ave, Orlando, Florida 32801.

Join the
One Orlando Alliance at the Seneff Plaza in downtown Orlando as we gather in gratitude
to celebrate community and the spirit of #OrlandoUnited!
This
free event is a time to enjoy local music, food trucks, share some hugs
and create happy memories while remembering those who continue to need
our love and support.
At 1:30 p.m., we will host our special
giant “human heart” photo opportunity, and at the close of the event,
attendees can participate in a group Loving Kindness Meditation, led by
Puja Madan of The Mindfulness Map.
Additionally, we will have
plenty of #ActLoveGive signs to fill out and take with you to help
continue spreading the message of love and kindness.
Love and
Kindness on the Lawn is part of the Orlando United: Acts of Love and
Kindness movement. Visit ActLoveGive.org for more information.

1pm to 4pm $5. Dog Day Afternoon Pup Crawl. Ten 10 Brewing 1010 Virginia Drive Orlando FL.

Pups
are welcome at the Dog Day Afternoon Pup Crawl! Adults purchase a
wristband for $5 at Ten 10 Brewing Company and receive drink specials at
11 participating bars and businesses – Conrad’s Shanty, GB’s Bottle
Shop and Tasting Bar, Green House Realty, Gotkarma, Grape and The
Grain, Nora’s Sugar Shack, Ten 10 Brewing Company, The Brass Tap – Mills
50, The Guesthouse, The Thirsty Topher and Will’s Pub! The first 100
pups accompanied by an adult will receive a complimentary bandana! All
pups will receive a few treats! 50% of the wristband sales will be
donated to Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando! Pet Alliance will be at Ten
10 Brewing Company and The Brass Tap – Mills 50 with adoptable pups!
Many thanks to our sponsor Tito’s Handmade Vodka!

1pm to 4:30pm Free. Free Family Day on the Second Sunday. The Mennello Museum of American Art, 900 East Princeton Street, Orlando, FL 32803. The
make-and-take craft table is open from noon-2:30 p.m., and docents are
available to give mini-tours of the museum. Then it’s open house in the
galleries until 4:30 p.m.

How to Eat a Bear at Fringe

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Crafty McVillan from Orlando Florida presented How to Eat a Bear which was about two moronic friends that got  a craving to eat a bear. You can think of Dumb and Dumber the movie but make it a musical. As crazy as the concept sounds I was enjoying the silliness for much of the show. A bear wearing a red tie (Paul Ebert) acted as the narrator in he beginning of the show masking himself as a human. He tried to convince the audience that it would be a good idea to send him some humans since clearly he would not eat them since he was Hu-man himself.

Mark (Luke Balagia) and Dave (Mack Stine), a pair of college-dropout decided after playing an Oregon trail computer game, that it would be cool to catch and eat a bear. Their attempts always resulted in them getting hurt. An attempt to order bear meat at Publix failed resulting in a hunting expedition to the local zoo.

At one point the bear cornered one of the boys behind a rock and red streamers flew up as he attacked to represent blood. The simple low cost set pieces added to the comic feel of the show. In a hospital the boys tried to hit on the nurses (Danielle Burch, Brianna Barrett) but they missed the mark with every moronic attempt at trying to prove their manliness.

Some of the songs were quite clever and the singing performances were on key.  I had low expectations going in, but had some fun watching these guys fail at every turn. Perverseness laced with pain can be quite entertaining.

Wonders in Motion at Fringe

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2nd Sight Dance from Orlando presented Wonders in Motion which delivered new and innovative ways to combine dance with the art of Magic and illusion to entertain audiences. The company had one male dancer who seemed to be the lead choreographer along with 4 other female dancers. The show began with a red balloon which was on a string. When the string was cut the balloon magically did not rise.

In another routine the female dancers all dances and as they moved red lights turned on at the tips of their fingers. It wasn’t magic but it was magical to watch the red lights arch with the movement and then turn off when the dancers were still. Metal rings were held bu several dancers and they interlocked and broke free of one another as the dancers spiraled around each other.

A fun high energy number had the dancers dressed in hazmat suits as they performed an act of  clairvoyance as they guessed the number an audience member had picked. The music was Pure Energy by Information Society. It was a much needed fun interlude.

Another dance seemed to be a tribute to Pulse. A refrigerator sized box was rolled out that had gauzy curtains on all sides. It was lit from inside by a single bare bulb. As the female dancers danced the male dancer emerged from the box with the bare bulb casting giant shadows as he did so. Pam explained that it might have symbolized him coming out of the closet. The routine ended with large rainbow colored streamers and a dancer collapsing in grief.

Black Cow Jumps at Fringe

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Banks Helfrich founded Black Cow Jumps which uses theater as an exploration of reality through life. Banks was alone walking around the stage area after the Fringe recorded announcements were finished. The rest of the cast must have been sitting in the audience. For instance Banks started talking to a woman behind me and it sounded like they had recently been in a relationship. He brought her on stage and they started to talk. They had clearly not been destined to be together for long. Banks wasn’t ready to settle into a long term relationship. he was all over the map. She had met someone new and things were working out. It was hard to tell if this was fact or fiction the line was blurred.

Another woman described her pregnancy with twins and the pain in loosing one child at birth. She didn’t abandon that life which had never stepped foot on earth but she honored how much the child had meant to her. She honored the life that might have been. The other twin lived and she raised him with the memory of his lost sister. It was an incredibly heart wrenching story. Later her son asked her what traits would make for a good president. In describing those traits to him, she realized that she was describing her ability to negotiate and reason with people. She decided that her voice was needed and she decided to run for president. With so many Democratic candidates running right now she may well be in the running. She has my vote.

Another woman talked about how she grew up wanting to have children. That was her childhood dream and she met the man of her dreams and made that dream a reality. She raised her son but soon realized she wanted to feel the rush of new life inside her again. Her family was large enough so she decided to be a surrogate mother for another couple who could not have children themselves. What she didn’t plan on was a miscarriage which left her and the couple devastated.

One volunteer from the audience was brought on stage and Banks sat across from her and developed a friendship, and rules for their relationship. I had the deepest respect for the volunteer since she had no idea what the boundaries were for this new relationship as it developed. Reality and theater were closely entwined. Banks defined Black Cow Jumps simply as “Life Soup.”

Upcoming performances are:

June 22, 2019 @ 7pm Jack Kerouac House (free event, bring something edible to share.

September 14, 2019 @ 7:15 Winter Park Public Library (free event, wine and cheese – must RSVP)

November 9, 2019 @ 7:15 Winter Park Public Library (free event, wine and cheese – must RSVP)
December 7, 2019 @ 7:15 Winter Park Public Library (free event, wine and cheese – must RSVP)

The Origins of my Magic at Fringe

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Cody Clark who is from Louisville Kentucky had his second appearance at the Orlando International Fringe Festival this year. In this show he answered the question  of where his magic comes from. It consisted of traditional slight of hand tricks like knotting a rope and having the knot slip off of the rope.

Cody’s show isn’t all about the tricks. he is on the Autism spectrum and he described how his love on magic helps him in his very social choice of a career as a magician. This was a unique biographical magic show that showed how he saw things as a person with autism. Autism affects fine motor skills, so card tricks and
other sleight of hand can be hard for Clark. But having autism benefits his craft as well. He said his tendency to fixate on things,
whether it’s rehearsing or marketing, makes him very disciplined. He was loud and direct in his delivery and under that lies an undeniable enthusiasm and charm. Part of his earnings from the Fringe would go to an autism awareness organization. The rest he joked would go to his beer tent fund.

On his first trip to  the Orlando Fringe he stayed with Gail and Al Pergande‘s home. On that occasion the transmission on his car died out which could be an emergency for any performer on the road. It set him back $3500. He set up a Go Fund Me and bravely set that problem to the back  of his mind as he drew in crowds to his show. Gail and Al were in this audience and happy to be hosting him again.

One of his tricks consisted of making lemonade from a single lemon, a cup and a lemonade canister. I included those props in my sketch. Just like his lemon of a transmission, Cody accepted that when you get a lemon you make lemon aid. One lucky audience volunteer got to taste the results. We were all lucky to get to watch Cody’s enthusiasm. He knows how to find mentors and continues to grow as a magician and performer. He recently got to perform with one of his idols in Las Vegas. Sometimes dreams do come true if you acknowledge the difficulties but keep performing with plenty of faith.

Pack Animals at Fringe

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Scantily Glad Theatre from Victoria, BC, presented Pack Animals at this year’s Orlando Fringe. The premise it pretty straight forward. Two girl scouts get lost in the woods. One is a scout with plenty of merit badges (Holly Brinkman) who was confident she could navigate their way out with her trusty compass, while the other with just a few scattered badges had never camped in her life. The huge stage seemed cavernous for this intimate production.

When the inexperienced camper (S.E. Grummett) had to go to the bathroom she asked her fried for her guide book. She didn’t need the book to learn something new, but instead ripped out several pages to wipe. When done, she handed off the book and a trowel to a lucky audience member. The songs in the show were light-hearted, lyrical, and quite funny.

One guy in the front row of the audience kept interrupting the girls to let them know that they weren’t doing things right. After a few of these interruptions, it became clear that he was a plant. I think that during the run of the show they recruited various male Fringe artists to take on the role of the heckler. He became a focus for their searing and funny feminist sarcasm.

Puppetry was used to define the attributes of various forest creatures. The creatures all seemed to have the habits and attitudes of annoying guys. A much bigger forest creature, the bear, caused some chaos, but the campers survived. Overall this was a fun hour of wacky gay theater with just a dash of nudity.

The Flute on its Feet

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The Flute on its Feet was one of the more classically refined shows at this year’s Fringe Festival. Zara Lawler, a classically trained flutist, made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony. Dancer C. Neil Parsons is a veteran of dozens of Fringe Productions, most recently Fruit Flies Like a Banana. Together they performed eight pieces. What was unique was that Zara on flute would often join Neil in the dance moves as she played.

The most unique performance came when Zara interacted with an orange steel square rack similar to a clothes rack in size and shape. She circled the rack and walked through it. Then she stood inside and maneuvered herself until she was standing on her head while still playing flute. Later, she lay on the floor and let the rack roll over her like a railroad car.

Neil’s dances were at times mechanical and at time graceful. It was modern dance with a quirky edge. There was audience interaction as the attendees were divided in half and one side began a round, followed by the other side repeating the lyrics. Think row row row your boat, only with more refined lyrics, “Music Alone Shall Live.“

Weekend Top 6 Picks for June 1 and 2, 2019

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Saturday June 1, 2019

8am to 1pm Free. Parramore Farmers Market. The east side of the Orlando City Stadium, across from City View. Purchase
quality, fresh and healthy food grown in your own neighborhood by local
farmers, including Fleet Farming, Growing Orlando, and other community
growers.

10am to 4pm Free. Sanford Farmers Market. First and Magnolia Sanford Fl.  

8pm to 10pm Free. Shuffleboard. Orlando’s Beardall Courts 800 Delaney Ave Orlando FL.

1st Saturday of each month. Free fun! 

  

Sunday June 2, 2019

10am to 4pm Free. Lake Eola Farmers Market. Lake Eola Park, Orlando, FL 32801.

Noon to 1pm Free. Yoga. Lake Eola near red gazibo.  


Noon to 3pm Donation based. Music at the Casa. Violinist Lisa Ferrigno. Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, 656 N Park Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789.

Hombre at Fringe

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Hombre was a contemporary dance show choreographed by Ana Cuellar. The show poster featured an anatomical drawing of a man’s musculature as he clutches his heart with beam of red light emanating outwards. The theater went dark and the first dance number had the entire cast on stage as they used their cell phones to light their way. Titled Monotony, the dance seemed to showcase the ways people are isolating themselves thanks to the distractions of the digital world. At times, the dancers literally could not  be seen. It was thrilling, but impossible to catch in a sketch.

Ana doesn’t usually dance in the shows she choreographs, but she did appear in the middle of this Fringe show. She danced with Brett DeBeaulieu in a daring routine that featured plenty of strength and acrobatics. I have a renewed respect for Ana’s abilities as a dancer after seeing her leap through the air and tumble over Brett’s shoulders.

Original music in the show was by Alejandro Padilla and sung by Bruno Sanger. There was a dance that acted as a tribute to Pulse. The common theme running through this show was love and finding one’s self. The final routine was set to music based on a poem by Lori Aach called Essence. The back scrim turned a bright red. Twice, a dancer in a bright red dress danced with vestiges of flamenco passion. The goal was poetry in motion, and the combination of the arts’ forms suspended the audience for a rare moment between a sense of wonder and hope.

Florida Man at Fringe

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I sketched a tech rehearsal for Florida Man. We all know about the Florida Man twitter feed where you can read the insane headlines that make Florida appear like a Looney Toons version of the Wild West. Such headlines include, “Florida man takes a bubble bath in Wendy’s kitchen sink and gets fired,” or “Florida man arrested and charged with assault with a deadly
weapon after throwing alligator
through a fast-food chain’s drive-thru window.”

This Fringe show allowed the  audience to pick one of three headlines that would affect the plot of the show. J. Scott Browning directed the cast. Florida Man’s (Adam Murray) abode was simply a small couch with milk crates functioning as side tables and a coffee table. Pizza boxes were littered everywhere. The basic premise of the show was that Florida Man lived with a curse, but he wanted to live a life separate from the headlines.

Florida hick standards abounded, like shopping at Walmart or dealing with an apathetic drive-thru hostess.  Of course being a tech rehearsal the show was disjointed with many pauses for blocking. It was clear however that the cast was having fun and the show was light-hearted fun. Two smarmy newscasters (Andy Gion, Trenell Mooring ) would announce the headlines with false saccharine sweet humor. It became clear that Florida Man had more heart than the headlines that defined his existence to the rest of the world. Florida man deserved to find Florida woman (Sharon Yost), and together they might carve out some form of a life beyond comical headlines.