One Orlando Collection at the Orange County Regional History Center.

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About 50 Analog Artist Digital World paintings will be part of the expanded One Orlando Collection on display at the Orange County Regional History Center for one week (June 12th – 17th). The paintings document Orlando’s attempts to heal after the Pulse Nightclub attack. Also on display are the original 49 portraits created by local artists in one evening shortly after the tragedy. Curated pieces from the One Orlando Collection will feature items left at memorial sites around the city, collected directly, and images that showcase the wide-ranging support that was received following the tragedy.

The amount of work that goes into a museum exhibition like this is quite staggering. First, the exhibition space needs to be prepped. All the walls need to be patched and painted from previous use, as well as temporary walls installed designed specific to the exhibition. Memorial items, artifacts, art, photographs, and more, are measured individually and images are placed in a scaled Adobe Illustrator file exactly as they will appear on the walls. Everything is planned out, including electrical outlets and fire boxes so that there are no surprises during installation. As an entirely bilingual exhibition, copy (the text of the exhibit) has to first be written in English before being translated into Spanish.

Copy is printed on vinyl, different colors for each language, cut on a vinyl cutter, weeded of negative space, before transfer tape is applied for placement on the wall. Photographs are also printed on vinyl and then mounted on gator board. The 49 portraits are mounted behind plexiglass with the names printed in black vinyl on the front. Layouts for each wall are printed and artifacts, copy, and images are measured, leveled, and adhered to the walls. Individual cases are spread throughout the space and are carefully arranged with a variety of artifacts. Typically the staff has two weeks to install and then to de-install an exhibition. However, due to scheduling, they have one week to install and three days to de-install ‘One Year Later’. The show must come down for a wedding.

The overall theme of the exhibition is to share the shear magnitude of the worldwide love and support after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. If there is one t-shirt, there are 15 on display. One rosary, there are 50. One silicon bracelet, there are 29. The Center has collected thousands of items that reflect this support, but only a fraction can be shown within this space.

The museum will be open and free to the public from 10AM-7PM Monday, June 12, and 10AM-5PM Tuesday – Saturday, June 17th for the exhibition.

Titus and Andronicus Holiday Special at Fringe.

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Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare‘s bloodiest play. I had never seen the play but that didn’t stop me from seeing the Fringe Holiday Special based on the be headings and mutilations. Knowing nothing about the Shakespeare play was a definite drawback. I was quite honestly lost for most of the production. I sketched as the barest of set pieces were being assembled. Producer Albert Pergande whacked someone with a pole as they were setting up the makeshift fireplace. This sort of real life slapstick was also to be found in the play as several puppets with Beavis and Butthead voices raped and dismembered a female puppet. There were moments of laughter, but I suspect they came mostly from audience members who appreciated the references to the Shakespeare play.

An applause sign hinted at the desired audience response. Bloodshed was combined with Christmas Carols, but I’m not sure why. The production was so Fringe that I didn’t know what to make of it. I was happy for the opportunity to sketch people wearing togas. Now that Fringe is over, I kind of miss seeing people wearing sheets in public.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for June 10th and 11th.

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Saturday June 10, 2017

9AM to 11AM Free. Bloomingdale’s Pride Opening. Bloomingdale’s at Mall of Muillenia, 4152 Conroy Road, The Mall at Millenia, Orlando, FL 32839. Painting from Analog Artist Digital World of Pulse vigils and fundraisers will be on display through July 5th. Rainbow flags will line the cosmetics section and the Orlando Gay Chorus will be singing at the opening.

4PM to 6PM Free. Young Voices. JB Callaman Center 102 North Parramore Ave Orlando FL. Teen Open Mic Every second Saturday of the Month.

10:30PM to 12:30AM Free but get a drink and or bite. Son Flamenco. Hot blooded Flamenco dancing to live guitar. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL, United States. 

Sunday June 11, 2017

10AM to Noon. Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources. 

7PM to 9PM  Free. Human Rainbow for Pulse by BASE Orlando. The Other Bar, 18 Wall St, Orlando, FL 32801. BASE
Orlando is creating another Human Rainbow with 49 painted bodies to
represent the lives lost last year during the Pulse Tragedy. We
will be gathering at The Other Bar on Wall Street and then walking over
to take a group photo at the park near the Orange County Regional
History Center. We already have the BASE artists lined up for this event. Special thank you to Fairvilla for sponsoring our paint and The Other Bar for hosting us!

7PM to 9PM $20 O-Town Voices of Orlando. Orlando Shakespeare Theater, 812 East Rollins Street

Orlando, FL 3280. O-TOWN Voices from Orlando. A World Premiere Event. One Night Only.

The entire collection of monologues performed together for the very first time

A Very Special performance on the eve of the One Year Anniversary of the attack on Pulse Nightclub.

This performance will be at The Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Loch Haven Park.

David Lee,
recipient of the 2016 Orlando International Fringe Festival’s Lifetime
Achievement Award has created an original theatrical event that shares
stories and experiences from the days, weeks and months following the
aftermath of the Pulse nightclub attack that occurred in Orlando on June
12th,
2016. Interviews, blog postings and stories from the Orlando Sentinel
newspaper come to life on stage in a very personal and intimate way
through a company of 18 local Theatre Artists.

A Special One Night Only Performance will take place on the eve of the One Year Anniversary of the attack on Pulse Nightclub on Sunday June 11th@ 7pm in The Margeson Theater at The Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Loch Haven Park. Tickets are $20 General Admission and $50 for VIP Reserved Seating. All net proceeds from this event will benefit TheonePulseFoundation. Tickets.

Emotions Dance Company presents Element Earth.

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Emotions
Dance Company explores the relationship we have with each other as well
as with our planet using the elements of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air.
This professional performance carries a message of perseverance of the
Earth and of dance as an art form. Emotions Dance Company founder, Larissa Humiston did much of the choreography, and the guest choreographer was Carrie Crawford (Crawford Jazz Project).

I went to a dress rehearsal to sketch. The dance routines revolve around the elements of Earth, Fire, Water and Air.  There were 15 dance routines in all, some involving much of the company to an exhilarating solo performance called Last Breath. I am always looking for dancers who are able to express emotions through their facial expressions as well as their movements and some dancers performed above and beyond. Dancers in the sketch were pulled from various dance routines over the course of the run through. 

One dance called Forest Fire had two dancers in red tights acting as flames that then consumed two dancers in neutral colored tights who were the trees. Elements 1 and Elements 2, were full company productions in which dancers personified all the elements that were used as inspiration throughout the show.

The performance of Element Earth is Friday, June 9th from 8PM to 9:30PM. Orlando Shakes 812 E Rollins St, Orlando, Florida 32803. Tickets are available at the door for $20 and $15 for students.

Commencement at Fringe.

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Commencement written by Clay McLeod Chapman was brought to this years Orlando International Fringe Festival by Beth Marshall Presents. Beth had wanted to bring the play to past Fringe Festivals, but it was never picked in the lottery.

The play began with the mother of the shooter (Beth Marshall) seated on stage among the ephemera of youth in the children’s wing of a hospital. A teddy bear leaned innocently against a plastic crate filled with toys. A jack-in-the-box sat on a small table next to her as she spoke. She recounted the tale of her son swallowing marbles to win the favor of a popular student. He nearly choked to death but his esophagus closed up forcing him to stop. It became clear that her son had been picked on his whole life. Beth was clearly emotionally shaken and on the verge of breaking down at any moment. She said she was sequestered away from the other moms, unable to share in their grief.

The mother of a shooting victim, (Jamie Middleton) took to the stage after Beth left. Jamie had lost a daughter. She was angry and bitter. Social workers and politicians had offered condolences but their words of comfort were not for her. She just wanted her daughter back. She had gone to the school commencement ceremonies to watch the other students graduate, she felt terror when her daughter’s name was skipped over. Her daughter had written an inspired commencement speech that she could never deliver.

In stark contrast, a student school library volunteer, (Rose Helsinger) bounced onto the stage with youthful vigor. She knew the shooter better than anyone else since he was well read. He used to write notes in the margins of books and she decided to become his friend by writing notes in response in the margins herself. They had a long clandestine conversation in the margins of multiple books throughout the shelves. It was a romantic meeting of minds, but she never acknowledged him in the halls. The thrill came from the mystery of their relationship. She recounted the fateful day when she heard a series of pops as she sat in class. It could be the drum corps but the rhythm was sporadic. She was surprised to see her mystery library pen pal enter her classroom. He wasn’t in her class. She thought he might have discovered who she was. There was an innocent thrill. But then she saw the gun and students dropped to the ground around her. She realized he didn’t know who she was and then she felt a tightness in her chest.

The young girl’s mom insisted that the shooter’s mom read her daughter’s commencement speech. In tears, Beth tried to read. This play is so powerful as it hits home in a community still recovering from the Pulse Nightclub shooting. The number of students shot was never clear but one number always came to my mind. The sadness was overwhelming. The performances stellar. A sobering show like this proves that the Fringe Festival isn’t all about fun and games, it also is a showcase for inspired serious theater.

Evacuated at Fringe.

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Erika Kate MacDonald told an unforgettable story of her time in Indonesia as an exchange student at Fringe this year. She recreated the bustle and excitement of the crowded city, often stopping to explain what some exotic word might mean. She was so well versed in the language and culture that she might forget to explain every nuance.

To explain the beauty found in the culture she decided to sing a song about a popsicle.  The song was so lyrical and moving but was only about walking with a frozen desert. 

Erika described an evening as she tried to go to sleep. In the corner of the room was a strange scraping sound; something was trying to climb the wall. it would get half way up and then collapse back down to the ground. She lay in bed terrified not sure what to do. So, she decided to research what it might be. She never found the answer but the book fell out of her hands and crushed whatever it was. 

She described an evening swimming in the pool with friends and seeing what looked like shooting stars. The flashes came at regular intervals until she finally realized that they weren’t stars at all. The flashes were actually bats flying through the spot lights. There was magic and mystery all around her.

Then came a day when all the TV stations showed news of uprisings in Jakarta. In a particularly jarring scene with flashing colored club lights, Erica recreated a plea of a woman telling everyone to get out of the country, that foreigners were not welcome. Foreigners had to be evacuated. The exchange students went to the airport as fast as they could with the help of others, but flights were booked. They returned day after day trying to escape. The uncertainty and fear of the students and parents became visceral in her telling.

This show had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. This kind of straight forward storytelling is why the Fringe Festival is so magical. Personal experience can come alive when played out on the stage.

Uncertainty at Fringe.

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Eric Pinder wrote and stars in Uncertainty, in which he goes back in time to give advice to his younger self, Blake (Clark Levi). Clark has an uncanny similarity in appearance to Eric and he manages to mimic Erics every Mannerism. Blake’s demanding mother (Jessica Hoehn) is determined to see her son go to Princeton to become a lawyer but he has more artistic ambitions. The house lights flashed as Pinder returned to his past to confront his younger self in his 1960s tie die shirt. His first advice to himself was to moisturize his skin. Of course Blake doesn’t believe he is speaking to himself so Pinder had to convince him by remembering very specific  events form his past.

In a very convincing scene, Blake confides in a boy friend that he is attracted to him. The feeling is mutual and there is nothing quite like seeing young love bloom. When his mom finds out he is gay, she is confused. It doesn’t fit into her grand plan for her son. There is a lovely scene in which her husband comforts her and the love between the married couple feels tangible. That level of affection used to seem unreal but I’m starting to appreciate it. The mom as the antagonist was on stage for only brief moments, yet she must have been a huge influence on young Blake. Why did she project so many ambitions on her son?

At on half hour, the show flew by leaving me wanting more. I barely had time to get my tiny sketch on the page. I imagine that going into your past could be useful, but the only tangible message seemed to be to stay true to yourself. The visit from the future must have prompted the ability to come out to his parents. Hiding who you are must have lasting future repercussions, but they were never discussed in the play. Friends and family accepted him for who he was. Most already knew.

Black in the Box at Fringe.

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Black in the Box starring Marlon Andrew Burnlet was held in the red venue. The screen at the back of the stage flickered with static, and the actor suddenly was thrust out from behind the screen. He would recover and make his way back only to be trust our again. Audio of slave auctions and viscous bidding filled the room. Whips snapped.

Ultimately he dragged out a large wooden box wrapped in chains. It was heavy judging from his gestures and the sweat that flowed down his back. He struggled to unwrap the box from its chains and then he looked inside and froze in horror. The audience couldn’t see what was inside. He stepped inside and the screen flickered backwards the dates jumping back decades and hundreds of years at at a time. In this was he immersed us all in the world of his past ancestors, reliving the lives of those who came before.

Slaves struggled and toiled with whippings and starvation as their only reward. Families were ripped apart. Ultimately the Civil War brought with it the hope of freedom. The actor wore a tattered uniform and fired a gun at his oppressors. However this hope of idealistic freedom was short lived as racism meant that jobs weren’t much better after the war.

Just being able to wear shoes was a luxury and as soon as he put the shoes on he began to tap dance, feeling the rhythms of his past. Vaudeville offered a place to earn a buck through dance but it was grueling work. Hecklers from the audience treated him like a dancing monkey, an oddity. Between performances he took out a hip flask and sipped booze. His pants were piss stained. Throughout, the actor wore masks that were grotesque visions of how blacks were seen by their oppressors.

This was serious and strong theater. I felt uncomfortable at times, perhaps guilty of my white privilege. I glanced around the audience to see that there were no black reporters in the press preview. The actor threw himself into the rolls, sweating profusely and exerting himself in every way. Historic photos reminded me of every phase of my country’s inhumanity to man. Several hundred years later that inhumanity remains. An insane man can use an assault rifle to gun down dancing patrons a dozen at a time, blacks, whites and Latinos.  Progress is slow and painful.

The Lawn of Fabulousness at the Fringe.

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Much of the magic of the Fringe happens on the Green Lawn of Fabulousness. The beer tent is the place to go to order a beer and talk to actors and producers to find out the buzz about the top shows each year. As I was finishing up a drink and waiting for a friend, I noticed these fairy wings being created. I asked to do a sketch and she was fine with me sitting and observing. The wings made from flexible branches and light pink weave were going to be used for an interactive show happening in the evenings at the large live oak tree in front of the Mennello Museum. This wings had two battery packs which illuminated a series of tiny lights.

The wings were for Phoenix Tears Production’s Stardust After Dark immersive experience.The production company featured two immersive audio dramas at Orlando Fringe. With nothing more than a smart phone and a pair of headphones they will
transformed the area around Loch Haven Park into the magical Stardust
Kingdom. In Stardust After Dark, which takes place in the evenings, the audience encountered two characters as they invite
you to shed the mortal world and come and join them in an 18+
celebration full of pixie dust, rum, and the seductive call of a Siren.

I didn’t have a chance to catch the actual show. My only hint at the magic was this pair of light gossamer wings which were crafted with loving care.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for June 3rd and 4th.

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Saturday June 3, 2017

9am to 1pm Free. Orange County Hurricane Expo. 

South Econ Community Park 3800 S. Econlockhatchee Trail, Orlando FL. Learn about hurricane preparedness and pick up free emergency supplies like weather radios and first aid kits.

10aqm to 4pm Free. Florida Highwaymen Meet and Greet.  Meet seven of the African American artists who found success in the
segregated South of the 1950s and hear their stories. Art available for
purchase.

Noon to 2pm $9 Pulse Tribute Event: The Birdcage.  Benefit screening of the Robin Williams comedy. Net proceeds go to the Better Together Fund.

Sunday June 4, 2017

10:00an to 11:30am Free. Healthfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness

A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources.Weekly.

3:30pm to 4:30pm Free, Paul Adey. R and B. Orlando Public Library 101 E. Central Blvd. Downtown Orlando Fl.

5pm to 2am $35-$45 Arena Nighttime Pool Party: onePULSE Tea Dance.  DoubleTree By Hilton Orlando at Sea World 10100 International Drive I-Drive Universal. Close out the 27th annual GayDays Celebration. A portion of the proceeds go to the onePULSE Foundation.