Cocaine Bear the Opera

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I caught a dress rehearsal for Cocaine Bear the Opera which will be performed at this year’s Fringe festival. The show is written and produced by Eric Pinder.

If you have ever been to an opera or even seen some bugs bunny cartoons that use the classics, you will be familiar with the music, now with lyrics telling the tale of a cocaine crazed bear.

I know of the movie which this opera is built around, but I haven’t seen it. The opera holds its own as a hilarious romp.

The show begins with a drug runner dreaming of his future life filled with beautiful woman now that he is in possession of a stack of cocaine bricks. On the rear projection screen a plane on a stick bobs up and down before crashing into the forest.

A bear finds the mysterious substance which he calls “magic snow” and he lusts after it like Gollum after the ring.

There are lots of intestinal entrails when people find the magic snow and the bear defends his stash. I was entertained by a lustful scene between two park rangers who were then both disemboweled by the bear. Strangely a little girl in tears caused the bear to pause and take pity. Horrific chase scenes played out in delightful slow motion.

The glue holding this all together was classic operatic ballads that were so familiar that I found myself humming along. This is a strange quirky but absolutely delightful show. I give it five bloody bear paws.

The show will be in the Peach Venue inside the Orlando Family Theater. It is rated 18 and up for some language and suggestive situations. The run time is 50 minutes and Tickets are $15.

Show times:

  • Wednesday May 15, 5:45pm
  • Saturday May 18, 9:50pm
  • Sunday May 19, 10:05pm
  • Monday May 20, 9:35pm
  • Tuesday May 21, 6:05pm
  • Saturday May 25, 12:30pm
  • Sunday May 26, 9:40pm

Brain Bros Presents: Uber Chronicles

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When going to the Fringe show, Brain Bros Presents: Urber Chronicles, I imagined I might experience a show that showcased the unexpected insights gathered from candid and insightful conversations with Uber passengers.

The show was part rap and much stumbling. A phone alarm started going off in the audience. “Who’s phone is that?! He shouted. People looked around in confusion. It turns out it was his phone. He made his way into the audience and grabbed it. It was just a strange unrehearsed moment of chaos.

Beats were provided by Fryemixes who was seated in the audience. When he stood and explained how he was mixing the beats, I wanted to hear more. I wish he was also in front of the audience. His creative process was fascinating. I liked that Brain Bro had a large photo of his dead dog Cooper Thatius leaning up against a flat of a taxi.

He wanted audience participation and this group of seasoned Fringers were more than happy to play along. Since he wasn’t great with the dance moves, he asked several audience members to get up and act as his back up dancers. The two dancers did an awesome job swaying to the beats and even ventured to try and do a moon walk. Part of the appeal of the show is the fact that it is such a train wreck. I admire the effort, and perhaps the show will find it’s feet over the course of it’s Fringe run.

I was surprised that COVID did play a part in the show monologue. Usually any mention of the C word is certain death in entertainment. People prefer to pretend it didn’t happen and certainly they don’t want to think the pandemic is still ongoing.  He said the pandemic experience changed him forever. However he referred to the pandemic in the past tense. Based on the show flats, it would seem he must have been in NYC during the worst wave of the NYC COVID deaths at the start of the pandemic. The Fringe program however points out that he is an Orlando performer. Is his name Brain Bros? Probably not. Observations about the pandemic were  cursory, all he seemed to gain was some patience at stop lights where he peruses his social media.

ReTRIBUTEion: The Ultimate Tribute Band Tribute

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I went to Renaissance Theater to sketch a dress rehearsal for ReTRIBUTEion. The show is a sort of fictional mockumentary about a 1980s and 1990s hardcore rock tribute band.

When I entered the theater, there was an argument between actors in front of the stage. I would have to press past them to make my way up into the seating area. I soon realized they were rehearsing. It was a very Meta moment. It was hard to distinguish between the rehearsal and the performance.

Between sets there are video interviews with band members about the history of the group. I love that an Austin Powers look alike proclaimed the band the Beetles of tribute bands.

I have sketched multiple times at a celebrity impersonator convention here in Orlando and it was rewarding to see so many familiar faces.

The show felt custom written for actress Monica Leamy. It followed the bands start as a high school garage band and its endless chameleon morphing into many celebrity tribute bands. When an Ozzie Osborn tribute singer joined the band things blew up and the group became famous in tribute circles. With so many big celebrity impersonators collaborating tensions grew for who should take center stage.

I loved the show. I was often laughing out loud and swaying to the rock and roll beat. The producer warned that the music might be rather loud, but I was fine with the levels. Then again I am adjusting to living in a home that is on the Orlando Airport landing flight path. The house rumbles as the planes fly maybe 100 feet overhead. I highly advise that you check this show out, I had a blast.

Fringe performances are on…

  • 9:00PM Saturday May 18,
  • 10:30PM Sunday May 19,
  • 8:30pm Tuesday May 21,
  • 6:30PM Wednesday May 22,
  • 9:30PM Thursday May 23,
  • 9:30PM Friday May 24,
  • 6:00 Monday May 26

The venue is the Renaissance Theater Company. The show is rated 13 and up. Runtime is 60 minutes. Tickets are $15 plus a Fringe button.

 

COVID Dystopia: Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse

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The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse shot from COVID Dystopia has the flames animated. There is a fast pan from right to left slowing down towards blind justice.

The fifth horseman also tilts back a bit but that is hardly noticeable with everything else going on. I could pump the fists up in the air, but that might distract from looking at the horsemen. I created some nice distortion in the smoke rising as well. I consider the shot complete.

Tonight I will begin sketching Fringe shows. The next week should be filled with reviews as I sketch each show in turn.

If there are any show producers who would like me to sketch a tech rehearsal, let me know. I plan to be sketching multiple shows every day and I will not have time on my end to reach out. Shows that reach out to me always get top priority for a sketch and write up.

I haven’t sketched at Fringe for the last several years due to COVID. With COVID levels low compared to the insane peaks, it is time for me to get back in the theaters and sketch my heart out.

I plan to sketch digital this year, so the drawings will be like the film stills but rougher, since a sketch has to be finished in an hour rather than a day.

Ophelia Pre-Show at Fringe Art Space

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Mallory Sabetodos Vance founded Phoenix Tears Productions, a local acting troupe that experiments with interactive theater. I have been sketching their quirky shows for years. They are now staging Ophelia, an original musical about Hamlets amore.

It was pouring as Pam and I drove to the theater. We honestly thought we might be the only people willing to go out in such insane weather. We got to the theater an hour early to be able to see the pre-show in the lobby of the new Fringe Art Space. Sure enough we were the only people in the lobby.

Mallory came out and explained that the show would be starting late because of the weather. Apparently the drummer could not get off from work. With time to kill Pam and I looked around. The show has a well designed and illustrated poster. The poster artist also had her thick impasto floral paintings on display outside the bathrooms.

Originally I had not planned to sketch the pre-show but with an hour and a half to kill I decided there was plenty of time to get a sketch done of the lobby and ensuing frivolity.

The actresses began to trickle out and interact with the gathering crowd. Combine,  in a peach colored dress (Emily Sheetz) kept dusting all the surfaces in the room. She asked the couple next to us to get up so she could dust their seats. Thankfully she left me to sketch in peace. Violet, (Carson Holley), in a light purple dress came over. welcomed us and offered her hand which I delicately shook. In Hamlet’s day a gentleman would have stood and kissed her hand, but I was busy sketching.

There was an Ophelia backdrop where people could have their pictures taken. Violet was gleefully encouraging people to pose. In contrast, Rue (Lex Bently) lurked nearby all in black exuding her goth menace. Fennel (Ashley Vogt) in her bright pink stippers outfit and fabulous white leather boots with massive heels, made her way into the sketch.

Fringe: The City Beautiful

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On the evening of my Fringe film premiere, dancers from The City Beautiful dropped off cards and talked about the show as we drank beer at the beer tent. Now Pam is the director of the Orange County Regional History Center so of course she would be curious about the history being presented.

The show was presented in the green venue which was packed to the overflowing. Pam and I were the only ones masked up. The show was more of a musical than a burlesque show, though pasties did appear a few times. One singer, Marissa was a lead in the Key of E which was very familiar with since a singe from that show was the backbone of the soundtrack for the short film I just finished. As always she belted out the songs with professional aplomb.

The history seemed to jump around quite a bit. Some momentum was lost as dancers were asked to simply read from the history book. The show does have a lot of potential however and I am glad I had a chance to see it. I have lost practice in sketching inside a dark theater but I just had to accept what I could do.

Fringe Favorite: Bugged Lady

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This was my favorite show that I saw at Fringe this year. It was a site specific show held at Leu gardens. Sandi Linn played the part of Professor Levi instructing a class of Invertebrate Biology 101. Sandi actually works at Leu gardens teaching similar lasses to school children as her daytime job. She wanted to present a show that was a bit edgier than her day to day classes.

In this show professor Levi presented real live insects to the crowded Fringe audience. Invertebrates make up over 80% of life on earth. You could tell form her presentation that the professor had a true love of insects, particularly the most venomous and frightening. When in undergraduate studies she was the only woman in her class. She was teased and told she should pursue an occupation more suitable for a woman.

On a field trip with classmates and a professor, she wanted no part in the lewd campfire banter so she retired. She was startled awake with the drunken professor forcing himself on her. She got even when she discoverer a huge nest of these cockroaches and mistakenly dropped them all over her sleeping professor.  She had a terrarium full of hissing cockroaches that she massaged with her hands to make them hiss. She walked the room so we all could hear and flinch.

The moral that threads its way through her presentation is that insects only will attack if they are threatened. Though she was the best student in her class she was passed over for promotions. Strangely the unqualified student who was promoted over her also was attacked by thousands of insects. he swatted at then which only made then angry. Over time she had to settle on teaching for as she said those who can not do, teach.

We got so see glowing scorpions, tarantulas, venomous grasshoppers. centipedes tape worms and of course hissing cockroaches up close and personal. The show was educational and horrifying.

COVID: Premiere

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The film, COVID had it’s premiere at Fringe this year in the visual artists area. I had screened a film several years ago and that screening happened in the outdoor tent behind the Shakes. In my Facebook invite that is where I directed people. I got to the outdoor tent about half an hour before the screening began. It was surprisingly light outside but I started blocking in my sketch, thinking I would sketch the audience as they arrived.

I was still blocking in my sketch in pencil when I began to realize that the movie screen had not been set up yet. Pam and several friends arrived. And Pam decided to go in the shakes and figure out where the screening was happening. Andy Matchett, who wrote the amazing single that is the basis of the short, showed up and we went inside together to see if the screening was indeed inside.

The screening was actually in the round planetarium room which was being used for visual Fringe. There was a full crowd. I realized that I didn’t have the time to complete a sketch, so I sat and relaxed for the show. The pencil sketch I had started is under the sketch I have posted here. I didn’t have an erased so it can be seen faintly underneath this quickly executed sketch.

Most of the seats were taken so we sat at the kids table to watch which was separated from the main audience. Since chairs had run out a comfy recliner was pulled away from the wall and I offered it to Andy. He deserved it since his music is amazing and the show Key of E had premiered at Fringe 10 years prior. The singe I built the short around is “I just Can’t Wait (for the game to end)” and every word feels like it is about the COVID pandemic and a desire to return to normal. The song was written in 2013 but it feels like it was written in 2020 or today. I consider Andy a profit, though he hates for me to say that.

My film COVID was the only one that required a warning in case people wanted to shield themselves from the reality I was showcasing. After the screening we went to the outdoor beer tent. I was masked all night except for the moments I was downing a Hefferweisen beer. Being unmasked I was calculating wind directions and my distances from others. I usually insist on 22 feet of distance but that distance broke long enough for me to drink the beer and try the schnitzel. Pam went to order some schnitzel and in the time she was getting that I finished this sketch. I realized that I had left my pen at home, so this sketch was done with a colored pencil.

Before I finished the sketch, a singer in a captains cap and a uniform came over and asked if I was Thor. He thanked me for the work I had done for the opera in the past and he was glad I was out sketching theater on location again. It was nice to sketch live theater again but it is exhausting navigating in a world where people think the pandemic is over and I know the pandemic is far from over. A black N-95 is now a part of my everyday sketch uniform.

 

Poster Evolution: Kinky Boots Final

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Kinky Boots was a really fun poster to design. The idea came from watching  Hollywood Bubsby Berkely dance numbers. I saw one scene there the camera trucked down between a long row of dancers legs. I watched YouTube videos of various productions go get an idea of what the show was like but unfortunately I missed the show at the Shakes. I have been so caught up in the film production that the show slipped past my radar.

It is a really fun production, I am rather sad that I missed it. It is about an old show factory in England that has run across hard times since they only produce old fashioned shoes that are going out of style. The entire staff including inflexible yokels are set the task of producing Kinky Boots to keep the business alive. It is a joyous musical.

Anyway my COVID film is wrapped up and I am looking for ways to promote it. I don’t know how to get The challenge will be to get as many eye balls as possible to see it in the coming weeks. The world premiere will be May 19, 2023 at the free Fringe Film showcase inn the Shakespeare outdoor courtyard. I had to put a warning in front of the film. This has to be the first time an Fringe animated film had had a warning. I can’t wait to see how an audience reacts. I’ll be there with my mask on.

Pandemic Film: Digital Depth

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Today at the last second this shot replaced a shot of a couch potato lounging with the virus with beer bottles and pizza strewn about. In this shot children inspect the virus with their cell phones. It tied in better with the lyrics. The other issue with the couch potato is that it depicted Mark Wahlberg. Pam picked up on that fact and I realized that if the star caught her attention I might want to change it so the scene would not be about star identification.

This is a depth map I just painted to fix an issue I noticed in the final render of the film. The virus became distorted around the children;s heads so I went in and darkened the negative shapes between them. The fix might not be in the film shown at the free Fringe screening on May 19, 2023 at 6pm in the Shakes outdoor courtyard. I will probably cut this into future edits that will make the rounds at film festivals.

Today I got caught up in trying to complete a final render. The computer kept freezing just as the audio stated in the film. After hours of research I found that the bitrate didn’t match between the audio clip in the timeline and the final output. I had to change the render bitrate from 384 to 320 and then all was well. This type of arbitrary tech stuff is soul crushing but I managed to get the render completed. Pam is going to coach me on how to submit the film using Google Docs. Today I counted and there are over 200 paintings in the animated short I am submitting.

May 11, 2023 the United States is dropping the COVID state of emergency. All future medical expenses are out of pocket for any American infected. The pandemic is not over but the state of emergency is. May 11. 2023 therefor is this films birthday.