PeeVira’s SCAREavan at Fringe.

Posted on by Thor

I went to a press preview for PeeVira’s SCAREavan at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. The van pulled up in front of the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. A chauffeur wearing a black cap came out and welcomed the audience. She guided us ti the back of the van and opened the doors. A blood spattered curtain welcomed  us. This felt a bit more like a kidnapping rather than a show. we piled in and wedged ourselves up against the walls of the van cabin. I started sketching the cramped quarters immediately. We lurched forward and the show was on the move.

The van was driving over cobblestones. It made sketching a real challenge. Then PeeVira opened the curtain and sate back in the cabin with us. She got a phone call from a menacing third party and was told that if the people in the van didn’t answer trivia questions, then the van would be blown up. Each of us were given a microphone and we began singing a series of 70s and 80s TV theme songs. Luckily one passenger knew her stuff. Each right answers was awarded with some smarties candy. I managed to win one round by knowing the theme song for Sex and the City.

Most pop music trivia however eluded me and I kept getting soaked with a penis water pistol being fired by PeeVira. periodically there was a loud scream and we all wondered if the chauffeur had run over a pedestrian. From my sketching vantage point, I could see that we were circling the Shakespeare parking lot. The show was an unexpected change from the usual Fringe performance. It was fun if a little unnerving.

ThanksKilling the Musical at Fringe.

Posted on by Thor

ThanksKilling the Musical is based on the motion picture, “ThanksKilling” written by Jordan Downey and Kevin Stewart. The musical features music and lyrics by Jeff Thomson and Jordan Mann. With songs like “Boobies”, “The Jock and the Hick and the Nerd and the Slut” and Gobble Gobble Mother Fucker”, you know you are in for a fun ride. A stereo typical group of teens take a jeep on a road trip. It breaks down leaving them stranded. They make the best of the situation and build a campfire. The teens are terrorized by a killer turkey that began his killing spree because of some totem pole desecration.

One by one the students and then their parents are picked off by the killer turkey. One particularly memorable number featured Ali (Kayla Alvarez) having sex with her boyfriend the Hick (Johnnie Maier) . Greg is taking Ali from behind. Te turkey sneaks up behind Greg and slits his throat and then rapes Ali who is singing a song about Jon Benet Ramsey. She didn’t seem to notice the turkey as being any different than her boyfriend, until the turkey snaps her neck.

The remaining students do research and discover that they must remove a talisman from around the turkeys neck before they can murder the beast in a fiery blaze. All the music was campy and over the top. As one boy dies in the nerd’s arms they remember the amazing times they had together and sing a song of man love. Both are killed by the turkey and find themselves dressed in white singing a reprise to man love. If you like gore, sex and plenty of campy weird horror, then this is the musical for you.

Show Up at Fringe.

Posted on by Thor

Pete Michael Marino from New York City, grew tired of seeing solo Fringe shows about a person’s life. He decided to instead create a show built around the lives of members of his audience. He pointed out a quote by Woody Allen that said “Showing up is 80 percent of life. Sometimes it’s easier to hide home in bed. I’ve done both.” Since we had shown up for his show, he felt we were all 80% of the way towards an amazing and entertaining show.

Pete picked out a cute young woman from the audience and he dubbed her his stage manager. Her job became to reorganize the chairs and table for each scene. On the back wall of the theater there were large post it notes that were used to define the basic structure for the stories to follow. The audience was asked questions that then became the underlying structure for each scene.

Pete confided that he had been diagnosed with an early case of Alzheimer’s…. by his friends. He therefor was fine with staying “on Book” referring to loose notes he had scribbled on a sheet of paper. Much of each scene however was pure long form improvisation and he flew by the seat of his pants. According to him, he had no idea what he was doing which added to the allure that the show could potentially self destruct at any moment. He managed to keep the show light and entertaining despite the challenges.

After the last scene he divided up the audience into sections and invited us all to mingle on the stage for a party. I was assigned to serve imaginary drinks which I did with gusto. Once everyone had imaginary drinks in hand they felt comfortable to mingle and mix on the stage. A string of Christmas lights was unfurled among the party goers. It was certainly a fun and unexpected way to end the show.

Beau and Arrow: Crash Landing at Fringe.

Posted on by Thor

A Little Bit Off, from Portland, Oregon presented Beau and Aero: Crash Landing, a show featuring a whirlwind of acrobatic and slapstick antics. Pilot Beau and his sidekick Aero,two bumbling aviators,have crash landed, and will try anything to get back in the air. These foolish pilots live in a world where balloons are bountiful, laughs are abundant, and hardly a word is spoken.

After hearing a plane crash in the darkness of the theater, Beau stumbled out wrapped inside a parachute. A rag doll version of Arrow was thrust up and over a black backstage curtain. The house went black Beau tried to revive his side kick. she was fine, but playfully slid back to a reclined position any time Beau turned his back.

Much of the involved playful uses for balloons. Beau offered a balloon to a young girl in the audience and right before she grabbed it, he let go ad the balloon spit out air and flew away in s spiraling trajectory. A woman picked from the audience held a fool wide hoop which Beau shoot a sputtering balloon through. The balloons always flew off course. Somehow a ping pong ball was thrust inside arrow’s balloon. She squeezed the balloon and it shot the ping pong ball right into Beau’s chest. He then went into slow sequence in which he acted out his horror ad shock about being shot. He stumbled over to the woman from the audience, and she held him much like the Pieta as he faded away. The sweat on Beau’s brow reminded me that all the antics aren’t easy.

As a giant 5 foot high red balloon was inflated, the audience was covered with the parachute. Amazingly both Beau and arrow crawled inside the balloon. The audience was warned that there would be a loud noise, and the balloon popped To show that Beau and Aero had both changed into brightly colored acrobat’s jump suits. It is rare for a show to make me feel a child like wonder, but Beau and Arrow accomplished that.

Remaining show times,

Sunday May 28, 2017 at 4:30pm in the Green Venue 1001 East Princeton Street Orlando FL.

There aint No More; Death of a Folksinger, at Fringe.

Posted on by Thor

Death of a Folksinger is a one man show based on the legends of American Folk Music and the early vaudeville stage. Willie Carlisle took the audience on a high energy romp through the history of the music genera. The scene opened with Willie wearing an old man mask as he sang a lonesome tune. Different characters played banjo, violin, and a squeeze box.

He did a quick series of snippets as if performing with the USO for troops over seas. He would hold the banjo suggestively to his hips and thrust if forward announcing his presence at hill 69. Of course the hill had another number instead. A scroll behind him was turned to show a series of black and white shadow illustrations that visualized the characters in a song.

Described as a haunting and heartfelt hootenanny, the multi layered show had Willie exhausted and sweating as he danced and performed his heart out. The mask he wore had a skull painted on the inside surface and when he saw that he performed with even more gusto to try and save off death. I had fun documenting this very American musical performance.

We Don’t Play Fight at the Fringe.

Posted on by Thor

I was surprised and pleased to see an entire wrestling ring set up inside the Orange Venue at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, (812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL 32803) for We Don’t Play Fight. Professional wrestling is a form of theater in itself with each character having a back story. A wrestling promoter introduced the show explaining that he was searching for new talent to bring to the wrestling ring so that he might earn his way back into the big leagues. A female wrestler built like a tank wanted to begin training. The trainer like a drill Sargent didn’t allow her to training in half measures. She had to be all in or she should  get out. He yelled at her and berated her trying to get her to bring some anger into the ring. Her sister who never spoke a word, watched every move. These sisters had been in a car crash that killed both their parents. The shy sister watching the ring hadn’t said a word since the accident.

After an extensive slow motion training sequence it was finally time for the brick house sister to have her first match. She was doing great against a low class hick when the referee blew his whistle to end the first bout. she was clearly winning. When her opponent fell to the mat, it made a loud drum like resonating thud. When she turned her back to her opponent to walk to her corner of the ring, he blindsided her and broke her arm in a clear act of unsportsmanlike conduct. The silent sister came roaring into the ring to save her sister. She whaled on the hick who specifically hurt her sister to end her career. He was helpless against the silent sisters fury. She jumped off the ropes to pin him down and then she held him in a menacingly long choke  hold. The promoter desperate for a new wrestler had found a Tasmanian devil the the silent sister. When he offered her the job, she shouted with delight.

People in the audience played along shouting, cheering and booing when needed. The spectacle verged on the edge of art imitating life. An evil clown, whose sloppy make up reminded me of the Joker from Batman,  wrestled against a gold masked Adonis. Story fell to the wayside as the wrest;ling bouts heated up. I had hoped for a solid linear story, but action usurped story structure. Still, it was fun to watch the wrestlers throw themselves at each other in the loud tympani of a ring. Wrestling is big in Orlando right now with Full Sail hosting the WWE. A large wrestling logo blocked views of Lake Eola last month and people were always shooting photos of themselves in front of the garish monolith. There is no accounting for taste. 

Tickets are $12

Remaining show times for WE DON’T PLAY FIGHT:

Sunday May 28, 2017 at  4:30pm

Trading Soles at Fringe.

Posted on by Thor

I went to a rehearsal of Trading Soles written by Franco Colon. This show is a Bring Your Own Venue production. BYOV venues allow for more choices off of the usual Fringe lawn epicenter of the festival. The rehearsal space was off set from the road so it wasn’t easy to find. Actress Crysta Marie guided us in. The empty showroom had a two beds and several night stands. Bodies were lying on the floor.

Director Joseph Adam Gonzolez quickly explained the shows premise. BEN (Justin Cortes), an awkward freshman, meets his new roommate in college, ELI, (Franco Colon)an
arrogant, charming sophomore. BEN and ELI are complete opposites and do
not get along due to their differences. Ben has enough and tries to
move out of the dorm, but that’s when the chaos begins. Just when things
couldn’t get worse, they switch bodies. ELI sleeps
in his shoes and then they talk about walking in someones steps. They
wake up to find they are in each other’s bodies, more like trading
souls.

BEN and ELI have no choice but
to come together and figure out what in the world just happened. ELI is a closeted gay, and towards the end of the play while in his friends body, he comes out to Ben’s, mom (Crysta Marie). Her scream scared me half out of my whits. I wasn’t expecting it.

I only got to see the last few scenes of the play. I’m not sure why bodies littered the floor. The sketch was finished in a panicked flash.

TRADING SOLES remaining show times:
Thursday, May 25th, 10 PM
Saturday, May 27th, 7 PM
Sunday, May 28th, 4:30 PM

TICKET PRICING:
$10.00 Fringe Button (Sold at Breakthrough Theater 421 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789) $9.00 + $1.25 ticketing fee (ONLINE or AT FRINGE BOX OFFICE ONLY. TICKETS WILL NOT BE SOLD AT BREAKTHROUGH)

Corsets and Cuties – A Burlesque Cabaret – #flawless

Posted on by Thor

Corsets and Cuties has a Fringe show this year titled Flawless in the black venue which is in “The Venue”, (511 Virginia Dr, Orlando, FL 32803). When I arrived for the dress rehearsal, everyone was working their way through the final dance number. With that worked out they then started to get into their outfits. Corsets had to be laced. Barbie Rhinestone leaned forward as another dancer pulled the laces tight. “Can you breath?” she was asked. When she said “Yes”, the laces got pulled tighter. Each corset had a different letter on the front, like an O, and a T. The letters finally made sense when all the dancers lines up on stage and spelled Strong.

Some numbers were outright hilarious. This is burlesque with a comic twist and it will shock and amaze you. The group numbers celebrated all that is good about Orlando. You kind of expect delays and some glitches in a rehearsal and there was a problem back stage between numbers. A workman in a black hoodie came out tightening screws with a drill. Well the worker turned out to be a performer, and a sexy one at that. In one dance, a guy sat in a chair and a female performer did a handstand and leg split right in front of him. He was supposed to grab her hips but he grabbed her legs. They had to do the move over again, and then one more time during the performance. 

If you want a lighthearted and fun Fringe evening, then I would suggest  stopping out to the Black Venue for Flawless.

Show Times:

Price: $12

Thursday May 18, 2017 at 11:59pm

Sunday May 21, 2017 at 10:30pm

Wednesday May 24, 2017 at 9:00pm

Thursday May 25, 2017 at 11:59pm

Sunday May 28, 2017 at 9pm

O-Town: Voices from Orlando

Posted on by Thor

I was still reporting about the Orlando International Fringe Festival last year when the horrific shooting at the Pulse nightclub happened on June 12, 2016. Fringe is once again going to burst onto the Lock Haven Park complex bringing drama, and comedy for a solid week on unrelenting theater and fun. Last year after the shooting I asked Orlando artists to go to the Falcon Bar to create 49 portraits of the innocent lives lost at Pulse. Those 49 portraits were then exhibited at the Orlando Science Center and on that evening I was interviewed about the project. That interview then became the source of inspiration for a monologue in O-Town.

Prints of the 49 portraits hung behind the stage giving the somber impression of prison bars. The play is based on a series of interviews conducted mostly by David Lee, of people who have been affected by the tragedy. It opens with a monologue inspired by Our Town written by Thornton Wilder. The opening described Orlando on the eve of the shooting. People and places would be very different the next day. A homeless man would be lighting candles at the Dr Phillips memorial site each night, a costume shop owner would soon be creating thousands of rainbow ribbons…

I spoke with Christopher Hanson multiple times about how he survived that night at Pulse. The actor playing Christopher told the story of survival and personal responsibility with humor and lots of heart. Then the actor playing me took to the stage. I was surprised to find myself tearing up based on things I had said a year ago. It seems like a lifetime ago. People in the audience were also getting choked up. One woman cried through the whole show. I had just one paper towel I had decided to bring in from the men’s room.

Other monologues described fighting hate with love using Angel Action Wings made of PVC and and white fabric. People who planned to protest the funerals of Pulse victims were blocked by these angels who would sing to drown out their hate. A first responders wife described how her husband was changed by his evening in the aftermath of Pulse. He would experience PTSD from that night onward and there was no disability for the mental anguish. Had be broken his leg then there would be help.

These stories are all part of the larger picture of an entire community trying to recover from a horrible act of violence. A year later and the scars are still there, but Orlando had answered with love and acceptance. Hateful people still thrive, feeling invulnerable in a country in which politics encourage hate and accusations.  They try to cause senseless harm, but love is stronger that hate. It was an emotional night. After the show. I was hugged by several people who recognized me. I shut my eyes and felt the warmth. Tears streamed down my face.

All the monologues in O-Town: Voices from Orlando will be presented together on the Eve of the one year mark of the attack on Pulse Nightclub on Sunday June 11, 2017 at 7pm at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center in the Margeson Theater. Profits will benefit the onePulse Foundation.org.

I can’t recommend this show enough. The monologues focus the audiences attention on aspects of the tragedy that never made their way to mainstream media outlets. It is a human and multi layered fabric. I met the actor, Daniel Cooksley, who played my part on stage. He said he had never performed a part with the subject sitting in the audience.

Fringe Show Times:

May 17, 2017 at 6PM

May 20, 2017 at 7PM

May 22, 2017 at 7PM

May 26, 2017 at 8:15PM

May 27, 2017 at 12:15PM

May 28, 2017 at 11:15AM

The Fringe Closing Ceremony and Awards.

Posted on by Thor

On the final night of Fringe, Awards are handed out to all the best shows.On this 25th Anniversary of the Fringe Festival, over 50,000 tickets were sold. That resulted in $400,000 going to Fringe Artists. There were 119 sold out performances this year. The Fringe keeps getting bigger and better.

The out door Stage Tent got crowd for the ceremonies. Those who couldn’t fit inside the tent, sat in lawn chairs on the lawn of fabulousness. As awards went to the show with the most sold out performances the sky grew dark and it began to rain. Performers crushed inside the tent. I had been sitting on the outside of the front row but the wind whipped the rain onto my sketch page. I decided to move into t center of the tent and I sketched Beth Marshall and those around her as they watched the ceremonies.

So many awards were given out that I started to feel like I was the only person in the tent who didn’t get one. A new award was created for a Fringe Patron of the year, Dewey Chaffee and Douglas McGeoch presented the award. They reminisced about a. Fringe show that was going great, Dewey had the audience entranced in the palm of his hand, when a drunk audience member got sick and had to be escorted out of the theater. Dewey  tried to make it appear as if this was all part of the show. When the sick patron was gone, silence enveloped the theater. A very old lady sat the front row, and Dewey said to her, “If you are going to pick a moment to die, this would be the perfect time.” The audience couldn’t stop laughing and the show u back on track. Douglas then explained that Helen, the woman in the front row, then wrote the performers often, encouraging them to keep the faith as they struggled in New York City. Dewey got choked up as he spoke about her generosity. It took her some tin to get on stage to accept the award with her walker and the supporting hand of friends. It was a heart warming moment.

Edgar Allan performed by Katie Hartman, and Nick Ryan was named the best show by local critics. Other Critics Choice Awards winners included…

• Best play — comedy: ‘The Animatronicans’

• Best play — drama: ‘Thomas Jefferson: My Master, My Slave, My Friend’

• Best play — musical: ‘Simpleton: The Legend of President Trump’

• Best solo show — comedy: ‘Stewart Huff: Sense Ain’t Common’

• Best solo show — drama: ‘Rocket Man and Kaleidoscope, by Ray Bradbury’

• Best solo show — musical: ‘From Broadway to Obscurity’

• Best dance show: ‘VarieTease: Carnivale’

• Best physical-theater work: ‘Trick Boxing: Swingin’ in the Ring’

• Best original script: ‘Inescapable,’ by Martin Dockery

• Best female performance: Katie Hartman (‘Edgar Allan’)

• Best male performance: Jim Braswell (‘Thomas Jefferson’)

• Best ensemble performance: ‘5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche’

• Technical achievement: ‘Space’



Patrons Picks resulted in each show having an extra show added on Memorial Day.

• Blue – Sex With Animals

• Blue – Shirley Gnome: Real Mature

• Brown – 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche

• Brown – Slut Like Me

• Gold – Simpleton: The Legend of President Trump

• Gold – Taffy and Tonya Live! At the Ramada Inn Key West

• Green – Fruit Flies Like a Banana – Alphabetical Disorder

• Green – Doro & Diega Explore Middle Class America!

• Orange – VarieTease: Carnivale

• Orange – Lil Women: A Rap Musical

• Pink – Bella Culpa

• Pink – The Foreplay: An Exploration of the Birth of our Nation

• Purple – 21 Chump Street – The Musical

• Purple – Murder Sleep

• Red – Inescapable

• Red – Women Behind Bars

• Silver – The Road To Zamboria

• Silver – God Is a Scottish Drag Queen IV

• Yellow – The Animatronicans

• Yellow – Peter Pan-ish: The Musical