Frank to be Frank at Fringe.

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World-renowned! The Rat Pack’s 17th member! America’s most entertaining entertainer invites you to partake in his interactive live life retrospective. This riveting glimpse into a very special leading man is brought to you by Australian comic Emily June Newton and director Deanna Fleysher (aka Butt Kapinski). FRANK will grab you by your shoulders and make you feel nostalgia for a star you never knew!

As we entered the round patron’s room, Frank welcomed each audience member. Some were given mini flashlights. Frank is a woman dressed as a man, pretending to be a woman dressed like a man. Gender and the theatrical five o’clock shadow were all quite confusing. I had been advised to see this show thanks to one of the critics at the press preview.  Several bolts of fabric were at the front of the sage, and Frank showed them to the audience saying in a sing son voice, “beautiful fabrics!” The audience when coached sang along. Frank regaled us with his many successes and the audience was puddy in his hands.

He held a popularity contest with one member of audience and was shocked as the tide gradually turned in favor of the audience member. The theater went black an Frank hid back stage and tried to sneak out of the theater but intrepid audience members caught him in the beams of their flash lights. Frank shouted “No! Don’t shine that light on me!” Which meant, please keep me in the limelight.

Later that evening, after the show, we stood in line for Joe’s NYC Bar and there was a beautiful actress in front of us. Perhaps because I had been sketching, I recognized her as Frank. She said that our audience had been the best audience she had experienced at fringe. The whole “Beautiful fabrics” routine had been improvised and built upon because the audience was so willing to play along. There is a certain magic that happens when a performer meets just the right audience. I was glad to be a witness to some of that magic thanks to Frank.

Joe’s NYC Bar Shakes up Mathew’s Tavern at this year’s Fringe.

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On The green lawn of fabulousness a friend and I bumped into actress Marty Stonerock ordering soft serve ice cream. She is one of the actors in Joe’s NYC Bar at Mathew’s Tavern. She let us know that the show was about to hit the 100th performance landmark. The show we were going to was the 99th. She said there was a good chance we all would be singing 99 Luft Balloons. We arrived a bit early and relaxed in the outdoor beer garden trying to avoid the insidious cigarette smoke. There was only one entrance and we didn’t know that a line was forming outside. A car alarm blasted the evening calm for a solid five minutes. Frank, from To be Frank was in line in front of us. I showed her the sketch I did of her performance earlier in in day. Someone who looked down on his luck worked the line offering free advice for $1. The bar owner (Christian Kelty) came out upset and they argued the merits of free advice versus panhandling. If he was panhandling then he should have been in a blue box.

The bar stools were all occupied but are found seats along the wall with a good view of the female guitarist who played acoustic for the pre- show. Three women dressed to the nines were near the guitarist. The bar tender offered the prettiest woman a Jack Daniels. It is impossible to separate the cast from the audience, and the audience joined in some serious heated debates about creative license with other peoples stories, and the right to privacy. A rich yuppie prick (John Connon) bragged about his riches and the number of women he had slept with. (he claimed to be approaching 600.) The guy offering free advice entered the bar. Arguments erupted and a bar stool crashed to the floor. The angry patron (Tim Williams) had to be bounced from the bar. Much later, this angry patron re-entered. The bar owner said he wasn’t welcome. The guy was right next to me as he apologized for disrespecting everyone. He spoke from the heart saying he doesn’t have a family. The patrons in the bar were his only family. He pointed to several regulars saying, “you are me family” to each. He pointed to me looked me in the eye and said the same. I noticed the woman who had been offered the free drink was choked up. Her eyes sparkled from the tears she tried to hold back. She finally had I wipe a tear a way with her pinkie.

The show seems largely improvised with certain story points being hit throughout.. The rehearsal I sketched a year ago had been completely different.  The heartbreak of love lost was discussed at some length. How do you separate from someone you love today? One of the women shouted, “Text message.”  The bar patrons argued about what matters in the hear and now, the play hit home with plenty of heart. It was an incredible night of theater. Absolute magic.

Drama erupts at Saint Mathew’s Tavern with Joe’s NYC Bar.

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I always tell people that if you sketch on location, some drama always unfolds. David Lee invited me to sketch at Saint Mathew’s Tavern (1300 N Mills Ave, Orlando, FL) and there was drama in spades. I found a seat in the corner of the bar next to a large speaker and got to work. I sketch in bars all the time but I seldom get to experience this level of heart felt camaraderie and gut wrenching drama. From the outset I felt this was a bar where everybody knew my name and I was invested in these peoples lives. This was interactive theater at its best.

Joe’s NYC Bar is an interactive, improvisational, immersive theatre
experience in which the audience is transported to a bar on Manhattan’s
lower east side. Debuting as part of the 2001 Orlando International
Fringe Theatre Festival, Joe’s ran for 4 years and 76 performances. This
past March Joe’s returned from a ten year absence and was greeted with
positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. The show sold out 5
of 6 shows in March and then all 4 performances at the 2015 Orlando
International Fringe Festival. Ten years later, Joe’s has proven to be a
concept and piece of theatre more relevant and popular than ever.

It was hard to tell where the play stopped and the inside jokes began. Some of the funniest moments were so topical that they had to be improvised. A straight laced Republican in a suit (Tim Williams) sat at my end of the bar and he seemed a bit out of place when everyone else was sleeveless or in T shirts. In a heated scene he confronted everyone saying “You don’t know me. You don’t know what I’ve been through.” This was true of everyone in the bar. What unfolded slowly, pealed away the layers to expose the inner pain that drove defensive behaviors. Much later in the evening, the Republican returned to the bar and found his recently separated wife (Anitra Pritchard-Bryant) was present. The bar went silent before the couple confronted each other.

Christian Kelty originated the idea for this interactive show. The seed was planted when he worked in a Renaissance festival show that invited the audience to participate. In this age of social media people are often interested in the endless drama that surfaces online every day. We have become a society of reality show voyeurs. In this everyday bar setting it becomes easy to let go and become part of the scene. Over the course of the evening it was possible to get to walk a mile in each character’s shoes. Even in this rehearsal, I wasn’t sure who was an actor and who just happened to be there for a drink. With a sold out show, that fourth wall must be even more blurry. Add a couple of drinks and the line is further blurred. Live local music acts fill out the evening, making it a typical night in the Mill’s 50 bar scene. Don’t just go to see a show. Be the show.


6 Performances
Running September 13th-October 18th
Sunday Matinees ONLY!
3:00pm doors 3:30 Showtime

Tickets available at:
www.wanzie.com
$17 in advance / $25 day of show

The stellar casts features: Anitra Pritchard-Bryant, Ali Flores, John Connon, Michael Marinaccio, Jenn Gannon, Simon Needham, Christian Kelty, David Lee, Tim Williams and Jodi Chase.

Musical Acts
9/20 The Smoking Jackets
9/27 and 10/4 Eugene Snowden (The Legendary JC’s) and Friends
10/11 DJ Jay Ross Barwick
10/18 TBA

The Art Mobile takes art to the streets of Orlando.

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It was a cold February night as the Art Mobile parked in front of St. Matthew’s Tavern at the Orlando Beer Garden, on North Mills Avenue, Orlando, FL starting at 10 pm. The truck was full of killer art by Franklin Reyes. Matt Boss (Producer/DJ) will be layed down the beats and Boy Kong. was painting a mural on the side of the building! I sketched as the U-Haul truck was decorated with a white sheet. The DJ had a projector that showed the Art Mobile logo and then a black and white film whose plot I couldn’t follow.

Franklin’s paintings were representational with a touch of mysticism. Colors were rich and vibrant with bold use of pattern. As I finished my sketch, drag queens began arriving at Mathew’s pub. This was clearly another great sketch opportunity, but I was cold, tired and satisfied with my one sketch. Boy Kong was just beginning his mural as I got ready to leave. He finish the mural very late that night, or very early the next day depending on how you look at it. The mural was up for maybe a month or so and then it was painted over with an image for a show called “Joe’s NYC Bar” that had actors interacting with other patrons in the bar as the story unfolded. I was curious about this interactive theatrical production but it didn’t cross my radar in time.