The Vagrant at Dangerous Theater in Sanford.

Posted on by Thor

The Vagrant is the little production that could. Hurricane Irma interrupted rehearsals and then Winnie Wengelwick, the theater owner, had to have oral surgery. One cast member had a family emergency and pulled out of production during the revised tech week and then another actor pulled out at the last moment. Amazingly, replacements were found within a day. The 5 week production run has had to be cut from 5 weeks to 3 weeks. The new intimate theater is continuing to take form.

I went to the production and was blown away by the play written by Brett Hursey. Lenny Madison (David Martin) is a vagrant living on the streets of the big city. He swindles hot
dogs from the comically soft-hearted and easily coerced Rodney (John Sullivan) and takes care of Maggie (Winnie) the bag lady. Eventually, it becomes too
difficult to hide in plain sight. 

The actor playing Lenny the vagrant did an amazing job. His roll involved acting insane while actually being incredibly intelligent. His quick-witted performance reminded me of the best parts played by the late Robin Williams. Winnie played Maggie the bag lady. She would wander onto the set while winding through the audience. She would comment on what people were wearing, breaking the 4th wall. From the stage she continued to bring the audience into the scene by trying to convince Lenny that people were watching them. She would stare out at us and say we were judging them with our laughter. And there was plenty of laughter. Lenny is a character that embraces each day and celebrates the beauty of the urban sprawl.


Lenny takes care of Maggie by getting her an extra hot dog and convincing her to take her medication. One day, two stock brokers stopped to rest on Lenny’s bench. He boldly introduces himself and offered stock advice. The young male broker, John Wilson (Sean Delaney), takes the advice and on a whim decides to play them out on the market. Sure enough the leads are pure gold. The brokers return again and again to cash in on the vagrant’s insights that yield huge dividends. Rachel Lamonde, (Jacqueline Papaycik) is content to leave the vagrant as is while John wants to get him set up in an apartment. He is talked out of such charitable notions. Maggie the bag lady is ignored as the vagrant plays the market with the brokers.


Both Lenny and Maggie have family they wish they cold see. Living on the streets keeps them from being close to their loved ones. John Wilson doesn’t just offer the vagrant charity, he offers a chance to get back to his family. This is a heart warming show that hints at the possibility that any one of us could be just two paychecks away from having to live on the streets. The problems of this vagrant are very much like the problems we all face. In the end Lenny picks up the newspapers strewn around the stage and shoves them in a plastic milk crate and braces for a new life. Since I still live out of milk crates that scene hit rather close to home.


The final performances for this show are on Friday, October 13th and Saturday, October 14th. I highly recommend the show at Dangerous Theater (115 W. 1st St. Sanford, Florida 32771). I laughed, and yes, I damn near cried. $20.00 cash at the door on the day of the show. $5.00 discount at door for students, seniors and military. The show is free for any homeless attendee.

The Perfect Gift exposes raw human emotions for Christmas.

Posted on by Thor

The Perfect Gift is written and directed by Winnie Wenglewick who also plays Stacia in the show. Winnie cut her teeth in theater at the Orlando Fringe for the first 10 years when it was still downtown. She moved to Denver Colorado, where this play is staged, and established Dangerous Theater in 2007. Although Winnie has just moved back to Orlando, she is keeping Dangerous Theater open in Denver. The Perfect Gift was first performed four years ago in Denver. In fact they have their own production of The Perfect Gift runring as well this season. If all goes according to plan, Winnie will be opening Dangerous Theater here in Orlando around Fairbanks and Edgewater in about March of 2016.

ME Theater (1300 La Quinta Drive Orlando FL) isn’t easy to find among the stretch of warehouses. Look for the tall ME Dance flag. I slipped into the theater, a bit early to get a jump on the sketch. I considered sitting in the front row, but decided against it, since the front row would most certainly fill up. Christmas songs from all the quirky 60s animated films livened up the room. I found myself humming along as I sketched. When the house opened, only two patrons sat in the front row.

The play opened with Stacia and Winter (Thomas C. Taffinder) sitting on a park bench. Winter was a homeless man with a quirky sense of humor. Staciawho had shared sandwiches with winter  on more than a few occasions, recalled warm childhood memories of Christmas, but the holiday didn’t hold the same magic now that she is an adult. The memories we incredibly funny and although there were as many people in the audience as on stage, we were laughing out loud throughout the show. Winter, though he had little, decided to invite Stacia to a holiday dinner with a friend under a bridge.

His friend was named Karma (Kim Stone). Also homeless, she was an avid Broncos fan, wearing a football jersey and a colorful tutu. Both Karma and Winter had imaginary friends, so the table had to be set for five. Karma had a childish charm about her as she related a story of a Christmas donkey who had very large ears. Conversation over the humble dinner turned to memories of loss and sadness. The “Guardian Angels” managed to bring some peace into the lives of Winter and Karma who had little to loose yet could still find pockets of happiness. We all could all use a guardian angel in a world that seldom plays out like A Wonderful Life.

The fellowship and friendship found under the bridge managed to shine a bright light on the true meaning of the holiday season far removed from the commercialism in the malls. Life, love, and loss are universal. This was a rare show that had humor laced with sadness. As we grow older material gifts aren’t as important as having a close friend to share memories with. Being part of the small audience actually made the show more magical since our laughter was contagious and filled the room. I hope more people discover this holiday gem from a director who has just returned to make her mark in Orlando.

December 3rd – 20th
Thursday Friday and Saturday @ 8:00
Sunday @ 4:00
NO performances on 12/5 & 12/17

Tickets $20.00
$5.00 discount for students, seniors, military
and anyone wearing a Fringe Button from any year.

S&M as entertainment in Deviant Behaviors.

Posted on by Thor

Dangerous Theatre of Denver Colorado presented Deviant Behaviors at this year’s Orlando International Fringe Festival. I went into the show with no per-conceptions. This was a one woman show in which Winnie Wenglewick explains how she discovered sadomasochism. As a small child she discovered her dads porn stash underneath a dresser drawer. The only way to get at the porn was to pull the drawer completely out. She was almost caught by her father, but she manged to fling the magazines under his bed as he walked into the bedroom. She began to cry an in his efforts to comfort her, he never stopped to ask what she was doing.

She discovered sexual pleasure at a very early age but also felt guilt. Much of the show involved explaining masochism. She felt that most peoples view of masochism is skewed the the tepid Fifty Shades of Gray book and movie. Masochism is the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from one’s own pain or humiliation. She lead a rather normal life, getting married and having kids. Later in life however, a man introduced her to masochism and she was hooked. Experiencing pain in a safe environment could help her forget the many responsibilities she had. Eventually, she went on to found her own dungeon.  She will be moving back to Orlando later this summer. Orlando now has a dungeon called The Woodshed. She will be
opening another Dangerous Theatre in Orlando.

Towards the end of the show an older man with long blonde hair walked onto the stage holding leather whips. He whipped Winnie’s back, softly at first and then harder with each thrash.  She verbalized her many complaints as she was being whipped. This was certainly one of the strangest theatrical experience I’ve had. I learned quite a bit about an alternate lifestyle. If there are dungeons in Orlando, I just might get off on sketching people in pain. Perhaps this could be defined as sketch masochism.