Crown Hill Cemetery
By Lisa Haas
Directed by Jocelyn Sawyer
Creative Evolution
Blue Venue, Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival

Little Lisa Haas grew up next to a brand new cemetery in the suburbs of Denver. Proximity to the graveyard and her family’s fixation on death and tendency toward suicide has made her a bit apprehensive about the afterlife. Losing pets along the way didn’t do much to soften the blow of her grandfather’s demise, nor did her uncle’s hobby of photographing deceased relatives on their way out. Little Lisa never buys into “It’s just like going to sleep.” Youthful skepticism – don’t you just hate it?

While the monologue has some funny material, it drags more than it soars. Her explanation of the difference between “good” funeral food and “bad” funeral food is the pinnacle of the story. It seems Ms. Haas realizes the weaknesses here, she offers to stop the stuff about death any time and pull a “happy” story out of a paper bag. We had one such reprise – a story about ferrets and a litter box was kind of cool, but what we all really appreciated were the cheese flavored Doritos she passed around. The injunction of no food or drink in any of the Shakespeare theaters seems to relax a bit more each season.

More information about Creative evolution may be found at http://creative-evolution.comThis show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/ <p

Flamenco Con Fusion 08
By Ricardo Garcia
Orange Venue, Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival

There’s a stereotype of Spain – slicked haired guitarists playing for fiery women in Cuban heels who chews on roses and flatten the manhood of anyone foolish enough to fall in love. Ricardo Garcia sits upstage and fulfills the first of these roles – his fingers seem enchanted, and his guitar issues more notes than you can count, but the music is deliberately breathtaking without becoming breathless. La Canela (Leticia Jimenez) flounces out in a staccato of heels and arm waving, her white dress suggestively transparent in the back lighting, and we are transported to old Valencia. But this Andalusian spell is broken by BGirl Bounce (Jen Casimir), who break dances like a Mentors ad set in Time Square. There’s a curious correlation between the two styles, but if I had to vote, La Canela is the better dancer. She’s also the woman most likely to make you miserable, and love her for every miserable minute.

I found myself drifting off occasionally. The Flamenco seems stronger than the break dancing, and more surprising. The women taunt each other, then settle it with dance but picking a winner is left to the audience’s imagination. Mr. Garcia may be the real winner – when he’s in control of the sound track, its magic on stage, and when he adds an odd chord to the R&B soundtrack, it seems like he’s in alien territory. A half hour of Garcia and Jimenez might be better than a goatskin full of Vino Tinto.

More information on Flamenco Con Fusion may be found at http://www.flamencoflow.com
or http://www.ricardogarciaguitarist.comThis show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/ <p

Boom
By Andrew Connor
IL Productions
Blue Venue, Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival

Bombs get such a bad rap – find one in a grade school, and you’d think the world had ended. But according to the Bomb Makers Credo, bombs should not be used for anything other than their best and highest purpose. In the world of master bombster Louis Calvin, bombs can effectively rid fields of unwanted butterflies, paint a wall, and teach his niece Rosa important life lessons. A new Space Port is slated for New Rockwell, and while the city is seduced by the prospect of high paying jobs, Louis regards the whole escapade as a futile waste of time. An old school chum returns and offers him a high paying job building bombs to crush the space port’s competition. Desperate for rent money, he agrees but isn’t happy, and it takes Rosa to make him see the error of his ways.

Despite the Precocious Child conceit, Mr. Connor tells a touching story and keeps his half dozen characters separate enough so we never get bogged down in book keeping. Bombs aren’t really for exploding here, but simply serve as a metaphor for any specialized skill that could be applied for good or evil. Best of all, this show ends about 5 minutes before you think it will. I almost wanted it to keep going, but a crisp ending is so rare these days -positively refreshing!

Find out more about Boom at http://www.infinitelaughs.com/html/boom.html This show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/

Totem Figures
By TJ Dawe
Big Sandwich Productions
Orange Venue, Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival

TJ Dawe makes his living on the Fringe Circuit. Don’t ask him what he’s planning to do with his life; he’s been at it for a decade. His life revolves around thinking, traveling, and talking, and while he may never be rich, he enjoys the life of a wandering monk. This year’s show sounds suspiciously like he’s been reading Joseph Campbell, although that’s not a name he mentions in his 18000 word monolog.

What he does mention is his place as an outsider, just like Luke Skywalker and Bilbo Baggins and Charles Bukowski and Jesus, and how the outsider is the one cursed to make art and change the world. If you’re in the inside, why change what’s comfortable? While he might be an outsider to the world of non-actors, he’s clearly an insider in the Fringe Festival Zone. He rattles off the routine of arriving, advertising, performing, socializing (OK, I talked to him for 75 seconds) and moving on to the next show. That’s his reality, and he uses nothing more than words and a few pauses to absorb us into it, if just for an hour. There’s a reason he’s a success in this alternative universe – he’s GOOD at what he does. See him while he’s in town.

More information on TJ and his wanderings may be found at http://www.tjdawe.com/

This show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/

Almost Walking A Straight Line
By Greg Haskins
Blue Venue, Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival

I don’t believe a strict Christian upbringing causes homosexuality, but I do believe it causes monologs about coming out. Greg Haskins tells an autobiographical tale of birth into a charismatic Catholic home (they spoke Latin AND in tongues) and not following the family plan, which was grow up, play ball and attend Oral Robert University. Instead, Greg flees home and college in Oklahoma to Disney World and the relatively safe world of Jazz, Tap, and Ballet presented at Cinderella’s Castle 5 times a day. He struggles with his sexual identity, takes enough counseling to choke a Presbyterian, and eventualy comes out to his family and realizes “Nope, none of that worked.”

It’s a well done version of a popular story, highlighted by a rather detailed demonstration of how to act either very gay or very straight, depending on the situation. “Extracurricular hand motion” is the key. Greg plays guitar, holds your attention, and no matter how hard you pray or how big the preacher’s hair, you are what you are. His ending could have been a bit tighter, but neither his life nor his search is over yet. I thoroughly enjoyed his story.

This show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/

Tod Kimbro In The Blue
By Tod Kimbro
Blue Venue, Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival

Tod Kimbro could play hymns out of the Lutheran Hymnal and make them sound Lounge. Tonight we find him in the Blue Venue in a blue shirt under blue lights playing sad songs on a key board draped in a blue sarong. If nothing else, he’s thorough.

There’s a bit more reverb than appropriate for the room, and the material is eclectic if nothing else. New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle,” Ben Folds’ “All U Can Eat,” and Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” all receive the Holiday Inn happy hour treatment. While the theme is blue, the room is alive. You may not be walking in Memphis, but Tod can still put a spell on you.

More information on Tod Kimbro may be found at http://www.todkimbro.com/This show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/ <p

American Squatter
By Barry Smith
Yellow Venue, Orlando International Theater Fringe Festival, Orlando, FL

I worry about the Fringe story tellers that mine their own life experiences for material. No matter how interesting you may be, at some point you will run out of useable stories. Mr. Smith captivated us last year with the scary and funny “Jesus in Montana” and now we visit his tortured teen years of skateboarding, taking acid, and learning the ins and outs of squatting in a London hovel. The filth and squalor somehow made up for his father’s obsessive-compulsive cleaning fetish, but then his student visa ran out and he realized that on some abstract level, he was just like his dad.

Along with his gift for gab, Mr. Smith makes better use of Power Point than anyone I know. His collection of faded family photos coupled with the built-in Microsoft Office dissolves expands his monolog into a short film, and there’s nothing like photographic evidence to sell a tale. I wonder what he’ll do next year…

For more information on Barry Smith, please visit http://www.barrysmith.comThis show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/

The Bric-a-Brac Vintage Vagabond Varity Show
By Rocky Hopson
Silver Venue, Orlando International Theater Fringe Festival, Orlando, FL

I don’t know if it’s the wheezy accordion or the semi-practiced French accents, but this charming act makes you feel like you’re in the street scenes from “Children of Paradise” or “The Chambermaid’s Diary.” They sing slightly out of tune folk songs featuring white-faced Stephan LeCoq (Chris Gibson) and Tabarin (Rob Houle) on guitar and accordion as Isabella Belle (Cami Alys Yankwitt) and Bridgette (Kate Arpka Houle) flirt and accompany on electric Ukulele and Bass. The Big French Bear (La Grand Ourse Francais, or Chris McInteyre) visits for a rousing number or two while Drummer Saint-Sans (Augustin Frederic) pounds out rhythm on a drum kit fashioned out of a small tree.

The singing delights, the story telling is sweet and compelling, but it’s the Punch and Judy Show that should fill the seats. Mr. Punch is deadly with a spoon, and no only does he take out his shrewish wife, but most of the rest of his puppet town falls to his blow. Papier-mâché corpses pile up like the last act of Titus Andronicus until he makes a deal with the devil. Normally this is a bad idea, but soon Satan’s head is batted out into the first row, showing that sheer violence and force of will CAN overcome pure evil. Bric-a-Brac looks old fashioned and sounds like a vacuum tube Philco radio, but they look and feel better than our relation with France ever did.

This show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/

Here Be Dragons
By Stephen Miller
Utmost Productions
Pink Venue, Orlando International Theater Fringe Festival, Orlando, FL

The never-ending Gay Atheist vs. Heterosexual Fundamentalist argument forms the heart and soul of this well executed but unconvincing drama. Daniel (David Almeida) falls asleep in a seedy Texas fleabag hotel, and wakes up in an old roommate’s living room buck naked and in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It’s either a Miracle of God or one of Stephen Hawking’s cosmic worm holes. By now Tom (Todd Alan Long) has sworn off boys, married a good woman Leslie (Marcie Schwalm), and converted to Christianity. He’s happy enough, but the unexpected surprise of a naked man on the couch gets everyone upset. Rather than consider the oddity of their situation, they launch into one of those Fox News style point / counterpoint arguments over whether God exists and sends gays to hell, or whether He doesn’t exist but created gays anyway, just to annoy the Christians.

The set is simple and the acting up to snuff, but in this U. P. living room, both parties will die before they change their opinions one millimeter. We’re immersed in a world of villains desperately seeking a Good Guy and neither “Live and Let live” or “Love One Another” are in evidence. There’s some interesting use of cartography as a metaphor for ideologues lost in thiee own ideology, and some gratuitous nudity, but it’s not enough to save the story. If you’re in either choir and want a well acted sermon, this is your show.

This show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/

O’B
By Bernie O’Brien
Green Venue, Orlando International Theater Fringe Festival, Orlando, FL

Bernie O’Brien tells stories with the class and heart of your dear departed grandfather. He grew up on the tough streets of Boston where spousal abuse was an art and anyone without a few broken bones was considered a sissy. Combine that with a Scots-Irish background and you might suspect talking is what he does best. We hear of his childhood, his father’s seamanship and a quirky street game called “Half Ball” – think of it as stick ball played with your mother’s diaphragm. While more anecdotal than contrived, Mr O’Brien is one of the great crop of monologists invading this Fringe. He’s the sort of guy that could beat you to a pulp or buy you enough beer to float a row boat, probably on the same night. Just don’t get him going on the Red Sox; he’ll bend you ear until their next world series appearance.

This show is presented as part of the 17th Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival. Information on times, tickets, and venue location my be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/