Encore performances: Best of SF Fringe Oct 1 & 2

Friday, October 1

7:00 p.m. – Zero to 90 in 60 Minutes:

A Smorgasbord of Short Plays and Monologues written by Smart Bay Area Women. Selected plays from the original 2010 Fringe award-winner, Zero to 90 in Ninety Minutes. Written by LindaAyres-Frederick, Joya Cory, Janet Johnston, Ruth Kirschner & Naomi Newman. Starring Juliet Tanner, Heidi Wolfe, Paul Gerrior, Linda Ayres-Frederick, Joya Cory, Bruno Kantor.

Excellent writing, acting and directing…The whole evening is fun, professional and deserves to be seen!... Joya Cory is succeeds at being funny, sad, and universal all in the same moment. And the rest of the players are clearly professionals at the top of their games, engaging with real stories and real content.... It is rare indeed when you get the full impact of the magic which is theater at its best, an experience of art that touches our core and leavens ones understanding of life and human nature. This show has MANY such moments. Its writing is super smart and penetrating and the acting is superb. I give an unqualified A. – Fringe audience reviews

8:30 p.m. – Arousal

A sudden death in the family leaves Clifford, who has Asperger's and has never been with a woman, all alone for the first time in his life. Driven to desperate measures he responds to an ad online for a "special friend". Albena, a immigrant from the Ukraine who runs a one woman prostitution business out of her studio apt. and who is running from her own troubles, is the one who placed the ad. What happens when they meet? Sex? Absurdities? Orgasms? Yes! Yes! Yes! AROUSAL. A comedy about connections, lost and found.
 
A top-notch production: funny and poignant and thought-provoking. Thanks to a terrific, well-crafted script and phenomenal acting, this story of a Ukrainian hooker and her new Aspergers client performs the rare trick of delighting us and moving us at the same time. A 45-minute gem. Don't miss it! – Fringe audience review ... I was amazed that something so short felt so engaging. The characters had a wonderful balance of irony & authenticity…and I laughed and laughed and laughed. At the same time, they were real, authentic, and the play was quite moving. I was in tears at the end & it left me reflecting on the human condition, and wanting to see more. Overall, I thought they did a remarkable job & highly recommend the play to everyone. – Fringe audience review
 
Saturday, October 2

7:00 p.m. – Homeless

What does home look like when you are a black, gay immigrant? And where do you find it? Rotimi Agbabiaka's "Homeless" is a sometimes funny, always poignant trek from Bulgaria to Nigeria to the United States of America. On his journey to find home our protagonist encounters past loves, present obligations and future fantasies. In this piece, Rotimi uses music, dance, storytelling, and shapeshifting to examine the meaning of identity in our global village.

Homeless is an auspicious debut…Agbabiaka is a performer with the muscular fluidity of a trained dancer, the nuance of a veteran actor, and a personality that audiences can’t wait to embrace…his is a major talent that is well worth following. – George Heymont, My Cultural Landscape.

8:30 p.m. – The Burroughs and KookieShow: Late Night at the Interzone

Welcome to INTERZONE'S favorite late night talk show. Hosted by the God-Father of Punk, William S. Burroughs. Join Christopher Kuckenbaker as he assumes the role of William S. Burroughs and takes the audience on a journey through the twisted, irreverent, and darkly comedic world of William S. Burroughs. Ripe Theater and Secret Theater conspire together to bring this Ripe/Secret to the stage. Ripe Theater received "Best of Fringe" in 2002 and "Best Ensemble" in 2006. WARNING: Mugwumps may be milked, cut-ups mended, and a vibrator may get a good talking-to.

Kuckenbaker ably switches between burroughs and the acerbic, paranoid writer’s hapless talk-show guest…smartly directed by Sarah McKereghan, with deadpan musical support by Louis libert, “Burroughs” is a blithely mind-altering visit that soars with wry witon excerptsfrom its namesake’s writings. – Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle

For complete descriptions of the four encore shows in the Oct. 1 and 2 “Best of the Fringe,” go to www.sffringe.org. Or call the fringe hotline at (415) 673-3847. All shows are at EXIT Theatre, 156 Eddy Street in downtown San Francisco. Tickets are $20 per show available at www.sffringe.org.

Marcher hits the wall

I can't seem to recall the last evening I spent leisurely at home but it feels like it was prior to visiting New York. Last night I got together with the Femme Fatale and the Minister's Rebellious Daughter for drinks and two more plays at Fringe. The Femme ended up having to depart prematurely, leaving the Rebellious one and me to take up the plays on our own. We made the first one, He/She and Me, a love story with about a minute to spare. It was determined afterward the Rebellious one would write the review for this one, while I would take care of the second, The Self Rose. At this point however, all I can say is that both were worthwhile. After 14 different performances in a week I, Marcher, have hit the wall and look forward to Friday, an evening of nothing to do except catch up on Mad Men. Until then, I'm going to skip tonight's opening of Werther and see it next week. Instead I'm opting for the more relaxing (and of no consequence to A Beast) choice of attending the Giants game with Penelope. Tomorrow night is Aida- if I can make it that far.

He/She and Me plays three more times:
WED SEPT 15 7:00 PM
FRI SEPT 17 7:00 PM
SAT SEPT 18 4:00 PM

The Self Rose twice more:
FRIDAY 17 10:30 PM
SATURDAY 18 4:00 PM

The Stories of Cesar Chavez

Hal Holbrooke did Twain and Lincoln. Someone did Will Rogers but I can't recall who it was. Shoot, even Bush was recently done on film and stage. It makes total sense then, for someone to portray Cesar Chavez in an earnest and thoughtful way on the stage, reminding us of the man whose courage and integrity has often become lost or buried in political symbolism for many people.

Los Angeles resident and longtime actor Fred Blanco has written his first play as a re imagining of certain parts of Chavez's life. It's powerful, thoughtful and inspiring. Blanco clearly idolizes Chavez but this show isn't about hagiography. It's an honest look at an important man who made a major impact on the lives of many but didn't do it for glory. Well-written and superbly acted, The Stories of Cesar Chavez is well worth your time. Highly recommended.

Three more shows at the Exit on Taylor:
TUES SEPT 14 7:00 PM

WED SEPT 15 10:30 PM
SAT SEPT 18 1:00 PM

Phone Whore

Twenty five years ago, or something like that- it was in what certainly feels like another lifetime now, I made the acquaintance of a woman who was a phone sex operator and a fetish model. The interesting thing about her, well actually there were a few interesting things, but the one which stuck in my mind is that she only modeled shoes and most of her phone clientele had a shoe or foot fetish. She was a very large woman with small, exquisite feet. Yes, of course I made her show them to me. Wouldn't you? Today we have nicer adjectives for women of her size, but back then I just thought she was huge. Except for her feet. She was maybe a size 6 and she had perfectly shaped ankles.  Nothing else about her physical presence appealed to me personally, but I had to admit she was perfect for this particular job, except for the fact that she had a strong Brooklyn accent which I found funnier than hell and not at all sexy. Every now and again I would get her to tell me stories about the men she made her living off of and I would insist she tell me these stories in her "phone voice." The whole idea that men would actually call her and pay good money to have her describe her shoes and how she would walk all over them in her 5 inch feels was hilarious to me. At least until I met a professional dominatrix about a year later and then the whole shoe thing just seemed silly.

Whatever.

It was probably these fond memories of the times long past that made me want to see Cameryn Moore's Phone Whore at the Fringe Festival. I'd seen Moore earlier last weekend pitching the show and she kind of reminded me of the shoe model- large and at least in my mind, not exactly the woman I would want to picture on the other end of the line. Moore knows this- she gives a funny alternative description about what she tells her clients she actually looks like. Kind of like Kim Kardashian with a HH cup. It's all a fantasy, right?

Phone Whore is an hour with Moore as she talks about her job and details her specialties, which include BBC- an acronym I have no idea about the actual meaning of, but it seems to be about straight men who want to be gang-raped by other men, especially large African American men in a locker room, and incest and pedophilia fans. Yuck. Moore's take on this is "don't judge"- at least this is all going on in a fanstasy phone world and not in real life, but at the end it just gets icky. Too icky- probably because Moore's good enough at the gig to make the audience believe this is the way down the rabbit hole that in so many ways destroys actual lives when it no longer stays a "fantasy."

The program has a disclaimer which states "The activities depicted in Phone Whore are contained in fantasy scenarios created by mutually consenting adults. The depiction of any illegal activites should not be construed as advocating for real-life enactment of such activities." It's not as bad as what happens in "A Serbian Film," but it's not far from it. Did I say "ick"? You've been warned. It's billed as a comedy/drama- but once it gets to the incest/pedophile fantasies the comedy has been left far behind.

There are three remaining shows, but I think you could find something better to watch:
TUES SEPT 14 7:00 PM
WED SEPT 15 10:30 PM
FRI SEPT 17 7:00 PM

Magnum Opus Theatre presents "Star Crossed Love"

Magnum Opus is a very talented group of young, good-looking actors who specialize in performing really bad screenplays live onstage. They've really found quite a doozy in "Star Crossed Love" which will leave you wondering exactly what was in the mind of its writer. It's beyond bad- it's embarrasingly bad. But the actors give it their all and the result is a crowd pleasing hour of laughs at the expense of whoever wrote this piece of crap.

There are three more performances at the Exit on Taylor:
Sun, Sept 12 1:00 PM
Fri, Sept 17 8:30 PM
Sat, Sept 18 2:30 PM

http://www.sffringe.org/fringe10/10plays/magnum.html

Man on Sex

James Schneider's Man on Sex through me for a bit of a loop because I was expecting a funny meditation on what men think about sex. Instead, what Schneider gives us is his perspective on his sex life as he comes to grips with how to navigate living in a sexless marriage. Alternating between anecdotes, reflections and very well-crafted songs, he takes the audience deep into his own personal trials and while it's never uninteresting, it's often personal to the point of voyeuristic weirdness. I know too many people in this same situation and I'm just not sure I really want to hear about a stranger's take on this, though his "Penisfesto" is simply brilliant.

Schneider even offered to stick around afterward in the Exit's cafe to chat, but the only thing I could think of to ask him in this scenario was if everything he was relating was true, and I really didn't want to know the answer if it was "yes." But he's funny, and  he's a very talented songwriter-composer. His tunes, which resemble the more artful side of Billy Joel's work, are well constructed, minor-key based pieces of pure pop delight. As I listened to him play and sing I thought to myself how great he would be at composing a full-blown musical. Hopefully he will, but on a different topic.

There are three more performances at the Exit, 156 Eddy St., San Francisco:
Sat, Sept 18 5:30 PM

Sat, Sept 18 7:00 PM
Sun, Sept 19 1:00 PM

The VO5 Experience

Karen Bankhead is a warm and generous performer with a tremendous ear for ethnic accents. Her one woman show The VO5 Experience, has her in multiple roles: Sunday school teacher, insecure actress, a Vietnamese boat woman transformed into a millionaire, a Latina named Corvette and most wonderfully as the 103 year old Ella Mae Mumphries who seems to have single-handedly played no small part in the rise of some America's most prominent and important Black public figures.

The play has a strong connection to the gentler side popular Black theater, which has strong connections to the church. That's the downside for me, as the VO5 Experience ultimately is like attending a feel-good church, where everything turns out just right if you only put your faith in the Lord and stop to listen for the message. I'm sure it's a message that resonates with a lot of folks and Bankhead delivers it in a pleasing fashion.

The final performance is tomorrow, Sept 12, at 6:00 PM, 156 Eddy St.. If you didn't get your church fix on earlier that morning, you may want to catch up with Bankhead's show.

The Burroughs and Kookie Show: Late Night in the Interzone

Maybe it was just dumb luck, but my first night attending the 2010 San Francisco Fringe Festival  had the unexpected delight of watching three plays in a row, with each one being better than the last. How many times can something like that happen, especially when the first was pretty damn good and the last one of the night had the potential to be a real stinker but ended up being fantastic? I won't keep my fingers crossed that everything else is going to be this good but what I saw tonight set the bar pretty high for the remaining plays I plan on attending.

The Burroughs and Kookie Show: Late Night in the Interzone is a one-hour visit with William S. Burroughs (performed by Christopher Kuckenbaker), as he hosts his own talk show in the Interzone. Starting with a gaze into the Dreamachine, Kuckenbaker does a pretty amazing job as Burroughs- to the extent one can mimic such an inimitable voice, he has the cadences and rasp down. He also has the body language and this makes it more than a simple impersonation, rather it's a tribute in dark sepia. Kuckenbaker also performs Burroughs' guest on on the program, Mr. Baker, an actor who comes to shill his movie, ends up outing himself and being assaulted by Burroughs.

Sound weird? It's not really, but Kuckenbaker gives a simply amazing performance and he's riveting. It becomes very intimate by the end- you're brought into Burroughs' world, not simply watching it. The program says "written and performed" by Kuckenbaker, but hefty sections of the script are Burroughs' own words, as anyone who's ever heard "Words of Advice" on Material's  Hallucination Engine album will recognize that rap, avuncularly delivered by Kuckenbaker toward the show's end.

Don't miss this- it's brilliantly done. Penelope thought so too and I half-expected her to hate it. So there you are- suck on Steely Dan, mugwumps.

This one sold out, and there are only three more performances on 

Mon Sept 13th, 8:30 PM

Thurs Sept 16th 10:30 PM
Sun Sept 19th 9:00 PM
You can listen to Burroughs on these Material albums:

Only here because how many times am I going to get a chance to put a picture of Burroughs on my blog

Zinnia Rosenblatt

L to R: Maxine Kincora, Dennis Crumley, Alison Lustbader, Philip Goleman, Brianna Rodriguez, Dene Larson in Joe Besecker's Zinnia Rosenblatt

Joe Besecker's Zinnia Rosenblatt is one of those rare plays where every line of dialogue seems just right but you don't realize it until the actors say the words. Loosley framed as a whodunit, what's really taking place on stage is the complete unmasking of the play's six characters. At times it's as funny and dark as Tracey Letts' Killer Joe and at others serves up uncomfortable mouthfuls of Miller-esque angst. From its opening moment where a mother and daughter walk onstage into the scene of a double suicide through the next seventy  minutes, Besecker's play, very ably directed by Janet O'Hair, doesn't let loose of your attention.

It's extremely well cast: Brianna Rodriguez as the daughter Sam has a face that mesmerizes and the acting chops to make you not want to pay attention to how gorgeous she is. Her mother Lori is played by Alison Lustbader, who hits every line perfectly, even when she saying things you really don't expect, which is often. Her monologue at the end of the show is perhaps the play's best moment. Dene Larson as John is going to seem very familiar to anyone who has lived in San Francisco for any period of time- he captures the essence of a certain type that made me think "God, I know this guy" though you really wish you didn't. Dennis Crumley's Adriel is an update on the Lebowski Dude done Bay Area style and although Crumley seems a bit young to be playing Rodriguez's father, he's really interesting to watch and has perfect timing. Besides that, his character is a total hoot. Maxine Kincora's Barbara, who enters the play toward the end, makes the most of what is the least amount of lines and stage time. Phillip Goleman's Skillet is the one performance which left me on the fence, but he also has the hardest role in the play as his is a Janus character that you don't see coming at first and by the time the flip side arrives it's a bit disconcerting trying to figure out what exactly it is Skillet wants.

But in this one, the dialogue's the thing, and Penelope and I both agreed this is one brilliantly written play that happens to be extremely fun to watch.

It only plays twice more during SF Fringe, 156 Eddy St., San Francisco.

Don't miss it- strongly recommended.
Wed Sept 15 7:00 PM

Sun Sept 19 4:00 PM

Little Tainted Blood

Julia Steele Allen's one woman show Little Tainted Blood is a poignant meditation on shame and its impact on three generations of her family. Allen sets up this autobiographical performance piece through her family's past using video and audio clips while she reacts to and interacts with what's being shown or heard. A couple of times she sings to the audience, which is especially effective during the final part of the show.

Allen's family were Hungarian Jews uprooted by the Holocaust who ended up in Palestine and Egypt. They buried their Jewish identity and history and never reclaimed it. Her father was a closeted gay man. She too, is gay and is the first one in her family in the U.S. to claim her Jewish heritage. The themes of denying one's identity and true self because of shame lay on the surface of this work like a festering wound but the strength of Allen's work is that it never becomes maudlin or self-pitying. It's one woman's journey to expose her own truth and embrace it while making the audience understand that these stories, this family, these hidden shames could just as easily be found in the mirror, regardless of whether that mirror is in Texas or Hungary.

Recommended.

Allen will perform it 5 more times at the Exit Theater, 156 Eddy St., San Francisco:
Sat Sept 11 1:00 PM
Sun Sept 12 6:00 PM
Mon Sept 13 8:30 PM
Tues Sept 14 10:00 PM
Sat Sept 18 2:30 PM