MORE FROM THE FRINGE - MEDIUM ROAST

A charming village in Greece, an old tradition, some mystery and perhaps a security leak. There is a local tradition of foretelling the future from the stains left inside the cup after a serving of strong, coarse Greek coffee. Members of the audience were invited up for sip and seance, here my fellow Fringe board member Jose. But there is worry that the seer, played by Analicia Kocher, is being too loose with her tongue about the process, in effect spilling the beans. My Improv friend Panagiotis Papavlasopous, dressed in drag, shows up to screw the lid of the coffee can back on.             

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - SANDY BEACHES

This entertainer has an interesting back story. She performs as Sandy Beaches and was formerly employed as a cruise ship entertainer, essentially living at sea. We all know what happened to that industry over the last couple of years. So, out of work, she moved to St. Louis to live with her closest friend and is making the best of the situation. Her show at The Fringe didn't require any sea legs. She was very engaged with the audience and picks a mean 12 string guitar.             

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - AH SA TI NU

The singer who performs as Ah Sa Ti Nu does jazz, R&B, and American standards, backed up by a jazz quartet. Her website, www.ahsatinu.com, does not explain her professional name but her performance was stunning. It was emotionally subtle and powerful. And she's so photogenic.          

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - MESSES

Okay, yes, a lot of pix but this was my favorite show. Janoah Bailin is from Portland, Maine, where I will be setting down in a couple of weeks (more about which later). He is a juggler, comedian and unicyclist extraordinaire. His performance, MeSSes, is full of them, but all for a reason. 

He does things like teach audience members to juggle using scarves - they move slowly and hang in the air. He jumps rope while riding a unicycle (there's some air under the tire in the second photo), and stays stationary on the device while reading aloud a section of a book on the literary uses of metaphors. He has a popcorn maker attached to the ceiling that explodes kernels into his upturned hat. He makes a cup of tea by dangling a teabag from a cord for three minutes while on the unicycle. And on and on. It's a hoot.         

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - CONFESSIONS OF A NIGHTINGALE

Confessions Of A Nightingale is a one person show in which Tennessee Williams chats with the audience about his life, his work in the theater, his relationships and his vices. It is a fascinating look at a troubled genius reminiscing about his career. 

The show almost had to be canceled. The original actor was diagnosed with Covid. Dominic De Cicco stepped in on a  couple of days notice and did a fabulous job. He had just the right amount of Southern drawl and sneer on his lip. Although he kept the script with him he hardly seemed to glance at it.

Although Williams was born in Mississippi he grew up here and eventually attended the University of Missouri. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.                

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - 24 HOUR PLAYS, PARTS TWO AND THREE

The second and third of the 24 Hour Plays puzzled me a bit. The middle one started with a supervisor refusing to let an employee take time off from work to vote, then turned into a riff on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The ghosts of elections past, present and future appeared (the person wearing what looks like a white hospital gown is a ballot) with warnings about what happens if we don't vote, aren't allowed to vote or have our votes ignored by politicians.

I had to ask the sound and light guy what the last one was about. The premise was based on Dungeons and Dragons, a game i know or care little about.  A group of friends is playing as the characters from the game appear on the other side of the stage. One player who thought she had overcome a serious challenge finds that the threat is back, in the game and in parallel in her personal life. I didn't quite get it but then I'm an old stick in the mud.               

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - 24 HOUR PLAYS

The set-up: a group of actors get together with some rough ideas, some props and maybe bits of costume. They have 24 hours to turn this into three 20 minute plays, write it, memorize it, rehearse it and go. The first, shown here, was called Waiting For Bingo(t), Horrible, horrible pun, as will become clear. 

Four bored characters sit at an achingly slow bingo game, while the one in the middle calls numbers at an irregular pace. It becomes apparent that this is purgatory, where the inhabitants have nothing to do but play bingo for years, centuries or even millennia. The only way out is to complete their card and win. It doesn't happen often. Near the end, we learn that the man second from left is Adam. 

Samples of the second two parts tomorrow.            

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - STOREYVILLE BURLESQUE

This town has a burlesque scene. There is a nightclub and bar dedicated to the genre. Two of the shows at the Fringe were burlesques. The festival has a no censorship policy but I couldn't help but wonder how a lot of women react to it - objectivization, male gaze and all that.  I shot both of these shows and the audience was about equally men and women. And the ladies were having just as good a time.

 

The woman who performs as Lola van Ella, in the green dress, had been putting on these shows and running a school in St. Louis for a long time. A couple of years ago she moved to New Orleans where the market for this sort of thing was better. Van Ella produced a two hour show with music and comedy, all pretty racy, and the usual gradual display of bodies. The conceit was that it was set many years ago in Storeyville, an area of New Orleans where any of your vices could be satisfied. The crowd loved it.

 

It should be no surprise that there were a lot of photos from this show that it would by unwise for me to post online.        

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - SCORPIO SEASON

Disclaimer: I know little about dance. I have a decent sense of rhythm but it's in my ears and brain, not in my body. I am physically graceless.

So a performance like Scorpio Season baffles me a little. I do better making images of it than appreciating the art itself. The group is called The Collected Few Project but I have no further information. If someone can give me more details I'll update this.          

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - FIRE IN THE METH LAB

Yesterday was the very rare day with no post. I've been working hard as the St. Louis Fringe's photographer. I've lost track of how many shows I shot this week but I think my right index finger needs a splint.

One of the best shows I've seen working with the Fringe is Jon Bennett's Fire In The Meth Lab. Bennett is an Australian storyteller, actor and comedian, and winner of many awards. This show is about his relationship with his brother Tim, two years older and with serious emotional problems. He tormented Jon when they were children. As they grew older on their family's rural farm, Tim got hooked on alcohol, then marijuana, then psychedelics and finally methamphetamine. He set up a lab in Adelaide to supply a biker gang with dividends for himself. One day the lab literally exploded, leaving Tim with life-threatening burns. He survived.

The story is much more complicated than that. The version produced here was shortened. You can--and should--see the full version at https://www.jonbennettcomedy.com/fire-in-the-meth-lab/           

MORE FROM THE FRINGE - THE OREO COMPLEX

An oreo is more than a cookie. Most Americans will recognize it as a racial term for someone who is black on the outside and white on the inside. Lillian Brown gave the most stunning performance I've seen so far, riffing on the pressures and pains of Black people in a White-dominated society. You can learn more about her and her work at www.lilliancbrown.com .        

FROM THE FRINGE - SONGS OF A MOVEMENT

Songs Of A Movement was Toni Schneider Finch's review of feminist anthems from the 19th Century suffragettes to modern popular music. It included Loretta Lynn's The Pill, Lesley Gore's You Don't Own Me and, of course, Helen Reddy's I Am Woman. There was lots more. Schneider Finch was accompanied by violin, cello and electric keyboard. The show ended with a sing along. 

I may have trouble keeping up with daily posts for a bit. I'm The Fringe's house photographer. If I shot a full schedule tonight I'd go from 6 to midnight, and tomorrow from 11:30 AM to 11:30 PM, all without a meal break. I'm too old for that but I'll get as many shows as I can and edit the pix, um, in my spare time.            

WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT THE FRINGE - ZAFIRA QUARTET

Still a light schedule last night with just two performances. Holly Huelskamp, Sarah Browdy, Amy Greenhalgh and Ranya Iqbal are the Zefira Quartet, St. Louis' only electric string quartet. The sound colors they produced were not what you would hear down the street at the symphony hall. I was impressed. They played a variety of music, classical, tango, Lizzo, Russian folk song (hey, I had to play that one, Dark Eyes, during my years as a failed kid violin student) and waltz. Click the link to hear them on Spotify or Apply Music. Hope I run into them again.