GOT TO WRAP THIS UP

Have to finish the Act Your Pants Off Stuff and move on to other things. My calculation in yesterday's post was incorrect: the main Fringe festival starts in 10 days. I am particularly interested to see the show by the three women in the middle picture called "When Women Were Birds." Acrobatic/aerialist stuff. You can see the Fringe performance schedule and buy tickets at https://www.stlouisfringe.com/ .      

AYPO PORTRAITS

So much material still to go through from the Act Your Pants Off show, so little time. Once again, no record of names but I've seen two of the four performers before. Joe-something. Hanrahan? A fixture of the local theater scene. Don't know her but I like her sign. Don't know the next woman, either, but she had a hilarious shtick, playing a middle aged Jewish widow who carries her late husband's ashes around in a coffee percolator. And, um, hunky guy seen in other AYPO shows.

And the main Fringe season starts in two and a half weeks.           

COLORED STAGE LIGHTS ARE A PHOTOGRAPHER'S ENEMY

Act Your Pants Off was held at The Monocle, an upscale bar with a small performance space in back. It has some plain white stage lights but also LED lamps (they all are now) that rotated between red, yellow, blue and green. It's hell to photograph with them. They mush up contrast and do terrible, unnatural things to facial features.

This is Panagiotis Papavlaspoulos, generally known to those (well, all) of us with little knowledge of Greek as Pete. He's a master at improv. This image has been really beaten up in Photoshop. The original looked like it was lit by the flames of hell. It has more pop this way.

SEMI-DÉSHABILLÉ

Getting all Frenchified in anticipation of our upcoming visit. The show is, after all, called Act Your Pants Off but this is about as far as it gets. I've mentioned that I'm terrible with names and should be taking notes but don't. The woman on the right has appeared in a number of other Fringe events that I photographed. She is a breathtaking acrobat in addition to her comic skills. Gotta send someone at the Fringe a group picture to help me identify everyone.          

OPERATIC?

I have no control over my subjects or the lighting when I shoot in a theater. Sometimes I am surprised with the result. This top picture has a strong operatic feel to it, or I think so. Maybe the Countess standing behind Susanna in Marriage of Figaro. But that wasn't the point at all.

Act Your Pants off continues. I'm terrible with names. Although I've seen the woman in white perform several times I can't place her identity. (I'll ask the Fringe people.) She is a comedian and an acrobat, a combination that can lead to hillarious results.

Below, Fringe boss man Matthew Kerns tries to whip up the crowd. As you can see in the last one, they weren't very whipped up yet.         

Magic Flute

Very late post today. Too much on my plate. Anyway, I don't think this is Tamino. You couldn't tell the difference if it were Papageno or Papagena and the following pictures make clear that Masonry isn't involved. It's just The Lou's favorite drag queen, Desire' Declyne, who always steals the show at Act Your Pants Off. (She has an, um, outgoing personality.)   

ACT YOUR PANTS OFF

Time to move on. The next topic is the St. Lou Fringe's annual comedy fundraiser, Act Your Pants Off. 

In the first half, professional actors and comedians are given a piece of dramatic text and 20-30 minutes to memorize it. As they begin to recite, the judges will throw out a direction like "okay, I want you do this like Liza Minnelli." The speech starts to come unglued. Each time a performer makes a mistake they have to remove an article of clothing. The audience throws Fringe contributions into plastic buckets, voting for their favorite actor. 

In the second round the players pick their own speech, which could be anything from Sophocles to the Marx Brothers. The judges continue to interfere. By the end of the show the performers have removed a lot of fabric, but not to the point of interesting the authorities. Whoever pulls in the most contributions for the Fringe is the winner.

Above, the show kicks off with Fringe executive director Matthew Kerns and STL's own queen of the night, Desire' Declyne.      

Brave Audiences Of The St. Louis Fringe

The title of this post is one of slogans or marketing phrases of the Fringe. You need a taste for artistic adventure to soak up all the festival has to offer (see last year's photos). The audience at Act Your Pants Off was a little out there. You could even braid glow sticks into your hair.

We have not seen much of the impresario of all these events, Matthew Kerns. In the last picture, he explains the AYPO concept and reminds everyone that tickets for the main festival are now on sale.      

The Cast: Keeton Treece

Moving through the show. Keeton Treece is another long time figure on the STL theater scene (see https://www.linkedin.com/in/keatonmtreece1979/ or https://www.facebook.com/keaton.treece) . Sometimes he can be a bit over the top. Now, I'm at a bit of a disadvantage when shooting a performance because my attention is on images, not the whole show. Still, Treece's bit at AYPO seemed incoherent. That was quite possibly intentional.       

Just A Singer: Alicia Like

For a few golden minutes, AYPO set aside preening actors and timid gestures toward striptease. giving us only gorgeous music. Alicia Like is a brilliant local talent. I just don't understand why she's not all over TV and the web. You can see the emotive power in her face and almost feel the power of her voice. As best I can figure out, she will be performing in The Gringo, a musical at this year's Fringe festival. I'm going.

Remember, Fringe tickets are now on sale at https://ev6.evenue.net/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/SEGetGroupList?groupCode=FRINGE&linkID=metro&shopperContext=&caller=&appCode= .                   

The Champ

FIRST THINGS FIRST -  tickets for the 2018 St. Lou Fringe are now on sale. Go to https://www.stlouisfringe.com/ and buy, buy, buy!       

So anyway, the winner of Act Your Pants Off by audience acclaim was Melissa Allen. Steamy, bursting with energy and, well, not at all shy. It was AYPO, after all, and she was one of the few performers who removed more than shoes and socks. She is also an aerial artist and will be performing at the festival next month.

The Cast: Paul Cereghino

One of the major actors on the STL scene, Paul Cereghino provided the demo for how the AYPO concept works: recitation, memory lapse, ask for help, get help, take off clothing. I think he borrowed one of Lola van Ella's accessories..            

Let Me Entertain You

A bit more Lola van Ella from Act Your Pants Off. At one moment she looks like the goddess of spring, the next the provocative mistress of ceremonies with the whole cast. How does she just turn on a smile like that?              

The One, The Only . . .

Lola van Ella, St. Louis' favorite ecdysiast, She sings. she dances, she's funny and she has a perfect sense of timing. And she can curl your toes. There's not a lot of fabric left when she finishes her act, but, you know, that's how she makes her living so if you want the full view you will have to attend one of her shows. And if you would like to learn how to do it, sign up for one of her classes.You'll never regret it.

A bit more of this tomorrow, I think.          

Act Your Pants Off

The St. Louis Fringe's annual warm up and fund raiser, Act Your Pants Off, took place last night. The premise is that local actors/comedians are given a dramatic speech to memorize in a half hour. They also performed a monologue of their own choosing. Whenever they forgot a line they called out "line!" and the judges would fill them in. But each time they had to remove an article of clothing. The judges would also give the actors a style to imitate. If I remember correctly, someone had to recite a Shakespeare speech as Fozzy Bear. The audience rewarded each performer with "Fringe bucks." The winner was the performer who brought in the most loot.

Nobody took all their clothes. Well, almost nobody, but that's not a subject for this blog. Presiding was Fringe impresario Matthew Kerns. The judges were St. Louis' incomparable Desiree Declyne and Lola van Ella. Lots more to come.  

If You Don't Like The Act, The Bar Is Open

I've got more pix from Act Your Pants Off but they are mostly of individual performers on stage. I'll edit them for the STL Fringe's use but they are probably of more interest to them than you. 

The venue was interesting, though, It's called Off-Broadway, on the city's far south side. Appropriate enough since it is just off that street that runs almost the entire length of the city proper from north to south. My office is on Broadway downtown. If any given act was not to your liking the bar was open, well-stocked and ready to serve you.

Need to scramble for material for the next couple of days. We leave on Thursday for a long weekend in central Michigan to see our son and his family. Once we get to Clare I can always post pictures of Cops & Doughnuts or my other granddaughter, Audrey.