TINY QUARTERMAN VARIETY HOUR

 

St. Lou Fringe president and artistic director Matthew Kerns has plenty of acting chops of his own. A puppet he had made by a New York master puppeteer arrived just before the festival, leading to a late schedule addition, the Tiny Quarterman Variety Hour. Tiny (and I don’t know where the name comes from) appears to be from another dimension, visiting us from time to time, looking for, um, companionship. Matt proved to be quite the puppet performer. The show was rude, lewd, funny and as gay as the first day of May.               

CARTOMANCY

There were a lot of interesting people at Matthew Kerns birthday party. I talked opera with a composer and librettist, and theories of mind with a psychologist. One of the most interesting people was Eron Mazza, pictured here. His business card describes his trade as cartomancy and spellwork. Take it as you will, but he is a great conversationalist.

These are not tarot cards, but rather a regular playing deck with a variety of symbols. Eron lays them out in a pattern and interprets them. As with so many things, you can see what you wish.

BOB THE SOCIETY PHOTOGRAPHER

I've never done event photography but I got a call to do one last night. It was a birthday party for my friend Matthew Kerns, executive director of the St. Lou Fringe. I serve on the board of directors and I'm the house photographer. Here he is posing with another friend, Amy Ziegler, a former colleague on the board, recovering lawyer and ace psychotherapist. There were so many interesting people and I got to be the wandering paparazzo. Everything you need to know about the genre is on YouTube.            

LOOK! THE FRINGE IS OPEN!

Opening night ceremonies Tuesday evening. We didn't really need someone pointing the way but the expression on the child's face shows the general enthusiasm. Impresario Matthew Kerns introduced many of the acts, including Artica regular Audrey Crabtree portraying a fallen Hollywood star trying, rather pathetically, to climb her way back up.  

Tickets for all Fringe shows are available at https://www.stlouisfringe.com/ .       

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.         

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.      

Leadership

St. Lou Fringe executive director Matthew Kerns joined the Tiny Totem Parade! Here marching down Grand Boulevard with Artica head guy D. Lohr Barclay.       

The Fringe Is Here!

The St. Lou Fringe's opening party took place last night. (See schedule and buy tickets here.) Impresario Matthew Kerns introduced the season and interviewed the principals of some of the major shows. Local star Desire' Declyne will lead the late night show, As We Stumble Along. The evening's main entertainment was the hip hop duo Same Difference. The crowd had a good time.

The main performances start tonight. There are five venues around the Grand Centre Arts District. Each is named for a person or sponsor that made a significant contribution to the festival. They named the Kranzberg Studio Theater for - sniff - me. I was knocked out, humbled and elated. I guess they like my work.

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.      

Closing Ceremonies

I have photos from one last Fringe show still to edit Shakespeare's Women, but today is a travel day and I'll have to squeeze it in when I can. For now, a few shots from the festival's closing ceremonies in the Grandel Theater. Executive director Matthew Kerns and technical boss Kevin Bowman first,  followed by stars of this year's productions and, in the last two, what's to come next year.

I'm writing this during a layover at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. Flying on soon to Grand Junction, Colorado, and driving to Moab, Utah, late this afternoon. Arches National Park tomorrow. No steel versions there.        

Meatball Seance

 

This Fringe show was, um, unique. The festival description says that "John Michael needs your help with his mom's meatball recipe to raise her from the dead so she can meet his new boyfriend. Join JM, as he learns how to have relationships with the living and the dead." Well, that and more. Cooking meatballs on stage, throwing fennel at the audience, drawing people out of the audience "to be my boyfriend," and swizzling beer. Fringe executive director Matthew Kerns made a cameo appearance at the end. You had to be there.

Afterwards, I told John Michael that his enormous smile and the plasticity of his face reminded me of Jerry Lewis. He said that pleased him.