ST. LOU FRINGE - CHECKING OUT: A BED, BREAKFAST AND BURIAL STORY

It seems like every year Panagiotis Papavlasopoulos and Analicia Kocher produce an unusual one-act comedy that is a bit on the strange side. This year, Checking Out told the story of a woman who has inherited a low-end B&B from her sister, keeping her developmentally disabled nephew as handy man. It takes place in a isolated slice of Illinois, Jersey County, a narrow wedge of land between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. The only way out to the east and west are small ferries, giving it a remote feel. The late owner's  wake on the premises and her will brings some surprises.                

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.             

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.

Grim Tales, Horrific Vignettes

From goulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night
Good Lord, deliver us!

                   - old Scottish prayer  
 

Fringe mainstay, Pete Papavlasopoulos, and company put on five mini horror plays. In a home for patients with advanced dementia, one gets up when no one is around and smothers another. A bottle contains a mystical  fluid that, when drunk, might give you eternal life, might kill you or might kill someone else.Then there's Death And The Maiden. 

There was a play on Broadway in 1965 called Things That Go Bump In The Night. Although it only lasted for 16 performances, I saw it when I was in high school. Different experience from the Fringe.