AT THE FRINGE - MOTHER MARY COMES TO ME

Yes, just like the line in the Beatles song. In fact, someone comes out before the play starts with a guitar and sings Let It Be. The one act drama is a staged reading, with the actors sitting, scripts in hand, and reciting their parts. Only the woman in the center wears something like a costume. Her name is Abby (get it?), she is a bit deranged, considers the Blessed Mother to be her mentor and occasionally kills people by whacking them on the head with the statue. Well, it’s experimental.                 

AT THE FRINGE - NEWSAM AERIAL DANCE

One of my favorite acts at the Fringe is Martha Newsam and her aerial dance troupe.  The grace and peacefulness are almost indescribable. Here, Martha herself begins the recital, with her accomplished students soon to follow.             

AT THE FRINGE - RHINESTONES AND FRINGE, QUEENS OF COUNTRY

 

Singer Toni Finch returned this year with a country music review featuring the songs of Dolly Parton and another female star whom I didn’t know and whose name I can’t remember. (Sorry. I don’t go too far with Country & Western, being more Urban & Eastern. My western roots are that I was born on the West Side of Manhattan.) Lots  of the audience wore cowboy hats and boots, and stood up and cheered.         

AT THE FRINGE - CAM BURNS

 

Cam Burnes is a talented singer-songwriter from Kansas City, now studying songwriting and sound recording at Webster University in STL. This is his second year performing at The Fringe. Listen to some  of his work at the link. There was a bit of drama in his show.                  

AT THE FRINGE: THERE’S SOMETHING I MUST TELL YOU

A play set in the State Hospital For The Insane in Jamestown, North Dakota. A young writer, expecting a child, visits a mental hospital established in the 19th Century on the lonely prairie. She is researching the lives of the early patients, many filled with tragedy. Working into the night, the writer is visited by their spirits, including her own great grandmother.                 

OPENING NIGHT AT THE FRINGE

And we’re off. We expect unusual things at The Fringe but this puzzled me. A perfectly normal person (by Fringe standards) walked through the audience before one of the shows with a puppet dressed as a jester, shaking people’s hands with its tiny, hard fist. It was called Surefire. It had a role in the musical performance that was about to start but I didn’t understand was going on. Maybe the concept was still in development.                              

IT’S FRINGE TIME!

My favorite annual event, the St. Lou Fringe, opens tonight and runs through Sunday. I’m still the house photographer and now I’m president of the board of directors so I’ll have a busy week. We have a record 50 shows with about 100 total performances. I’m scheduled to shoot 27. I don’t know if I have it in me but I’ll sure try.

The illustration is a favorite from last year’s festival, Urinetown, which had a long run in New York and was performed here by talented high school students. Locals, come see us!