The cast of BOOTY!
Actress and musician Serenity Fisher and her band The Cardboard Hearts will soon bring the original score of a romping pirate tale to Cincinnati’s 11th annual Fringe Festival. Serenity takes the stage for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival for the fourth time. Fisher and co-founder of Tangled Leaves Theatre Collective, Robin O’Neal Kissel, are at it again, this time bringing a musical based on actual historical stories of American female pirates in “Booty! A Revolutionary Pirate Tale.”
“Booty! A Revolutionary Pirate Tale” takes place in Boston, MA, 1976, just before the celebration of the American bicentennial. Here we meet 17 year old Ramona Schmidt as she unexpectedly releases three “girl pirate ghosts” from “pirate purgatory.” All of the pirate ghost characters are based on real pirates who plundered the Eastern American seaboard in the 17th & 18th centuries. Once released, the girl pirates are on a mission to steer Ramona on course and earn their freedom from purgatory. Each ghost visits Ramona in the form of a musical vision. Their nemesis, the evil “Pirate Hicksey” is equally determined to capture Ramona and send the girl ghosts back to purgatory. Meanwhile, in 1976, Ramona rebels against authority, explores activism and seeks to find freedom and love.
Tangled Leaves Theatre Collective has produced three Fringe pieces in the past, “Sophie’s Dream” in 2010, “Opal Opus: Journey to Alakazoo,” in 2011 and “Vortex of the Great Unknown” in 2013. All three shows won the “Audience Pick-of-the-Fringe” Awards. They are back for their fourth Fringe show in 2014, with live music provided by Serenity’s band, The Cardboard Hearts, featuring piano and guitar by well-known local musician, Bobby Fisher and cello by the very talented Michael Gilbert Ronstadt.
All of the actors in “Booty!” play multiple roles, with all 6 male roles played by the one and only Jared Joplin. The production also features artistic pole dancing, as the pirates become a ship’s mast and are hung by nooses and shackled in chains.
“Booty! A Revolutionary Pirate Tale” opens at the Art Academy of Cincinnati Commons on Wednesday, May 28 9:00 PM. Additional dates and times are Sunday, June 1 7:00 PM, Monday, June 2 8:45 PM, Wednesday, June 4 8:45 PM and the final show is Saturday, June 7 4:15 PM. For more information visit http://www.cincyfringe.com/performance/booty-a-revolutionary-pirate-tale/
Avast Ye Mateys! We want to announce that thanks to the wonderful Jeffrey Johnson, Booty! will have two performances with ASL interpreters: Sunday, June 1 at 7pm and Monday June 2 at 8:45 pm.
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 