Season 24
Myth Breakers and Story Makers
ALL’S FAIRE
By Alex Rouse & Zach Robinson
Music and Lyrics by James Allen
July 23-Aug. 8, 2021
MONGREL
By Adam Tran
Aug. 26-Sept. 12, 2021
SHOCK! The Spine-Tingling Tale of Miss Spidra
By Joseph Zettelmaier
Oct. 8-24, 2021
GLASSHEART
By Reina Hardy
Nov. 19-Dec. 12, 2021
HARPERS FERRY 2019
By Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin
March 4-20, 2022
THE TWUNNY FO’
By A.J. Baldwin
April 15-May 8, 2022
Filed under Season Announcements
The Cincinnati Fringe Festival is thrilled to announce the Pick of the Fringe winners for 2021:
Filed under In Other News
PLANET EARTH – PLANET OF THE GRAPES LIVE is pandemic performance pioneer Peter Michael Marino’s internationally acclaimed comedic homage that takes audiences of all ages on an epic, 60-minute adventure fusing the Victorian era’s Toy Theater movement with the 1968 Charlton Heston/Rod Serling classic, “Planet of the Apes.” Digital performances for Cincy Fringe play live from New York June 5-18, 2021.
In PLANET OF THE GRAPES LIVE, an astronaut crew crash-lands on an unfamiliar planet in the distant future and are enslaved by a society where grapes have evolved into speaking creatures with human-like intelligence. The original “Planet of the Apes” is credited as one of the most groundbreaking science fiction films of all time. The film’s themes of science vs. religion, biased class systems, and mankind’s self-perceived entitlement to everything on Earth strongly resonated with Marino who peppers the script with excavated passages from co-screenwriter Rod Serling’s original screenplays.
What is Toy Theater? The early 18th century ushered in Europe’s Toy Theater movement, where adults and children assembled mass-produced paper replicas of over 300 popular plays that included the script, stage, scenery, and characters. These DIY kits were sold at the concession stands of opera houses, playhouses, and vaudeville theaters to be performed for family members and guests. Toy Theater literally brought theater into homes.
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, Marino has presented over 100 performances of his interactive, digital live shows “Show Up, Kids!” and “Desperately Seeking the Exit” which were nominated for “Best Zoom Show Performed in Real Time” (BroadwayWorld), and “Outstanding Achievement In An Individual Performance” (No Proscenium). Marino was named “2021 Creative of the Year” by the Young-Howze Theatre Awards.
WHAT: PLANET OF THE GRAPES LIVE
WHO: Created by Peter Michael Marino
Directed by Michole Biancosino
Music by Michael Harren
WHEN:
WHERE: Television, computer, or tablet
HOW MUCH: $10-$15
TICKETS: https://cincyfringe.com/planet-of-the-grapes-live/
RUNNING TIME: 60 minutes, with 3-minute intermission
WEBSITE: www.planetgrapeshow.com
BIOS
Peter Michael Marino (Creator) is a NYC-based teacher, writer, performer, and producer. He’s one of the first artists in the USA to present live, online, interactive content during the pandemic and was named “Creative of the Year” by the Younge-Howze Theater Awards. He created the role of bad guy Joules Volter in the award winning, Off-Broadway family show, “Pip’s Island.” Pete’s comedy “Show Up, Kids!” received rave reviews globally, and continues to play live online. His internationally acclaimed solo comedy “Desperately Seeking the Exit” chronicled the unmaking of his West End musical flop “Desperately Seeking Susan.” www.petermmarino.com
Michole Biancosino (Director) has had her work seen on stages across the country and abroad. Recent projects include “Same But Different” (Christal Brown Dance), two seasons at Edinburgh Fringe of the sold out hit show “Trump Lear,” Peter Michael Marino’s “Show Up!” and “Show Up, Kids!,” and Lia Romeo’s “Connected.” Check out her recent digital theatre work at: https://www.youtube.com/user/ProjectYNYC
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Filed under Online Performance
Sand Catcher Collaborations is presenting the new play Twitterhated, which will open at the outdoor stages of The Know theatre on 1120 Jackson Street, Cincinnati, Ohio on June 5th at 2:45pm.
Show description: Reeling after a racist macroaggression by her boyfriend’s sister, Amelia finds herself lost in the Twitterverse. When social media bleeds into real life, she’s forced to reckon with who she wants to be – and how she wants to communicate. Twitterhated explores social media’s impact on in-person relationships and difficult conversations.
About the company: Sand Catcher Collaborations is Director Katie Baskerville and Actor/Playwright Julie Locker. Sand Catcher sees intersectional stories as grains of sand — try as theatres might to represent their entire communities, holding every grain of sand in their palms, some stories will inevitably slip through their fingers. Sand Catcher seeks to catch those grains of sand to see those who feel invisible, hear those who feel unheard, and boldly tell stories that go untold. Whether producing a series of monologues, a staged reading, a fully-produced play, or an immersive theatrical experience, Sand Catcher aims to grapple with topical issues affecting our community.
Twitterhated is Sand Catcher’s inaugural performance. Actor/Playwright Julie Locker pulls from her experience as a biracial woman, exposing the limits of the construct of race as it applies both to white supremacist and anti-racist movements when viewed through the lens of social media conversations. Not only is this heretofore an untold story in Cincinnati, but it is also presented in a style rarely seen in the city, using ensemble-based movement to create the world of the Twitterverse. Director Katie Baskerville built this world by asking, “How can we tell this story most authentically to the experience of the project?” For Twitterhated, the answer was using Viewpoints, a technique of movement composition that acts as a medium for thinking about and acting upon movement, gesture, and creative space.
Ticket price is $10. Detailed information, including show times and ticket purchasing, can be found at www.cincyfringe.com/twitterhated. Show art by Ellyn Broderick.
Filed under Press Releases
View the online story here.
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, KY—Northern Kentucky University’s Mourning the Creation of Racial Categories (MCRC) Project will present two new films at the 2021 Cincinnati Fringe Festival, the largest arts festival in Ohio. The films are part of the primary lineup and are available on-demand from June 4 to 19. The Cincinnati Fringe Festival presents over 200 performances of over 40 theatre productions each year.
Guided by Sociology Professors Joan Ferrante and Lynnissa Hillman, the Project partners with visual, creative and performing artists to open conversations around social unrest and racial disparities. MCRC’s new films, “Why White” and “I am White Like You, Right Mom?” tell the stories of how the Black and White Racial Categories came to be.
“Our country has never explored the emotional story of how the racial categories we check on application forms came to be,” said Dr. Ferrante. “As a country, we can never really address racial tensions until we know how and why the racial categories that define us all were made. Our new films provide insights that allow people to see race in new ways. New ways of seeing spark new feelings about race, interest, hope and ultimately change.”
About the films:
Why White?
This film opens with a patient, who appears white, struggling to declare “White” as his race on a medical form. He asks, “why do my doctors need to know my race?” and “why am I called “White” anyway?” which begins an exploration of how the labels “White” and “Black” came to be and opens the conversation of how White carries the weight of race.
I am White Like You, Right Mom?
In this film, a white-appearing mother must explain to her black-appearing daughter that “you’re not white exactly.” The conversation expands and reveals the story of why, in the U.S., parent and child can be labeled as different races and how race invades the family space.
The ongoing project began in November 2016 and has created five films featuring stories of how racial categories were born. Earlier this year, MCRC collaborated with NKU’s School of the Arts to present an exhibition on the emotional force of race. MCRC’s 2017 documentary has been featured at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and streams on the KET-PBS website. In 2019, the project performed its production “Let Our Loss Be Heard” in the Aronoff Center for the Arts.
The MCRC Project draws artistic talent from NKU School of the Arts, Creative Writing Program and the surrounding community. Visit MCRC’s website for more information on the project and its two films at the Fringe Festival.
About NKU: Founded in 1968, NKU is an entrepreneurial state university of over 16,000 students served by more than 2,000 faculty and staff on a thriving suburban campus nestled between Highland Heights, Kentucky and bustling downtown Cincinnati. We are a regionally engaged university committed to empowering our students to have fulfilling careers and meaningful lives. While we are one of the fastest-growing universities in Kentucky, our professors still know our students’ names. For more information, visit nku.edu.
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Filed under Press Releases
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