Tag Archives: The Performance Gallery

CFF17: My Fringe Schedule: Day 11/Sunday Fringe Encores

CFF17 logoThe final day of the 2017 Cincinnati Fringe Festival is upon us and you still have 28 shows to choose from today.

BUT THERE’S MORE! After today, you still have one last chance to catch the Pick of the Fringe Award Winners!

Votes for The Picks are due by 10pm tonight. Results will be tabulated and announced at tonight’s bar series around 11pm-ish (this event is free to the public). The Picks are:

  • Audience Pick of the Fringe
  • Audience Pick of FringeNext
  • Critics Pick of the Fringe
  • Artists Pick of the Fringe
  • Full Frontal Pick of the Fringe
  • Producers Pick of the Fringe

Any Pick Award winners available to perform will be given an encore performance on Sunday. The schedule and tickets for these performances will go on sale at www.cincyfringe.com tonight around midnight. The ONLY way to guarantee a seat is to purchase a $15 ticket. Five minutes before the performance, any remaining seats will be made available to fringe pass holders (voyeur, full frontal, media, artist, staff) on a first come, first serve basis.

Here are my final three shows:

CFF_katesFirst up is KATES, by local new participant Cait Robinson.

Accidentally given the same name, sisters Kate and Kate keep getting confused—until their power-hungry mother puts a stop to it by having one of them turned into a sheep. To find a cure, the two girls take to the sea, where they find redemption and romance come at a steep, Faustian price. KATES is a world premiere retelling of an Orkney Island fairytale about sisterhood, dark magic, and the seductive power of forgetting.

Written by Katharine Sherman and directed by Cait Robinson, the cast includes Tatum Hunter, Candice Handy, Taha Mandviwala, Bari Robinson, Ernaisja Curry & Kelsie Rae Slaugh.

CFF_Totally Untrue StoriesNext it’s TOTALLY UNTRUE STORIES – TOTALLY UNLIKE ANY NOCTURNAL FLYING INSECT from new participant solo performance from Lepp Fabrications.

TOTALLY UNTRUE STORIES – TOTALLY UNLIKE ANY NOCTURNAL FLYING INSECT: I lie. I started telling stories at the West Virginia Liars’ Contest. You can see why I’m chagrined that the sort of storytelling sweeping the nation is all about the Truth. Who cares about the Truth? I mean, there’s a time and a place for Truth, but in storytelling? Storytelling is about Truths- eternal, ephemeral, spiritual, societal- but that doesn’t mean it has to be true.

CFF_bedI close out the Festival with Performance Gallery, the only participant who has performed in EVERY Cincinnati Fringe Festival. This year’s entry is BED (A FEVER DREAM)

Sex or sickness? Laziness or comfort? Messy or well made? What does “bed” mean to you? You were probably born in bed and might be destined to die there. If you are lucky, you will sleep in one tonight. Beds are a strange mixture of comfort, pleasure, vulnerability and pain. We live there in dreams or nightmares. Join us for this theatrical exploration in words and movement of this mysterious and intimate place – our bed.

 

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SHIRTZENCOCKLE Runs Sept. 18-19

CFF_ShirtzencockleSHIRTZENCOCKLE
Presented by Performance Gallery as part of the 2015/16 Fringe Encore and Extra Series
Sept. 18-19
Over-the-Rhine 

Directed byRegina Pugh

Cast: Willemien Patterson, Jodie Linver, Derek Snow, Sydney Ashe & Jacob Biel

Folk and Fairy Tales provide a rich moral tapestry to explore – full of surrealism, magical and ridiculous moments and gory content that make our modern sensibilities uncomfortably tingly. This ensemble devised work uses ancient story content to create an energetic romp into the questionable world of morality and how it has been imposed on us through the cautionary tales of our childhood.

  • Fri-Sat, Sept. 18-19 at 8pm

Official page | Facebook event |

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Fringe Update: Three Local Productions Sell-Out in Advance

CFF_logoAs the 2014 Cincinnati Fringe Festival draws to a close, three local productions have sold out their final performances in advance.

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Filed under Cincy Fringe Festival, In Other News

CFF14: HEIST

CFF_HeistHEIST
Presented as part of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival ’14
MOTR
Over-the-Rhine 

Three crooks of questionable ability face a seemingly never-ending stream of challenges. Two bothersome hostages complicate life in the secret hideout. How much chloroform is too much chloroform? Whose tooth is this? What is roaming the air ducts? Creepy, hilarious, and thoroughly whatthehell?!, Heist is an exquisite little bit of absurdist crime noir. Yes, if Dashiell Hammett and Samuel Beckett got into a drunken slap fight and then wrote a play, it would beHEIST.

  • Thu, May 29 at 8:15pm
  • Sat, May 31 at 7pm
  • Mon, June 2 at 7pm
  • Thu, June 5 at 7pm
  • Sat, June 7 at 6:45pm

Official page with online ticketing |

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MATER FACIT Review

CFF_Mater Facit1

Anna Carroll Horton, Jodie Linver & Willemien Patterson. Photo by Mikki Schaffner.

Links to all reviews can be found on the BTC REVIEWS page. Blog postings, links and more are available on my FaceBook fan page. You can receive updates on Twitter from @BTCincyRob.

MATER FACIT presented by Performance Gallery as part of the 2013 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. You can read the show description here.

The Performance Gallery is a group I can count on, every Fringe, to challenge my perceptions of theater. This year’s entry, MATER FACIT succeeds as well.

CFF_Mater Facit2

Willemien Patterson, Jodie Linver, Kevin Macku & Anna Carroll Horton. Photo by Mikki Schaffner.

The strong four-member cast, supported by an on-stage band, examines the role of motherhood as supplier of soldiers for war. TPG members began the rehearsal process with a two-day workshop with award-winning Minneapolis-based physical theatre artist, Jon Ferguson (theatreforever.com).

At times the performance style and cartoon-y violence was reminiscent of a Kukla, Fran and Ollie puppet show. Solo male ensemble-member Kevin Macku runs the gamut of son, soldier, rabbit and more. Each of the three ladies get to shine in their role as “Mother.” Jodie Linver’s impassioned monologue was one of my favorite moments.

A few times I felt the show lost a bit of momentum during the scene transitions. Also a few times, some of the visual elements pulled my focus from the speaking actors.

As always, a truly unique experience that keeps you thinking after the performance ends.

Click here for a complete list of show times, local media coverage and other reviews for MATER FACIT.

I would enjoy hearing what you think about the show or my review. All I ask is that you express your opinion without attacking someone else’s opinion. You can post your comments below.

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Filed under Cincy Fringe Festival, Reviews