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What an experience to dance on the fringe of the Fringe! Although the Washington Post Weekend classified us in the “Lunatic Fringe” group (Friday, July 21, 2006), we felt quite normal and at home performing on the street. Crowds were friendly, appreciative and generous (yes, we pass the hat).

Some things we learned:

1) It works to open with the same dance all the time: Theme and Variations on Respect. It is a deconstruction of a hip hop piece set to Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto. (?!) It is unique, a crowd pleaser and we love to dance it.

2) Some sites are better than others. Our site locaitons have changed as we have figured out what works, where the street traffic is (affected by Fringe activities) and is not. Check out our web site or the updated schedule on http:\\www.capfringe.org or www.theatermania.org.

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I can’t even begin to express all of the thoughts which are going through my mind right now. So I will keep this brief and to the point. I learned of Fringe last April when I returned to DC from a tour. With a solid year to work with, I began to plan the risky task of writing and producing a one-man show.

As fate would have it, I finally hashed out ideas and wrote the first scene of my piece three months before opening night. Without a staged reading, financial support, or even a finished script mid-rehearsals, this expected one-man cabaret soon transformed into a 12-person musical-play!

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By: Ronnie Ruff 

Bartleby — Journeymen Theater

Bartleby, Bartleby what’s up with that word prefer? How about: “I choose not to” or “I don’t wanna?” “Ain’t going to do it” or “I think not?” Actually this is one funny play, this Bartleby.  Journeymen Theater has two more shows I believe for their Fringe Festival selection. Written by Melanie Dale and adapted from the Herman Melville short story Bartleby the Scrivener from 1853 — this production is quite a piece of work, a credit to the direction of Deborah Kirby and Ken Elston. Chairs everywhere make up both the set and the workload for the wonderful workers of Bartleby’s new office. An office of unique personalities some more developed than others reacts to and attacks their new officemate fresh from his previous stint at the Dead Letter Office (of R.E.M fame?), only Bartleby ain’t down with it. So what does he do? You will have to see it and quick.

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Bums on Seats.

A Managing Director/Playwright’s Woes about Getting People to Her Show

So while sitting in the Warehouse yesterday trying to come up with schemes to get Arch Campbell to come and cover my show– which included an iced chai latte and taking off my pants– I realized, “Gee, I don’t really have a good gimmick for advertising this show”. I mean back in Bawdameer (Baltimore for those of you not from the area), just having a show named “Love and Wood” was risqué enough. Apparently that is not true here in a Fringe Festival. I mean how can I compete with “Naked Cabaret” and their cool t-shirts? Nevertheless, Fringe is something I have wanted to do again ever since participating in the New York Festival last year, and it had to be done.

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By: Joel Markowitz 

On The Fringe-How I Spent My Weekend Hidden In A Warehouse And A Lounge, Had A Great Lunch, Was Influenced By A Funny Cowboy, Became Naked Where I Divulged A Special Secret, Learned How To Hear Clearly, And Had Something FROZTY On Those Sweltering Days.

I’m on the fringe after seeing 8 shows during the first 4 days of the Capitol Fringe Festival. I’m pooped, but very invigorated.

THE CREAM THAT RISES TO THE TOP-HERE’S THE SCOOP:

THE EDDIE LOUNGE SHOW: I WANT MORE!!

I like this guy. There’s allot of me in Ed Spitzberg-we both love to schmooze (have you noticed?) and we love to lounge around and talk to everyone that passes us. He’s a walking PR firm. He’s affable, hard working, funny and talented.

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Reported by Ronnie   

There are few companies involved in this year’s Capital Fringe Festival that have a story to tell that is as fringy as Solas Nua. Not only was their show to be outdoors in a fountain but thanks to the US Park Service their show had its permit pulled right before the Festival’s start. It seems it is too dangerous to have actors wading in a public fountain so what did one of the hardest working companies in DC do?  They found a new venue of course!  In the true spirit of the fringe Solas Nua overcame obsticals and found a new venue for La Corbière by Anne Le Marquand Hartigan. I spoke with Dan Brick, Managing Director of the company and he let me know in no uncertain terms that ”Theatres with seats and ceilings are for the regular season.” and furthermore he said: ”We have changed venues one week before our show opens on July 27th. Solas will perform outdoors & in the water!”

“Maybe it’s because our Artistic Director is European with years of experience in Edinburgh, Dublin and Cork, but Solas Nua believes that “fringe” should be more than a banner under which to perform.  So, Solas Nua’s fringe piece takes art out of the box, out onto the streets and into the water.”

“This play started life as a poem written in response to the true story of the fate of French prostitutes who were shipwrecked at La Corbière Lighthouse during WW2. Anne Le Marquand Hartigan, the writer, then reworked the poem as a one act play for a cast of six which premiered at the Dublin Theatre Festival. As this is an American premiere, Hartigan is actually flying over for the production and will be in attendance on Thursday evening. She is also willing to do a reading (she is primarily a poet) and we are hoping to arrange that as well.”

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Thank goodness for my stage manager tech guru general producer factotum David Hirsha Sidwell rising junior and student of Gil Thompson I couldn’t do it without you David!

right before as show started I had this bizarre feeling i can’t believe it’s finally really happening after all this work

very friendly wonderful opening night audience. I felt a little rough but they liked it had a moment where it was, this could actually be a show.

one step at a  time

didn’t have the program (or the DVD projector remote) so no preshow awesome film from British nat archives, what can you do?

phew

gotta make the program

• Fringe Snips: 
• Normal-C,
• written and performed by Courtney McLean
• Reviewed by Tim Treanor

The word “normalcy” was invented by the notorious political buffoon Warren G. Harding, who sought to describe how things would be for Americans if he was elected President. Proving that God has a sense of humor, Harding won, ushering in an era of unparalleled corruption. Courtney McLean reinforces his lesson: “normal” is whatever is going on at the moment. “The world,” Wittgenstein once pointed out, “is everything that is the case.” (more…)

 In Pursuit of the English Rose, performed and adapted by Hilary Kacser from the memoir, In Pursuit of the English, by Doris Lessing

Reviewed by Tim Treanor

It may only be coincidence that this one-woman show, performed in the closeness of the Warehouse Screening Room, perfectly replicates the conditions of a London coldwater flat on a sweltering summer evening. Cars buzz and hum in the hazy background and the heat wafts through the walls like a mugger on a mission. Only mad dogs and Englishmen present themselves in weather like this, and Kacser, as Rose Jennings, is a little bit of both.

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