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by Ronnie Ruff

The Queen of the Bohemian Dream (Produced By Lorraine Treanor)

My Award: Off The Finge-o-meter

Capital Fringe 2007 winds down to an inevitable ending, I force my way out into the evening heat to see a few shows that I have been excited about since the Fringe started. (more…)

The Gregor and Olga Show
Our award: 0 Fringes

by Joel Markowitz

It’s 3:44 AM, and I can’t sleep because I am still in schlock shock.

What were they thinking? They claimed it was a “comedy about Love, Lust and Loathing.” Nothing was funny, no one could sing, and all we saw was Gregory Levine (Gregor) screaming at the top of his lungs, or should I say shrieking, and Gabi Hegan (Olga) trying to sound Russian and sounding more like Bela Lugosi. (more…)

An Evening with George Burns 

An interview with Alan DeValerio by Joel Markowitz

People always say that Lucille Ball was the greatest comedienne on TV, but I always believed that Gracie Allen was. Gracie was quick-witted and punny and she had that twinkle in her eyes that made her endearing. When something silly came out of her mouth, you laughed with her and not at her. And few would disagree with me that George Burns was the greatest “Straight Man” that ever lived. (more…)

Happy Friday! As the final weekend of Fringe dawns, we hope you can come check out our performances. Yesterday we had tech rehearsal in the afternoon and a show at 7 pm. Tonight we have a show at 5 pm, and Saturday at 4:30 pm!  We’ve been preparing and rehearsing for a long time, and are very excited to finally have an opportunity to share it with an audience.  More pictures and a tech play-by-play under the cut.

step into the light…

(more…)

The Neon Man and Me

An interview with solo performer Slash Coleman

by Joel Markowitz

He’s the man I keep bumping into at Warehouse, handing out cards for his shows and schmoozing with potential ticket buyers. I love a man who can schmooze, so here’s Slash Coleman enlightening us on his one-man, multi-character show, The Neon Man and Me. (more…)

Super Glossy!

Our Award: 4 Fringes (based on my gut feeling)

By Ronnie Ruff

I really wanted to get this show - I really did! Heck, I am a modern guy who enjoys trying to understand the opposite sex, right? I have read my female friend’s glossy fashion magazines. Vogue, Glamour, GQ… no that’s a guy glossy. I like a little SciFi. (more…)

It sounds like a Fringe show:  Big wind from Tampa blows into town and swallows up the city’s hip freebie. Budgets get whacked. Production staff get one way tickets to Atlanta.  Funny. Ha Ha.  But the news released Tuesday is no joke.  City Paper, along with Chicago’s Reader, have been sold to Tampa-based Creative Loafing. (whose production offices are in Atlanta.)  We first read it in DCist.  What will this mean for reviewers Trey, Bob and Greg?  Hold on. It could be a bumpy ride.

Okay, I haven’t even told you how my opening night went - despite our wishes for an empty theater and fears of a totally fubar show, we had a decent house of 31 people. We went an hour over on our tech rehearsal, my projectionist didn’t show up (the venue manager kindly stepped in), and we didn’t get to run the show during tech, so opening night kind of served as our dress rehearsal. And aside from a couple of technical snafus and me completely forgetting the ending monologue (nobody noticed! in fact, awesome review from Sam Goldblatt, Fringe Marketing dude), we had a great show. I met a cool guy, Art Levine, who gives me a shout-out in his blog - he asked me a lot of great questions about the show, which I love because the more people wonder about the universe I’ve created, the more solid it becomes in my head. And it is a VAST universe.

I also met the fantabulous Slash Coleman, who is a very talented solo artist, but he’s not an intense handful like some people we know (read: me). He gave me a LOT of info about getting out there as a solo performer - that’s all he does now! He quit his day job! It IS possible!!

I’m also featured on this cool video on Theatermania.com!

So, I still have 4 shows left and I’m sellin’ those tickets! I pulled a Jimmy Hogg today and went to a handful of venues and just passed out postcards as patrons were leaving shows (Jimmy’s the best self-promoter I know and the guy SELLS OUT his shows - and not just ’cause they’re good)… I got told by a Fringe Volunteer she thought that was “tacky” (not because she saw me doing it, but another show was doing it), but HEY! That’s FRINGE for ya!!

I’ve taken a handful of photos and they are HERE!
My next show is tonight!!! YEAH!

Happy Wednesday! How nice to find a mention of Trojan Women in this morning’s Washington Post’s Fringe coverage. The article points out many of the festival’s female-centric shows, among which we are proud to be counted.

Under the cut: pictures from our director’s triumphant return, and preparing to storm the Source Theater tomorrow. (more…)

As announced in DCist:  “For those of you who love the Warehouse Arts Complex as much as we do, some bittersweet news just came in from owners Paul and Molly Ruppert. As you’ve already heard, Warehouse will close its cafe and music venue at the end of this month, thanks to skyrocketing property tax bills. Not that we had any doubts, but we’re pleased to learn that the Rupperts are organizing a closing night gathering to say goodbye to the artists and patrons who have made the space such a special gathering spot for the city.”   The Theatre space will continue into September. Read the full DCist article here.