Thursday, August 29, 2024

Final Fringe Reflections! Wrapping it up with Dick Piston and Accidental Beach!

I had a lovely Fringe 2024. I hope everyone else did too! I did a rough calculation and over the 11 days (10 at the site watching shows and drinking in atmosphere) I saw 21 shows, had hundreds of conversations with friends and strangers, ate more than my share of mini-donuts, had my G.O.C., went to the Next Act three times, and walked over 85,000 steps! I spent less than $500 for all this entertainment and activity so that's definitely a WIN!  

On the final Sunday I spent my day laughing, catching two local comedies! It was a great day to end the Fringe!

Dick Piston Hotel Detective in Prague-Nosis - This was a super fun show where, just like the titular Dick Piston, you weren't always sure what was going on! But that was the fun of it. The cast of 5 (plus the many-hatted sign holder ASM) were fabulous as they attacked this very funny, clever script. No one is quit who they seem to be, except maybe Dick Piston, but he's very confused trying to solve a hotel guest's robbery. There's a hypnotist magician, a man with no pants, an international film star (famous in Europe) and a jewel thief - OR IS THERE?! It zigged and zagged with clever wordplay and flashbacks and a twist no one sees coming, especially Dick Piston! This was the first Fringe for Nachopals Theatre and they hit is out of the park! 

Accidental Beach - Recreating 'an almost perfect musical' that they improvised during the past season, the 11 O'clock Number folks from Grindstone Theatre served up sand and laughs with this one. It was hilarious and they embraced the spirit of recreation. It's got it's twists and turns and amazing songs and lots of laughs. It was held over at the Varscona and it wasn't hard to see why. Clearly inspired by Edmonton's accidental beach, the cast merge Baywatch with a Mafia movie and Lizard babies for a show that's impossible not to laugh at! It was a terrific way to end Find Your Fringe! 

It was a fun way to end the summer! See you next August!

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Find Your Fringe! Saturday, August 24th - One Show Day!

So... funny story... I had it in my head that my show was at 12 noon. It was Sold Out and a Hot Ticket so I made sure that I was there by just after 11 am so I would be the first in line. So I'm there... waiting... and I find it curious that there is no one else there. Not just no audience members, but no cars in the lots, so I decide to check my ticket... OH! The show starts at 2 pm, NOT NOON. It's all good, I went and found myself breakfast and returned later closer to the actual show start time. I still was first in line but this time there were other people there too! The lesson is - ALWAYS REVIEW YOUR SPREADSHEET! Ha ha ha!

So, what did I see?

High School Musical - The Disney High School Musical and Descendants movies are my guilty (?) pleasure! And I always want to see what the phenomenal Uniform Theatre company is doing so this was a combination that felt like destiny! What a great show! The cast is outstanding in a triple threat way. I have to give a shout out to the Choreographer, Kelly Webber, for the fantastic work! The basketball work in that tiny space was awesome! Earlier in the week, a Fringe patron was telling me about the show and they were floored that the entire cast could sing so well! There are some pretty talented folks on that stage - in ALL THE ROLES! It was also fun to see Edmonton Theatre Legend, Linette Smith, onstage as she's usually directing but clearly she was the perfect choice to play the Drama Teacher! Kudos to all involved. This show Sold Out their entire run before Fringe even started. That's how good they are! 

Now my Fringe is almost done. Some of you will no doubt be taking in Holdovers to catch the shows you missed. HOLDOVERS

I'm off to See Dick Piston Hotel Detective in "Prague-Nosis" and Accidental Beach: A Previously Improvised Musical today to wrap up this year's Fringe Adventure! Happy Fringing Everyone! Until next year!

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Friday Fun at the Fringe - For Science! and Satan Does a Cabaret!

We're getting near the end of the Festival, but I saved some good ones for this weekend!

For Science! - I finally made it to the show! It's been on my list for a few Fringes and I have never been able to fit it in, but it worked this year - YAY! It was so much fun! A show that is indeed for all ages but is clever and smart and sciencey (so you know I like that!). The kids have a great time and the adults have a great time. I'd go again if they bring it back! I think their last show is this afternoon - so check it out if you can!

Satan Does a Cabaret - I had a lot of fun at this one. Rebecca Merkley is such a great performer and her voice is one that I can listen to forever. Although I knew more about the source material with Jesus Teaches Us Things, Satan Does a Cabaret is still very entertaining! Satan knows how to belt out the big songs and it was fun that the audience got to join in (in a variety of capacities). I had avoided learning the lyrics to W.A.P. in my life but that's done now! ha ha ha ha! Oooooh Satan! I guess that's what Satan does!


Tickets!

FINAL Word of Mouth - Find Your Fringe! Fringe 2024

Word of Mouth
Thursday/Friday - August 23/24

It's the last one I'll be doing for this Fringe - but there are a lot of great titles and many of them are in holdovers (well, 12 are, and I think almost all the holdovers made the Word of Mouth List at least one time!). Some of these shows are finished for the Fringe, but perhaps they will be back OR maybe they are going on to another Fringe adventure? 

Here goes...

Weird Al Karaoke
I Lost on Jeopardy
Ladies of Jazz
Too Funny for Words
Larry
God is A Scottish Drag Queen
Cabaret of Legends
The Kid Was a Spy
1nce Upon a Lie: Paul Strickland
Ha Ha DaVinci
Chase Padgett: Grab Bag Cabaret
Martin Dockery: Truth
Inescapable
Suitcase Circus (kids)
Mass Debating
Microwave Coven
God the Daughter
How Not To Kill A Plant
Think of Me
Happy Go Lucky
Accidental Beach
Sword in the Stone
The Funny Thing About Men
Erika the Red
Murder She Improvised
Gordon’s Big Bald Head
All the Kings Men

Tickets

Friday, August 23, 2024

Thursday Adventures - Fringe 2024 - Mass Debating and Weird Al Karaoke!

Mass Debating - brought to the Fringe by 100% More Girls (the unification of Whizgiggling and Guys in Disguise) this was a really cute and funny musical about a junior high debate competition between an all girls school and an all boys school. Set in past (1970s?) there are many moments highlighting the expectations for girls vs. boys in the competition and in the world as a whole. In this production, the women play the boys, and the men play the girls.  It was very smart to choose junior high as there is perhaps the biggest gap in maturity between grade 7s, 8s and 9s than in high school grades and the show uses those differences to show us the internal and external relationships of the competitors with themselves. It's got the flavour and feel of Putnam County Spelling Bee and I think it could actually be something like that with a little expansion on the script! Also, there's an amazing tap number!! I had so much fun and I highly recommend - however, it might be hard to get tickets at this point! Written and directed by Trevor Schmidt with music by Mason Snelgrove. 

Weird Al Karaoke - I have been interested in this local company for a few year now and finally got myself to one of their shows. They perform throughout the year every third Thursday night at Grindstone. This show is a Greatest Hits of numbers from the past season. I had a lot of fun. The premise is that the comedian/performers select a song to which they create their own parody song. Favourites from the show included an homage to the movie Dune 2 (sung to the tune of Petula Clark's Downtown); a song about the slow build of the LRT Valley Line to Millwoods (sung to the tune of Midnight Train to Georgia); a veritable dictionary of Gen-Z slang in a song titled You're a Mid One, Mr. Cringe (for which I need to get the lyrics so I can understand what my students are saying!). A Very funny show and I hope to catch it in the regular season (and maybe even try it out myself?!). 

Tickets for all shows here. 

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Monday and Tuesday Fringe Show Reflections! Fringe 2024!

So, I am a little late on this... it's a funny story why mostly having to do with my husband locking ALL his keys in his truck (both set for both vehicles that he drives) and then him having to take my van to work while I waited for AMA... It's all good and I am happy to report I made it to the Fringe Site on time for my shows!

On Monday I caught three shows!

Sheep Play - I booked this show because it fit nicely into my schedule and sounded intriguing... Sheep in a post-human world? Okay - let's see what this is! The sheep were hilarious with excellent Scottish accents that sounded very right for the show. There's the best Ukulele song (well sung, well played, and well suited to the piece)! There's also a bit of "What the heck is going on?!?!" but I was laughing (as was most of the audience) so it's all good. I was certainly entertained, even if I was a bit confused at times!

Microwave Coven - I try not to miss the Guys in Disguise shows and this one was a lot of fun, as always! I also took my sister and a mutual friend from high school so it was nice to show off the show to them. They were blown away by how well the 'guys' play women! This one tackles the supernatural/occult and the domestic life of wives in the late 1970s - the keepers of the microwave oven! It was very funny, irreverent, laced with inuendo, and it was fun to see how the roles were attacked! I particularly loved the voice that Trevor Schmidt chose for Carmen and the repeated magical gestures from Jake Tkaczyk!

Marv n' Berry - I know a couple of this sketch comedy group but outside of online videos I had never seen one of their shows! So I thought I would remedy that. I also got to check out the new Rapid Fire Space which, despite donating for the rebuild, I had never gone to! It's gorgeous! Wow! What a great job they have done on that space!! Anyhow, the show was very funny, although I felt a but old because of some of the references I did not understand. But this is clearly a group that knows each other very well and knows how to be funny. There's a quirkiness to the sketches and I really enjoyed that!

Today (Tuesday) I saw two more shows! 

27 Pictures - What a lovely script and it is very well done by this group. A couple on the verge of a break-up revisit their relationship through 27 pictures. Both young actors were very good and they had a terrific chemistry with each other. They created a beautiful and believable timeline of a relationship with ups and downs that made me care! I think these were both Grant Mac students or recent grads and I hope we see more of them on our Edmonton stages in years to come!

Joan & Olivia: A Hollywood Ghost Story - This one
sounded interesting as it featured Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland as ghosts continuing their life long feud into their deaths. This affects two living sisters in the house they are haunting. I thought the 'ghosts' did a great job portraying the dead actresses with their vocal cadences and mannerisms. They are contrasted by the two modern day sisters who aren't very happy with being manipulated. A nice tight show that made me want to read up more on the legendary actresses!


I'm enjoying this Fringe and all the fabulous and varied shows that I am seeing! I hope you all are too!

WORD OF MOUTH - Fringe 2024 - Tuesday, August 20th!

This is actually the last two days of collected Word of Mouth Recommendations! Once again, I have not see all these shows but rather people have recommended them to me as shows that they think were great shows that people should see!

Rob and Chris (Bobby +Tina)
Ingie's Fingies
Bright Lights
Portrait of Elisa Graham
OWEaDEBT
Centre of the Universe
What the Hell Was That?
The Bells
Local Diva: The Danielle Smith Diaries
Silence of the Lambs Jr. Edition
Chase Padgett: Grab Bag Cabaret
The Kid Was a Spy
1nce Upon a Lie: Paul Strickland
Martin Dockery: Truth
Keith Brown - 100% Wizard
Everything In New Orleans Is A Good Idea
Cabaret of Legends
Rat Academy
Microwave Coven
Mass Debating
The Show Must Go On
El Diablo of the Cards
Batman, Bob and Bill
The S.P.O.T.T.
Binding

Whatever you go see, I hope you enjoy your Fringe!

Fringe tickets: https://tickets.fringetheatre.ca/ 

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