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An alien captor turns a young woman's life into a claustrophobic nightmare. As her grip on reality slips away her fears and fantasies come alive around her. Probing issues of gender and sexuality, liberation and power, ABDUCTED is a radical re-imagining of the classic alien story. Hollywood transplant and member of OAP, Best Improv Troupe of the 2003 SF Fringe Fest, Thessaly Lerner, returns to her hometown with a brand new comedy extravaganza about pioneers, Hollywood Moguls and the magic of child-star fame and fortune! "Wonderfully sharp and funny! Her manic comic energy recalls Saurday Night Live alums!" - Chad Jones, the Oakland Tribune "Thessaly Lerner is a mercurial delight!" - Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle. OPM aims to enlighten audiences of all ethnicities about the so-called Asian American experience. OPM has been awarded '02 Best of San Francisco Fringe, '02 and '03 Best Box Office at the SF Fringe, and first place at the Vancouver '03 and '04 SketchOff Competition. OPM has also been blessed with critical praise: "The wit is incisive...sketches backed by satirical muscle and a strong narrative structure, evince the genuine talent of this ensemble" (LA Weekly); and "a raucous and thought-provoking evening of sketch comedy performed by a talented troupe...Hilarious" (westhollywood.com). Our hero Jed is desperate to distance himself from sluttish abandon of his roaring 20's. Amid extra human efforts to reconcile his past he finds himself pulled into conservative political family dysfunction. The result is a love triangle that might be better kept in the closet. Where do we go when we die ? Into the soil for the wild roses, according to one 93 years old witty and determined French grandmother who shares her intimate secrets with her granddaughter. This solo performance uses multiple characters, dance, French music and old photos to tell the story of their haunting, loving relationship (this performance played to full houses at the Off-Market Theater last February). Certain Things, Which I Will Call Sacred (The Lovers Project) 2 Actors. 11 writers. 60 years. 82 terra cotta pots. What happens when the love of a lifetime is shattered by the loss of memory? "Certain Things stands entirely on its own as a work of art." ~NewYorkTheatre.com. "Creative and touchingŠSmith Conroy is one of New York's most talented up-and-coming directors." ~oobr.com The Chinese Clown Cabaret Yale University and Dell'Arte School graduate Jane Chen teams up with San Francisco Mime Troupe and Pickle Family Circus veteran Joan Mankin, Director, presenting an evening of Theatrical Clown: the ability to look at all sides of oneself and laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. In the 2002 SF Fringe, Chen played to sold-out audiences as Hanuman in Beneath Sita's Belly. "Chen demonstrate[s] impressive comic skillsŠ" - San Francisco Chronicle Armed with a fierce intelligence and biting humor, a woman confronts pain, desire, and grief in a labyrinth of shifting realities. After performances in Seattle and London, Mia Tagano reprises her tour de force under the direction of Jon Wai-keung Lowe. Todd Pickering* and Diane Karagienakos play Mutual Muses Dom Casual & Bella Hagen, who passionately believe that the importance of their art far outweighs their limitations as artists. Inspired by Ann Margaret, The Exorcist, Bob Dylan and The Ice Capades, they interpret the poignant stories of their childhoods, and how their meeting in San Francisco changed their lives -- and quite possibly, the future of art -- forever. *member of Actors' Equity Comedy On The Square - YOUR comedy club at the Fringe. Saturday late-night and Sunday all day bringing you highlights of our first year including Stand-up, Improv/Sketch, Magic, & More. Brought to you by New Vaudeville Comic Fred Anderson. For specific line-up check the website ComedyOnTheSquare.com or the info line at 522-8900. Saturday at 10pm COMEDY w Tom Smith & guests. Sundays @ noon - KIDS STUFF w/ Puppeteer Greg Frisbee & Boswick The Clown; at 3 & 7pm - VARIETY w/ Juggler Fred Anderson & more; at 8:30 - MORE COMEDY w/ Sketch Group Uphill both Ways, Oakland Playhouse Improv, Comic/Actor Will Franken, Kasper Hauser AND MORE! divagation: an internal cabaret This is what happens when a reluctant diva is trapped on stage. Vaudevillian antics and a beautifully executed musical score provide the hysterically twisted theatrical frame for this spiral into misplaced fear and the flexibility of reality. "Bruckmann delivers a vibrant, on the money performance" (SF Weekly) and "makes the best punch lines better" (SF Examiner). divagation is fabulously sparkly, sharply funny, and vividly human! Don't miss it! This one woman sketch comedy (with live accompanist) follows an ugly Jewish baby-dyke who gets extensive plastic surgery and is transformed into a gorgeous lesbian movie star. First produced by The Second City Training Center, Faker was a headlining act in the 2004 Chicago Improv Fest. "The songs were great, the characters were amazing, Norm Holly's dark, demented direction was perfect." Andy Eninger, founder - Chicago Comedy Company Ireland's greatest love story! Passion, politics, poetry, magic, intrigue, betrayal, deceit, heroism,and revolutionary Ireland bind these two extraordinary characters together yet tear them from each other. For Yeats, Maud is the very embodiment of heroic Ireland, his muse, his nemesis, his unrequiting lover but ultimately his staunchest friend, even when her extremist politics and his ruthless pragmatism drive them apart. Though his physical love is not enough to contain her passion, she recognises his genius and never falters in her support for his art, even when they oppose each other fiercely in the controversies that rage in the Abbey Theatre, in the land agitation, in the birth pangs of the Free State and in its turbulent afterbirth. "Maria Straw as Maud Gonne is fantastic, the rabble-rouser, the ultimate strong woman...the acting is superb' Rattlebag RTE Sabrina Stevenson's semi-autobiographical solo show resembles a series of snapshots capturing a wide array of mostly eccentric characters - a couple of religious fanatics, a bag lady, health nut, sex addict, transvestite, poet, alien, and so on. Neurotic young women, desperate for love and male approval, also figure large. The versatile Stevenson swings from haunting confessions of abusive relationships and hilarious revenge fantasies to childlike wonder. "Tilted Frame stretches the boundaries of traditional improvisation by moving beyond quick scenes and goofy caricatures, and into real characters and stirring storylines. Incorporating new media technologies, like Digital Video and the Internet, the company of actors, musician and technicians create a truly engaging visual treat. Using the technology to enhance improvisation, Tilted Frame performs a one-act play, created live on stage here and now. They drop the facile and forced wackiness of comedy club improv for a far more daring and difficult form." --Amir Baghdachi, San Francisco Bay Guardian Balé Techlorico invokes magic amidst the concrete, taking you on flights of fancy in a hard world. Balé Techlorico presents urban dreams of faraway places that are so close. Balé Techlorico blends traditional and urban theatre, dance and live percussion to present the "future folkloric." That rundown mansion with the iron gates on our left is not a madhouse. That's Hollywoodland, a rest home for movie people. Jane Norman, Queen of B movies lives there, along with Cary Grant's ex, and they loathe each other. I'll stop here, have a smoke, let you take some pictures. Hell, let's go inside. I did a film with the attendant. Yep, I'm an actor. Any producers on this bus? Why would anyone become an American citizen in 2004? A rational Englishman, a fundamentalist car-salesman, and a Pakistani shopkeeper, among others, wrestle with their American identities amidst the passion and chaos of the early 21st Century. The first comedic one-man show about stuttering performed by a stutterer. Actor/comedian Kurt Fitzpatrick tells his life experiences of being a stutterer while growing up in New Jersey and pursuing an acting career in New York. His speech brings him to various therapy programs, including an intensive speech therapy "boot-camp" in Virginia. It's Stupid To Steal When The Sun Is Out A philosophical construction worker builds a case for physical labor and criminal behavior in a world that's not up to code. Move over Letterman. God has descended to win his peeps back in the holiest of variety shows! The Almighty One and his sidekick Moses will pray, rap and dance their way into your souls. Audience participation lets you know God in a biblical sense! Don't miss live band Muhammad and the Allah-Stars, a beatboxing Dalai Lama, Jesus, Satan and Gabriel, "an archangel who really knows how to play" (SF Weekly). Long-Form Improvisation and Sketch Experience the dark and light of truth-based long-form improvisation and original sketch theatre. Dramatic and comedic elements play together in a world of truthful artistic play. Twitching under the post-9/11 whiplash of WalMarts, PROZAC, the War on Terror and the unrelenting hands of clocks, bookish little Henry Beamish almost wishes the world would End. Welcome to that signpost up ahead: m.i.blue's Twilite Zone. (CAUTION: Adult content!) This 2003 SF Fringe favorite is back. Watch critically acclaimed Bay Area actor and champion magician Christian Cagigal weave his blend of comedy, drama, storytelling and magic. New pieces for '04, favorites from '03 and that thing he does with a needle. This is magic done in a way rarely seen; with no glitz and no flash, it's just him and you."...took a simple concept (urk... a magic show) and transcended it." 5 STARS"...heart felt sentiment, genuine good humor, a little gore." 5 STARS "..had the audience in the palm of his hand." 5 STARS 2003 SF FRINGE AUDIENCE Molière is alive and every bit as witty, irreverent and energetic as the first time around! "4 1/2 stars. Outstanding" (CBC) "A delight, highly recommended" (Orlando Weekly); "The audience is enthralled ." (nytheatre.com); "Fantastic show" (Terminal City); "Clearly Moliere lives." (Orlando Sentinel); "A" . Mooney bounds into the role ... a delight to watch." (Uptown); "I haven't found a single dissatisfied Molière patron." (CBC) tHE nEO-sURREALISTS present: Half-Baked But Well Done; a study in silent linguistics "juvenile antics posing as avant-garde art. Ha!"- Jena, What are these strange symbols that pop up when I press these keys? And the cheese?, yes, the cheese, there's a bit in there somewhere. Remember that idea you had, the one that woke you from a profound slumber? Only to be abandoned as impractical, impossible, childish, absurd? We found it. And it's mad... Doreen Maller's short stories for the stage take you into
the lives of ordinary American women. Inside sunny suburban houses we meet
her heroes; raising families, making ends meet and struggling to find meaning
and purpose in between trips to the grocery store. Maller is a writer, student,
wife, mother, retired executive, business consultant and community volunteer.
In consecutive weeks she will be performing two of her Other American Stories;
Lego Towers and The Eternal Light. Rough Theatre in association with The San Francisco Improv Co-Operative presents Oui Be Negroes. "Oui Be Negroes is the only African American Sketch Comedy Ensemble in the Country! Reminiscent of the Committee" - Pat Craig Contra Costa Times PAIN: So Funny It Hurts SHOW CANCELLED Blow out the candles and say hello to the most surprising birthday ever! A pair of twins turn 25 and decides to take a vacation to celebrate. They unwittingly check in to L'Hotel de la Crise, in the Quarter Life district of town. Their fears & adolescent expectations come to dazzling life in this comedy about the most embarrassing life crisis of them all. Back again, because the people wanted more! Extremely physical performers conjure a shady world from deep in the belly of America. This isnít the heartland, but the gutland, where the people are ruled by something deep within. mugwumpin throw the macabre stories of Ambrose Bierce, plaintive photos of Walker Evans, and haunting Appalachian murder ballads into a blender, concocting a piece that audiences have called "bold, refreshing, invigorating, and risky---everything theatre should be." The Rap Canterbury Tales brings Chaucer's stories to life in today's most animated rhyme style. In this hilarious retelling, the Knight, Miller, Pardoner and Wife of Bath find themselves on a tour bus in a battle for lyrical supremacy. The Rap Canterbury Tales premiered at the Vancouver Fringe in 2003 and was rated among the top 5 must-see shows of over a hundred by CBC national radio. Reframing the Hourglass is a joyous look at aging seen through the eyes of the slightly crazy Aunt Henri and her elegant friend Moldie May. Based on a true story, this delicious tale of female friendship is told entirely in silence using only objects and puppeteers bodies. Object cast includes an actual walker, pill bottles, orthopedic shoes, picture frames, and a cardigan sweater. Three tight, hard-hitting plays by local playwrights. An Ohio suburbanite comes to terms with the needle; a woman of a certain age shakes down a would-be suitor; a young reporter delivers the hardest news of her life to her lover. Each chooses her future tack in these shorts with a mix of styles from naturalistic to lyrical. "A different angle changes everything - any poolplayer, boxer, or helpless wayward bullet could tell you that." Betrayal in a stranger's bed, spider envy, Harvard and molar-sized diamonds in Potrero Hill, Billie Holiday's shadow, footfungus ditched for a drunken Zeus, German comfort, the weight of a scar-embroidered arm, black blondes in Hollywood. some life will show you 13 facets of a black woman in these United States - change your angle. Subhuman: True Tales From Beneath the Sea From a foghorn hallucination heard as a child on the shores of Lake Erie to alarm bells in the depths of the blue Pacific, Ed spins the true and salty tale that wonders how it got here. This Love Train is Unstoppable and I Am the Conductor This hilarious story of Dave's own sexual (d)evolution: From leading prayers around his high school flagpole to, just five years later, backroom negotiations at a Bourbon Street brothel. "Fans of David Sedaris and This American Life, or Dave Eggers and his McSweeney's franchise, will get [Dave Mondy] right away... A talented and well-meaning buffoon." -City Pages The Thrilling Adventures Of Elvis In Space The Atomic Radio Hour presents The Thrilling Adventures Of Elvis In Space (episodes IV, V and VI). Follow the harrowing exploits of Elvis, his loveable sidekick Stevie and the Robot Charlie Hodge as they journey from the moon's Tranquility Base to the furthest reaches of the galaxy and beyond, in search of the King's Momma. E.I.S is a live-action-radio extravaganza combining Oedipus, 1940's radio serials and Kissin' Cousins. Tonight: The Harsh, Gritty Violent World (of Bubbles) Old Man McGinty, Critics' Choice of the Chicago Sketch Fest, have done it again! After a two-year hiatus from their Bay Area birthplace, OMG returns with accolades and awards galore* to unveil a new show! "Infused with a sly existential desperation, and that rueful angst, combined with the troupe's verbally and physically acute style, raises them a few notches above other fresh-faced but facile sketch-comedy practitioners,"-Chicago Reader. *one accolade, zero awards A one woman, two musician show by Joani Rose, winner "Best of Fest" at Dell'Arte Edge Fest. Using physical comedy and hilarious songs, Rose tells the story of a hippie/pagan/Buddhist/12-stepper who moved "back to the land", built a homestead, raised kids, and encountered menopause, meditation, and retirement . "Rose is truly a practitioner of Dell'Arte's 'Theatre of Place'"- Joan Schirle, Artistic Director, Dell'Arte. "Not just her story but the story of an entire community."- Fred Radloff, KMUD Radio. Viva Karaoke!: Searching for Wayne Dreams really do come true -- even the silly ones. 2good4u, the world's first all-girl boy band, presents an original story of fame, love, and redemption set in the cutthroat demi-monde of the semi-professional karaoke circuit. Sold out last summer's three-week run. It's 1928. Meet Vivi Vitaly-a silent film star with a big problemŠthe times are changing and she's not. Talking "pictures", a runaway husband, a mountain of debt-and one shot to turn her life around. Will it be goodbye aging starlet and hello modern flapper? A comic look at learning to change with the times. The climate is fierce, the job security uncertain. But when a routine business meeting takes a series of unexpected turns, who will be left standing? Psychological tests, rampant misunderstandings, and the benefits of counting pave the road to chaos in this farcical examination of corporate behavior. For its fifth year, BB&B return to the SF Fringe to present their newest golden steaming nugglet. A poetic documentary of a show that explores the duel stroke appeal of the escort and woo, and the humiliating battle between 'having' a sex and 'doing' the sex thing. The result is the violent, retrospective misgiving of a spent and dried-up rubber. Come see, come smell, come stain. Yep. From the makers of Best of Fringe shows "Sandwich" and "Gulag Ha Ha". "Fearless physical intensity. Restores your faith in the fringe festival as a showcase for art with integrity."-Time Out NY Zeppelin Beach Improv Showcase The Zeppelin Beach improv showcase is an exciting collection of improv styles from around the Bay Area. Three groups bring you their talents in Singing, Storytelling, and Comedy. Improv at its finest, and most dangerous, where anything can happen and often does. For more details on these great groups visit the Zeppelin Beach website. www.zeppelinbeach.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||