"Aha!" He Said Knowingly

This comment was left sometime last evening:

damiansinc said...
Hee...hee...strange coincidence indeed...very strange.
You may remember I commented on the similarity between the above sketch from the Capital Fringe Festival Guide and Theater-Boy himself, Trey Graham, last week. Well Damian seems to have, for the sake of this post, confirmed my suspisions.

Aha! I say with my finger raised in the air in the classic Aha! mode.

Now I want to know who the rest of these folks are. I know commenting has slowed to a trickle these days and I have bigger fish to fry, like reminding you that we still need you to come and see birds. But my curriosity is piqued and I hate having anything piqued.

So let us try and figure out who the rest of these folks are. We start with this delightful three quarter portrait of either a woman or a very pretty man. Any thoughts?

Remember birds runs this weekend and then it is gone. We have four shows left: Thursday at 8pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 8pm (there is no show at 3pm on Saturday it was cancelled due to the church having some sort of religious event) and then the final matinee on Sunday at 3pm. Get your tickets now. Last weekends always have a rush of people trying to see the show before it closes and I don't want you to be caught unawares.

Second to Last Friday for birds

See what I am doing here is putting a very big picture of what you should be doing this weekend on the blog page. As much as I enjoy the service this blog is doing for the theatre community as a whole, I still got a job to do. And that is put asses in seats for birds. You just need to keep reminding yourself with all of this exciting Fringe stuff going on, who is bringing you cutting edge exciting theater every time out of the gate? There is a simple answer and that is your good friends at Rorschach.

There are only 7 performances left of this World Premiere and I know many of you have been biding your time and waiting for the last couple of weekends. Well guess what the last couple of weekends are here and you will only have yourself to blame if you miss this show.

Below is another show that you should see. But only in addition to seeing birds. Remember support everyone in the Fringe but go home with the girl who brought you to the orgy.

LOW TIDE HOTEL
an original theater piece that resembles a poet's Coney Island scrapbook
starring Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, and Scott Sedar

Performance Schedule:
Friday, July 20th at 4pm
Saturday, July 21st at 7pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 2pm
(and shows might be added so check www.happenstancetheater.com for updates)

Location:
The Mead Theater Lab
at FLASHPOINT
916 G Street, NW,
Washington DC

LOW TIDE HOTEL is a DADA day at the beach, a nostalgic maritime postcard, a surrealist voyage. The message in the bottle is poetry. The waves roll away and comedy looks up like a clam.The show's aesthetic conjures the days of ocean travel on ships,drawing inspiration from antique maritime documents, luggage labels, posters, literature and song. There will also be delicious Salt Water Taffy and Souvenirs for sale before each performance. Step right up...lookie, lookie, lookie!

TICKETS $15
by phone 1.866.811.4111
Order online
or visit the Fringe Box Office 507 7th Street, NW

What is Hecuba to Me? Who is Hecuba?

Fringe Day! Everywhere in the City hundreds of performers are reving their engines and producers are beating their chests. All in preparation for a the folks who will (God willing) be knocking down their doors in the very near soon-ness of now.

This is a business of expectation. And we all have expectations out the wazoo the next two weekends.

My expectation is that you will birds at Rorschach and then maybe pay a visit to a couple of my friends and their projects around the Fringe.

Show time at Casa is at 8pm tonight, but I am told we are almost sold out. You still have a shot this weekend with shows at 8pm on Friday and Saturday and a matinee at 3pm on Saturday as well. Remember the show is only 90 minutes long and you can squeeze it with what I am sure will be a very busy week of theater.

What else do we have for you today? How about a musical and a Greek Tragedy?

Cesar and Shirley fresh off the wonderfullness of Rorschach's References to Salvador Dali . . . take a stab at the mad genius that is Mr. Shawn Northrip in Cautionary Tales for Adults and the Many Adventures of Trixie Tickles.

Two mini-musicals with songs ranging from smoky cabaret to frothy pop. First, an unhinged librarian teaches several unsuspecting adults about the injustices of life. Next, a high-strung children's TV star learns valuable lessons of her own like, "being pretty is all that matters". Deliciously inappropriate and filled with guilty pleasures.
Contains Profanity
World Premiere

Performance Schedule:

Friday, July 20 @ 10:00pm

Saturday, July 21 @ 4:30pm

Sunday, July 22 @ 9:30pm

Monday, July 23 @ 7:00pm

Saturday, July 28 @ midnight

Location:

Source Theatre

1835 14th St. NW

Washington, DC 20009

Tickets: 866-811-4111

And Rough Magic vets Gwen and Rachel are going to be some of The Trojan Women in a new adaptation by Ellen McLaughlin

Leaning toward the political in this year’s Capital Fringe Festival is Referendum: Political Arts Collective production of The Trojan Women by Ellen McLaughlin, directed by Rachel Grossman. Through a deliberate integration of realism and movement-theatre based expressionism, Referendum’s Trojan Women captures the surreal, dream-like sensation experienced by victims in the aftermath of overwhelming tragedy. The Trojan Women includes frequent collaborators with Rorschach Theatre Gwen Grastorf and Rachel Miller. The cast features Wyckham Avery, Danielle A. Drakes, Tina Reney Fulp, Elizabeth Johnson, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandel, Wendy Nogales, Elaine Yuko Qualter, and Christian Sullivan.

Performance Schedule:

July 26 @ 7pm

July 27 @ 4:30pm

July 28 @ 5pm

Location:

Source Theatre
1835 14th St. NW
Washington, DC 20009
Tickets: 866-811-4111

for tickets: www.capfringe.org

The Trojan Women runs 55 minutes with no intermission.

How do you like them apples?

Two things are creeping ever closer. The start of the Capital Fringe Festival and the end of birds. Tomorrow night we have a performance of birds which is almost sold out I am told and that should serve as a warning to those of you who can put the puzzel pieces together that there is every chance that the rest of the performances will start filling up as well.

I know that we are taking the opportunity to put some of your theater options here before you in an easy to read and digest format. Hopefully these shows will spark your interest in seeing a lot of theater in the next two weeks in addition to birds.

Today we start off with what Danny Gavigan has been up to since References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot closed. Mostly I think he was brushing up his Southy accent and eating sandwiches if the photo is any indication. And then a one night poetry and dance event at the JCC. See some theater!

Molotov Theatre Group, Washington, DC’s most incendiary new acting company, is introducing itself to theatre-goers with the new work For Boston, which will see its world premiere during this year’s Capital Fringe Festival.

Written by Michael McMahon and Lucas Maloney (Molotov Theatre’s Producing Artistic Director)

Performance Schedule:
Saturday, July 21, 2007, 9:00pm
Thursday, July 26, 2007, 9:30pm
Friday, July 27, 2007, 7:00pm
Saturday, July 28, 2007, 8:00pm
Sunday, July 29, 2007, 2:00pm

Location:
Flashpoint’s Mead Theatre Lab, 916 G Street, NW, Washington, DC.

Featuring Washington, DC-based actors JJ Area, Chris Dinolfo, Danny Gavigan, and Eric Humphries, For Boston is a horrifically dark comedy following two barfly buddies as they get sucked into the undertow of bad decisions.

While For Boston is Molotov’s first theatrical production, the company plans to begin reviving original Grand Guignol scripts later this year. This makes Molotov the first company on the East Coast, and only the second in the entire United States to focus on this genre as a key part of its mission.

To find out more about Molotov Theatre Group and Le Theatre de Grand Guignol, please visit www.molotovtheatre.com or www.myspace.com/molotovtheatre.

Hi everyone!

Just a quick note about my upcoming piece in the DC Fringe Festival.It is a live poetry reading of Carly Sach's book, the steam sequence,combined with an interactive dance performance.

We don't want to tell you too much beforehand, but Carly and I are very excited about the performance and hope you can make it!

Performance Schedule:
Wednesday July 25, 8pm

Location:
DC JCC, 16th and Q Str. NW

Tickets available at the door, or see attached flyer

All the best,
Shannon

PS Because of the nautre of the poems, the project is not appropriate for children.

Two Fringe Shows and birds Matinee

We start off our tour through the world of all things Fringe with some information about two shows that I for one am interested in seeing. As always these recommendations are in addition to seeing Jennifer Maisel's birds and not in place of. birds performs Thurday, Friday and Saturday at 8pm and this weekend we have a Saturday Matinee starting at 3pm. Tickets for birds and any of the Capital Fringe shows may be purchased at the amazingly low price of just $15 at the Fringe Box Office located at 507 7th Street, NW or visit the Cap Fringe web site.

Onward to a mug shot of a Rorschach alum (I knew it would come to this Andy) and a Dada trip to the seaside.
Journeymen Theater presents BREADHOUSE, an Intergalactic Premier by Jon Reynolds.

A bank robber, a car thief and an arsonist. Hansel & Gretel. Onestage. Three hundred screaming kids.


Performance Schedule:
Thursday, July 19 at 8:00pm
Friday, July 20 at 8:00pm
Monday, July 23 at 5:30pm
Tuesday, July 24 at 5:30pm
Wednesday, July 25 at 5:30pm

Location:
Ebenezer's Coffeehouse
201 F. Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Ticket & Show Information:
www.journeymentheater.org or Cap Fringe web site

LOW TIDE HOTEL an original theater piece that resembles a poet's Coney Island scrapbook starring Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, and Scott Sedar.

LOW TIDE HOTEL is a DADA day at the beach, a nostalgic maritime postcard, a surrealist voyage. The message in the bottle is poetry. The waves roll away and comedy looks up like a clam.The show's aesthetic conjures the days of ocean travel on ships, drawing inspiration from antique maritime documents, luggage labels, posters, literature and song. There will also be delicious Salt Water Taffy and Souvenirs for sale before each performance. Step right up...lookie, lookie, lookie!

Performance Schedule:
Friday, July 20th at 4pm
Saturday, July 21 st at 7pm
Sunday, July 22nd at 2pm
(and shows might be added so check www.happenstancetheater.com for updates)

Location:
The Mead Theater Lab at
FLASHPOINT
916 G Street, NW, Washington DC

Ticket & Show Information:
TICKETS $15
by phone 1.866.811.4111 or Cap Fringe web site.

My Plan for Fringe Coverage

Hello friends and well wishers!

Quick does anyone else see the resemblance between this City Paper theater critic and this cartoon drawing from the Fringe Guide? I grant that the nose on the drawing is a little broader and the brows heavier, but I am not one to take coincidences as coincidences. Judge for yourself. Now onward!

birds is my number one priority. You should see it with all speed and expediency. I think it is a show worth seeing and that you do yourself a great disservice if you don't see this rare show.

That being said I would be remiss in my duties, if I didn't mention that there is a Fringe Festival going on for the next two weekends and that means there is a lot of theater to see. Some of it created by some of our own Rorschach Alums. There is something special about this kind of theater. A sense of immediacy that doesn't exist in theaters that have their seasons picked two or three years in advance.

Performers flood the town for a couple of weeks in the summer and then are gone. Some of these shows will continue to go from place to place trying to find an audience where as others have all the life expectancy of the three or four performances that they will have in the next two weeks.

Budgets are low, but talent and committment are high. Tomorrow I will start running blurbs and images from some shows that I do not know personally on the whole but that I think deserve a shout out somewhere on the web. I encourage all of you to visit the Capital Fringe page for more information on all the Fringe Shows. Get out there and see theater. But see birds first.

Look for more tomorrow.

Friday the 13th

Great response to my Fringe Ad Exchange yesterday. Still space for those of you who are interested.

birds continues tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 8pm. Remember folks last year Arabian Night sold the hell out and it to was our submission to the Capital Fringe. So beat the rush. I have heard a rumor that next Thursday is nearly sold out.

This is the final weekend to get our 2 for 1 tickets deal. Just use the ticket code "Early Bird" when you order and you get two tickets for the price of one. Click here to purchase tickets.

By the way Happy Friday the 13th! Be careful around all ladders, cats, mirrors, salt shakers, open umbrellas and "Scotish Plays".

Help Me Help You Fringers

Some of you may have already gotten this in your in-box today, but I may have missed some of you so take a gander if you are Fringing this year.

Hello friends,

If you have received this than I either know, assume, suspect or kind of sort of think you may be involved in some sort of Fringe related production. If you know someone and like them enough to help them, please feel free to forward this on to them.

While I know the fine folks at the Fringe are doing a bang up job of advertising your shows, I also know that any extra advertising helps. Therefore I make you an advertising offer that costs you nothing.

Too good to be true?

Yes it probably is but you might as well trust me, you are reading this blog.

I would like to include an insert in the Rorschach program for birds with your Fringe Ads.

Also if you send me a short blurb and some photos of your show I will include them on the Rorschach Blog starting next week.

What do I expect in return?

Well very little really. Either:

If you have room in your program to run an ad for birds that would be all I ask.

or if you don't have room for an ad for birds, then hang a poster for birds in the lobby of your show (I will email you a pdf and you can print it out as many times as you like).

It is that simple.

If you would like to also distribute the insert I am creating for the Rorschach Program in your program just let me know and I will send you along whatever I end up producing.

Ads should be 3 1/2" wide by 3 " high and in jpg format.

Please be sure to include the dates of your show and any web information or phone numbers you would like to include.

If you would like to be featured on the Rorschach Blog just send a paragraph about your show, the show times and a picture and I will let you know when the information is going to be posted next week.

This is purely an independent project and therefore please do not bother the good folks at the fringe. Just bother me.

All the best,

Scott

Email me if you would like to get involved scott@rorschachtheatre.com.