Month: August 2022

IndyFringe: Beyond Ballet

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Indianapolis Ballet returns to the Fringe to showcase its talent in this year’s edition of “Beyond Ballet.”

We get the traditional ballet in pieces like “Bartok Sonata,” “Miroirs” (opening and closing with a dancer tableau), and the exquisite “Le Corsaire Pas de Deux” featuring Yoshiko Kamikusa and Humberto Rivera Blanco. In “Diamante,” classic ballet meets contemporary composition, dancing to Karl Jenkins’ “Palladio” – music you might hear in the background of a TV show or commercial that needs something intense and serious.

For the “beyond” your expectations, we get “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin, with Ahna Lipchik’s charming portrayal of Chaplin’s famous Tramp character, working with Kamikusa and Blanco in a graceful meet-cute. For the big finish, we get “Summer at the Fringe,” a salute to disco diva Donna Summer with routines to four of her hits – some truly “Hot Stuff” right up to the “Last Dance.”

Choreography is by Kristin Young Toner, Lipchik, Victoria Lyras (who also did costumes), and William Robinson (the dancer in the program photo). Other company members include Nicholas Bentz, Colette Blake, Reece Conrad, Haley Desjarlais, Eli Diersing, Brigid Duffin, Jane Gordon, Jacqueline Hodek, Scholar Idjagboro, Journie Kalous, Kaci King, Jessica LeBlanc, Sierra Levin, Maria Jose Esquivel Losada, Robert Mack, Abigail Marten, Grace McCutcheon, Lucy Merz, Jessica Miller, Ada Perruzi, Katie Pilone, Amanda Piroue, and Macyn Malana Vogt.

For a great sampler of professional ballet at a Fringe festival price, see Indianapolis Ballet “Beyond Ballet” in the Basile Auditorium at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25 (today as we post this); noon Sunday, Aug. 28; 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1; and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4.

IndyFringe: Hope – A Theatrical Dance

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By Wendy Carson and John Lyle Belden

Gerry Shannon and Melissa Hawkes have come down from Maine to bring us a spectacular piece of theater, “Hope: A Theatrical Dance.” The story is told through the dances of the two performers onstage, as well as in a video projected behind them highlighting memories of Asher (Shannon) with his wife, Hope, and his child (both played by Mackenzie Krueger).

Asher enters the scene clearly depressed and drinking heavily. A pair of hands appear out of the curtain behind him causing him to be manipulated like a puppet. While this may sound like whimsy, the sheer heartbreak he manages to convey keeps the audience rapt with attention. Soon the strings are cut and Asher is once again left to his own devices.

Hope, as a concept, enters as an Angel (Hawkes) and dances around him, forcing him to remember and relive the happier days of his marriage. Just as he is beginning to smile, we are transported to the birth of his daughter and the loss surrounding this event.

Grief once again threatens to overtake him, but he is shown that “hope” lives on.

The entire show is presented without words, the narrative woven through dance, mime and music by various artists including The Chainsmokers, Better Than Ezra, Jason Mraz, and Ed Sheeran.

A note to anyone who saw this show at a previous Fringe: Shannon has restructured it and cut some of the songs, making it a lot less funny than you’d remember.

Wendy’s thoughts: When I first watched the show, the portrayal of Asher’s grief hit me hard. Not only was it perfectly enacted, Shannon is literally an “everyman”. He looks like the kind of guy who’d be more at home at a sports game than dancing on stage. Still, the skill of both he and Hawkes make the show tender and unforgettable.

From the program and with talking to others who have seen it at previous Fringes, this is just a portion of the full show. Knowing that, I really hope that Shannon will return to us in the future and present the entire show. The taste I was provided has me hungry for more.

John’s thoughts: I was really struck by the lack-of-control feeling illustrated at first by Shannon, a true reflection of grief. Krueger (a St. Paul, Minn., based dancer and actor) was a wonderful addition, her sparkling talent making us see and feel the love between Asher and Hope. The innovation of having the distant and departed partner on the screen communicated their separation in an impactful way. At points, he was there with her in the video, but she is never with us here.

Hawkes ties it all together nicely, portraying “hope” in a more tangible way. Her dance reflects the support of true friends, as well as that small voice that tells you to look up from your sadness and see what more the world has to show.

We “Hope” you experience this performance as well, at the IndyFringe Theatre, 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25 (today, as we post this); 1:45 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28; 7:15 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2; and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4. 

IndyFringe: Play by Play

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Clerical Error Productions presents “Play by Play: Tiny Little Plays by Mark Harvey Levine,” directed by Jon Lindley, and written, of course, by Levine, a master of creating humorous and heartfelt little stories that take just a few minutes. Perhaps some remember his “Cabfare for the Common Man” or his contributions to Phoenix Theatre “Xmas” shows; if you do, it’s more of that.

The framing device, as the topics are all over the place, is a parody of network sports announcers, played by Bryan Ball and Adam Crowe, who introduce the series, deliver a Halftime assessment, and announce the Two-Minute Warning near the end. To announce each little play is the Referee (David Molloy), complete with whistle and arm signals not sanctioned by the NFL, which perturbs the on-stage Director (Kate Duffy).

The plays are acted superbly by Ball, Crowe, Tracy Herring, T.J. O’Neil, Talor Poore, and Michelle Wafford. There are grown-up children’s games, the politics of fish, restaurant scenes, questions of reality, encounters with deities, and – a running theme in this year’s IndyFringe, it seems – a cryptid.

Every year, once people learn I’ve seen and am reviewing a whole bunch of Fringe shows, I’m asked what is good to recommend. This one’s at the top of the list, with something for every sense of humor and not too challenging on the feels (though one bit comes close).

There are numerous opportunities, as well. “Play By Play” is at the District Theatre 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25; 5:15 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27; 9 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1; and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4.

IndyFringe: The Princess Strikes Back

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By Wendy Carson

Victoria Montalbano had an awkward childhood, growing up as a theater nerd with very little romantic experience. Suddenly her life is changed forever when the “Star Wars Trilogy” is rereleased and plays in her local theater. Since there is only one woman in the entire movie, she naturally identifies herself as Princess Leia and falls madly for the “scruffy nerf-herder” of a rogue, Han Solo.

After college she moves to Chicago to become the next Tina Fey. Her exceptional improv skills aside, few acting opportunities provide themselves for her. Still, she remains ever hopeful that her leading man will find her, and she will eventually star in the story of her dreams.

As one might conclude from the show’s full title, “The Princess Strikes Back: One Woman’s Search for the Space Cowboy of her Dreams,” her co-star has yet to be cast. Still, the tales she tells of her personal and professional ups and downs are delightful to hear. Besides, if you don’t attend, you won’t learn the correlation between virginity and pumpkin pie.

The Force compels you to attend 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25 and/or noon Saturday, Aug. 27, at the District Theatre.

IndyFringe: Experi-Mental

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Mentalist Steven Nicholas provides an interesting hour of entertainment and surprises in “Experi-Mental.”

Nicholas is apparently one of those extraordinary humans who can memorize a great deal of written information. It started, he says, when he was the slowest in his grade-school class because he thought through every math problem too thoroughly. To aid his scores, he worked on his memory, and now has thousands of digits of Pi locked in his head – this is not a boast, he is nowhere near the record.

Still, he can demonstrate that practically any grouping of numbers can be found in that famous irrational sequence. Also, he claims he can unlock the memory potential of audience members, using only 52 numbers – each written on a different playing card of a standard deck.

This opens us to some mentalist tricks that deliver the “wow” factor, and in a different way than other magician/mind-readers at this year’s Fringe.

Also, if you attended the preview show, he’s the guy who had us all touch our fingers against our will. He’ll do it again – how long can you resist?

Go “mental” with Nicholas at the Athenaeum, Friday and Sunday evenings, Aug. 26 and 28, and Friday and Saturday, Sept. 2-3.

IndyFringe: Sadec 1965, A Love Story

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By Wendy Carson 

A brilliant storyteller, Flora Le spins the tale of “Sadec 1965: A Love Story,” her quest to discover her father’s hidden past in Vietnam prior to his arrival in Canada, where he attended college and married her mother.

Le’s relationship with her father was never great. He left the family when she was five. During her bi-weekly forced visitations she was neglected and abused. He refused to tell her anything about him, his family or Vietnam, no matter how much she asked.

This lack of a male touchstone in her life led her to make some poor and questionable choices along the way. However, her friend convinces her that the only way she will truly learn about the man is to visit Vietnam for herself. So, she leaves her soul-sucking job and goes upon a motorcycle tour of the country.

She proudly buys herself a beautiful motorcycle, disregarding the fact that she has never ridden on, let alone driven one. She is excited to see the foreign land, disregarding that she only knows approximately three phrases in Vietnamese. Still, she valiantly forges ahead.

Her discoveries throughout the countryside are interspersed with memories of her father. When he is struck down by a brain tumor, she visits him in the hospital but his treatment of her has not changed since she was a child. In fact, she only learns of her father’s past from interviews of the Vietnamese man her brother hired to sit by her father’s bedside.

Through him she finds out about her father’s first love, whom he left behind. She pledged herself to be faithful and wrote him over six hundred letters during a span of about six years. This devotion makes Le desperate to meet the mysterious woman, but will that connection actually be made?

Le’s story is raw and lovely as she pulls no punches regarding anyone’s faults (especially her own). However, the tapestry she weaves is engaging and beautiful and hopefully there will be another opportunity if you missed viewing it during the opening weekend of IndyFringe.

Flora Le’s story continues on her website, containing photos of those involved as well as some of the letters written. Check it out at https://www.sadec1965.com/

IndyFringe: Love OverDose

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

React theatre for children and teens (formerly Young Actors Theatre) has created an exceptional topical performance piece in “Love OverDose.” Developed by students with the help of adult mentors and experts, this play with movement and monologues addresses the current opioid crisis from the kids’ perspective, serving as a wake-up call to us all.

Students at Bridgeport High School, U.S.A., Riley Hembry (Hannah Schultz) and sister Alex (Sadie Sheets) are smart, successful, and popular. That means they get invited to all the good parties (“good” defined by the presence of drugs and alcohol). They might drink a bit, or have a pill or two, but it’s not like they’re addicted or anything.

As Riley’s best friend Blake (Regina Jones) says when asked if she does drugs, “No – just sometimes.” Their pal Benny (Bryan McElroy) goes along, though he would rather just chill with classmates at home with a movie. Emma (Katya Bain) knows to take it easy, remembering the embarrassment of her addict father. Jesse (Will Harris) is a freshman in accelerated classes who tutors (or does their homework) to get in with the cool kids. This gets him into the party, but he doesn’t feel like staying.

Still, life can get really intense when you’re a teen, especially when the Hembrys’ parents start to divorce. Riley has some pills. Alex grabs the pill bottle. Before they realize it, they are making life-and-death decisions.

Scenes are punctuated with individual fourth-wall speeches given literally standing on a box, movement interludes that accentuate the feelings of adolescence and projected pharmaceutical-style commercials for “Opioids!” complete with “side effects may include…” that range from feeling invincible, to death.

Aimed squarely at teens and their parents with blunt honesty – without being cheesy, naïve, melodramatic, or overwrought like an “afterschool special” – this also measures up as an excellent theatre piece with gripping drama.

Fringe-goers should see this: 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25; 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27; 8:45 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3; 5:15 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4. Those interested in having this presented at a school or other organization can get information at reactkids.org/projects/loveoverdose.

IndyFringe: Sweet Dreams, Pillowman

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By Wendy Carson

Monique (Audrey Stonerock) is literally a hot mess. Her apartment is a wreck, her hygiene is questionable at best, her cat has run away in disgust and her only companions are a trio of singing rats (Chelsea Mullen, Carrie Powell, and Maria Meschi). Is it any wonder she has begun talking to the pile of pillows and blankets next to her?

She has also started to imagine hearing a strange male voice from somewhere. Is it the rats playing a trick on her or something more sinister?

When she discovers that there is indeed a Pillowman (voiced and puppetted by Zachariah Stonerock), she is frightened at first, but then begins to deal with this manifestation. As is often the case, her visitor is here to help her work through the issues that have brought her to this place in her life.

In “Sweet Dreams, Pillowman*,” presented by American Lives Theatre, many hard truths are explored, but catharsis (and oranges) win out in the end.

Personally, I feel that J. E. Hibbard’s script makes a perfect Fringe show. The characters are interesting, the story is charming, it lulls you into a false sense of whimsy and then hits your emotional buttons (without going overboard).

Experience the sweetness 7:15 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday, Aug. 26-27, on the Indy Eleven stage at the IndyFringe Theatre.

(*This play has nothing to do with the much-darker drama “The Pillowman” by Martin McDonagh; though if you do find a production of that one, be sure to check it out.)

IndyFringe: The Real Black Swan

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By John Lyle Belden

Popular Fringe storyteller Les Kurkendaal-Barrett returns to bring us “The Real Black Swan: Confessions of America’s First Black Drag Queen.” In the process, he gets in a few confessions of his own.

For most of his life, Les had a Pink Bubble. It’s like the one Glinda the Good Witch rides in on in “The Wizard of Oz.” Only he can see it, but it protects him.

More recently, Les had a lump in his thigh. It turned out to be a tumor, but neither it, nor the growing Black Lives Matter movement outside his doors concerned him, as the Pink Bubble remained intact.

As he prepared for surgery to remove and examine the lump, Les learned of an article about William Dorsey Swann, who was born a slave in the 1800s and went on to become a Black drag queen (reportedly the first) as well as the first LGBTQ activist on record. This being good material for his next show, Les let it into the bubble. Then he checked in to the hospital.

Under anesthesia, Les drifted in a haze, surrounded by the bubble’s pink glow. Then he saw someone walking towards him – this person was tall, Black, and in a 19th-century dress. In a gruff voice, Swann declared, “You need to start feeling things!”

POP!

We’re not in Oz anymore; this dream takes a more “Ebenezer Scrooge” turn, as Les – and we – examine Swann’s life, and the moments where Les could have used The Queen’s strength. His talent for entertaining us with his introspective stories is blended with a fascinating biography. We get an insight into the history of “gay life” (in both senses of the word) in old Washington, D.C. As one would expect, Swann saw his share of trouble, but being taught how to write while in jail led to his petitioning President Grover Cleveland for a pardon – securing his place in history, regardless of the outcome.

This exercise in self-reflection – we learn why “Kurkendaal” is spelled that way – coupled with seeing worlds outside the bubble, make for yet another great performance in Les’s exceptional repertoire.

Pop on over to the District Theatre to see him 9 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 25, and 5:15 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28.

IndyFringe: Fly Blackbird Fly/Voices We Can’t Unhear

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This is part of IndyFringe 2022, Aug. 18-Sept. 4 (individual performance times vary) in downtown Indianapolis. Details and tickets at IndyFringe.org.

By Wendy Carson

“Fly Blackbird Fly/Voices We Can’t Unhear” begins by honoring those who are no longer with us. We then see the four actresses entering as children at play.

The group then comes together, giving us monologues about the physical changes of puberty as well as the rude and threatening attitudes of the boys around them to this change. Physical, mental, sexual, and social abuses are discussed, but also acknowledged as sad a part of growing up.

The ladies of the cast – Dedee Austin, Maya Mays, Rav’n Partee, and Latrice P Young – slide in and out of characters ranging in age from 7 to over 45 throughout the course of the show. They enchant us, persuade us, and challenge us not just to hear them but also to fully see them as the complex creatures they truly are.

The show, which Ms. Latrice defines as a “choreopoem,” is a mixture of poetry, scenes, music, and movement portraying the lives of these four females as they grow up into powerful and proud women. Just know that as you are never too old to see a rainbow, you should not leave this spectacle unseen.

Presented by Ms. Latrice, aka Distinctly Unique, with OnyxFest, performances are 9 p.m. Friday and 1:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26-27; and 5:15 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3-4, at the IndyFringe Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair.