Here’s what I saw during the second week of the Rochester Fringe Festival! Check below for my thoughts and recommendations!
Merged at the Geva Nextstage – “MERGED is a mix of premiere and repertory work by national/international dance artists James Hansen and Heather Roffe. This choreographic concert showcases a merging of visual art, theatre and text, melded with rich, visceral and physically exciting dance.” This performance was absolutely intoxicating. I loved everything about it. I loved the fun and distinct collection of music choices that visited a variety of genres and styles. I loved the simple yet elegant costumes that all worked so well on the dancers bodies and with the stories each dance told. I loved that each piece was strong and emotionally evocative and featured characters that really told a story that I could interpret in my own way, but all done through great dances. The pieces were beautiful and fun and original and sometimes funny (I love dance that surprises you by using humor well) and cutting-edge and thought-provoking. I was also really pleased with the quality of the choreography (something different in every piece) and style, and with the precision in the technique. All fabulous and beautiful dancers, but each dancer and dance also had a lot of personality. Definitely one of the most engaging dance concerts I have ever seen. Don’t miss this show. A+.
TriviaCity: An Arts and Culture Quiz at the Spiegelgarten – “Join host CITY NEWSPAPER for an arts, culture, and all-things-Rochester trivia night!” This was so much fun! I saw it the same evening I saw Merged – what a great night! My friend Shawnda and I teamed up for this event in the spiegelgarten, a parking lot downtown that was comfortably and lavishly decked out with relaxing outdoor lounge sofas, cocktail tables and bar stools, strings of romantic cafe lights, flame heaters set up throughout and, of course – the wood, mirror, velvet and stained glass spiegeltent from Europe. There was also beer, hot chocolate, and hot mulled wine available, which smelled heavenly. The atmosphere was great, and the trivia was a lot of fun as well. 6 rounds all about arts (theatre, Fringe, visual art), culture (media, news, music, movies, artists, etc.), and Rochester (famous Rochestarians, scandals, our arts and culture scene, Fringe Fest, etc.). We each got a free cozy t-shirt for participating, learned a lot of cool things about Rochester and the arts, and had a blast answering questions (we absolutely dominated the competition on the Rochester people round, but failed miserably at the Broadway and pop songs with a shared title round). Grab some mulled wine, a seat by the fire, a group of pals for a fun evening (and make sure Shawnda is on your team because she is a trivia goddess), and don’t miss this event next year either. A.
Sand Mandalas at the Geva Cafe – “Prepare to be mesmerized as Katie Jo Suddaby “paints” with thousands of tiny grains of sand. Katie Jo is the only Westerner using this ancient Tibetan technique to create delicate works of art from brightly colored sands.” She does beautiful work. Katie Jo was working on a gorgeous peacock when I stopped by. She explained how she got into it and told me about her week learning about sand painting technique from the monks, showed me the unique instruments from Tibet that she uses to do her sand paintings, and demonstrated on an “unpainted” section of glass how she can manipulate the instruments and the sand to make thin lines, heavy lines, soft images, etc. And I think it’s great that she recognizes and embraces that there’s beauty in impermanence – in art and in life. A.
Garth Fagan Dance at Garth Fagan Dance Studio – “Witness a performance by world-renowned Garth Fagan Dance up close and personal in the company’s downtown Rochester studios. Now in its 43rd season, Garth Fagan Dance is “unfailingly original,” deems the The New York Times. The dancers communicate with unbridled energy the depth, precision and grace of Tony-award-winning choreographer Garth Fagan’s work.” This company, its dancers, and choreography are like a celebration of strength, the beauty of the human body, and all the amazing things it can do. This was the most sculpted, in-shape, and strong group of dancers I have ever seen. They made everything look effortless. Garth Fagan did the choreography for The Lion King on Broadway, so the style of this company is a very specific style. I do have to say, these dancers can spin better than any other group I’ve ever seen. To me, this dance concert was more about body, self, and community than story, character, or personality. I enjoyed it and I think everyone should see them at least once, simply to be in awe of their strength and all the awesome things the body can do. A.
The Joe Showers Show at Xerox Auditorium – “Join Joe Showers for an hour of things you’ve never seen before and won’t see ever again (unless you see his show twice!) Juggling is only the beginning of this ping-ponging, finger-tricking, hula-hooping, volleyballing show, filled with amazing tricks and hilarious jokes by one of Rochester’s most uniquely-talented individuals.” So, on the night I saw this show I learned that there’s about 300 more things I cannot do than I had previously thought. This guy has talent and he kept me entertained for the full hour his show lasted. I laughed at his jokes (cheesy jokes are wonderful) and was impressed with his tricks. He comes from a history of doing shows for kids and is branching out to perform for adult audiences now, so he’s in transition. He needs a little more practice but he’s definitely good and it was definitely enjoyable. B.
Dupre on Krol at Gibbs Street Stage – “Dupre on Krol is a piano trio comprised of students from the Eastman School of Music. As a group, they strive to re-imagine songs from the American songbook in unconventional and compelling ways.” I only caught about 30 minutes of these guys’ show, but it was relaxing. I sat outside in the pretty, cool fall weather on a Friday afternoon beneath a tree, and I liked their sound. They didn’t jump out at me in any particularly special way, but they sounded very nice and I enjoyed their music. B.
Swingin’ on a Star at Gibbs Street Stage – “Casey Jones Costello is back by popular demand, and he’ll power his way through Bing Crosby classics, transporting the audience to the golden era of song, and leaving the street swingin’ on a star.” Let’s start with the bad news and work our way up to the good news. I was really looking forward to this act because I love the Bing Crosby style of music, but the performance started 35 minutes late, so instead of 1 hour of music, we only got 25 minutes of music. I was sitting outside in the pretty, cool fall weather and was totally relaxed and enjoying myself in a great atmosphere – so a little annoying but not the end of the world. Turns out, Casey forgot his sheet music for his accompanist. But he owned up to it, let the audience know what was going on, apologized profusely, and kept a great sense of humor and great personality the whole time. And, honestly, who hasn’t done something dumb like that? We all have. No big deal because he kept us in the loop and handled it really well. I can totally deal with that. What was more frustrating was that the lighting and sound dudes assigned to this stage by the Fringe Fest, unfortunately, were clueless. The pianist and Casey both asked multiple times for the piano volume and monitor volume to be lowered….and nothing happened. The stage lights kept popping on and off at really awkward times…and nobody did anything about it. And some tech dude for the space kept pulling Casey offstage between songs to tell him timing stuff that, I’m sure, could have waited. All of which, sadly, detracted to his excellent performance (through no fault of his own). He is a wonderful singer and does a simply awesome job of singing Bing Crosby’s songs. I could have listened to him all night. Really, really wonderful voice and wonderful personality and, of course, fabulous music. A.
The Turtle Play (The Play About the Turtle) at The Space – “Soon after Cedar’s husband prematurely passes, two tenants descend upon her home. One is her mother-in-law, whose memory troubles never erase her feelings toward Cedar. The second is new in town, bringing with him more than just physical baggage. The three spend the summer on the screen porch, learning which loves are worth holding on to. A new play written and directed by Rochester inhabitants.” I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was intrigued by the description (plus I know the director of the piece and two of the actors in it – and I always like to support both new plays and young women in theatre). I liked this play because I never knew what was coming next. At intermission I was like “Where is this going to go!? I want to see more!” I had theories and they were totally wrong. I loved that there were unexpected plot twists. It absolutely kept my interest and kept me on my toes. I think all the actors put forth a good effort (though I really enjoyed the performance of two of the actors in particular). Plain and simple, I also just really liked the story. It was funny and smart, but also emotional and (mostly) genuine. I laughed and (almost) cried. I think the play could still use a little bit of shaping and a bit of reworking in the writing here and there, but overall, I totally enjoyed it and think it has nice potential. A.
Mikaela Davis at the Gibbs Street Stage – “This Indie harpist/singer-songwriter rocks major clubs all over the country. Her 2012 CD was voted City Newspapers “Best Local Album”, and she just released her third.” I really like the unique combination of the harp and the voice – especially when it’s a little more indie-inspired in sound. Mikaela had two other band members that played instruments to fill out the songs, which was nice at time, but I often felt like the harp just got lost in the percussion and other sounds sometimes rather than it being the highlight. She had two songs in particular that I really, really enjoyed because of their unique sound and the way in which she used the harp. B.
Get Cut Off at Xerox Auditorium – “Cut Off is an eight-member vocal band founded in the summer of 2010 by a group of young professionals based in Rochester, NY. Using only their voices, Cut Off gets audiences dancing to past and present hits from multiple musical genres.” Ted ran sound and live-mixed all eight performers’ levels for their performances at Xerox. He encouraged me not to miss this show because they’re really good. And they totally are. I had a great time listening to them. I love that their songs sound so full when only the human voice is used. They picked great songs to a cappella to, they sound great together (the percussion guy in particular does a fantastic job), and they’re just a fun group of passionate young professionals who sing really rockin’ a cappella in their spare time. What’s not to love? A.
Total dollars spent: $10 (I paid the Fringe participant price of $5 for two of the shows I saw this week. Most of the other shows were free, but it pays to volunteer because A) it’s a nice thing to do, and B) there are occasional perks when you volunteer)
Next year don’t miss: Merged and TriviaCity and Get Cut Off plus my top picks from last week. Also, if you get a chance to see Casey Costello’s Swingin’ on a Star or The Turtle Play somewhere, I’d recommend them as well.
Favorite venue so far: The George Eastman House and Xerox Auditorium are still great. Geva’s Nextstage is another wonderful, comfortable venue and Gibbs Street Stage is really lovely as long as the weather is nice.
Well, that wraps up my two weeks at the second annual Rochester Fringe Festival! The blessing and the curse of Fringe is that there’s so many wonderful performances out there to enjoy, but you just cannot possibly make it to everything. But still, 20 shows in 8 days for $10 is pretty darn good! What a beautiful celebration of the arts in our community!
*Most photos via the Rochester Fringe Fest website. Also, I was not paid to share these thoughts and all opinions are my own.
