Rochester Fringe Festival, Day 3: The Geriactors, "Football," "Death of (An) Artist," and "The Gay Fiancee" reviews

I kicked off a full Friday of Fringe with local theater
troupe The Geriactors at GevaNextstage. I think
the 4 p.m. start time was a bit ambitious on the part of whoever did the
scheduling. Anything starting prior to 5 p.m. on a weekday is going to struggle
to fill seats, and the 20 or so patrons at this show were a testament to that
fact. (Although the torrential downpour outside at the time surely didn’t
help.)

As you might guess based on the name, The Geriactors is made up of local actors who happen to be
senior citizens. The traveling troupe performs various programs in libraries,
schools, and other institutions, as well as at private parties. I’ve wanted to
see the troupe in action for some time. I’ve caught several of its members in
other local productions, and they are among some of the most talented actors in
the Rochester theater scene.

For Fringe Festival, The Geriactors
are performing “We Were There: Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times,” a show
that features oral histories from regular people who were impacted by various
wars. Some of the stories come from ancestors of members or former members of
the troupe, some of them are the stories of the people
retelling them on stage. The conflicts covered range from the War of 1812 and
the Civil War up to World War II, with a nod to the ongoing wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

Group members involved in this show include Greg Byrne,
Rogers Gans, Melissa Githler,
Ellen Herzman, Darrell Lance, Ginni
Pierce, and Jim Scholes, directed by Jean Gordon Ryon and accompanied by pianist/music director Elaine
Fuller on the two group sing-alongs. The rest of the
show features each actor coming up one by one to share an individual tale. All
of the actors in the show are consummate storytellers, and the stories
themselves are interesting and rich with history — not to mention a reminder
that the younger generations really have it amazingly easy compared to some of
the situations our forefathers had to deal with. (NOTE: The Geriactors
will also perform “We Were There” Saturday, September 22, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
at Geva’sNextstage.
Tickets cost $15.)

After that I went to the other end of the age spectrum with
acting students from Brighton High School performing “Football [and other things theatrical]” at RAPA’s
East End Theatre. The primary draw for me was getting to see one-acts by
playwright Christopher Durang, specifically “For Whom
the Southern Belle Tolls” — an amusing spoof of “The Glass Menagerie” — and the
vicious Hollywood satire “A Business Lunch at the Russian Tea Room.” This is
the only production in Rochester Fringe to feature high-school-age performers,
and the six actors in the show do a good job handling some fairly adult
material. The plays themselves are hilarious, balancing witty observations and
pop-culture references with some occasionally juvenile humor. (NOTE: “Football [and other things
theatrical]” will also play Saturday, September 22, 4-5 p.m. at RAPA. Tickets
cost $5-$10.)

I stayed at RAPA for its next show, the collaborative
multidisciplinary piece “Death of (An)
Artist.” This was easily the most avant-garde entry I’ve seen thus far at
Fringe. Writer/director Esther Rogers combined theater, music, improvisation,
dance, and I’m sure I’m missing something else to raise questions about the
essential nature of creativity, and why/how people might squander it. The show
begins with a hooded figure dragging the corpse of the physical embodiment of
artistic expression across the stage, and then two detectives set about
interviewing various characters — named Human, Doer, Teacher, Thoughtful — in
an attempt to solve the crime.

The concept is interesting, and the show features some
evocative moments. But some of it borders on esoteric (almost certainly
intentional) and the cast ranges wildly in terms of acting ability (standouts
include Steven Marsocci as the detective and Miranda Cologgi as Mother of Human).

The larger problem for me, however, was how self-indulgent
it felt in parts. Academia is clearly cast as the enemy of creativity here, and
hey, I’m not going to argue that point. But if a person really just wants to express
herself artistically, why go to school to begin with? If you’re not interested
in learning technique or a specific discipline, and simply want to
paint/sing/act/play an instrument for your own enjoyment, why not just create
your art? Who is stopping you? And if someone has a “day job” but still works
on their artistic endeavors on the side, are they also guilty of “killing”
their inner artist? Is that not putting a restrictive definition onto what is
and is not acceptable creativity? Doesn’t that fly in the face of creativity
itself? And just like that, we’re down the rabbit hole. And that’s why
ultimately I’m glad I saw this show. (NOTE:
“Death of (An) Artist” also takes place Sunday, September 23, 8-9 p.m. at RAPA.
Tickets cost $10-$12.)

I wrapped up the night with the 10 p.m. showing of “The Gay Fiancee” at the fantastic little performance space in the upper level of Writers &
Books. “Fiancee” is an original work by local
playwright/director David Henderson, and Kevin Indovino
stars in the one-man show as Harvey, the gay fiancée of the title. This is a
surprising show, one that mixes in some absurdist elements (Harvey is about to
marry the Man in the Moon — no, really, the actual Man in the Moon) and some
other outlandish plot points that keep viewers guessing as to exactly what is
going on with the protagonist. I won’t spoil it for you. But I will say that
Henderson’s script is nuanced, assured, and peppered liberally with some great
laughs. It also rewards audiences that pay attention, as details that seemed
inconsequential at first are perhaps a lot more salient to the situation at
hand.

Indovino’s delivery makes it easy
to remain engaged from start to finish. On Friday night he was fully immersed
in the role, creating a character that the audience could latch on to almost
immediately. He goes through an extensive range of emotions in just 50 minutes,
and all of them felt authentic. This was a great marriage of an interesting,
polished script with the right performer for the job. And hey, I got a free
bubble wedding favor on the way out. Mazel! (NOTE: “The Gay Fiancee”
also plays Saturday, September 22, 8-9 p.m. at Writers & Books. Tickets
cost $15.)