Best Bets at Rochester Fringe: Paloma Capanna's picks

The Eastman School of Music students creating “Hide the
Moon,” an original adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome,” are billing the
event by the emotions infatuation, loathing, fear, and lust. Who doesn’t want
an hour of high drama? The student group, led by Andrew Pramuk, are infusing drama, music, movement, and
original arrangements to tell the Biblical tale of Salome requesting the head
of John the Baptist on a platter for her dance of the seven veils. There will
be actors as musicians and musicians as actors in a show that Pramuk describes on Kickstarter
as “theater like a rock concert.” (Wednesday 9/19 8:30-9:30 p.m., Saturday 9/22 10:30-11:30 p.m. at RAPA’s East
End Theatre. Admission is free.)

Raise your parasols to the skies as the voices of the Harlem
Gospel Choir descend upon the Fringe Festival and lead you home to that
place of “Hallelujah!” After 26 years of touring the world, performing for
presidents and royalty, and alongside legendary musicians from Sonny Bono to
Josh Groban, who hasn’t heard of this group? Its 65
members range in age from 17 to 70, touring in a simple configuration of nine
singers, keyboard, and drums. Come out to sway to songs like “Oh Happy Day” or
dance in the aisles to songs like “When the Saints Come Marching In.” Rochester
gospel sensations The Campbell Brothers open. (Friday 9/21 8 p.m. at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Tickets cost
$10-$40.)

Not performing in Fringe? You can still participate.
Multimedia artist and ESM student Peter Ferry brings a solo percussion
performance to the festival, including his work “Nostalgia Project.” The
musical piece was written especially for Ferry by ESM graduate Matt Evans. You
can go to nostalgia.cias.rit.eduto listen to a bit of the work and then submit a
photo of your own that evokes feelings of nostalgia. Evans previously performed
with ESM’s new music group OSSIA, and was awarded a 2012-13 post-graduate
fellowship to work with Bang on a Can. He also works with So Percussion, Nexus,
and Ensemble Signal. (Thursday 9/20 6-7
p.m., Saturday 9/22 1-2 p.m. at Hatch Recital Hall, ESM. Tickets cost $5.)

Improvisation
upon the church organ is not a new thing. But, for Fringe, here comes a triple-improv of church organ, dance, and images. Set in historic
Christ Church, “Spirits Within” will involve Stephen Kennedy on the
organ, dancers from FuturPointe, and multimedia
displays projected onto the dancers from RIT Professor Marla Schweppe and 3D-digital-design students. Kennedy is director
of music and organist at Christ Church and is an instructor of sacred music at
ESM. FuturPointe fuses Caribbean, African, Latin,
Reggae, and urban dance. Schweppe uses her theatrical
background to create a virtual stage, animatronics, and more. (Thursday 9/20 9:30 p.m., Friday 9/21 8
& 9 p.m., Saturday 9/22 8 p.m. at Christ Church. Tickets cost $10.)

In a one-hour,
specially edited version of Shakespeare’s classic “Richard III,” the
Rochester Community Players will present the tragedy of a wickedly ruthless
king, including battle scenes, murder, and mayhem. Rochester Community Players
has an 88-year history of performance, including numerous Shakespeare
productions, many staged outdoors at the Highland Bowl. (Friday 9/21 9-10 p.m., Sunday 9/23 2-3 p.m. at TheatreROCS
at Xerox Auditorium. Tickets cost $5-$15.)

Esther Rogers has written and will direct “Death of (An)
Artist” as a multi-disciplinary work that involves improvisation. Actors,
musicians, and dancers will use elements from a script with interactive
improvisation to ask “Who killed Artist?” while exploring the boundaries of
each one’s individual art forms. Rogers is trained as a classical cellist and
teaches at the Rochester Contemporary School of Music. With questioning the
boundaries of one’s discipline being en vogue, this work seems perfectly suited
for Fringe. (Friday 9/21 8-9 p.m., Sunday
9/23 8-9 p.m. at RAPA’s East End Theatre. Tickets cost $10-$12. Free workshop
Friday 9/21 9:15-10 p.m. for ages 12+)