The First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival — well,
now known as the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival — ended its
record-setting fifth year on September 24, and our staff has just about
recovered from the arts overload. The 10-day festival had around 67,000
attendees this year, and sold out 115 shows — from theater, dance, and music to
site-specific dramas. The 2017 Rochester Fringe Festival is set to return
September 14-23, 2017.
The beauty of the Fringe, though, is its impact on Rochester’s
arts community, which can be felt throughout the year. The Fringe offers a
jumping off point for many: It’s a space for experimentation, welcoming of
audience feedback, and a way to flesh out a program that could make its way
into the world again.
City’s writers saw
a lot of great performances during this year’s festival, but we had a few favorites
that we believe has potential for life outside of the Fringe. Is there
something you’d like to see again? Leave a comment below.
“The Eulogy”
Immediately after I saw “The Eulogy,” I wanted to see it
again, if only to collect a few more details from Michael Burgos’s amazingly
clever and mobile performance. Burgos started with a bizarre take on the idea
of a traditional funeral eulogy and spun it into a crazy 45-minute fantasia of
voices, movements, music, and split-second changes. It was one of the most
fascinatingly detailed performances I have ever seen, and in the small
performing space of Writers & Books, one of the most engaging. I’ll take
anything Burgos decides to perform.
For more on “The Eulogy,” check out theeulogyplay.com.
— BY DAVID RAYMOND
“Murder Night: Don’t Fear the Re-Purge” and Fringe Street
Beat
I’d love to see a return of “Murder Night: Don’t Fear the
Re-Purge,” a satirical, acoustic rock opera written, composed, and directed by
Rochester native Bryan Smith, and inspired by the “Purge” horror films. The
Fringe production was fairly bare-bones, but I’d love to see a mounting of the
show that goes over-the-top with it, matching the absurd excesses of the source
material. Maybe someone should introduce Smith to the team behind 2015’s
gleefully gory “ShakesBLOOD.” Now that seems like
it’d be a match made in Heaven (or Hell).
Even though rain forced the Fringe Street Beat event indoors
(it was originally scheduled to take place at Parcel 5), audiences still packed
into the Spiegeltent for this “all-styles dance
battle.” Based on its massive success, I’d think it’s fairly likely Fringe
Street Beat will be making a return appearance next year, but it’s worth
emphasizing that the competition was an absolute blast to watch: fun, vibrant,
and unlike anything else the Fringe had to offer.
To keep up with “Murder Night,” check out its Facebook page: facebook.com/repurge.
— BY ADAM LUBITOW
“What if Everyone Wrote the Same Song”
The concept behind “What if Everyone Wrote the Same Song” is
positively brilliant. Graduating to two nights at this year’s Fringe, it’s clear there is a demand and attraction to the extent
that I think there’s room for this kind of show throughout the year. And instead
of assigning a shared theme in advance, why not catch the songwriters
off-guard and give them only a brief period to prepare ahead of time? Or
perhaps they could spin a wheel that would determine what genre they play in.
Lind of like stump the band. The possibilities are bottomless.
— BY FRANK DE BLASE
“Underground Episodes”
The enthralling performance of Run Boy Run Productions’ “Underground
Episodes” at TheatreROCS made me want to book a
road trip just to see the Philadelphia-based group perform again. The show
blends slam poetry and seriously powerful acting, each player bringing to life the
stories and concerns of various characters who come and go from the setting of
a subway car. Running the gamut from a raving homeless girl, to a couple
dreading the discussion of a secret, a terrified student who has just been
expelled, and a young woman patiently walking down memory lane with her elderly
mother, the pieces are devastating at times and heartening at others.
Follow the group at facebook.com/runboyrunprod.
— BY REBECCA RAFFERTY
“Dracula”
The late night performances of WallByrd
Theatre Co.’s “Dracula” were only (heavily) staged readings, but even
that was compelling enough to warrant an encore. The Lyric Theatre’s aesthetic
is the perfect backdrop for Bram Stoker’s eerie tale, and WallByrd’s
artistic director, Virginia Monte, would surely dream up a stunning set for a
full production. The cast, which hails from Syracuse, New York City, and
Rochester, and includes equity actors, is already quite familiar with the
script. (Half the work is done!) Hopefully, WallByrd
and playwright Alec Barbour can find a way to fund a fully mounted
“Dracula.”
For those who want to know more, visit wallbyrd.com.
— BY LEAH STACY
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2016.
