It’s a man’s world. What else could explain how the unaffected faces of headliners Marc Maron and Dave Barry could be plastered on billboards all over the city? Could you even imagine if they were, instead, talented women just smiling away without the least bit of sexiness? Call it my bad-attitude carryover from Jazz Festivals […]
Fringe Festival
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Fringe Fest 2013: Merged: A Dance Concert, Dangerous Signs, Bending and Breaking
Merged: A Dance Concert, taking place at the Geva Nextstage, features the work of two locally based but nationally renowned choreographers. Heather Roffe is an assistant professor of dance at Nazareth College, while James Hansen is an associate professor and the undergraduate program director of the Department of Dance at The College at Brockport. This […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: “How to Survive Crack Addiction”
To begin with, the audience crowding the foyer of Writers & Books waiting to see Padraic Lillis’ one-man show “How to Survive Crack Addiction” seemed all wrong to me. I expected — I don’t know — youthful? But these folks were almost all of a certain age, dressed respectably and drinking coffee out of Styrofoam […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: Nosferatu Bemshi!
A hidden, mysterious voice calling out for blood and bones.A dark figure with long claws reaching out on screen.An explosion of drum beats. The rapid-fire lyricism of the guitar. Chills. My last show of this year’s Fringe Fest took me to Writers & Books Friday night for the multidisciplinary showing of NosferatuBemshi! Part film, part […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: Cello Show, “Wing-Man,” “Ephemeral”
Squeezing six cellos and a drum set (along with the musicians playing them) into the small music area at Java’s Cafe on Gibbs Street was quite a feat – one that, had it not been accomplished once already this festival, I wouldn’t have believed possible. As it was, the process of making it happen resulted […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: Hiroya Tsukamoto, My Plastic Sun
All I knew about Hiroya Tsukamoto before seeing him play Fringe Fest at Bernunzio’s Thursday was that he’s from Japan, plays guitar, and he played Jazz Fest this year. Of course his appearance at Jazz Fest had to be during the only summer I’ve spent outside of Rochester, so I didn’t get the chance to […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: Dead Metaphor Cabaret
First let me start by saying I never metaphor I didn’t like. And I love Dead Metaphor Cabaret; a duo that wrestles in the peace of stark beauty and a poetic emphasis on lyrics or a lyrical interpretation of poetry. But the group’s performance Thursday night at Writers & Books wasn’t so much a play […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: Present Tense Dance “Make ‘Em Laugh, Make ‘Em Cry”
The folks behind Present Tense Dance’s Fringe Festival show at Kilbourn Hall must know a thing or two about truth in advertising, because “Make ‘Em Laugh / Make ‘Em Cry” does just that. The sweeping, hour-long performance (which flew by faster than I wanted it to) reminds us, in simple terms, the best of what […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: TriviaCity (the Greatest Event of All Time)
Question: What was the most amazing way for Rochesterians to spend Wednesday night? Answer: By participating in TriviaCity: An Arts & Culture Quiz, put on by City Newspaper at the Spiegelgarden as part of the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival. I can say, without any conflict of interest, that this was the greatest game of […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: “ROOMS: A Rock Romance”
The closest I’ve ever come to writing a theater review is Alice Cooper’s show at the Auditorium Theatre a few years back. I’m not exactly a Broadway guy — on- or Off-. But I’ve got to admit I loved the production of “ROOMS: A Rock Romance,” playing at RAPA’s East End Theatre as part of […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: Eastman Jazz Band
With a snap and a wave from director Rich Thompson’s hand, The Eastman Jazz Band (or lab, as it was introduced) launched into a smooth and swingin’ send-up to Dizzy Gillespie at Max of Eastman Place (excuse me, “Eastman School of Music Sproull Atrium”) Monday night to an enthusiastic crowd. The band was a force […]
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Fringe Fest 2013 Reviews: The 24-Hour Plays
Any die-hard theater geek knows that a show doesn’t just happen overnight. It usually takes months or even years to write the script, weeks to audition actors, and months to build the set and rehearse the actors before it’s “curtain up.” That is, unless you’re part of The 24-Hour Plays, which debuted at Writers & […]
