TCS’ roving photographer Tony Webster captured some of our favorite moments from Fringe Festival.  We hope these shows will go on to have their own runs, as they present the most infectious of TC theatre and performance.

2 Sugars, Room for Cream, comedy/satire, performed at Rarig Center Xperimental Stage

No matter how bad things get, there’s always coffee. Sometimes there’s even wine. Carolyn Pool and Shanan Wexler write and perform “scenes from life, stuff we think is funny.” Peter Moore directs.

Two women conversing, laughing, singing and always drinking out of cups — this sounds like a play of women’s suffrage from Victorian America. Except this time its vignettes of modern reflection over silly pop culture to strained relationships. Two veteran actresses with a smart director. (main photo)

 

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Slow Jobs: Servicing America for $12 an Hour, spoken word/comedy, performed at Rarig Center Arena

Overworked and underwhelmed? Punch the clock with Fringe favorites Laura Bidgood and Curt Lund as they relive first jobs, creepy coworkers, minimum wage, office romances, and doing whatever it takes to pay the bills. What did you want to be when you grew up? And what the hell happened instead?

Curt and Laura are storytellers who have approached topics from North Dakota cows to GLBT “chubbies.”  They have a strong presence on stage, comfortably at home with the audience and no props to get in their way. They’re about the voice and the animated expresisons. Their first foray into more serious matters, the economy, makes for excellent material. The play becomes an engrossing adventure into indentured servitude, as if following a journalist undercover into the world of living wages.

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Seeing, dance, performed at Ritz Theater

Three lively dance works: Wide-eyed, earthy figures move at lightening speed. A soloist catches her breath and the air shatters. A little frog travels through larger than life encounters with terror and beauty. Choreography and casting by Janette Siirila.

Fringe isn’t just witty acting and spotlight lighting, there is each year a growing selection of poetic dance and fun musical offerings which often get passed over. We feel Seeing should deserve some notable mention as a very ambitious project of three scenes. The first is a lively opening with recognizable movements and transitions. The second has been a rather controversial item, boring some to death while inspiring others with its Zen adagio. The third finale is choreographed creativity at its best, a story of a frog that is somewhat comical but ingenuous in execution to watch.