If you are anyone who knows me well, you know that I am a crazed fan of Rochester's Fringe Festival. Ever since its inaugural year in 2012, I have attended or, more recently, volunteered at the festival every single year. This year I am trying to hit all of what I believe to be the coolest events at the festival, and I invite you all to join me on this journey. I will be attempting to review almost every production I hit, including giving you a preview today on what I think will be some of my favorites. If you aren't sure where to start connecting with Fringe Fest, I recommend seeing at least one of the following shows to get a taste of that blended "arts smoothie" goodness!
As some background, The Fringe was started in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1947 as a combined arts festival which included theatre, dance, music, art, visual, comedy, or a mix-and-match of each and every one of those. It is now one of the world's largest arts festivals, and has branched out to other cities including Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and of course, right here in Rochester, NY. We are super lucky to have a festival like this in Upstate New York that incubates such interesting and creative work. If you haven't been to one yet I encourage you to experience something new and strange this year at Rochester Fringe.
After gabbing about how awesome Fringe is, let's talk about shows. The first one I will be seeing is tonight at The Avyarium in Village Gate Square called "BardBending: A Same-Sex Shakespeare Sampler". I love when theatre productions change up conventional genders in their shows, and I know that WallByrd Theatre does a great job with it. When I went to see their production of MacBeth not once, but twice last year, I was thrilled by many of the twists they used including portraying both Macduff AND Lady Macduff as female. The character of Macduff had all of the same inner turmoil, but the payoff was so interesting and held a lot more depth and power in the story as she struggled with the loss of her family. I am very confident that WallByrd will do it again with this production and give a deep look into character intricacies through the eyes of different genders. This show costs $10 to attend and will be playing tonight 9/12 at 7pm, Saturday 9/15 and Thursday 9/20 at 9pm.
The second performance I am excited to see is the "Light Painting Experience" which is considered in The Fringe "Official Guide" as multidisciplinary and appears to be interactive. This event is free for anyone to join, and you evidently use LED lights of many varieties to make a sort of long-exposure image through a camera lens that you can print to take home with you. This event is part of the Rochester Maker Mini Faire which is just a sampling of what might be at the larger ticketed event being held on Saturday 11/17 at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. I will definitely be sure to try light painting out and get a cool picture of me flailing around with lights for my living room, perhaps to my roommate's dismay. This event only occurs this weekend on Friday 9/14 and Saturday 9/15 from 5pm until 10pm in Parcel 5.
Another free event I am curious to attend is called "Complimentary Heckling". The first time I read this, I took the word "complimentary" to simply mean that this would be a free event... But apparently this is like being heckled - but instead a stranger will be complimenting you based on what they see. "Crackerjack" is the name of the person who will be doing the complimenting/heckling, and all you have to do is walk by them in Parcel 5 or the Spiegelgarden, across the street from Max of Eastman Place, to receive a few compliments to make you smile or enlarge your head, whichever is more probable for you. I, for one, am always giving compliments out at work, so I think it would be nice to get complimented for a bit! Let's see how big my head will grow afterwards. "Crackerjack" will be complimenting at Parcel 5 on Friday 9/14 and Saturday 9/15 from 6:30pm until 7:45pm, and at the Spiegelgarden on Friday 9/21 and Saturday 9/22 from 5:45pm until 7pm.
I love doing yoga and have been ramping up my yoga knowledge and practice over the past few years so I am super excited to be seeing this next event. It is called "World Music & Yoga Ballet" and it combines two of my favorite things into one - cultural music and yoga! To live tunes of Indian, Middle Eastern, and Classical music, Heather Roffe choreographed and directed a unique dance performance incorporating Yin Yoga with world music and an addition of binaural beats to create a blend of meditation and intrigue. I am specifically interested in seeing cool, rare instruments being played live such as the listed alto flute a Celtic 34-string harp. This is a two-day only event on Saturday 9/15 and Sunday 9/16 at 2pm in the Lyric Theatre and has a ticket price of $10. If you're a yoga or sound science fan - or both - this would be a great show to see.
Lastly, I must recommend seeing "Aria", a multidisciplinary performance by a dance group called BIODANCE and a chamber ensemble called fivebyfive led by Missy Pfohl Smith, W. Michelle Harris, and Kearstin Piper Brown. Last year, BIODANCE did a performance inside of the RMSC Strasenburgh Planetarium with light and sound called "Labyrinth" and it was truly stunning. Since the Planetarium is being renovated this year, that magical collaboration will not happen this time, but BIODANCE will instead perform at the Lyric Theatre. The performance of "Aria" claims to bring eye-popping visuals, and I will say that last year I left their performance of "Labyrinth" feeling pleasantly surprised and incredibly visually stimulated. I can't even begin to explain to you how unique this dance performance is, only to say that it will leave you creatively inspired. I was raving about this event to all of my friends all year long. This is another two-day event that will happen on Sunday 9/16 and Monday 9/17 at 8pm and tickets will cost $12.
I hope I have inspired you to try something fun, artsy, and different this year at Rochester's Fringe Festival. Please let me know in the comments section if you plan on or if you had attended any of these shows so we can gush about them together! Thank you for reading my festival review, keep your eye out for more Fringe coverage or perhaps another round of my top picks on my Twitter, my Facebook page, or my Instagram for post updates!
Awesome article! You make me want to fly up from Arizona to check out the events! 😀😁
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