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An insider's guide to the San Diego International Fringe Festival
Brought to you by the host of the podcast What the Fringe?!
In March of 2022, I arrived in Los Angeles, eager to perform my first solo show, Holy O, to a sold-out crowd at the Whitefire Theatre. I was ready; apparently, Los Angeles was not. I ended up performing for 11 adoring fans (read: friends). The next morning, I woke up with the realization that while I understood the "show" in "show business," I was pretty clueless about the "business" part. As I flew home to Houston, I was tempted to rethink my life choices. But instead, I did what all stubborn dreamers do: I held fast to my dream and learned from the experience.
The author.
Now it's three years later, and I’m kicking off my fourth season as a touring fringe artist — this time, at the San Diego International Fringe Festival, performing Holy O at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater. Holy O explores body image, sexuality, and spirituality, topics rooted in my experience as a woman raised in Christian purity culture. Storytelling is how I connect with others, and Holy O is one of the most vulnerable pieces I’ve ever made.
Death and Murder and Poison and Scene
Last year's winner for Outstanding World Premier, local producer Sarah LeClair of Riot Productions, presents a new ensemble comedy. LeClair was once in a production of A Perfect Crime, which has been running off-Broadway for over 30 years and holding strong with a one-star review on Yelp. LeClair thought she could salvage this baffling crime drama, and started rewriting the script. Upon sharing the new script with her friends, they told her it was most definitely a comedy. Her pride was slightly damaged, but LeClair rewrote her rewrite and turned this disaster of a play into a hilarious farce. Think Clue meets Noises Off.
Oakland's Steve Budd is returning to the fringe with his second solo show exploring the secrets to love in Oy! What They Said About Love. After audience members told Budd they wanted to hear more of his particularly Jewish perspective in his solo show What They Said About Love, Steve bravely dug into his heritage and created Oy! Steve is no stranger to taking on a challenge, despite quitting his first-ever professional production in London due to nerves. Since then, he has trained in areas he never imagined, including improvisation, stand-up, and character acting — which has paid off, because Steve's character work alone is worth the price of admission here.
What do Shakespeare, clowning, and improvisation have in common? It turns out a lot, in Perchance to Dream, from the duo of Jet Eveleth and Anatasha Blakely. In 2012, classically trained Blakely asked her acting teacher how one becomes braver, and he replied, "You must train with a person named Jet." After years of training and admiring one another's work from afar, Eveleth and Blakely realized they could meld classical theatre and improvisational clowning to create something spectacular. One component of every performance is that the duo performs an improvised Shakespearean scene, and then the performers switch roles and replay the scene word for word. From an improviser who can hardly remember her own words in a one-minute replay scene, I say this is nothing short of a masterpiece.
I always make a point to see shows from touring artists, because the stakes are often higher. Touring artists are fully committed to investing an immense amount of time, travel, and money into their work — and the festival. Matt Harvey is one of the few international artists at the fringe this year, returning from Australia for a second time with Wage Against the Machine, which chronicles Harvey's "dodgy" jobs over the years and the fallout he experienced from unlawful Australian government mandates. What surprised Harvey the most about this show is how his specifically Australian experiences have resonated with international audiences. "We got a real intercontinental government trauma bond happening," he says, adding that his key to connecting during his show is "being honest and open with an audience for an hour. And the jokes help."
KAIROS Dance Theater is a Boston-based company presenting husk/vessel, an exploration of identity, transformation, and what it means to inhabit a body in flux. husk/vessel was developed during the pandemic, which forced dancers to find new ways to connect despite the isolation. Executive/Artistic Director DeAnna Pellecchia explained that when the company came back together, they "had to rely on deep trust, openness, and a willingness to step into the unknown together." Bucking the traditional dance hierarchy system, KAIROS dancers work collaboratively on productions. Additionally, as KAIROS develops their pieces, they work closely with designers, integrating elements like costuming and visual effects; and the result is art that is intimate and alive.
If that's not enough, here are a few more picks to consider. Local Artists: Confess Your Sins to Kid Goblin, Nighttime Julianne, and Thank You for Calling. Touring Artists: Pretty Beast, Smile: The Charlie Chaplin Story, Sonnets from Suburbia, and Faking It. Family Friendly: Oz and Pandora's Boombox.
The San Diego International Fringe Festival runs from May 15-25 in and around Balboa Park. With the purchase of an SD Fringe Tag, you can get tickets to individual shows for $13 or less, which means you can see multiple shows for the price of a single ticket at a larger theatre. Tickets and tags are available here. Shows are 60 minutes or less, and as I said, there is something for everyone. Grab your best friends and make your May fringy.
Here's something you might be interested in.
An insider's guide to the San Diego International Fringe Festival
Brought to you by the host of the podcast What the Fringe?!
An insider's guide to the San Diego International Fringe Festival
Brought to you by the host of the podcast What the Fringe?!
In March of 2022, I arrived in Los Angeles, eager to perform my first solo show, Holy O, to a sold-out crowd at the Whitefire Theatre. I was ready; apparently, Los Angeles was not. I ended up performing for 11 adoring fans (read: friends). The next morning, I woke up with the realization that while I understood the "show" in "show business," I was pretty clueless about the "business" part. As I flew home to Houston, I was tempted to rethink my life choices. But instead, I did what all stubborn dreamers do: I held fast to my dream and learned from the experience.
The author.
Now it's three years later, and I’m kicking off my fourth season as a touring fringe artist — this time, at the San Diego International Fringe Festival, performing Holy O at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater. Holy O explores body image, sexuality, and spirituality, topics rooted in my experience as a woman raised in Christian purity culture. Storytelling is how I connect with others, and Holy O is one of the most vulnerable pieces I’ve ever made.
Death and Murder and Poison and Scene
Last year's winner for Outstanding World Premier, local producer Sarah LeClair of Riot Productions, presents a new ensemble comedy. LeClair was once in a production of A Perfect Crime, which has been running off-Broadway for over 30 years and holding strong with a one-star review on Yelp. LeClair thought she could salvage this baffling crime drama, and started rewriting the script. Upon sharing the new script with her friends, they told her it was most definitely a comedy. Her pride was slightly damaged, but LeClair rewrote her rewrite and turned this disaster of a play into a hilarious farce. Think Clue meets Noises Off.
Oakland's Steve Budd is returning to the fringe with his second solo show exploring the secrets to love in Oy! What They Said About Love. After audience members told Budd they wanted to hear more of his particularly Jewish perspective in his solo show What They Said About Love, Steve bravely dug into his heritage and created Oy! Steve is no stranger to taking on a challenge, despite quitting his first-ever professional production in London due to nerves. Since then, he has trained in areas he never imagined, including improvisation, stand-up, and character acting — which has paid off, because Steve's character work alone is worth the price of admission here.
What do Shakespeare, clowning, and improvisation have in common? It turns out a lot, in Perchance to Dream, from the duo of Jet Eveleth and Anatasha Blakely. In 2012, classically trained Blakely asked her acting teacher how one becomes braver, and he replied, "You must train with a person named Jet." After years of training and admiring one another's work from afar, Eveleth and Blakely realized they could meld classical theatre and improvisational clowning to create something spectacular. One component of every performance is that the duo performs an improvised Shakespearean scene, and then the performers switch roles and replay the scene word for word. From an improviser who can hardly remember her own words in a one-minute replay scene, I say this is nothing short of a masterpiece.
I always make a point to see shows from touring artists, because the stakes are often higher. Touring artists are fully committed to investing an immense amount of time, travel, and money into their work — and the festival. Matt Harvey is one of the few international artists at the fringe this year, returning from Australia for a second time with Wage Against the Machine, which chronicles Harvey's "dodgy" jobs over the years and the fallout he experienced from unlawful Australian government mandates. What surprised Harvey the most about this show is how his specifically Australian experiences have resonated with international audiences. "We got a real intercontinental government trauma bond happening," he says, adding that his key to connecting during his show is "being honest and open with an audience for an hour. And the jokes help."
KAIROS Dance Theater is a Boston-based company presenting husk/vessel, an exploration of identity, transformation, and what it means to inhabit a body in flux. husk/vessel was developed during the pandemic, which forced dancers to find new ways to connect despite the isolation. Executive/Artistic Director DeAnna Pellecchia explained that when the company came back together, they "had to rely on deep trust, openness, and a willingness to step into the unknown together." Bucking the traditional dance hierarchy system, KAIROS dancers work collaboratively on productions. Additionally, as KAIROS develops their pieces, they work closely with designers, integrating elements like costuming and visual effects; and the result is art that is intimate and alive.
If that's not enough, here are a few more picks to consider. Local Artists: Confess Your Sins to Kid Goblin, Nighttime Julianne, and Thank You for Calling. Touring Artists: Pretty Beast, Smile: The Charlie Chaplin Story, Sonnets from Suburbia, and Faking It. Family Friendly: Oz and Pandora's Boombox.
The San Diego International Fringe Festival runs from May 15-25 in and around Balboa Park. With the purchase of an SD Fringe Tag, you can get tickets to individual shows for $13 or less, which means you can see multiple shows for the price of a single ticket at a larger theatre. Tickets and tags are available here. Shows are 60 minutes or less, and as I said, there is something for everyone. Grab your best friends and make your May fringy.