Fringe Festival opens with a flourish

Las Vegas Little Theatre opened the doors to this year’s Vegas Fringe Festival with a bang this past weekend. It’s a potpourri of short comedies and dramas produced by a variety of companies utilizing two of the three stages housed under the LVLT umbrella. To see them all in one weekend takes sheer determination, stamina and a few gallons of coffee.

Fringe festivals are about small, short, obscure pieces we wouldn’t ordinarily see any other time. Half the fun is not knowing what you’re going to get. Stages are adorned with the barest of minimums because fringe is all about the script, the direction and the acting.

‘the new century’

LVLT’s own entry contains “Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach” and “Pride and Joy,” two pieces playwright Paul Rudnick weaved together with new material. The play uses stereotypes to reflect on societal views of the LGBTQ community.

Deftly directed by Lysander Abadia, the pacing is great. Ela Rose has a terrific time as a mother addressing a meeting of PFLAG. Despite opening-night jitters, her timing is delightful and her ability to play off audience reaction with a simple expression is uncanny.

E. Wayne Worley brings Mr. Charles, the star of a self-produced public access cable TV show, to hilarious heights with his over-the-top gay man whose shelf life has long since expired.

Chris Hermening appears uncomfortable in his role as the dumb-jock arm candy, nervously shuffling in place, but the proper tones and inflections are there.

Abby Dandy as a new mother, and Kim Glover as the mother whose son has died of AIDS, both good actors, do adequate jobs, but it’s not their fault. Even Abadia’s expertise can’t save them when Rudnick’s script fumbles.

Grade: B

‘Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World’

This piece by Peter Parnell — in which Dennis (Ryan Balint) loses childhood best friend Scooter (David Hennigar) in a climbing accident — is an interesting, sometimes funny look at how we handle death. Penni Paskett, directing for APK Productions, mostly handles the complex piece ably, and uses the space to great effect. Hennigar plays the flippant Scooter to great effect. He uses voice and body to take us from kindergarten through adulthood; he’s having fun with the role. Consequently, we understand the underlying motivation and enjoy the performance.

Balint is tasked with playing various characters, but his rapid-fire cadence of speech never changes. The character of a coach begins with a southern dialect that disappears, then returns. What hampers the piece most is Balint’s inability to deliver a stark enough difference between interaction with Scooter and narration directly to the audience. Grade: C

‘NO LABELS’

The Rolling Playhouse Productions submission is an original work by L.A. Walker and Alexis Neuman. The script takes A.R. Gurney’s “Sylvia,” whose main character is a dog, and embeds it with the entreaty to stop placing labels on one another, particularly when it comes to gender or sexual identity.

The issue here is the message is regurgitated in cliche and, at times, rhyming dialogue, long after it’s been delivered and received loud and clear. The finale is brought in a song, which doesn’t alter the system of repetition. The result gives us caricatures, not genuine or sincere portrayals.

The singular exception is in the performance of Jacent Wamala as Dr. Chuz, an animal psychologist. Her delivery is believable, and she moves with confidence and sincerity. The direction by the playwrights is stilted with slow, ineffectual pacing and lacks any transitional motivation. Despite the worthy message, there is nothing redeeming about the characters to make us care.

Grade: F

“The eBook of Love”

L’Ament Productions delivers with Tom Misuraca’s “The eBook of Love.” Directed by David Ament, it’s a laugh-filled hour of hookups, near misses, mistaken identities, and how pursuing relationships has changed with the advent of Internet dating sites and phone apps.

The cast never missed a beat in the fast-paced production, which takes place in a neighborhood cafe.

Lysander Abadia is so at ease onstage, using his entire instrument; motivation and transitions come to us in natural rhythms with the smallest of expressions or gestures. Joel Hengstler and Faith Radford bring a sincerity in inflection and body language that informs us of each emotion. Trina Colon and DeShawn Warr telegraph their late-to-the-game reticence, yet the loneliness and eagerness beneath is fully stated in perfect undertones. Rocky Rowley doesn’t fare quite as well; emotions and reactions don’t come via internal forces. Ament’s direction slips early on. Only late in the show do mimed conversations materialize. Details matter and, with one exception, coffee cups appeared weightless and sounded empty.

Grade: A-

‘Jesus Loves You! (But Hates Me)’

Thea Deley, who co-wrote this memoir piece with Mike Maxwell, performs replete with headset microphone, podium, multimedia and audience participation.

Directed by Maxwell and Carol Lommen, Deley takes on well-developed multiple personas as she delivers her sermon. Her body language and vocal imitations change with ease.

But confusion arises from indecision as to whether we’re attending a seminar or a lecture. It’s definitely adult in content, but Deley uses tones and inflection throughout that make us feel as if we’re a group of young children. Portions of the production are genuinely humorous, but this piece lacks the fun of the various religious spoofs already out there, and the pacing is extremely slow. Production values are good, but on the whole it’s overproduced, particularly for the small Fischer Black Box theater, and the spirit of a fringe festival is sorely lacking. Grade: C-

Opening night of Las Vegas Little Theatre’s sixth annual Vegas Fringe Festival featured excellent offerings with absurdist, existential themes.

‘Bard Fiction’

Shakespeare and Quentin Tarantino might seem an unlikely pairing, but as in Tarantino’s 1994 cult classic “Pulp Fiction,” miracles do happen. “Bard Fiction” is a 2009 parody of the film written in the language of Shakespeare and set in his day by Aaron Greer, Ben Tallen and Brian Watson-Jones. It’s the perfect fringe-fest choice for Endless Productions, a theater troupe that also performs at Renaissance fairs.

Tarantino’s naturalistic dialogue easily translates into Elizabethan blank verse and the storyline fits comfortably into that era. Raffish in black leather and wielding daggers instead of guns, hit men Julius and Vincenzo journey by carriage rather than car in what plays like a silly story about unseen Shakespearean characters.

Director Tim Burris effectively highlights and merges the different styles of both scribes, although the poetic words don’t always roll easily off actors’ tongues, with some having problems enunciating and projecting. Regardless, the show is an uproarious success.

Ronn L. Williams as Julius and Geo Nikols as Vincenzo are ideal doppelgangers for film counterparts Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta, emulating but not copying them. Williams brings particular power to his Ezekiel 25:17 speech and maintains a gentle humility, and Nikols captures the devil-may-care attitude of Vincenzo. Other standouts include a dandyish T.J. Larsen as cleaner Baron de Wulf, a hippyish Michael Drake as snuff apothecary Lancelot, a catty Stacia Zinkevich as shrew Juno, and Michael Kanarek as Brittanus.

The double entendres pile on, so partake in some Hachis Parmentier (aka Royale with Cheese) and brush up on “Pulp Fiction” before watching this hilarious show.

Grade: B

‘Stage Directions’ and ‘Spared’

FounDoor Theatre presents two one-acts by Israel Horovitz, whose early plays tend toward existentialism.

“Stage Directions” is a disturbingly amusing story about Richard, Ruth and Ruby, siblings who gather after the funeral of a family member.

They don’t talk to each other; the play has no dialogue. Instead the characters voice the stage directions assigned to them, thus giving insight into their strained relationships and inner lives. Awkward coughs, glances and forced smiles speak volumes, and we get the feeling that an unspeakable family secret lies menacingly beneath the surface.

Director E’Dawn Severance coaxes restrained, inwardly anguished performances from her fine cast. The nondialogue requires precise, coordinated delivery, which Timothy Burris as Richard, Caroline Hoenemeyer as Ruth and Delancey Prince as Ruby pull off with ease. They may not communicate conventionally, but we can clearly see their wheels turning. It’s an emotionally riveting effect.

A rowdy crowd outside the theater near the end of the play unfortunately marred a pivotal moment for Prince, but she managed to soldier on.

Grade: A

“Spared” is a solo play about an unnamed man who laments the futility of existence. Suffocating under the weight of an unfulfilled life, he has tried to kill himself numerous times but has ironically been spared that fate. It’s like Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” translated to the stage.

Seated on a raised platform with an unforgiving spotlight glaring down, actor Thomas Chrastka appears suspended. He begins with a dadaistic-type poem and is accompanied by eerie screaming, an effect that’s often bewildering.

As he rambles on he’s uncomfortable to watch, just as Horovitz intended. Directors T.J. Larsen and Megan Pink help Chrastka find humor in the character and also the hills and valleys of the piece, along with the stamina to maintain tension. It’s creepy and thought-provoking.

Grade: B

‘Journey of a Bombshell: The Ina Ray Hutton Story’

Chicago native Ina Ray Hutton was a spunky gal, an intelligent woman who fought for respectability in a male-dominated field. A talented singer and dancer, by the age of 18 she had made it to Broadway and the Ziegfeld Follies when in 1934 she was approached by a producer to lead an all-girl big band called the Melodears.

Beautiful and charismatic, Hutton was chosen to lead the orchestra for her looks and personality rather than for her conducting skills. She fronted the band with exuberant tapping and singing and became known as the “Blonde Bombshell of Rhythm.”

But as she learned to conduct she longed to be taken seriously, impossible since women musicians were looked down upon no matter how good they might be. So she dumped the girls to lead an all-male orchestra, finding and losing love along the way. Her career eventually came full circle when she later led a girl band yet again, for her own televison show with the motto “No Men Allowed.”

If Ina had gumption, the elegant Melissa Ritz has the moxie to match. She not only researched and wrote Ina’s story, but stars in the one-woman piece as well. Adeptly directed by Julie Kline, Ritz skillfully plays twelve characters as she guides us through milestones in Ina’s life, creating Ina at various ages as well as the people who influenced her.

She portrays Ina as an innocent child, a budding star, a sex kitten and a burned-out bombshell, all the while sweetly singing and tapping in the jazzy style. We meet her mom, Marvel, and a few of the girls in her band, as well as the producers, agents and husbands who populated her life. Each has his own intricate mannerisms, and she portrays them all with believable finesse.

The production also features actual old footage of the real Ina projected onto a dressing screen that shows her hoofing and belting away in front of her band, as well as 18 songs from the big band era. Ritz’s script has a nice arc and is an evocative journey through time that’s not to be missed.

Grade: A

‘Never Tie Your Shoelaces in Paris: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes’

It’s a delightful panoply of delicious ideas. The six members of Poor Richard’s Players have written 30 plays to be performed in 60 minutes, in an order to be determined by the audience. They set the timer, we shout out a number, they do the corresponding skit. It makes for a pretty chaotic, rib-tickling scene.

Have you ever wondered what the last unicorn might wish for? Or what a Richard III soliloquy might look like in 3-D? How would Stevie Wonder make a PB&J? All these questions and more will be answered in the order of your choosing when you see the show.

They dance. They sing. Not always very well, and not necessarily in that order. What’s clear is that members Anthony Barnaby, Karalyn Clark, Brenna Folger, Maxim Lardent, Benjamin Loewy and Mark Valentin are all gifted comedians.

But it’s not all goofy fun all the time. Each performer gives an individual monologue on a serious subject that is near and dear to his or her heart and also touches ours. It’s a wacky, worthwhile show.

Grade: A