Just in time, the second annual Lake Effect Fringe Festival arrives back in town. Despite its chilly name, it is really a hot, exciting, more-than-a-month-long event that is sure to get your blood pumping.
Expanded to five weeks after the successful sold-out run last year, this local theatrical festival event is an opportunity to explore the joys of the smallish type productions that are big in subject. No snow job here; this is the event to attend over the next five weeks at Grand Rapids' best-kept (theatrical) secret, the Dog Story Theater.
Kicking off the event is
TIP$, a brand new musical written and directed by Ian Mockerman and Julia Yob and featuring a very real -- and expletive-filled -- comedy about everyday servers in the food industry working for tips. As a former waiter myself, I'm sure to be shocked to see many faces that I recall from those days.
Also this first weekend will be the improvisational comedy group No Outlet, which features skits, headlines and other games created right before the audience (and with their help) via the performers Katie Fahey, Lizzy Sulkowski, Eirann Betka, Mackenzie McElroy, Ryan Hinkle, and Nick Milbratz.
For the second weekend we are happy to see the revival of the smash 2013 production of
Hedwig and the Angry Inch from the SouthSide Theater Company. Returning to the show is director and SouthSide founding member Andrew Williams, with Jordan Carnegie in the title role. This show could be the last time the rights to perform it are available for a while, as Neil Patrick Harris is reviving this musical in New York later this spring.
On February 14 -16, we get to witness the Stark Turn Players present the winning 10 Minute Plays from this season’s Playwriting Contest. This year’s theme was Out of Time and netted 22 original submissions. Only nine were selected to be performed live and compete for the Best in Show award, to be handed out at the Sunday matinee performance.
Everyone's favorite tiny company that could turn heads is featured on February 21 -23, when the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company will present John Ford's
‘Tis Pity She's a Whore. It is fitting that they have selected Fringe Fest to showcase a work of art by Ford – a playwright whose career coincided with Shakespeare's in early-1600s London. And true to the company's style, you can expect this production to be filled with those up-close comedic moments delivered by a cast of eccentric characters.
Also debuting this same weekend is the newly formed performance group, Alea Iacta Est, for two performances of the comic play
The Understudy by Theresa Rebeck.
Lucas Brooks, a former Grand Rapidian now living, writing and acting in NY, will host a West Michigan debut of his original, one-man show,
VGL, 5’4” Top, on February 25 and 26. The play looks at the contemporary mores of the gay scene and was already at three other Fringe Festivals - the San Francisco Fringe Festival (2012), FRIGID New York (2013), and the Toronto Fringe Festival (2013).
The last weekend is hosted by GEM Theatrics, who will present an encore performance of
My Dearest Friend by area playwright Mary G. Kron. The touching portrayal of the lives and love of John and Abigail Adams was first premiered at the Dog Story Theater in November 2011 but has since toured universities and libraries. This moving two-person production has been a popular request and Lake Effect is proud to bring it back to the stage where it originated.
Admission: $12/adults and $8/students and seniors. This series sells out fast, buy now
here.