A poignant, seriocomic piece exploring identity through soundscape and movement
From: Maythinee Washington
Most Fringy Thing: Initially, WHITE GIRL has been about me exorcising my demons to bring about change for myself, but the more I perform it, the more I see the potential for catharsis; that the piece asks the audience to delve deeply into themselves and remark on their own experiences.
Brief Description: What is beauty? What is race? How do we see ourselves and determine our identity? WHITE GIRL is an original solo show employing found text & sound with movement and pantomime telling a story of a girl exploring these questions. At times comic and poignant, the artist draws from her personal history and plays with pop culture to create a work that continues to be thought-provoking long after it has ended.
Artist/Company Biography: Recently listed in Vegas Seven magazine's Intriguing People 2011 issue, Maythinee Washington is a theatrical artist who writes, directs, and performs. She passionately declares that her life's work is "onstage and on the mat." An accomplished yogi, she relishes physicality, flexibility, and strength, and translates that interest towards bringing fully-embodied characters to the stage. She is an alumna of Brown University and has her MFA in Acting from the University of Washington. Find out more at maythinee.com and follow her on twitter: @maythinee.
From: Las Vegas, NV
Critics' Reviews
Review: CityBeat
by Julie Mullins
"Issues of race and gender aren’t unfamiliar themes, but finding new ways to address these subjects isn’t always easy. Solo performer Maythinee Washington from Las Vegas brings forth a curious and rather introverted movement and pantomime-based performance piece with White Girl (presented at ArtWorks, 20 E. Central Parkway)."
"White Girl is an interesting companion piece to "Headscarf." It's a reflective solo show created and performed by Maythinee Washington. (Both shows are performed at the same Fringe space at Art Works at 20 E. Central Pkwy. in Over-the-Rhine and continue through the weekend.)"
What are you 'supposed' to be? We all ask that question and we all face the mirror we ask. When we answer ourselves those answers can sound similar, but that "supposed" part of the question is subjective or rather it is 'supposed' to be. If you are a woman and/or if you are not white, that subjectivity has social and cultural constraints that don't match the reflection you are 'supposed' to see in the mirror. Maythinee Washington's performance in White Girl is a powerful illustration of the norm not matching the individual. Through a creatively compiled audio track mixed with non-verbal acting, Washington's conceptual piece displays a focused message with strong visual imagery.
For the full article check it out on theconveyor.com.
Review: Behind the Curtain
WHITE GIRL is a solo performance art piece of personal examination told by “employing found text & sound with movement and pantomime.” In all fairness, I need to state that these types of work are not my favorite to attend. To me the audience’s enjoyment of the work is tied to an individual’s emotional response to what is conveyed by the artist. When I have trouble reconciling the theme, the artist’s written statements about the show and the actual performance, then my reaction turns to confusion and frustration."
"The experiences driving "White Girl" are specifically related in the context an African-American girl, the themes and psychology is likely familiar to anyone who grew up in modern America, where unrealistic standards of beauty and femininity are set by the commercial culture."
The play Anton Chekhov couldn’t write - about his own true love.
From: Dawn Arnold - The Moving Dock Theatre Company
Most Fringy Thing: The Lydia Etudes shoots from the heart. A revelation from the woman who kept her secret. Suspend your disbelief about Anton Chekhov and see the play he couldn’t write - the one about his own true love. A class act for the classical music and theatre loving crowd.
Brief Description: Earthquakes happen when no one is looking. The controversial love between Anton Chekhov and a woman named Lydia comes alive on stage in The Lydia Etudes. An intimate look at the master storyteller, Anton Chekhov, told through the eyes of the woman who might have been his one true love. Be transported into the world of Chekhov as Dawn Arnold portrays Lydia and Anton, and a host of other characters, in her original adaptation of Lydia Avilova's memoir and Chekhov's letters to Lydia. "A dynamic, compelling glimpse of a fascinating woman writer by an equally mesmerizing theatre artist."
Artist/Company Biography: The Moving Dock Theatre Company is a Chicago based company creating original work through the art of the actor. Theatre artist, Dawn Arnold, has created and directed many of The Moving Dock's ensemble-created productions including Celestial Mechanics-or the Questionable Attraction of Entities, Savage/Love, and Where our Imaginations May Lead Us, and co-directed/adapted Galway Bay, The Quiltmaker's Gift, Ocean Sea, which the Chicago Sun-Times found "...so ambitious, so fearless, so compelling, so enigmatic and so physically beautiful" and Einstein's Dreams, one of PerformInk's "Go See" Productions "...a spare, eloquent and imaginative rumination on time." Dawn Arnold's inventive work has intersected with literary giants Edith Wharton in Undercurrents and Anton Chekhov in The Lydia Etudes, and ventured out into the cosmos with the story of America's first women astronomers in Unsung Stars, which performed at Chicago's Adler Planetarium. Recently she created and performed the Spirit of the Dance with Chicago's Boitsov Ballet. A Master Teacher of the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique, Dawn appears in the documentary, Master Classes in the Michael Chekhov Technique. She teaches the Chekhov Technique around the country in guest workshops and performs The Lydia Etudes, for colleges, high schools, theatre companies, and festivals.
From: Chicago, IL
Critics' Reviews
Review: CityBeat
by Stacy Sims
"Lydia Avilova was a serious, earnest woman, an aspiring writer, who crossed paths in the 1890s with renowned playwright and fiction writer Anton Chekhov. Dawn Arnold is a serious, earnest performer who has translated this intersection into a 70-minute, one-woman show, The Lydia Etudes: About Loving Anton Chekhov, onstage at Media Bridges (E. Central Parkway, enter on Race St.) during the eighth annual Cincinnati Fringe."
"This production works well in the intimate setting of Media Bridges. Costumed in an attractive period dress by Erin Rose Gallagher, and staged with only three chairs, a small writing table, and letters hanging overheard, Dawn Arnold is mesmerizing to watch as Lydia Avilova."
Seven dances inspired by calligraphic photos, original music and Japanese culture.
From: Pones Inc.
Part of The Body Speaks: seven photos inspire dance, film and theatre. Explore three independent interpretations and one unique collaboration. See The Body Speaks: scripted and corresponding visual art & film exhibits.
Most Fringy Thing: Pones Inc. engages the cast and the community in the creative process through a series of True Body Project-conducted workshops, public space performances and volunteer efforts that benefit topics explored in the show.
Community engagement includes Japan relief efforts, Take Back the Night March, and Ohio Families for Safe Birth Benefit, inviting artists and audience members alike to get involved and expand their impact.
Brief Description: As Pones Inc.'s fourth consecutive original Cincy Fringe Festival premiere, The Body Speaks: Movement is the company’s most dance-focused, collaborative project to date. Pones Inc. responds to Sean Dunn’s calligraphic photography while focusing on the traditions, spirit and pulse of Japanese culture. Inspired by the images’ themes of distortion, sensuality and exposure, Pones Inc. explores our relationships to our bodies and how we use them to communicate. If your body could speak, what would it say?
The Rehearsal Process:
Week One: Cast members enjoyed a Stacy Simm's TRUE BODY PROJECT workshop to inspire and inform the creation process through writing, movement and composition work. "We investigated how our body speak and what our bodies hide in an engaging and interesting way," said Pones Inc. Co-Director Lindsey Jones. "Stacy's workshop gave us the creative jump start we needed to collectivelly dive into this multi-layered show."
Artist/Company Biography: Pones Inc. Laboratory of Movement is a non-profit performance art group dedicated to creating original work that blends various disciplines and focuses on community, site-specific performance and educational outreach. The company explores theatre for social change through its combination of dance and theatre in its signature style of pedestrian-influenced movement. Founded in 2008 by Kim Popa and Lindsey Jones, Pones Inc. continually collaborates with a diverse range of artists and groups and performs in multiple locations. For more details visit www.ponesinc.com.
From: Cincinnati, OH
Critics' Reviews
Review: CityBeat
by Kathy Valin
CRITIC'S PICK
The 2011 Fringe’s presentation of The Body Speaks: Movement, choreographed and directed by Kim Popa and Lindsey Jones of Pones Inc is a small gem. Presented in seven overlapping vignettes, each one inspired by one of seven photos by Sean Dean, this short work (45 minutes) is entirely self-contained, creating its own language and making a statement with it. It should be on your list of shows not to miss.
From MamLuft&Co. Dance: Three choreographers explore size and scale through three different perspectives.
MamLuft&Co. Dance presents S / M / L at the Cincy Fringe Festival, A Know Theatre Production
Experience contemporary, athletic movement by MamLuft&Co. Dance in three different pieces by three different choreographers! More risky and less traditional than the work MamLuft&Co. Dance produces on the mainstage, S / M / L offers variety and intrigue through modern dance.
S / M / L (as in, SMALL/MEDIUM/LARGE) is MamLuft&Co. Dance’s second evening-length performance for the 2010-2011 year. S / M / L explores scale, size, and related concepts through three different choreographic pieces by three choreographers, guest choreographers Michelle Morano and Susan Honer, and company director, Jeanne Mam-Luft. Each section addresses a completely different perspective, highlighting each of the three measures of size.
SMALL / "Small: Restless Hands Under a Trembling Table," by Michelle Morano, explores how small, primitive impulses of human behavior can quickly turn awry. This manifests in often unfavorable consequences, setting the stage for vengeance. "Small" also approaches this exploration on another layer: depicting one manner in which small things come together to form something large.
MEDIUM / "Medium: Pursuit," by Jeanne Mam-Luft and dancers portrays a driving and difficult search for the "perfect medium" as it relates to body image and self-perception. The piece was informed by how medium is defined by what something is not: neither small, nor large. This, as well as the idea that medium can refer to a median, balance, or standard, come together to to speak about self-perception.
LARGE / "Large: Open Air," by Susan Honer and dancers was inspired by a story of a un-finished monument to Stalin, that was, instead, turned into a swimming pool. The piece explores perception, identity, and cooperation. It is a work that asks what can be revealed–and perhaps re-imagined–when we attempt to identify the self.
Video Sneak Peeks
Enjoy an insider look at how S / M/ L was made, in reverse order.
Large: Open Air
Medium: Pursuit
Small: Restless Hands Under a Trembling Table
Learn More about MamLuft&Co. Dance or S / M / L
Visit MamLuft&Co. Dance's website page on S / M / Lhere.
Artist/Company Biography: MamLuft&Co. Dance is a resident modern dance company based in Cincinnati for its fourth year. ML&Co. seeks to create, advocate for, and educate through modern dance. The company aims to create palpable and progressive dance. Rather than think of dance as a vocabulary of actions, the company approaches movement as an act of investigation. The company's work is varied and ranges broadly in style. Choreographer and Director Jeanne Mam-Luft holds a Master of Fine Arts from Texas Woman's University and a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon. She is also the Assistant Director of Contemporary Dance Theater and sits on the OhioDance Board of Trustees. Company Dancer and Guest Choreographer for S / M / L, Susan Honer holds a Master of Fine Arts from Hollins University/American Dance Festival. Honer is the co-collaborator of a project called Distance Dances, where she and partner Gina T'ai create dances long-distance via video and other technology. Guest Choreographer for S / M / L, Michelle Morano is a Cincinnati dancer and choreographer who has worked with numerous artists in the area. Morano has presented solo work in prior Fringe Festivals, as well. A graduate of Ohio University, Morano premieres work on ML&Co. in S / M / L.
From: Cincinnati, OH
Critics' Reviews
Review: CityBeat
by Nicholas Korn
Ideas and ambitions come in all shapes and sizes, and the three modern-dance works that comprise the triptych of S/M/L, presented by MamLuft& Co. Dance, are each in their own way small, medium and large.
The first piece, Small: Restless Hands Under a Trembling Table, opens arrestingly enough with a pair of dancers (Jacquelyn Corcoran and Elena Rodriguez) dressed in white, and wrapped in a long red fabric stretching from the opposite side of the stage (Hanke 1, 1128 Main St.). They are joined by another pair dressed in black (Emily Scott and Jamahl Wallace, the troupe’s sole male dancer), who begin to both court and torment their pale counterparts. Legless tabletops and various chairs offer some nice moments of metaphor, and a few missed opportunities, especially in the pas de deux on wheeled office chairs that could have lent the starkness of this piece a glimpse of grace and levity. I also wished the choreography had established and followed differences between the two relationships, rather than have them mirror each other so completely.
Most Fringy Thing: "Recurrence Plot" offers the best of all dance worlds: innovative, thoughtful images blended with physical, highly skilled movement. We are serious artists being serious dancers.
Brief Description:Recurrence Plot is a contemporary dance piece filled with highly polarized solos, swift, strong weight sharing and layered gestures. With all company members sharing artistic direction, the work maps out a collective compulsion to control, calculate and drive its formation. The group quickly learns that predictability is elusive. Original sound design by Chicago-based composer Nick Sondy.
Artist/Company Biography: The Space/Movement Project is a non-profit dance organization in its sixth season. The group works democratically to combine different voices into a single artistic statement and to create work that reflects upon developments in contemporary dance forms. Constantly seeking to further unravel choreographic boundaries, all TS/MP members initiate the creative process, allowing themselves to rotate organically between roles of leader, follower, participant and observer. By providing a forum for ongoing dialogue, and by sharing financial and creative resources, the company empowers artists to create increasingly meaningful work and pursue individual artistic objectives. TS/MP has produced work at Chicago venues as Links Hall, the Prop Thtr, the Hamlin Park Fieldhouse, The Galaxie and Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall. In 2009, TSMP was selected to perform as a finalist in the inaugural Joyce SoHo/Columbia College A.W.A.R.D. Show! choreography competition. In 2010, the company embarked on their first regional tour, performing in Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio. The group’s outreach work and participation in local neighborhood art festivals offers free performances to a wide variety of city audiences. In line with their mission to support developing artists, the group manages OuterSpace studio, a Wicker Park practice/performance loft offering low-cost space rental to local performance artists.
From: Chicago, IL
Critics' Reviews
Review: CityBeat
by Julie Mullins
"Contemporary dance can be mysterious. It’s perhaps both a blessing and a hurdle of the form. One reason why audiences sometimes find modern dance challenging is because they’re afraid they won’t “get it.” By nature, it’s an abstract form, so sometimes just sitting back and letting what you see and feel wash over you works best."
Most Fringy Thing: All parts of Opal Opus interact: Writer, Characters and the Play itself. Each longs to BE – to share its own gift. This is especially challenging when none realize their gift, trust the process or one another, and when, like most of us, all are entrenched in doubt, self-sabotage and FEAR.
Brief Description: Opal Opus is a pop’ra, musically navigating the dark, whimsical, romantic, eccentric, creative processes of the soul. The "J" family is stuck in the familiar mire-muck of Disconnect – from their True Selves and one another. Desperate, the family embarks on a journey to find the Opal Opus in the mysterious land of Alakazoo.
Artist/Company Biography: “You’ll never untangle the circumstances that brought you to this moment.” – Leonard Cohen. The Tangled Leaves Theatre Collective grew out of a chance meeting of three passion-driven Cincinnati women. What began as a single, short-term project rapidly developed into a vision of a theatre collective dedicated to creating space for female artists of all ages to share freely what is in their hearts, minds and imaginations. TLTC is committed to creating original, socially conscious work through the exploration of overlapping artistic mediums. TLTC’s sophomore production, Opal Opus: Journey to Alakazoo is a result of the consciously creative collaboration of dynamic duo Serenity Fisher (writer, composer, performer) and Robin O’Neal Kissel (writer, coach). Together, they have navigated the wonky highs and lows of the creative process and lived to tell the tale. They love to collaborate, commiserate, integrate and inundate the planet with silly words and serious songs and help right the world of things-gone-wrong. They first collaborated with director Caitlin Kane on Sophie’s Dream, Cincinnati’s 2010 “Audience Pick of the Fringe.” When not Opal Opus-ing, Serenity Fisher can be found performing and recording her original music while Robin Ok offers soul-nurturing opportunities through her business, Laugh & Dream Creative Coaching.
From:Cincinnati, OH
Critics' Reviews
Review: CityBeat
by Harper Lee
Serenity Fisher, creator of Sophie’s Dream, the 2010 Audience Pick of the Fringe, has again brought her hyper-personal and very sincere brand creativity to a Fringe stage with Opal Opus: Journey to Alakazoo. (It’s being presented at the “Hanke 2” venue, 1128 Main St.) Opal describes itself as a “pop’ra,” best understood as a pop operetta that is sometimes mystical, sometimes messy and always musical. Fisher plays The Writer. Curled up behind her keyboard in her pajamas, she takes the audience deep into her own imagination. We follow her as she creates a family of four (each has a name that starts with the letter J), the sad world they live in and the fairytale journey they embark on to find love and themselves. There are old wise women with magic wands, singing creatures called UgaMugs, a terrifying mountaintop game show with scary-steep stakes, a kazoo, and a much-loved tree frog named Pumpernickel. Opal is a story within a story, The Writer’s creative journey and the family’s journey taking place on top of one another.
Near the beginning of this play within a play pop opea, The Writer hopes the musical she is creating is “43% halfway-decent.” In that regard, the imaginative OPAL OPUS is more than successful.
The Tangled Leaves Theatre Collective gives is "Opal Opus: Journey to Alakazoo" an excellent try-out at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. While the production values are quintessentially fringe-ish, the performances are top-notch in this allegory of a family drama, as if The Writer were dealing with a tragedy in an indirect, imaginative way.
A nimble mix of con artists, slapstick, and longing.
From: Jessica Ferris
Most Fringy Thing:
I threw my head back with laughter, I inhaled crisply, I was slack-jawed. -- San Francisco Audience Reviewer
Innovative structure... The show never rests on its laurels. -- Nuvo Indianapolis
That was a great piece of physical theater! -- Twin Cities Theater Connection
Stunning. I went home heartbroken and uplifted. -- Minnesota Fringe Audience Reviewer
Brief Description: This magical realist detective story traces California solo performer Jessica Ferris's search for the truth about her father who disappeared when she was two, and her discovery that he is a con artist on the lam. She portrays the members of her family as they reluctantly reveal clues, and she deftly transforms everyday objects (a folding chair, a metal toolbox, a sheet) into supernatural beings.
Jessica Ferris (Creator, Performer) has been creating solo shows that connect her most intimate stories with wider social concerns for the past decade. Her nimble approach to content and form yields performances that reviewers describe as “intricate,” “mesmerizing,” and “fresh.” Her eclectic aesthetic grows from her international physical theater training and the San Francisco Bay Area’s fertile performance community. You can connect with her at http://www.JessicaFerris.com
David Ford (Director) is a playwright and Director in Residence at The Marsh Theater in San Francisco. He has directed at the Public Theatre, Second Stage, St. Clément's, Dixon’s Place, One Dream Theatre, Theatre for the New City, (New York), Highways (Los Angeles), and Woolly Mammoth (DC).
Mark Orton (Composer) is a founding member of Tin Hat, a composer collective that blurs the line between jazz and chamber music and which has produced five critically acclaimed releases. He is an award winning film and radio composer, nominated for Best New Composer by The International Film Music Critics Association in 2006. Modern dance and circus collaborations include Pilobolus, Donald Byrd/Spectrum Dance Theater, Lawrence Goldhuber/Big Man Arts, The Pickle Family Circus, and Le 7 Doigts de la Main. Keep up with his work at http://MarkOrtonMusic.com
From: Oakland, CA
Critics' Reviews
Review: The Examiner
Biography and personal mythology come together in "Missing: the fantastical and true story of my father's disappearance and what I found when I looked for him," a solo show by Jessica Ferris of Oakland, Calif.
"The title of Jessica Ferris’ one woman show, Missing: The Fantastical and True Story of My Father’s Disappearance and What I Found When I Looked for Him (at Know Theatre), would pretty much seem to say it all. And yet, there would be so much, well — missing."
"Ferris has created this one-woman show as a clever theatrical mystery detailing "the fantastical and true story of my father's disappearance and what I found when I looked for him." With inventive staging (by director David Ford) that involves the creative use of simple props (a folding chair, a tool box, and three white sheets),Ferris digs deeper and deeper into the puzzle of why her father has been gone for 28 years and what happened to him."
"Jessica Ferris has a true and personal story to tell. Well, to say “tell” does not do her performance justice. Ferris brings considerable talent to her solo show: strong character acting, physical theater skills, a bit of the avant-guard, and a willingness to tap into and share the painful emotions she experienced over the years."
From: East Tennessee State University Patchwork Players
Most Fringy Thing: Memoir of a Mythomaniac: the True Story of a Compulsive Liar (or Tallulah Dies) is fringe; it is about life on the periphery.
Brief Description: What is the better choice: living in a world of your own creation or the real world? Through a fusion of spoken word and dance, Tallulah Dies tells the story of a delusional but bewitching heroine. And after being fired from yet another job, her father has convinced her to see a therapist so she can get back to work and out of his basement.
Artist/Company Biography: Cara Harker is an assistant professor of dance at East Tennessee State University. Cara graduated from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University with an MFA in theatre performance in 2003. Since that time, she has been working in dance and theatre as an instructor, choreographer, and director in Chicago, Cincinnati, and East Tennessee. Credits include directing and choreographing Quilters and Girl’s Eye View, a play which she co-wrote, choreographed, and performed in at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Most recently, Cara directed and choreographed The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Virginia’s longest running outdoor drama. Cara serves on the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Association of Dance and oversees the dance minor program at ETSU. She is thrilled to be working on Tallulah Dies with Patchwork Players, ETSU's student run theatre group.
From: Jonesborough, TN
Critics' Reviews
Review: Behind the Curtain
MEMOIR OF A MYTHOMANIAC, a fusion of spoken word and dance, offers solid acting throughout the cast. It is also great to see the always-on-stage ensemble focused on the action throughout the entire show. Versatile ensemble members Savannah Arwood, Brock Cooley and Cara Harker (the latter also serves as director, playwright and choreographer) take on several smaller roles.
"My name is Tallulah, and I’m a compulsive liar.”Memoir of aMythomaniac, a Fringe offering from East Tennessee State University Patchwork Players. The story of Tallulah, whose actual name is Jane, is told as a fractured narrative, combining traditional dramatic scenes of exposition with break-out scenes of movement and dance. And it works, mostly, thanks to the energy of the six, young, able-bodied and game performers in the troupe."
It's still early in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, but "Memoir of a Mythomaniac: The True Story of a Compulsive Liar (or Tallulah Dies)" is destined to be one of the my favorite Fringe experiences of the year, despite the precious and rather long title."
Acclaim Nominations: Directing (Regina Pugh), Non-Equity Ensemble (Peter york, Jennifer Roehm, Lisa DeRoberts, Nina Yarbrough, William Selnick, and Randy Nashleanas
A Musing on the Delights of Melancholic Mayhem
From: Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati
Most Fringy Thing: This farce gallops into the gaps in our brains and the holes in our hearts and fills it with good food: the almond, of course.
Brief Description: Our not-so-sad-story begins with Tilly: a banker and melancholic. Tilly flits about town spreading her sweet sorrow to everyone she meets: her psychiatrist, Lorenzo; her boyfriend, Frank; and two lesbian lovers, Frances and Joan.... so of course they fall in love with her. This makes Tilly happy, very happy. But this is not the Tilly they fell in love with! Her suitors become dismayed and yes, melancholy by the transformation of their temptress. Havoc and mayhem ensue: a battle over her coveted vial of tears, a metamorphous catastrophe…and it is up to our heroine to make it right.
FEATURING: Jennifer Roehm as Tilly, Will Selnick as Lorenzo, Peter York as Frank, Lisa De Roberts as Frances, Nina Yarbrough as Joan.
Melancholy Play by Sarah Ruhl was first produced at the Piven Theater Workshop, directed by Jessica Thebus, produced by Joyce Piven
From: Cincinnati, OH
Critics' Reviews
Review: CityBeat
by Harper Lee
CRITIC'S PICK
"Tilly (Jennifer Roehm) is feeling a little blue — and she’s wallowing in her melancholy. Her employer, a bank, has sent her to a shrink, the self-proclaimed Lorenzo the Unfeeling (William Selnick), who falls in love with her. As does Frank (Peter York), her tailor, and Frances (Lisa DeRoberts), her hairdresser. And when Frances’s lover, Joan (Nina Yarbrough), a nurse from England, meets Tilly — she’s overwhelmed, too."
"Many times for me, seeing a Sarah Ruhl play is akin to jumping down the rabbit hole. A script of off-beat characters in increasingly strange situations with sudden and multiple left turns in logic."
"The fringiest thing about " The Melancholy Play" is that it is performed on a stage built for the previous Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnatishow ("25: The Musical"), but it did have its own set, probably the only Cincinnati Fringe Festival show to have one (but we're only halfway through, so who knows what the next week will bring)."
Most Fringy Thing: Breaking down cultural stereotypes has never been so fun! The 60-minute show is hilarious, has a solid performance history, and is extremely relatable to anyone who considers themself a "hyphenated American." And, as, Washington DC's CityPaper says: “The future of American-Islamic relations could hinge on this one-woman show.”
Brief Description: This beef ain't halal! Join Zed “The Muslim Weird Al” Headscarf on an irreverent romp through the American Muslim experience. This musically comic solo-show explores religion, growing up in a Pakistani immigrant family, and coming to terms with sex and love—all in one hilarious, energy-packed hour of story and song parody from powerhouse performer Zehra Fazal. Winner of the Best Solo-Performer award at the DC Capital Fringe Festival in 2009, the show went to play to sold out audiences at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2010. “Animated, engaging and likeable.” –The New York Times
Artist/Company Biography: Washington, DC theater credits include Studio Theatre, Synetic Theater, The Kennedy Center, Adventure Theatre, The Bay Theatre, Rorschach Theatre and Landless Theatre. Fazal also works as an actor and model for print and film, with clients including the Defense Intelligence Agency, Customs and Border Patrol, Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association, and commercial clients including Marriott, Consumer Electronics Show, and National Geographic. In 2004, Fazal earned a grant from Stanford University to study with the Takarazuka Revue, Japan’s all-female musical theatre company. A graduate of Wellesley College, Fazal graduated with honors for translating and directing the English-language world premiere of The Rose of Versailles from the Takarazuka repertoire.
In following with her passion for Japanese theatre, Fazal has toured her solo-show adaptation of the Yukio Mishima play My Friend Hitler to the DC, Indianapolis and San Francisco Fringe Festivals. Fazal premiered Headscarf and the Angry Bitch at the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival, earning the Best Solo Performance Award, as well as the Favorite Solo Performance Award on DC Theatre Scene, and went on to the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival where it played to sold out houses and garnered further acclaim. For more information, please visit www.zehrafazal.com.
From: Washington, D.C.
Critics' Reviews
Review: CityBeat
by Rodger Pille
CRITIC'S PICK
It’s pretty typical for our culture to be afraid of that which we don’t know. We see it every day on TV news and in daily conversations around the water cooler. But what we probably rarely see is the reaction on the other end, how it affects the object of our fear. That’s one of the principle reasons whyHeadscarf and the Angry Bitch is so welcoming and accessible. And frankly, so needed.
Writer-actress Zehra Fazal makes it really easy for us xenophobes. She sets up her one-woman show, a sort of theatrical Muslim for Dummies with autobiographical anecdotes sprinkled in for good measure, as a series of community education sessions taught at the local neighborhood center. She addresses the audience directly, as if we’re a part of the class, which of course we are.
"Headscarf and the Angry Bitch" is an enjoyable comic solo show written and performed by Zehra Fazal that explores a young woman's experiences of growing up Muslim in America.Fazal portrays Zed Headscarf, the self-proclaimed "Muslim Weird Al" who gives us a lecture on various aspects of Muslim culture, often illustrating her points with song parodies she plays on her guitar. We quickly learn primary tenants of the Muslim religion along with proper Muslim attitudes toward foods (beer is bad but Skittles are OK), prayer, family and sex.
The Anger in Zehra Fazal's Headscarf and the Angry Bitch is reserved not for her religion or her family or her ethnicity, but lies with the actions of all of those entities interacting together and making her life full of contradictions and confusion. Fazal's character Zed Headscarf takes you in with her seminar, learning about Islam. Along the way she shares her stories about her upbringing with Pakistani parents and extended family and how sex and it's many variances lack a place in the culture surrounding her religion.
For the full article check it out on theconveyor.com
Review: Behind the Curtain
"Zehra Fazal’s very fun (and educational) show gives audience members an irreverent, personal, view of what it means to be a young, female, Muslim-American."
"Our first sold out Fringe show was "Headscarf and the Angry Bitch" by DC-based artist Zehra Fazal, and it lives up to the buzz.
Fazal plays Zed Headscarf, a young bisexual woman of Pakistani descent who is conducting a series of informative lectures about her faith, though she's not what you'd call observant, at the local Islamic Center. So you not only get a personal look at the life of a modern American Muslim, but also a primer on the lexicon, explanations of concepts like "haraam" and "halal.""
On Saturday, I tried to see “Headscarf and the Angry B*tch,” at Artworks for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, which simply describes the play with the phrase, “the Muslim Weird Al.” I dashed through the doors at 6:58pm and flashed my pass. I was turned away. The house was packed, even the standing room, and I was out of luck. On the advice of the staff, I went next door to the Know Theatre and bought a ticket for the next evening.
