The 11-day first annual Hollywood Fringe Festival ended June 27 but the presenters at Theatre Asylum, where many of the shows played, are not willing to let it go. So, as is traditional with fringe festivals, they will present Theatre Asylum’s Best of the Fringe.
Matthew Quinn, Producing Artistic Director of Combined Artform, is Owner/Operator of the Off Market Theaters in San Francisco as well as Theatre Asylum and Lab in LA. “Come and see the shows with the best reviews, awards and audience raves that you may have missed during the Fringe,” says Quinn. “It is exciting to be able to extend such a wide range of performances and we will be adding additional shows as well.”
Combined Artform, which took over Theatre Asylum three years ago, produced theatre for over 10 years in San Francisco. Quinn says, “Since arriving in LA we have produced our own shows (Tuna Christmas with Patrick Bristow and Mindy Sterling, Tilted Frame Network- Internet Improv, Carved in Stone). We also have done several co-productions including Shakespeare/Jane Austen/Tennessee Williams Unscripted with Impro Theatre and Zombience with Improvatorium, to name a few.
“My business partner, Steve Kahn, bought the building that houses all five spaces [at the southeast corner of Lillian Way and Santa Monica Boulevard]. So we share the building with David Fofi but are separate. David has been incredibly helpful since we’ve been down here and we’re lucky to have such an experienced neighbor.”
Quinn was involved with the Fringe in San Francisco. “I am a big fan. From the beginning I knew the power of the Fringe on a community. One of the main elements of the SF Fringe was the Best of Week. It was a major goal of the productions and an opportunity for audiences to see a show they may have missed. The Asylum extension is a bit larger than the one in SF, mainly because there were so many awesome shows and many which people wanted to see.”
HFF director Ben Hill says, “We couldn’t be more pleased with the Fringe extensions presented at Theatre Asylum in Hollywood. This provides a renewed opportunity for LA audiences to catch some of the shows they may have missed in June. We have high hopes for our inaugural artists and predict bright futures for those that seek continued development and audiences.”
With such a short turnaround, they are relying heavily on word of mouth and continuing the buzz from the Fringe. Quinn says, “Much like the Fringe all the groups are coming together to get the word out. Ben & company have been very supportive of the Best of.”
Is Quinn considering taking any of these shows to San Francisco? “Absolutely,” he says, “I’ve already talked to a few. I will also be helping some shows who are involved with the SF Fringe. And I plan to bring back some longer shows from the Fringe in October.”
Shows scheduled so far include the following (all descriptions are taken from the Hollywood Fringe Festival brochure and all times are pm):
T-O-T-A-L-L-Y! (winner of Top of the Fringe & LA Weekly GO!) In this powerful one hour theaterpiece, Kimleigh Smith takes the audience through a journey that is totally uplifting, totally heartbreaking and totally powerful. T-O-T-A-L-L-Y! is the ultimate cheer. It will have you howling in your seats in hysteria and clutching your heart. Kimleigh inspires audiences through her hilarious and honest story to embrace their inner superheroes and find the strength to move forward no matter what. The cheer “That’s Okay, That’s Alright…get back up and Fight, Fight, Fight!” has an entirely different meaning once you see T-O-T-A-L-L-Y! 7/10 @ 8, 7/18 @ 7, 7/24 @ 8, 7/31 @ 8, 8/1 @ 7. Tickets: $16. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/118925
KILL YOUR TELEVISION (Most Socially Aware Show, LA Weekly GO! & Backstage Critic’s Pick) Writer-performer Jeff Gardner’s dialogue-free solo comedy with a hilarious and insightful look at the insidious nature of television. It’s often said he who has the remote control has the power. Not in this living room…take a bizarre plunge into the other side of the screen and discover why they call it “Programming.” An exciting hybrid of pop-culture satire, physical theatre and the absurd. 7/17 @ 8; 7/23 @ 8, 7/31 @ 6:30, 8/14 @ 6. Tickets: $12. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119084
THE BAD ARM-CONFESSIONS OF A DODGY IRISH DANCER (LA Weekly GO! & Backstage Critic’s Pick) An uproarious one-woman play by London-Irish dancer-performer Máire Clerkin. This ugly-duckling-never-quite-swan recounts, amid astounding bursts of rhythm and physical theatre, her experiences of sex and booze and rock and roll like only a convent-educated Irish Catholic girl can. If you thought all Irish dancers were curly-haired cutie-pies with perfect posture, meet a scowling misfit from London in this outrageous antidote to Riverdance. 7/24 @ 6:30. Tickets: $15. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/118929
THE WASTE LAND (LA Weekly GO!) Filament Theatre Co. presents a workshop of T.S. Eliot’s work. Using the text, five actors create a symbiosis between found objects and movement to create a series of broken images, water, rock, Stetson, Jerusalem, trams, Thames, clairvoyance, secretaries, unreal. 7/17 @ 2, 7/24 @ 10, 7/31 @ 7, 8/7 @ 8. Tickets: $10. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119034
55 MINUTES OF SEX, DRUGS AND AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION (LA Weekly GO!). Smoke ‘em! Drink ‘em! Shoot ‘em up! You choose one of the 20 “naughty bits” and nervous making topics and we tell fast, funny, emotionally honest stories of the pleasures of forbidden love, wretched excess, reckless living, potent language and making a good confession. We’ve got strippers, junkies, gamblers, trannies, getting oral, getting physical, getting it over with. When the music stops one lucky audience member picks a topic from the fish bowl and joins us on stage as an active participant in the story. No holds barred! 7/29 & 30 @ 9:30, 7/31 @ 3 & 9:30. Tickets: $15. https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119053
THEY CALL ME MISTER FRY, the critically-acclaimed one-man show written by and starring Jack Fry, directed by Jeff Michalski, which has run for more than two years in LA and performed to critical acclaim, standing ovations and sold out houses across the country including a three month extended off-Broadway run at the Comic Strip Live Theater, two command performances for the Dept. of Ed. in Washington DC, and endorsed by Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report. Selected one of Best of the Fringe and Best Male Monologue from DC theatre critics in the 2009 Washington Cap Fringe. 7/11 @ 3, 7/24 @3, 7/31 @ 8, 8/7 @ 3. Tickets: $15. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/118881
MY PENIS – IN AND OUT OF TROUBLE. Bill O’Reilly calls him a sexual extremist and Dennis Miller wants to punch him in the nose. Solo performer and two-time Best in Fringe Festival winner at New York International Fringe Festival, Antonio Sacre’s 60 minute solo performance piece is directed by Paul Stein. Thursdays 7/15-8/5 @ 8. Tickets $15. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/118963
ZOMBIÉNCE! - An Improvised Zombie Musical. With the audiences’ help, the Improvatorium Players create a unique musical tale of mankind facing off with the undead! Every show is its own opening and closing night as the story is never the same. Under the direction of Patrick Bristow, Improvatorium takes on its biggest challenge to date. You don’t want to miss this high wire act of improvisational daring, comedy, music and horror. Fridays 7/9-8/27 @ 8. Tickets: $10. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/102759
TAXI STORIES. An 80 minute one-person show in which author/actor David O’Shea recounts stories from his seven year tenure as a NYC taxi driver during the ’70s and early ’80s. This is NYC of Ed Koch, when homeless slept on cardboard boxes in front of the abandoned Apollo Theatre; Times Square was filled with three-card Monte players, tall transvestite hookers and midnight cowboys while “Pac-Man” was a brand new video game. Fri. 7/9 & 7/16 @ 8, 7/24 @ 5, 8/14 @ 8. Tickets: $15. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119089
NANO NATION, Poor Dog Group’s investigation of the American Myth. As with many folkloric creations, the piece deals with the creation and dissolution of power. In the performance we encounter a woman who, after having managed to free herself from male-centric forms of domination, begins to scrutinize her own origins by considering her female heritage. She realizes that her descent, her own folklore and derivation have attached themselves to her as a physiological inscription of the past and if she intends to explore that mythic formation she must focus on their resting place: her own body. 7/9 @ 9:30, 7/16 @ 9:30, 7/24 @ 10. Tickets: $10. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119059
BONNIE IN BRIGHTON. The US premiere of this moving and funny one-woman show is about a Texas girl’s unconventional adventures in a British seaside town. This hit coming-of-age story has already wowed British audiences. Part travelog, part love-letter to a city, the show explores the idea sometimes you have to pretend to be someone else to find out who you really are. Winner Best Female Performer Brighton Festival. Sundays 7/18, 8/1, 8 & 15 @ 7, 7/25 @ 5:30. Tickets; $10. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119091
THE WOLF GIRLS. An exciting and moving story about a group of unforgettably unique sisters. Born human but raised deep in the woods by feral wolves, a pack of wild girls are thrust into a strict Catholic boarding school in order to be assimilated into “human society.” During their time at school they must learn to walk and talk like “proper ladies,” avoid eating school pets and (perhaps most difficult) learn to deal with each other. As the day of graduation draws near, the girls must ask themselves: Who will be permitted to join society and who will be cast back into the woods? And which one is really the better choice? 7/25 @ 9. Tickets: $10. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119474
MY MOMMY WITH A PENIS. This solo play depicts one man’s journey of marrying and mothering in Los Angeles. 7/15, 29, 8/5 @8, 7/22 @ 9:30. Tickets: $15. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119528
UNBUTTONED. A musical comedy drama about one man’s quest for love by Andreas Beckett and the legendary Mitzie and Ken Welch, writers and composers for the Carol Burnett Show (14 Emmys). 7/18 @ 8:30, 7/23 @ 9:30 & 8/1 @3. Tickets: $15. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/119529
All shows are at Theatre Asylum and Lab located at 6320 Santa Monica Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90038. Tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com
See website for other scheduling and ticket prices. www.theatreasylum-la.com and www.combinedartform.com
