FRIGID Festival 2022 (Part 2)

The 16th Annual FRIGID Festival is underway in New York City.  The FRIGID Festival is an open and uncensored theater festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination.  Since this year’s performances are both live and livestreamed, there are many chances to see some Indie theater works.  100 % of all ticket sales go to the artists.  There is a tip jar after each show for the festival.

Smile All the Time

Nat King Cole croons out warning prior to the beginning of Smile All the Time.  “Smile though your heart is aching”.  “Smile through the fear and sorrow”.  A mood is set.  There is a bed and a toilet on stage.  The song asks “what’s the use in crying”?

Amanda Erin Miller then appears and her “tragicomic romp” gets underway immediately.  “How much longer do I have to be in solitary?” she asks.  She desperately needs a person to talk to.  For a moment she breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience.  We are the lucky recipients of her hilariously bizarre tale of the events that led sixteen year old Kevin to this moment.

Kevin’s parents are anti-vaxxers and would not let him participate in a free trial.  What does Kevin do?  He had to set a fire.  He also stole vaccines from “politicians” and injected himself.  The stunt got him sentenced to Camp Smilepower, a place where teenage anger is cured.  By this point, Ms. Miller’s performance and presentation of an assortment of characters is manic and where this play is headed is anyone’s guess.

Kevin’s adventure, however, has many more events before we are finished and the ride steps on the gas pedal without letting up.  A sausage stick figures prominently (and brilliantly) in a jail break out.  This is a show where details appear quickly so attention must be paid.  Where will Kevin go next?  He’ll listen to his inner Kevin and find some new friends.  Ajax joins the fun and tells us “sometimes my feelings are so big I just have to sing”.  How does one actress play these two road warriors?  Musical Ajax is a face drawn on a pillow.

Little asides are written to evoke laughter and succeed.  Descriptions erupt such as “like a newborn baby coated in womb goop”.  Capitalism, the root of all evil, is the main target here.  A plan to rob a bank is hatched.  Kevin wants to bust it open and pee all over the cash.  Ajax deadpans “I like where you’re headed but we need to go bigger”.  Smile All the Time is nothing if not big.

The shenanigans do not let up through the entire performance.  At some point it is impossible to resist this performance.  There are so many quotable lines.  One personal favorite:  “well if it isn’t the kid who thought he could destroy capitalism with poetry”.

Is this a show which takes place in a juvenile correctional facility?  That’s what it says.  I felt that this mind blowing exercise also could be a disobedient teen grounded in their room acting out.  Smile All the Time could slow the freight train down a little so the audience can digest the numerous exclamation points more easily.  But Kevin and Ms. Miller would likely disagree.  And they would be right.

Three Funerals and a Chimp

Reviewing a performance that concludes with “I make no excuses other than I suck” is difficult since the review is already given.  Brian Schiller’s comic monologue  has a rough time landing jokes.  He has some good ones in there for sure.  Rounding forty, Rogaine has failed to help him grow hair.  He doesn’t want to dump the contents in the sink so they grow more there.  Funny.

The only requirements to be a personal trainer?  A water bottle and a tight tee shirt.  He proudly boasts of living life in the lowest income tax bracket.  Mr. Schiller discusses a series of jobs including a return to comedy.  During the opening sections the jokes are not landing.  He can tell.  But there are some nuggets in there.  “I’ve already quit my next three jobs.  I call that ambition”.

Then his family enters the picture with a history of heart disease hence the funerals in the title.  He lets us know that he is the best looking of the bunch.  That viewpoint, he informs, is “kind of like being employee of the month at Waffle House”.  Funny quip but he does not pause to let the joke land.  This one is sadly painful to sit through.

Performances at the Frigid Festival are running through March 5, 2022.  All shows are performed multiple times at either the Kraine Theater or Under St Mark’s.  Tickets can also be purchased for the livestream which was effective and provides these artists more opportunities to be seen and supported.

www.frigid.nyc

FRIGID Festival 2022 (Part 1)

The 16th Annual FRIGID Festival is underway in New York City.  The FRIGID Festival is an open and uncensored theater festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination.  Since this year’s performances are both live and livestreamed, there are many chances to see some Indie theater works.

Blockbuster Guy

For those of a certain age, the tag line “Be Kind Rewind” will bring back memories of renting movies in an era of no internet, streaming and a lot less cable television.

The show is cute, corny, nerdy fun.  Mr. Levy loves all genres of movies but eschews IMAX theaters:  “the size gives me anxiety”.  During college, he worked at Blockbuster Video in a small town in Florida.  He fondly recalls the smell of “clean plastic goodness”.  The town is so small that people recognize him at WalMart and shout, “Hey Blockbuster Guy!”

Discussions of specific movies are most welcome.  His parents raised him on The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  His first horror movie was Scream which he recounts seeing alone.  A kiss came about as a result of viewing Pixar’s Cars.  Many tangents allow for related and unrelated storytelling including a rant about How I Met Your Mother.  The live audience seemed to eat this up like a large bucket of buttery popcorn.

Mr. Levy has had the good fortune to have parents who advised him to “do things that make you happy”.  This pursuit of happiness is the real crux of this play.  A love of movies shared with loved ones and now expressed to the world.  You want to yell out all your favorites to get a reaction and likely funny commentary.

The Pest starring John Leguizamo is not a film I know.  After being skewered here, it feels like a great bad movie night option.  He mentioned a documentary you can watch on Netflix called The Last Blockbuster which sounds like essential viewing.  I could have listened to more stories about more movies which makes him and this show a winner.

Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me, But Banjos Save My Life

“What’s the difference between a New York style pizza and a banjo player”?  Keith Alessi follows with a punchline.  “A New York style pizza can feed a family of four”.  As in Blockbuster Guy, the storyteller interlinks family into their autobiographical piece.  In Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me, But Banjos Saved My Life, however, the Italian family home is described as a “house of horrors”.

This memoir narrates how Mr. Alessi came to own 52 banjos in his closet.  The pathway he took through life is interesting and varied from successful accountant to unfulfilled CEO.  Jobs paid for college and he escaped his childhood home with his natural skill of compartmentalization.  “High emotional walls” were the key.  (For those who know me personally, certain parallels are uncanny.)

Later in life he is diagnosed with cancer and the journey for survival takes center stage.  He is a thoughtful individual and shares his feelings freely in a style that is relaxed and easy.  “You get to a point in life” he says, “if you’re gonna get to something you better get to it now”.  The clarity of vision is clear and the result is a banjo playing accountant now performing on a stage.

“Each of us has a choice of what to put in our closets”, Mr. Alessi informs early in the performance.  By the end, you appreciate how the banjo saved his life.  The rendition of the old time tune “Cumberland Gap” is delightful.  A meaningful hour of reminiscence, self-analysis and salvation.

The Story of Falling Don

Daniel Kinch’s first day at work in a brand new job was on 9/11/2001.  The downtown New York office faced the twin towers.  The Story of Falling Don is a play about his unintended front row seat during this “pretty big fucking deal”.

That quote happens as he is exiting the subway and sees a plane hit the first tower.  If Mr. Kinch showed any semblance of energy in the performance delivery, there might be a way to connect to this retelling.  As it is performed, this show is a random assemblage of unconnected thoughts.  The experience is like sitting through a semi-incoherent uncle babbling at a dinner table often losing his place in the process.  More than once he refers to things he told us that he has not.  I confirmed this with a companion viewer.

There is a bitter snarky tone that is not effectively delivered.  Wall Street “suits” are ridiculed but not well.  There’s a peace activist friend who has disabled a nuclear submarine.  That’s not in the actual script but I noted it.  She was also “beaten around in Yugoslavia”.  Huh?  Turns out that was a unscripted riff as well.  Then she comments that American bombs have been going off elsewhere for so long.  There is definitely room for a presentation of alternate perspectives on this topic but in a less disorganized and disinterested way.

There is also quite a bit of promising to tell about something later in the show that gets repetitive.  When Mr. Kinch finally gets to the titular story, he addresses the sad tower jumpers by dropping a Ken doll on his head.  There is a weird meanness in the telling that is off-putting or, to be fair, his sense of humor may just not be for my taste.  Regardless, The Story of Falling Don is too unfocused to be recommended to anyone.

Performances at the Frigid Festival are running through March 5, 2022.  All shows are performed multiple times at either the Kraine Theater or Under St Mark’s.  Tickets can also be purchased for the livestream which was effective and provides these artists more opportunities to be seen and supported.

www.frigid.nyc

Fast Enough

The New York Children’s Theater has a Creative Clubhouse as part of its online offerings.  This month there are four stories in a series for Black History Month.  Last week’s program included a reading of Fast Enough by Joel Christian Gill.

Miss Caitlyn hosts a zoom storytelling hour.  The target audience is quite young.  Introductions begin the show along with “our hello song”.  The kids are a combination of energetically engaged to shy.  Some parents are visible; others obviously working the controls behind the scenes.  After the opening, various activities kick off the get together.

Today’s vocabulary word is “discrimination”.  It’s a big word so Miss Caitlyn asks, “can you say it with me?”  She helps the kids understand the meaning.  The lesson clearly explains discrimination is when people are treated unfairly or differently because of who they are.  The concepts seemed perhaps a bit advanced for this age group.  That is particularly noticeable when references are made such as “non-binary”.  While the recommended age group is as broad as three to eight, this group appeared to be on the younger end of the scale.  Is that a concept they have been exposed to already?

When it is time for the story, Fast Enough is read page by page on zoom.  The subtitle of this book is Bessie Stringfield’s First Ride.  Bessie is famous for being the first black woman who rode a motorcycle across America.  The kid’s tale is about boys not wanting to ride with a girl who would not be “fast enough” for them.

After the inspirational story is told, there is some related discussion.  A fun fact about Bessie is that she would flip a coin to set her traveling agenda.  Here pictures come up and the children are shown that the one stop is the Grand Canyon.  It was hard to tell if the intended audience knew what that meant as no detail or context was offered.

After this section, there are games to be played like red light / green light.  The increase in positive energy from and connectivity to the participants was easy to witness.  Clocking in at under one hour, the class ends with a dance party.  The young people seemed to be having a good time.  Lessons were had but the focus was also on fun.

Next week’s book is The Roots of Rap.  Kids will learn what inspirations gave birth to the musical artists we know today in a hip hop heavy class.  Plenty of movement should be expected.

The New York Children’s Theater Creative Clubhouse series takes place via zoom on Wednesday afternoons at 4:00.

www.nycchildrenstheater.org