The Cincinnati Fringe Festival is just a couple of weeks off but already the backstage drama is hopping.
First, the intriguing sounding “Cabarlesque! (A Cheeky Romp)” is off the schedule. Apparently getting performance artists across the Canadian border into Cincinnati isn’t the piece of cake it was before 9/11. Apparently this gang look particularly shady…
Tommy Nugent, last here in 2002 with “Tommy Nugent’s Burning Man” returns with “Tommy Nugent’s The Show,” but he e-mails he’s having some angst over his subject matter (“one man, one act, one bullet”) in the wake of Virginia Tech, but he worries there’s not much time to re-think his art…
And even Fringe exec director Jason Bruffy is scrambling, having lost Ensemble Theatre as a Fringe site because of “scheduling conflicts.” ETC will host the theater’s intern company in its Fringe entry. Bruffy has spent the last couple of days hunting for a replacement venue and is hoping to have something locked down by Friday.
Where in the world are Sherman and Drew Fracher? Tampa, Florida.
Drew, the talented director of “Opus” at Ensemble and “The Tempest” at Cincinnati Shakespeare is brushing up on his Shakespeare with “Othello,” with his talented wife among the company.
Their next Cincinnati project is set for August, with Drew directing Sherman in the mono-drama “Above the 37th Parallel” by local writer Nancy Jones. The topic is Jones’ experiences before and after a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
“The titlecomes from the fact that six people on the street where I grew up in Milford were diagnosed with MS,” says Jones. “If you look at a map, the 37th parallel stretches from Newport News, Virginia to Santa Cruz, California. It reaches across Kentucky putting Ohio smake dab in the “MS belt.” Statistics show that there is a higher incidence of the disease above the 37th parallel.”
The performances Aug. 10-11 in the Aronoff’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater will benefit various Multiple Sclerosis programs in Greater Cincinnati. Tickets range from $25-$250.
Jackie Demaline
posted by CinStages Buzz #
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