by Constance Jaquay Strickland

Quick peeks at #HFF26’s “Women on the Fringe” by Fringe Femmes who are behind the scenes this year. Click Here for all Check-Ins

WHO:  Miho Fuji

WHAT: MIHO VS HATE

WHERE: Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre, 5636 Melrose Ave

WHY: Miho! What a personality. Miho has that one-of-a-kind, contagious energy that makes you giddy and hyped. She has the natural ability to connect to the audience in a way that makes us all vulnerable and willing to follow her in any direction she wishes. Yet what stands out is her ability to let us in. To allow us to see that beyond the jokes, the arguments with a lamp (aka her father) and the silliness… there is depth.

This a show where a girl is dealing with the unconditional love she has for her father, while also holding a ton of grief for the emotional aftermath of that relationship. Their anger lingers from high expectations of what a woman – a Japanese woman – should look like, even how she should behave. Is this what makes up a woman’s worth? Who is she, if none of the expected is met? In the dark of theatre I observed Miho fight and wrestle off the residue that breeds, feeds inside the body, haunting our organs if we don’t brave the darkness… in order to allow ourselves to release old pains. Miho refuses to let the past hijack her future.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/14226