#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: Mammy is a Star

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , ,

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:  Dia Brown

WHAT: Mammy is a Star

WHERE: McCadden Theatre, 1157 N. McCadden Place

WHY: Mammy is a Star is a wonderful, lyrical tribute honoring the life and pioneering career of legend Hattie McDaniel. There is nothing like seeing a talented, beautiful, Black cast of actors onstage. There is nothing like seeing a large triple-threat ensemble onstage that is magnificently in step with one another, lightening up the stage.

What I loved about this show and the writing is the epicness, the sweeping timeline of it. It felt as though I had walked into the midst of a grand story and I was immediately invested. It is quite rare for Black artists to exist in plays that allow us to just live without having an immediate focus on our Blackness. It was a gift to be in the audience.

This play is about a family that has dreams in a time when they can boldly chase those dreams, but it is also a play about a girl refusing to be/do what is expected of her. A girl who creates her own narrative by standing by who she is, supported by her family.

I cannot wait to see how the work unfolds and manifests. We need new work that is original + expansive, and we need it right now from a wide variety of artists.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13702

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: Alps, Adeiu!

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , ,

by Thea Pueschel

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: Jenna Covarrubias

WHAT: Alps, Adeiu!

WHERE: Actors Company (Let Live Theater), 916 N. Formosa Ave

WHY: What happens when a terminal young woman invites her family to a secluded Swiss cabin (that used to be a mental hospital) to drop an end-of-life bombshell? A lot of awkwardness, denial and spilled family tea. Augustine (Michelle Deshazo) takes a lethal dose of medication before her loved ones arrive with the help of her girlfriend/nurse Yara (Sara Bunge). With Swiss precision, Yara drops assisted suicide facts on the arriving family, one uncomfortable truth at a time. Writer/Director Jenna Covarrubias has crafted an absurdist dark comedy about voluntary assisted dying. The ensemble is grounded and has so many comedic twists and turns that you won’t see what’s coming next. Covarrubias’ tight writing, clear directing style and roaring sense of humor are on full display. The prognosis is that it’s a delightfully funny night at the theater.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13774

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: MIHO VS HATE

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , ,

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

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: The Body

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , , , , , , , ,

by Thea Pueschel

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: Janna King and Genah Redding

WHAT: The Body

WHERE: The Hobgoblin Playhouse on Gardner, 1516 N. Gardner St.

WHY: When one mysterious death connects four groups of neighbors, what could go wrong? Writer/producer Janna King and writer/actor Genah Redding have crafted four darkly comedic short plays that each question what is right, what is moral and what sells. The body connects them all. Janna and Genah humorously put grief, infidelity, addiction, social media obsession, OnlyFans and corporate greed on the table. Who the body is isn’t as important as what it reveals about the witnesses in each vignette. The ensemble cast of Allen Barstow (co-producer/director), Alyssa Berkowitz, Ted Coonradt, Leah Frires, Dom Johnson, Kara O’Connor and Peter Schiavelli deliver performances that will leave you thinking and laughing at the same time.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13592

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#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: The House Always Wins

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , , , ,

by Thea Pueschel

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: Carli Wright

WHAT: The House Always Wins

WHERE: The Hobgoblin Playhouse on Gardner, 1516 N. Gardner St.

WHY: Because a folk-horror rom-com ensemble musical is what you need to soothe your existential dread. Meredith (Carli Wright) is murdered by her ancestral home (Catherine Mack) and cursed to haunt it, unless she finds true love. The catch: anyone who hears her song and doesn’t belong perishes. After killing a few wayward folks, she forms a friendship with a haunting enthusiast and podcaster (Sean Faye) and finds a potential love interest with singer-songwriter Denis (Travis Cox). As writer/Director, Carli has crafted a snappy and darkly funny show with beautiful acoustic music. The house always wins, and so does the audience.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13373

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#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: I. We. Us.

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , , ,

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:  Melissa Rivera

WHAT: I. We. Us.

WHERE: Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre, 5636 Melrose Ave

WHY: This is a show not here to entertain you. It deals with a societal topic that’s usually discussed in the quiet. There is no way around it – we immediately enter a tough conversation about being the child of rape.

I. We. Us poses a difficult question about identity and how a family handles an unspeakable trauma that has for years disrupted the lives of everyone involved. How do you make the hardest choice of your life while hanging by a thread? This is a story about fighting to protect and heal yourself. Do you ever actually move through and forward from trauma? At what cost do we use our intellect to ignore our heart? Is it too late to come to the realization that the acto of moving on hurt those you left behind? This one-act play asks hard questions. There are no easy answers, but the play serves as a reminder that with love, empathy and understanding family can always come together to face the toughest of challenges.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13273

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: Confessions of a Mulatto Love Child

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , , ,

by Thea Pueschel

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: Bellina Logan

WHAT: Confessions of a Mulatto Love Child

WHERE: Actors Company (Other Space Theater), 916 N. Formosa Ave.

WHY: Because a biracial daughter raised by an acerbic, “lioness” of an English mother with a flair for the dramatic in the 1960s Los Angeles/New York/London is a story that needs to be told. Let Bellina Logan take you by your little hand and walk you through her “Parisian adoption,” the chaos of her childhood, and the stability of her adulthood through humorous vignettes, genuine moments and heartbreaking reveals. Logan floats effortlessly about the stage, embodying every character she encounters with reverence and mischief. When the reveals hit, they hit hard. It’s a lovely night of solo theatre.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/14384

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: Freedom in Limbo

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , , ,

by Thea Pueschel

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: Mozhdeh Rahmanzaei

WHAT: Freedom in Limbo

WHERE: Madnani Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave

WHY: What does freedom mean when you’ve never been allowed to have it? Mozhdeh Rahmanzaei’s world premiere bilingual solo show takes us to the vulnerable space of creative limbo. The show begins before it begins with an authority barking orders at the audience in Persian. Once the authority determines the audience is American, she switches to English and tells us what is at stake: imprisonment or death.

Mozhdeh courageously pursues artistic expression, defies the rules, and acknowledges she can never return home. There is a difference between bravery and safety, and she pushes us through the limbo of defying her home country and securing her American visa. The show is raw and unflinchingly direct.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/12444

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: In Search of Black People

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , ,

by BK Wong

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: Roz Browne

WHAT: In Search of Black People

WHERE: The Broadwater (Studio), 1078 Lillian Way

WHY: In this captivating piece of true storytelling, Roz Browne takes you from her childhood beginnings in Boston to a church group trip to Africa, always “In Search of Black People.”

Roz tells her story with such detail, humor and thoughtful reflection that the audience is left feeling like they have not just been told about the characters in the story, but actually introduced to them. First, in anecdotes from her early life, we meet her family as they move from one Boston neighborhood to another. Aided by real video footage, we then see the moment decades later when family members open the results of their DNA kits to find answers about their roots.

Inspired to travel to Africa, Roz, her sister and her mother do so as part of a church group. Here we are treated to the drama between church members and the daily proverbs of the tour guide as the group experiences the sights, sounds and tastes of the land. The payoff for this journey is an understanding and appreciation for family, community and a sense of belonging.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13094

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: S-27

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , , ,

by Thea Pueschel

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: Sarah Grochala

WHAT: S-27

WHERE: The Hobgoblin Playhouse on Gardner, 1516 N. Gardner St.

WHY: What happens when the cause you fought for to make a more equitable world is as corrupt as the system you abandoned? Processing center photographer May (Chiamaka Ikwuezunma) is about to find out. The organization has demands, and if they are not met, she’ll find herself on the other end of the camera. Her guilt haunts her, and she begins to see the people she is processing as human. Her enforcer, June (Anne Peyton Brothers), constantly questions her commitment to the organization. Sarah Grochala’s ensemble piece moves through vignettes, monologues and a minimalist aesthetic. She has crafted a raw and caustic dystopian tale that could happen anywhere.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13501

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