WHY:Because Mayuri onstage is a force to be reckoned with. Because she not only gives us a history of yoga but also the very importance of its existence in a context never discussed. Because her relationship with her musician Neel onstage transcends the show on levels my body is still digesting. Because she addresses the audience without fear of retribution. Because she names the white cultural appropriation and colonization of yoga in such a direct manner that you undeniably understand the effects it can have, not only on a culture but also on one’s identity. Because she gives form to numerous characters and deities in a physical manner that is a pleasure to witness.
I loved being in the audience – Mayuri’s energy and commitment to her work are contagious. The performance she gives is personal, a revelation of self, and as she embodies her parents you are given a generous glimpse into the dynamics of an Indian family, something we need more of in the theatre. This magnetic offering rewrites the falsities of yoga and takes back the power of an ancient practice that starts with the self and goes way beyond the practice of physical postures.
WHY: Chicago-based Writer/Actor Victoria Montalbano opens the show dressed in a sexy Princess Leia outfit, making it clear that this show will have Star Wars references and that the heroine will be badass! She cleverly incorporates Star Wars references into a very interesting and relatable life story filled with messy relationships, life lessons and ultimately a transformation that is so very satisfying to witness. Montalbano does not shy away from the details, including her experiences with online dating – she once dated a C-3PO. A majority of the audience members this particular evening happened to be women and we were smitten with her. Montalbano knows how to tell a good story. As one audience member accurately said after her show, she is charming! The show is funny and the writing is crisp, detailed and exciting – EVEN if you have never watched Star Wars. She’s a relatable performer who entertained and made us cheer for her the whole evening. This show has one more performance and deserves a good, boisterous audience!
WHY:I thought of my grandmother Addie Mae Brown as I watched this ever-changing but full-of-love relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter [producer/performer Vee Kumari and Sanchita Malik]. This play is a mighty and much-needed gem that is beautifully written by Jean Lennox Toddie. It features a rarely explored cross-generational relationship and validates the importance of us needing to see a wide range of relationships and ages onstage, where women have the opportunity to explore their inner emotional lives and have the space and projects to express them. This is the type of play that is vital to the American Theatre canon and deserves and needs to be uplifted and supported. You can call it a feminist play but ultimately it is a play exploring what it means to be human. How do we live our best and fullest lives in the face of aging and how can we spend the time we have left? It was a great delight to see the South Indian textiles; to have cultural references only elevated this necessary piece of theatre. It was a wonderful treat to see Vee onstage whose craft as well as her accumulated years on the stage were priceless lessons.
June is here and “Women on the Fringe” are again onstage!
There is nothing quite like the buzz that’s created during the Hollywood Fringe. It is a time filled with risk-taking, courage, hope and independent artists creating new work by any means necessary. Each year, I ask women writers a new series of questions influenced by the Proust Questionnaire and Bernard Pivot’s French series, “Bouillon de Culture.” The goal is to understand the artist’s work and their full nature while allowing them a space to reveal their authentic self. It is a great gift and a true honor to introduce women who will be presenting work in myriad genres, exploring a wide range of topics that allow us to examine who we are as individuals and as a society.
Introducing Carmen Kartini Rohde and her show, “Low on Milk.”
Carmen Kartini Rohde
Constance: What do you hope audience members take away after experiencing your show?
Carmen: Low on Milk is a musical comedy about a mother who struggles with breastfeeding and must battle the zombie apocalypse to find formula for her newborn. With this play, I want mothers to feel seen. The invisible load of motherhood can be so overwhelming and is not celebrated enough. Mothers are societally expected to feed the kids and keep a happy home, but we don’t always see the journey it takes to complete a simple task like putting food on the table. During a formula shortage and when you feel like your body has failed you in breastfeeding, it can be ridiculously hard, so we might as well sing about it. I hope broader audiences enjoy the show as well and walk away having laughed, quoting lines and singing show tunes.
Constance: What’s been your biggest challenge regarding your development/creation process?
Carmen: It all starts with believing in yourself and in your ideas. A lot of internal work happens before you crack open Final Draft and type up your script. You hope that your idea is worthy enough to invite a group of artists to come together to memorize lines, play piano and trust that an audience will find you. Then it’s all the logistics of producing: getting all your ducks in a row and managing all the moving pieces that come with a theatre production. It’s a challenge, but it’s super fun.
Constance: What are you enjoying most as you create your show?
Carmen: I come from an improv and sketch comedy background, so I love allowing space for collaboration and seeing how actors interpret the characters I wrote. I love hearing a musician add magic to the melodies with different instrumentation.
Constance: What has been the most surprising discovery?
Carmen: That male audience members who aren’t parents found the show entertaining!
Constance: The work will be given away soon. How does that feel?
Carmen: It’s bittersweet, like sending your child off to college. We did our homework together, and bought all the dorm room supplies necessary for a comfortable landing. Now it’s about trusting the process and letting your art live on outside your womb.
Constance: How long have you been sitting with this work?
Carmen: I’ve wanted to produce a musical since I was 13. And I came up with Low on Milk before even contemplating motherhood, when I kept reading about the formula shortage and thought how terrible that must be. Then I had a baby and lived how terrible that is. I added songs and scenes after experiencing birth, lactation consultants, doulas and all the bells & whistles that come with new motherhood, so this project has been gestating for a few years.
Constance: Why Fringe? Why this year?
Carmen: It was probably the worst time in my life to take on a project as big as putting on a musical. I have a baby at home, so I’m not exactly sitting in a field of heather at a typewriter with the winds blowing songs into my ear. With this in mind, I felt like my wit’s end was probably also the perfect time to do Fringe and embrace the joyful and frantic energy that only Hollywood Fringe provides. A theatre production is a lack of sleep and no control over the elements, it needs my constant attention and love. Kind of like a baby. Happy Fringe, everyone!
WHY:I was immediately taken in by Italome’s onstage presence. As she entered, dancing, she addressed us directly and thanked us for being in the space with her… then all of a sudden she excused herself, grabbed a bottle of pills and began to swallow them down with a glass of water. It’s striking, startling and disrupts every expectation you had when walking into the theatre. It is a priceless lesson on the power of writing and how acting serves as a powerful tool in telling stories. What I loved about this show was that I could enter into African mythology via the Nigerian American lens – a lens that as an African-American woman, I do not often have a chance to experience. As I closed my eyes, I could see, hear and longed for Africa and my arrival at the Lagos airport she so deliciously described.
Mermaid is a story rooted in culture, memory, magic and heartbreak. The hopes and dreams a mother has moving her family to America ultimately will split the ties that bind her in ways that will crush your soul. Yet do not despair, for Italome’s dynamic and gentle performance brings you into the world of her family. Witnessing Italome embody her cousin and her auntie, your heart remembers that family relationships not only shape us, but also create the possibility to free us to live our most authentic lives.
June is here and “Women on the Fringe” are again onstage!
There is nothing quite like the buzz that’s created during the Hollywood Fringe. It is a time filled with risk-taking, courage, hope and independent artists creating new work by any means necessary. Each year, I ask women writers a new series of questions influenced by the Proust Questionnaire and Bernard Pivot’s French series, “Bouillon de Culture.” The goal is to understand the artist’s work and their full nature while allowing them a space to reveal their authentic self. It is a great gift and a true honor to introduce women who will be presenting work in myriad genres, exploring a wide range of topics that allow us to examine who we are as individuals and as a society.
Constance: What do you hope audience members take away after experiencing your show?
Victoria: I hope they’re laughing through tears!
Constance: What’s been your biggest challenge in terms of your development/creation process?
Victoria: I developed the show through Storytelling, so the biggest challenge was putting the 8-10 minute stories together to create a seamless, 60 minute arc. Also the pandemic. I’ve been doing the show for 3 years, so much of the development process was during the pandemic, when I couldn’t do any in-person staged readings. I ended up doing for people over zoom and having them give me feedback individually.
Constance: What are you enjoying most as you create your show?
Victoria: I love how each audience is different. I never get tired of doing the show, because even though it’s fully scripted, it’s very conversational, so the audience really does affect each performance.
Constance: What has been the most surprising discovery?
Victoria: Certain lines in the show, that are not jokes, somehow get laughs more often than not!
Constance: The work will be given away soon. How does that feel?
Victoria: Well, I’ve been giving the work away at Fringe Festivals across the country for the last 3 years. It doesn’t feel like I’m giving it away. The more people that experience the story, the more it grows, it’s like blowing up a giant balloon filled with Star Wars based double entendre.
Constance: How long have you been sitting with this work?
Victoria: About 6 years total!
Constance: Why Fringe? Why this year?
Victoria: If you’re an independent artist who wants to tour, Fringe Festivals are the best way to do it. In general, it is more affordable than producing independently, and most festivals have a built in audience. I’ve been touring the US Fringe circuit for 3 years, and I’m just getting started! It’s purely logistical that I made it to Hollywood this year. I was also accepted to the San Diego Fringe, which is the last 2 weeks of May, so it made sense to do both festivals back to back!
Constance: If there is anything else that must be said, please say it!
WHY: “This Show is Surrounded By True Events” is a two person play, written by Pamela Eberhardt. Penny, played by Eberhardt, is a guilt ridden jury foreman whose actions put Shiloh, played by Tyler Stilwill, on death row. Seventeen years after the trial, Penny questions the circumstantial evidence that put him behind bars and attempts to atone for her past mistakes by visiting Shiloh in jail. A majority of the play revolves around tense and emotional interactions between these two characters. But the overarching question is how many innocent lives have been ruined by a flawed justice system? And what are we going to do about it? Eberhardt is clearly passionate and knowledgeable about the subject. She has been a life-long advocate of criminal justice reform and this play has a thoughtful and engaging way of creating dialogue around this hot button issue. And there’s also the pop culture references that provide much needed levity for such a dark subject matter. The mix of humor and drama with a call to action makes this a play that stay with you long after you’ve left the theater!
WHY:Anne Noble is clearly a master at her craft. Her solo performance immerses us in a torrent of language about incarceration, drawing from historic writers. Her character’s initial portrayal is articulate, intelligent and delivered with rapid-fire precision, skimming the surface of her character’s inner life. As the narrative unfolds, Anne’s character receives the keys to freedom, elevating her soul beyond the confines of prison bars to reveal deep emotional scars. It’s a deeply evocative and expressive journey.
WHERE:Hudson Theatres(Hudson Backstage), 6539 Santa Monica Bl
WHY: Pam meets a world renowned astrologer who predicts several pivotal moments in her life, one of which is a negative event that will take place when she turns forty. The negative event remains a mystery until her life falls apart on the same day as her fortieth birthday. The build-up to that moment includes several astrological predictions coming true – including in love and career. Pam is ultimately guided by the universe and her guardian angels to triumph. There is a vividly heartbreaking scene involving a teddy bear. The show explores topics of faith and spirituality, love of family, guardian angels and the power of intuition in steering us toward the answers we seek. Pam’s spirited and energetic performance is filled with hope and humor. Be sure to bring Kleenex!
WHY:A farcical romp/adventure, with all the elements of a Shakespearean play and the glitz of Vegas (baby). Playwright Suzanne Bradbeer crafts an evening of laughter and surprises, merging Shakespearean themes with Vegas extravagance for an unusual theater experience.
