Tag Archives: Solo Shows

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: I Am Not A Spy. This Is A Magic Show

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: Katrina Kroetch

WHAT: I Am Not A Spy. This Is A Magic Show

WHERE: Madnani Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave

WHY: What happens when you go to a magic show, but it is actually a spy convention? The spy, no… the magician/writer Katrina Kroetch takes us on a comedic noir caper with magic, mentalism and a bit of spy craft. What better cover to infiltrate secret organizations than magic? As an audience member you might be the sleeper agent, but you are definitely a world-famous spy. This is a clever, funny, impossible-not-to-enjoy show. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: have fun, solve a mystery and laugh.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13348

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: Hysterical

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: Jackie Skinner

WHAT: Hysterical 

WHERE: Skiptown Playhouse, 665 N Heliotrope Dr

WHY: What happens when a gorgeous woman has been trapped performing to an empty room for years, finally has an audience? Step into the parlor with Jackie Skinner’s clown-horror show and find out. She blends tension, silliness, burlesque and scream-out-loud terror in ways you would never expect. She has created the best chase scene between a gorgeous woman and her faceless doppelganger in the history of Fringe. Because sometimes what haunts us is our inability to stop repeating patterns. Who knew a clown could do all this?

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13805

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: Justice

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: Tiffany Esteb

WHAT: Justice  

WHERE: Lounge On Melrose (Studio D), 7551 Melrose Ave

WHY: What happens when a high-profile freedom of speech lawyer who defends tech companies against online harassment claims becomes a victim of cyberstalking? Sara, a constitutional lawyer, has built a career defending tech companies from accountability and just scored the biggest victory of her life. She feels like a celebrity. While riding the high of victory, she decides to give online dating a try. Things seem great until one victim from the cyberbullying case commits suicide, and her personal and professional life starts to unravel. Tiffany Esteb’s solo show masterfully makes it personal. She pulls off the blindfold of Lady Justice and exposes the actual harm of cyberstalking, AI-generated porn and a slow-moving legal system. The show is smart, timely and refuses to let you look away.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13648

#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: 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: Midnight Cowboy Radio

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: Ally Ibach

WHAT: Midnight Cowboy Radio

WHERE: Actors Company (The Little Theater), 916 N. Formosa Ave.

WHY: What happens when a conservative late-night radio host in an abusive relationship finds herself pregnant? Writer/performer Ally Ibach’s Kentuckian DJ bounces hyperactively between playing the same song in different versions, Instagram selfies with loads of props, and humorously doling out bad advice to callers, all while using off-air breaks to call Planned Parenthood and schedule an illegal abortion. Ibach doesn’t flinch as she pushes the audience further into discomfort with each reveal. The stakes are real and the gap between what her character preaches and what she does is the whole point. This solo show is a mirror of the times.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/13720

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: They Tend To Themselves: A Choreopoem

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:  Gabrielle Jackson

WHAT: They Tend To Themselves: A Choreopoem

WHERE: Los Angeles LGBT Center (Davidson / Valentini Theatre), 1125 North McCadden Place

WHY: Oh, what a mythical force. A Deity. A Priestess. 

They Tend to Themselves is a beautiful, poetic show rooted in the magic of Africa, the memory of our ancestors, and the enchanting power of Black women. Gabrielle is a familiar vision. Immediately, I feel as though I know her, have seen her before.

I fully understood, embraced with open arms, and possibly even evoked Gabrielle as one of my ancient ancestors channeled to remind my spirit to think beyond my physical essence. As she grabbed the hand of a Black woman and spoke truth through touch, she erased years of pain, opened a portal for healing and made way for enlightenment. 

Proud. Stunned. In awe. My solar plexus exploded each time Gabby’s voice reached back hundreds of years to bring us to this very moment in time, together.

My heart exploded during this show in the most affirming of ways. Not because I was a Black woman, but because it is a rare moment to witness the truth onstage. I was left Breathless. I left the theatre in tears but ready to not take on the world, but to tend to my spirit.

Words are not enough. Go see this show. Go support Black women telling stories.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/9428

#FringeFemmes Check-Ins: Split – Between Two Nervous Systems

Fringe Festival, playwriting, , , , , , ,

by Aditi Pradhan

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: Dimple Kaur

WHAT: Split – Between Two Nervous Systems

WHERE: Hudson Theatres (Mainstage) 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard

WHY: There are some people who are just meant to be artists. From the moment that Dr. Dimple Kaur steps onto the stage, it’s clear to see that dance is an integral part of who she is. The hour-long solo show flies by as Dimple weaves together dance and her own personal journey as an immigrant.

As a former bharatanatyam dancer, I loved seeing Dimple perform, but I could tell that even the audience members who weren’t as familiar with Indian classical dance were leaning in – in large part due to the way she expertly explains the symbolism behind the dance from the beginning of the show. As Dimple says on her show page, this story does not bring an easy triumph – but it does bring something far more human and beautiful in the form of dance.

HOW: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/14099