Time again for San Diego’s International Fringe Festival with 11 days of eyeball busting shows! What is your taste in entertainment? The mostly downtown events include circus, opera, burlesque, comedy/drama, musical, dance, puppetry, street theater, Family Fringe and visual art. There are more than 80 shows to choose from; tickets for most are $10 while a few are free. And 100 percent of the tickets sold are turned over to the artists. The festival runs July 23 through Aug. 2.
The event is truly international, with acts from Mexico, Canada, Peru, Ireland, Italy and other countries alongside works presented by local artists. A special feature this year is Bi-National Fringe, with some acts performing in both Tijuana and San Diego. This cross-cultural artistic collaboration and exchange is with our neighboring city’s professional arts.
At the press previews, I saw two-minute snippets from some of this year’s Fringe shows. (If the acts went overtime, the performers were pulled off the stage by dancers with hula hoops.) Here is information on some of the shows that caught my eye. Warning: beware of the ratings! Shows range from general audience to NC-17. Fringe is known for including shows that push boundaries.
From San Diego, “The Whispering Directions” dancers give the impression that each movement originates deep in the body and spreads through every cell. The show is produced by somebodies dance theater. Some of the dancers in the troupe have ties to Chula Vista. The event is an equally sensuous and athletic work inspired by nine months of living between the serenity of the Mediterranean Sea and the terror of war in the Middle East.
A show from Chula Vista will be playing binationally. In the comedy “Los Dorados” (“The Golden Ones”) (PG-13), two Mexican immigrants search for opportunity and even love, meantime struggling with anti-immigrant phobia and potent memories of all they left behind. It’s a new play from Carlos Morton, produced by Teatro Máscara Mágica. Play dates are Juyly 25 at 9 p.m., July 26 at 1 p.m.; July 30 at 10:30 p.m., Aug. 1 at 2:30 p.m. and Aug. 2 at 7:30 p.m. These are shows in San Diego; the one in Tijuana is7scheduled July 24 at 6:30 pm.
A standout at the previews was “Les Midge” (rating PG), produced by San Diego’s Turning Tydes Theatre Company. The performers’ singing, acting, and movement kept us glued to our seats. The concept is the combination of a literary great with a literary/musical giant: “Les Miserables” integrated with “The Hobbit.” We saw show tunes from “Les Mis’ emitting from hobbits and Gollum.
One of the international shows is “Big Shot” from Ireland (PG-13). The United States premiere is a musical that tells the tale of murder, love and living in the moment, featuring a blend of energetic numbers and a suitable amount of drama one would expect from a Broadway-style musical. The story: a successful lawyer living in NYC becomes distracted when he falls for Carrie, an innocent struggling Irish artist.
There are several shows from Mexico City and Tijuana, including “Trekking Chronicles” and “Hikari.” One intriguing act is “Bodiesarenotborders” (PG-13) from Tijuana. Presented by Péndulo Cero Danza Contemporánea. The work is created from the internal thoughts and the experiences of Tijuana as a border city. Dancers find their own limits in a show that uses movement, projections, scenery and original music from artists of Mexico and San Diego.
A few other mentions:
“Reverberate,” (G) has dancers partnering with the classical offerings of the critically acclaimed Neave Trio.
“My Mother’s in the Audience” (PG-13) is a hilarious dark comedy about four murderous mothers who volunteer backstage at opening night of their children’s production of “Macbeth.” This was written by a high school student from North County.
“Frontier(a)” (PG-13): The Circus Collective of San Diego presents a contemporary circus integrating acrobatics, juggling, and aerial arts with dance, music and spoken word poetry in an exploration of our final frontiers. In the preview, performers juggled colored crates. How do they think of these things?
And you were wondering about the NC-17 rated shows? “Sizzzling Circus Sirens” presented by Circus Mafia, is a vaudeville style burlesque and circus show that sizzles. We saw a juggling plumber, a bizarrely entertaining act to watch.
I don’t know about you, but I’m already jotting the shows I plan to see. Go to sdfringe.org for more information.
