When your family gets together for a special occasion, at some point you’ll find yourselves sitting around the dining room table, surrounded by a familiar cast of characters, anticipating the mix of personalities. Aunt Jen sits at one corner, in her turquoise, paisley dress, sipping Malbec and commenting on the children’s wear, while your adolescent cousin Blake, jittery in his seat, is eager to show you his new model rocket, narrating its grand journey through burps from the soda he’s been drinking. Amid the curiosities and conversations, all center around a cornucopia of foods to be enjoyed.
Similarly, a family of arts patrons congregated Aug. 25-26 at the Marcus Center to enjoy a cornucopia of performances featured at Milwaukee’s Fringe Festival. From dance to theater, music to visual arts, this year’s festival exhibited some of the finest of fringy performers the city has to offer. Performances ranged from the intriguingly spontaneous to the meticulously crafted, the awe inspiring to the uproariously hilarious. In this, its third year, Milwaukee’s Fringe Fest featured a variety of original works that were likely to satisfy all at the table, much like your grandmother’s lasagna.
Peeling away the many layers of the Fringe, one may have been witness to the dramatic recreation of the life and songs of Lorenz “Larry” Hart in John Schneider and Connie Grauer’s performance of Where or When. In this original ballad of Hart’s life, Schneider played as the gay, Jewish lyricist who became famous through his collaboration with composer Richard Rodgers (of Rodgers and Hammerstein) on musical theater in the early 20th century. Schneider’s portrayals of the conflicted alcoholic’s life were interspersed with songs by Hart and Rodgers, sung by Schneider and accompanied by Grauer on the piano. The duo brought to the stage a dynamic representation of Hart—the genius lyricist, the desperate drunk and the hopeless homosexual – in a narrative that characterized the ongoing struggles of the LGBTQ community from the time of Hart through the present.
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Where or When offered show-goers a bittersweet flavor of theater, a real-life manifestation of an extraordinary figure’s successes and challenges, those which mirror the successes and challenges of LGBTQ individuals of the present. Balancing the bittersweet essences of Where or When, the Independent Eye’s performance of Survival introduced a light-hearted one act play, commenting on the trials and tribulations of our time.
Returning local legends Conrad Bishop and Elizabeth Fuller featured their buoyant but skeptical one-woman play, Survival, in which Fuller played the roles of Lou, an elderly woman who engages the audience with her sagely wit; Bozo, a clown whose silly advice encourages everyone’s inner stupidity; and herself, a reflective and thoughtful woman trying to sort the nuances of life. Survival teemed with humorous quips and speculations on how to survive in our modern day society, such as, “there’s no future in thinking,” or “get drunk … brush your teeth …” Lou and Bozo interweave their thoughts and advice for survival in a developing drama that leaves the grandmotherly Lou playing puppets with her socks and the cheery Bozo attempting to hang herself. A monologue by Fuller, performing as herself, closed the play and gathered the audience around a final, potent sentiment: “I try to listen.”
Survival gave viewers something sweet to savor of situations that otherwise are of concern, like, “rapists and killers coming into our country to compete with our own rapists and killers,” suggesting in the end that we must still keep vigilance in these trying times in order to survive.
Fringe patrons, with a satiated hunger for theater, also sought the flavors of music and dance while in attendance … with a variety to choose from.
Beyond the doors of Vogel Hall and the Todd Wehr Theater, Tamarind Tribal Belly Dance performed on the River Walk to a crowd of bedazzled onlookers. Troupe leader Beth Fish and other dancers swung their hips and waved brightly-colored fans, all the while jingling the ornaments of their dresses as they swooped and swayed to the trance-inducing rhythms of Eastern forms of music. Fish explained to the crowd after a series of dances that she and her troupe perform without choreography, instead following cues or dance “phrases” from the other dancers – a language they speak among each other. Tamarind’s improvisational style, ornamental costuming and music from afar transported viewers to a world far from the Marcus Center—an effortless feat for the troupe, which performs internationally.
Also performing on the fringes of our reality, Fringe Fest exhibited SueMo Dance, an intensely talented and dynamic team of dancers who sent their audience away with thrills and chills. The dancers performed three sets, each reflective of the fusion between concert and commercial forms of dance, in which SueMo’s founders Melissa Sue Anderson and Morgan “Mo” Williams specialize. SueMo had their audience gripping their armrests and perching on their seat edges, ready for more, with tight choreography, explosive movements and original music – ethereal and otherworldly, interspersed with digital sound swells and human utterances – as haunting as it was enticing.
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As Fringe patrons were gripped by such otherworldly dances, others jeered with laughter and befuddlement at the music of Chad Piechocki and DIY Chamber Music. Their performance of Valentine 4: Happy, Happier, Happiness featured music composed by Joshua Backes and other Milwaukee composers. A trio including a bassist, harpist and flutist played sporadic, seemingly spontaneous bits of music, only to toss their sheets after playing only a few measures of a piece. Succeeding these trials of music, the harpist remained to offer a tune for Piechocki’s act, a feat of overcoming the fear of heights. As the harp narrated, the character Valentine, played by Piechocki, danced precariously with a six-foot ladder, the subject of his fear. Snaking through and around, under and eventually to the very top of the ladder, all with an amusing lack of grace, Valentine discovers his happiness in a humorous and intriguing performance, toppling his fear and inspiring happiness in the audience likewise.
The Fringe displayed a variety of acts throughout the weekend, entrees that inspired, informed, captivated and thrilled its patrons.
But what about dessert?
A variety of sideshows lined the outskirts of the Marcus Center during the weekend’s events. Brian Nau of Being Nau, a self-titled creative enterprise specializing in visual arts, featured artworks of his own, which are often a commentary on the interconnectivity of humans, human experiences and being present in our bodies and realities. Nau exhibited works at the Fringe and encouraged patrons to contribute to a live mural, accenting the relationships all humans share with each other.
Fest visitors would have also spotted Alice Wilson, the living statue, on the fest grounds. Wilson appeared as a woodland nymph on Saturday and a cowgirl on Sunday, decked from head to toe in makeup and costuming. Children and adults alike passed her with awe and amusement at her graphic costuming and incredible stillness, some stopping to interact with her. Those who stopped for a closer look were surprised at her joking and impressive character portrayals, laughing and taking photos.
Among these were many other performances from visual artists, dancers, musicians and thespians alike – a cornucopia of acts beholden to the family of arts patrons of greater Milwaukee. From the strange and abstract to the relatable and concrete, this year’s Fringe Fest exhibited a little of everything … certainly enough for Aunt Jen to comment on. Tell your family to have a get-together at next year’s Fringe – your cast of characters will fit right in with ours.
