Due to the incredible number of shows coming to the Denver Fringe Festival, we can’t do stories about all of them. But here are a few of the press releases we’ve received about upcoming shows at the 2022 festival, running June 23-26 at various locations around Denver:
Critically-acclaimed off-Broadway show based on the life of the iconic Josephine Baker to make its Colorado premiere at The Denver Fringe Festival
After the pandemic had shut the world down for over a year, Dynamite Lunchbox Productions spent 2021 presenting the musical Josephine, a burlesque cabaret dream play at venues closer to their Orlando, Florida home. Now, they return to the road and to their roots as a featured act for the 2022 Denver Fringe Festival at the historic Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater.
Josephine, a burlesque cabaret dream play is an international award-winning and off-Broadway one-woman biographical musical that combines cabaret, theatre and dance to tell the story of the iconic Josephine Baker, the first African-American international superstar and one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th Century. After debuting at the 2016 San Diego Fringe Festival and winning multiple awards, Josephine toured festivals throughout North America, winning more awards and attracting the attention of The Soho Playhouse in New York City. In early 2018 Josephine had a limited 6-week off-Broadway run at the historic off-Broadway venue, where it sold out performances and received stellar critical acclaim. For the run, Star and co-Creator Tymisha Harris was nominated for a 2018 Vivian Robinson AUDELCO Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. For the rest of 2018 and 2019, the show traveled across Canada again, taking home 5 more “Best of Fest” awards and selling out venues everywhere it traveled. Josephine also went overseas for the first time to the Edinburgh Fringe, where it sold out houses and received multiple 4 and 5 Star reviews.
“Tymisha Harris’ performance is a tour de force.”
“It’s is a perfect piece of theatre for the time we are currently in”
In February and March of 2020, the show played in Australia for the first time. At the Adelaide Fringe Festival (the second largest in the world), the show received rave reviews, sold out and extended its run, and received a coveted “Critics Circle Award”. It had a planned tour of Europe and dozens of engagements in the US and Canada, but the pandemic had other plans…Thankfully in 2021, Josephine returned to some venues across the US and Canada, starting with a 6 week run at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater (for which Director Michael Marinaccio was nominated for Best Director by Orlando Sentinel and Tymisha Harris for Best Local Performer by Watermark Magazine).
Now in 2022 Josephine returns to touring in earnest as it ventures to spread Josephine Baker’s message of love and unity across the globe. In June, after a run in Montreal, the show heads to Denver, Colorado for the first time. There, it will be presented as part of the Denver Fringe Festival at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theatre.
Josephine, a burlesque cabaret dream play
as part of the Denver Fringe Festival
Thursday, June 23 6:30 PMFriday, June 24 7:30 PMSaturday, June 25 7:30 PMSunday, June 26 6:30 PMCleo Parker Robinson Dance Theatre
119 Park Ave W, Denver, CO 80205
For Tickets and more information, Visit https://denverfringe.org/shows/josephine-a-burlesque-cabaret-dream-play/
‘Fuck Yeah’: Small Colorado College Theatre Program Heads To Denver Via The Fringe
(Alamosa, CO) June 1, 2022: Current students, recent graduates and a faculty member of Adams State University will be presenting their original devised performance FUCK YEAH at the Denver Fringe Theatre Festival. The show will run Thursday, June 23rd through Sunday, June 26th at 6:30pm.
Sort of a rock show and sort of a play, FUCK YEAH is a highly interactive comic confrontation between the band SourMILF and the audience. They are absolutely not a band. They are definitely a band. Using the excuse of a small touring rock gig, the band has come to Denver to return a box of shit to their former lover, have the final word, and maybe kiss one last time. What makes a rock show a rock show and a play a play? Find out as heartbreak has never been so much fun.
While this is not an official Adams State University production, the show was created, designed, and performed through collaboration between Adams State students and a faculty mentor. It’s an exciting chance for the small rural college to share work with the big city. Adams State University Theatre prides itself on allowing space for students to get involved in all aspects of theatre performance and supports them making their own original work to enter the profession of theatre. The Denver Fringe serves as a perfect gateway for that entry.
FUCK YEAH originally premiered in the back parking lot of SquarePeg Brewerks in Alamosa as a celebration of returning to live theatre after Covid-19 shut so much down. Alamosa locals had a great time hooting and hollering with SourMILF.
The show runs 55 minutes. The Fringe Venue is the Blake Street Tavern Tailgate Backroom. Tickets will be available through the Denver Fringe website https://denverfringe.org/shows/fk-yeah/
“Meaningless” Tells the Tales of Ecclesiastes. With a Touch of Godot
DENVER – A theatrical performance of Ecclesiastes is making its Colorado premiere after recently debuting last month in Atlanta, Georgia. This funny and poignant show can be seen from June 23-26 as part of the Denver Fringe Festival. “Meaningless” presents the unedited, uncensored book of Ecclesiastes, packed with ancient riddles and unexpected wisdom. From money to concubines to snake charming, this text tackles the meaningless existence of everything under the sun. Discover why this book has inspired everyone from Shakespeare to Tolstoy to Samuel Beckett.
Ecclesiastes is considered a controversial book by many Jewish and Christian scholars. While filled with poetic observations on life, it’s also pessimistic and peppered with paradoxes. From wisdom to foolishness, suffering, and pleasure, Ecclesiastes tackles it all. “Meaningless” is performed by Oklahoma City-based actor Rodney Brazil, and Denver-based actress Claire Powers. Whether you are religious or not, you’ll be intrigued by this 2000-year-old meditation on the human experience, performed live in Denver for the first time ever.
WHAT: Meaningless
WHO: Performed by Rodney Brazil with Claire Powers
Directed by Emily Etherton
Adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes by Rodney Brazil & Emily Etherton
WHEN:
7:15 p.m. Thursday, June 23
7:15 p.m. Friday, June 24
7:15 p.m. Saturday, June 25
4:15 p.m. Sunday, June 26
WHERE: River North Media, 3410 Blake St, Denver, CO 80205
HOW MUCH: Single tickets are $15, multi-show passes are available
RUNNING TIME: About 50 minutes
TICKETS: https://denverfringe.org/shows/meaningless/
SHOW WEBSITE: https://meaningless.live/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/whatisthenextstage/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/whatisthenextstage
Rodney Brazil is an Oklahoma City-based, writer, director, performer, and producer. Original works as a playwright include All My Ex-Boyfriends are Gay, Worthy Causes, The Ultra-Conservative Theatre Summit, and Naked Brunch, which streamed live at the 2020 Theatre Crude Fringe Festival. He co-wrote several works produced by Next Stage including Clipped!, Fresh Meet, and The Hit of Pinch City. He made his festival debut performing in Beneath the Zipper at Chicago Fringe in 2012. You can watch his 2015 talk from TEDxOU discussing why live theatre is vital for communities on YouTube.
Channeling Freddy Mercury: Amuse Bouche Productions presents ‘#Champion’
Held together with faulty collagen, titanium screws, and excessive scar tissue, Sheila Klein makes a much anticipated return to the Denver performing scene with their new work, #CHAMPION. Reveling in the company of Freddie Mercury, Queen, and an unruly skeleton, #CHAMPION toes the line between humor and grief, triumph and defeat. Having emerged from the trenches of the medical industrial complex, Sheila publicly embraces the devices and machines that keep them alive and moving in a world that demands otherwise. A one person, one skeleton show of Queer Disabled survival, #CHAMPION promises the audience a wild ride along the precipices of laugh-out-loud funny, unadulterated sincerity, and all-too-familiar heartbreak. #CHAMPION will rock you.
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June 23 @7:15 pm
June 24 @ 7:15 pm
June 25 @ 7:15 pm June 26 @ 4:15 pm
SAVOY DENVER
2700 Arapahoe, Denver CO
Tickets: $15, purchase @ denverfringe.org/shows/champion
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Amuse Bouche Productions
Sheila Klein (they/them): Choreography & Performance
Sheila is a queer and disabled multidisciplinary artist, performer, choreographer and educator. Their work follows a trajectory in which the collision of tenderness, humor, and grief is both constant and unexpected. Sheila’s work is notorious for eliciting delight, discomfort, and disillusionment; for being too much and not enough all at once. Sheila’s movement-based work is heavily informed by training in postmodern dance, physical theater, and by disability justice. Check out my interview with Dance Warrior Project.
Prior to becoming disabled, Sheila trained and performed in New York City, Ann Arbor, and Detroit with Monica Bill Barnes, Amy Chavasse, Robin Wilson, Peter Sparling, Stephanie Liapis, Xan Burley and Alex Springer. Sheila’s work has been presented by Triskelion Arts, Greenspace Project, Movement Research, Ann Arbor Dance Works, and The University of Michigan.
Masha Mikulinsky (they/them): Performance & Design
Masha is a queer, non-able bodied interdisciplinary designer, writer, and visual artist. Masha’s work engages with cultural somatics through interactive installations, evoking personal and collective memory at the edge of the tangible and tactile. Masha is profoundly interested in dynamics of awkwardness, relationship with wilderness, the practice of anti-oppressive methodologies, multi-modal translation, and play.
Masha has 15 years of training in somatics and embodiment practices, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a Master’s degree in Somatic Counseling Psychology, both from Naropa University in Boulder, CO. During most business hours, Masha works as a somatic psychotherapist with multicultural, queer folks, and artists at Third Culture Counseling & Consulting.
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