By Mary Beth Quillin

The snow maybe over, but there is still flurries in the forecast..theater flurries as the Lake Effect Fringe Festival takes center stage this month.

The annual event, which is in its seventh year, celebrates local theater with a host of events taking place at the Dog Story Theatre, 7 Jefferson SE, throughout the month and into early March.

Activities kicked off Monday with the Dog Story Theatre’s popular Comedy Outlet Mondays that will run every Monday, Feb. 11, 18, and 25, throughout the Festival at 7 p.m.  Comedy Outlet Mondays (COM) is an experimental comedy hub in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids.

New to the Festival is an improv workshop and Collywobbles Theatre Company from Fennville, Mich., will present Touch the Names for one night only. Also new this year: Industry Sundays! Bring a playbill or a website you can call up on your phone to show you’ve been involved in a West Michigan production over the past year and pay just $10. This offer is available only at Sunday performances and for ticket sales at the door.

Tickets for all events can be purchased in advance on the Dog Story Theater website, www.dogstorytheater.comand are $15/adults and $10/students & seniors.

This year’s full schedule includes:

February 11, 18, 25 & March 4  

Dog Story’s popular Comedy Outlet Mondays will continue throughout the Festival at 7:00 pm each Monday night.  Comedy Outlet Mondays (COM) is a staple for locals and visitors that takes place at Dog Story Theater in downtown Grand Rapids. The only one of its kind, COM is a weekly comedy variety show that features stand up, sketch, improv, and experimental comedic acts- now with live performances by local Musical Guest Artists! Audiences can look forward to a stage full of talent, special events, and a free improv jam for all skill levels after the show. Now in our fourth year, Comedy Outlet Mondays will be adding even more programming and opportunities for local comedic performers. The show is $6.

Feb. 8 – 10; 8 p.m. Friday & Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday & Sunday
The Brutal Sea presents The Day the Earth Refused to Die, by Declan Maher
Follow a group of college students through the nightmare-proxy “Somnam” service as well as the planning process of their yearly celebration of the planet’s narrow survival. Along for the ride is the chronically-oversharing Priestess of the 1000th Dimension and her mysterious shadow, Agent Condor. A hilarious and frightening romp through dreamscapes and potential realities, this show will both delight and challenge its audience. It contains mature content and may not be suitable for young viewers.

Feb. 14 – 17; 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday & Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday
The Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company presents The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov
In a version by Christopher Hampton, based on a literal translation by Vera Liber. The Seagull follows the contentious relationship between famous actress Irina Arkadina and her son, the aspiring playwright Konstantin Treplev. When Arkadina begins a relationship with the writer Boris Trigorin, whom she brings to her family’s summer home, jealousy and resentment break out. With a play-within-a-play, references to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and an exploration of the world as stage, The Seagullhas many connections to Shakespearean theatre. Pigeon Creek’s production will employ many of the companies’ signature staging conditions, such as cross-gendered casting, direct audience contact, and live music and sound effects to bring Chekhov’s classic to life.  Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company is Michigan’s only year-round, touring Shakespeare Company.

Feb. 16, Saturday; 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Alistair Watt returns to G.R. from Second City with an Improv Workshop!
In this 3 hour workshop we will touch on the idea of going in the scene while taking care of yourself.  Ever go into a scene and realize you didn’t bring anything to the table? This will help you practice always being prepared to play.

Feb. 19; 8 p.m.

Collywobbles Theatre Company of Fennvillepresents Touch the Names, by Randal Mylar & Chic Streetman

A staged reading with music, this touching play is based on letters and artifacts left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall from fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, and comrades. The title refers to the memorial, in which the names of those who died in Vietnam are etched into a sunken wall of black granite, able to be felt by searching fingertips.  Directed by Carole Fletcher-Catherine  One Night Only!

February 22 – 24; 8 p.m. Friday & Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday

GEM Theatrics presents Give ‘Em Hell, Harry, by Samuel Gallu

A one-man show starring Gary E. Mitchell as Harry S. Truman, our 33rd President, directed by Mary Beth Quillin.Written and performed after the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation, the play and the Truman are surprisingly timely again as the nation faces yet another scandalous presidency, with an uncertain outcome.  The play offers a refreshing view of a man who viewed public service as an honorable undertaking and a noble calling.  It premiered at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 17, 1975 and was attended by then President Gerald R. Ford. This production contains strong language.

Feb. 26 & 27; 7 p.m. 

The Curious Arrow presents Polarea and the Cloud Weaver, by Stephen Douglas Wright:  A reading of a new script, Tuesday, Feb. 26 only.

The suicidal Sun refuses to rise, leaving the burden of carrying “the light” to the Moon. When the exhausted Moon crash lands, it’s left to Polarea to get “the light” back in the sky.

Wednesday, Feb. 27

The Behavior of Wings, by Steven Bogart. 

Mr. Bogart’s play Two Men and the Moon was chosen as an audience favorite for our Lucid Festival, so we are presenting a reading of this full length play. An eighteen year old college student drops out of her freshman year of college and shows up at her father’s campsite in the mountains of Mexico where he has been trying to protect the Monarch Butterflies.

March 1 -3; 8 p.m. Friday & Saturday, 3 p.m. Saturday & Sunday

The University Wits presents It’s Just a Play, by Terrence McNally

It’s opening night of Peter Austin’s new play as he anxiously awaits to see if his show is a hit. With his career on the line, he shares his big First Night with his best friend, a television star, his fledgling producer, his erratic leading lady, his wunderkind director, an infamous drama critic, and a wide-eyed coat check attendant on his first night in Manhattan. It’s alternately raucous, ridiculous and tender — reminding audiences why there’s no business like show business.

The Lake Effect Fringe Festival seeks to highlight performer-focused theater in a non-traditional theater space, creating an intimate performance experience for audiences who can expect different seating configurations and differing levels of interaction with the performers at any given performance.

All performances take place in the black box performance space of the Dog Story Theater, 7 Jefferson SE, Grand Rapids, 49503. Tickets for all events can be purchased in advance on the Dog Story Theater’s website: www.dogstorytheater.com, and are $15/adults and $10/students and seniors. “Industry Sunday