Tag Archives: LEFF

Stormy weather ahead: Only if you are a theater lover

Entertainment, , ,
This year’s LEFF will wrap with the 24-Hour Theatre: LEFF Edition on March 7. (LEFF)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

There is a festival celebrating laughter and comedy (LaughFest) and a couple celebrating the arts (ArtPrize and Festival of the Arts). We even have WYCE’s celebration of local music (The Jammies).

So with so many local college and community theater organizations, it only makes sense that Grand Rapids has its own festival to celebrate theater.

Now in its eighth season, the Lake Effect Fringe Festival, better known as LEFF, returns to celebrate local theater by hosting an array of productions by several local theater companies.

“You are going to see works that are not produced in the larger theaters in town or works by local playwrights,” said Mary Beth Qullin, one of the organizers. “There is a lot of comedy or improv that goes on during the Festival. It is something different almost every weekend.”

In fact, starting Feb. 11 and running through Mar. 7. the calendar at the Dog Story Theatre, 7 Jefferson SE, is packed with a variety of shows, and Qullin said there is something for about everyone in the mix.

To kick off the 8thAnnual Festival, Fictional Friends Improv is performing a one-night only fundraising event “Throw $ at LEFF, Tuesday, Feb. 11, to help raise funds to cover the space rental fee for the remaining Festival participants. The event starts at 8 p.m.

The Fictional Friends Improv has a lineup of fan favorite games, some classics from the vault that haven’t been performed in years, and of course a few things that have never been performed for an audience, or performed at all for that matter.

Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company performs at LEFF Feb. 13 – 15 at Dog Story Theatre.


The rest of LEFF schedule is as follows:

Feb. 13 – 15: The Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Co., Michigan’s only year-round touring Shakespeare Company, presents Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer.”  This comedic farce follows the exploits of the Hardcastle family. Mr. Hardcastle wants his daughter Kate to marry eligible bachelor Charles Marlow. The problem is that Marlow is hopelessly intimidated by women. Mr. Hardcastle and Marlow’s father plan for the younger Marlow to visit the Hardcastle home, but because of the tricks of Hardcastle’s stepson Tony Lumpkin, young Marlow and his friend Hastings believe that Hardcastle’s house is an inn. Kate takes advantage of this deception to pose as a maid in the “inn” so that she can observe her potential mate without him knowing.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday. Thursday’s performance is a fundraising event for the LEFF and is pay-what-you-can. Tickets are only available at the door on Thursday, Feb. 13, in $5 increments.Pigeon Creek is Michigan’s only year-round touring Shakespeare Company.


Feb. 20 – 21: The Brutal Sea presents its new full-length original play “Mangoyle!” Enter the crime-spattered Urchin District of Sinneapolis, where Mayor Sparromarten has created a living gargoyle to solve the critical mystery of his missing vacation photos. Meanwhile, a coven of punk-rock witches trade their protest signs for direct magical action, and lurking deep in the shadows — are those…gnomes? You won’t want to miss this wickedly hilarious show!

Show times are at 8 p.m. Thursday – Saturday and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Thursday’s performance is a fundraising event for the LEFF and is pay-what-you-can. Tickets are only available at the door on Thursday, Feb. 20, in $5 increments.  This show contains mature themes and language.


Feb. 27 – 29: Hole in the Wall Theatre Company, Grand Rapids’ only Commedia Troupe, presents “Naples’ Story: Welcome to the Neighborhood!” Inspired by a collection of Italian scenarios from the 1500s, “Naples Story” shows us how life’s little adventures take hold as we meet the residents of a small neighborhood in Naples.

 The Hole in the Wall Theatre Company’s small cast will portray the entire neighborhood in 90 minutes of sketch-improv. Show times are 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Thursday’s performance is a fundraising event for the LEFF and is pay-what-you-can.   Tickets are only available at the door on Thursday, Feb. 27, in $5 increments.  

March 3: Grand Rapids’ Maggot Baby will screen its horrific movie “White Girl Wasted” along with the terrible “Lobster Cabin” and a few of their repugnant short films as a fundraising event for the Lake Effect Fringe Festival. “White Girl Wasted” began filming seven years ago, briefly appeared on YouTube, and then disappeared into Maggot Baby’s Box of Embarrassments. Have a laugh at this no-budget horror/comedy’s first public screening ever, featuring new footage and filmmakers in attendance. WARNING: This event is 18+ only. Show time is at 6 p.m.

March 5 and 6: Pyrus Calleryana presents “TV Program.” It’s late. A frightful howl pierces the silence of the night. Sleep escapes you. You have nowhere to turn. Nowhere… except the channels.

Join Pyrus Calleryana on a delightfully disturbing journey into the depths of a late night TV wormhole. Bizarre burlesque from beyond basic cable and more as-seen-on-TV weirdness than your remote control can handle. Don’t touch that dial!  Mature Audiences only. Show time is 8 p.m.

March 7: Wrapping up this year’s LEFF is the 24-Hour Theatre: LEFF Edition. Five writers, five directors and all the actors we can muster! Five new short plays written, rehearsed and produced within a 24 hour period. Come see your favorite local actors, directors and writers produce some new plays!

Interested in Participating in the 24-Hour Theatre: LEFF Edition?


We are in need of actors! If you are interested, please message 24-Hour Theater with your email and preferred role. No experience needed.


Schedule:
March 6, 8 p.m. – Writers begin writing at Little Space Studio, go as late as necessary (usually done by 2 or 3 a.m.)
March 7,  8 a.m. – Directors called @ Dog Story Theater
9 a.m. – Actors called @ Dog Story Theater, rehearse throughout day
8 p.m. – Shows go live!
Co-produced by Rachel Finan and Cody Colvin


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, plus Eventbrite fees.

Theater festival creating a storm of its own

Citizen Journalism, Entertainment, , , ,
GEM Theatrics presents “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry” Feb. 22-24 at the Lake Effect Fringe Festival. (Supplied)

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.

Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company will be presenting “The Seagull” Feb. 14 – 17. (Photo from production of “Caesar.”)

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

Local theater festival marks fifth year, continues to grow

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, City of Kentwood, , , ,

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

 

Five years ago, a group of theater lovers looked around Grand Rapids and saw a lot of community-wide events centered around specific themes such as LaughFest and ArtPrize. And this group decided it was time for Grand Rapids to host a community-wide event for theater.

 

Thus the Lake Effect Fringe Festival was born.

 

“Can you believe it?” wrote Mary Beth Quillin. one of the organizers and a member of GEM Theatrics, in announcement about the upcoming event. “The little theater festival that could is now celebrating five years at the Dog Story Theater.”

 

During those five years, the event also has grown from mostly weekend events during the month of February to programming throughout the month, and this year, has expanded into the first weekend in March.

 

Week day events include Comedy Outlet Mondays performing every Monday at 7 p.m. during the Festival. Also during the week is The Brutal Sea’s presentation of “Love & Semiotics,” a new play written by Kimberly Snyder and directed by Alex Michael Cook. The production, set for 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 8 and 9, is about a young woman who is visited by a novelist’s ghost and is forced to confront her relationship with reality and herself. Due to language and themes, the production is for mature audiences only. Christopher Van Der Ark is set to do a reading form “Collage of a Dystopian Midwest: a play by various authors” Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. and local playwright Stephen Douglas Wright will read from “The Ghost of Jimmy Dean” March 1 and 2 at 8 p.m.

 

Hole in the Wall Theater performs Feb. 25 and 26.

There are several Wyoming and Kentwood participants in the festival including members of the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, who performed “Titus Andronicus” last weekend. Coming up, Kentwood resident Ann Celeste Cloyd directs the Blue Star Players’ production of “36 Questions,” where two college seniors attempt to replicate an experiment to create real love in a laboratory setting on themselves. “36 Questions” is at 8 p.m. Feb. 18 and 3 p.m. Feb. 19.

 

Also from Kentwood is the Hole in the Wall Theatre Company, a Commedia Dell’Arte group that will present “The Whole Vine Yards” at 8 p.m. Feb. 25 and 3 p.m. Feb. 26. In this tantalizing tale, the diVonstro family vineyard has slowly been going bankrupt over the last three generations, and Modestina, the current head of the estate, is at the end of her financial rope. Then a mysterious box with a treasure map is discovered with everyone from the vineyard owner to the neighbors to the servants racing to get their hands on it.

 

Other productions throughout the month include:

 

One of the original LEFF participants. The University Wits, returns this weekend, Feb. 10 – 12, for Yasmina Reza’s dark comedy “God of Carnage.” Four parents come together to “calmly” discuss the fight between their children, but as tempers flair and neuroses collide, the night evolves into disturbing and hilarious mayhem. Show times are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

 

Also this weekend are two songwriting workshops, the LEFF Songwriting Workshop with Julia Yob from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, and the two-hour musical-writing workshop M.Y. Musical World at 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12.

 

The following week, Feb. 16 and 17 at 8 p.m., Art by Ellis will present “The Bald Soprano,” the classic French farce that launched Theatre of the Absurd a half-century ago. Directed by Roger Ellis, the story centers around the Smiths who entertain and insult their guests the Martins, who can’t remember whether they actually know each other.

 

Feb. 23 and 24 at 8 p.m., Midwest Stage Company presents David Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” which takes a look at sex and relationships.

 

Since the festival’s inception, GEM Theatrics has wrapped it up and will do so again this year March 3 and 4, with the West Michigan premier of “Chapatti,” by Christian O’Reilly. The husband-and-wife team of Gary E. Mitchell and Quillin play two lonely animal-lovers in Dublin. When Dan (Mitchell) and his dog Chapatti cross paths with Betty (Quillin) and her 19 cats, an unexpected spark begins a warm and gentle story about two people rediscovering the importance of human companionship. Show times are at 8 p.m.

 

LEFF performances are all at the Dog Story Theater, 7 Jefferson SE. Tickets are $14/adults and $8/students and seniors. Comedy Outlet Mondays tickets are $5 each. For more information, visit www.dogstorytheater.com.