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July 28-August 7
HCC Ybor Performing Arts Center
Details here
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In August, the Edinburgh Fringe is celebrating 75 years of cutting-edge performing arts from around the world. Tampa’s 6th annual Fringe Festival gathers 23 bold companies from Tampa Bay and beyond, plus a family-friendly Kids Fringe.
“We want to make the indie performing arts popular and accessible for everyone. We feel there is something to be gained by our artists and audiences mingling with those from elsewhere, so we can all benefit from expanded perspectives and artistic developments. We are also one of the few platforms in Tampa Bay on which local artists can affordably experiment with self-producing and take artistic risks.
“This year’s theme is Peace. Love. Fringe! because there is a lot of discord in the country and the world today. We want to be one place at least this year that folks can go to harmonize with each other.”
The Kids Fringe takes place 11:30 am-2:30 pm both weekends, with the abridged, spoofy take on the classic Disney film, A Goofy Musical by Theatre eXceptional students (2 performances), After Happily Ever After by ThinkTank TYA (4 performances) and from Orlando the original puppet musical The Everglads! These shows are free for children and for guardians with a WIC or Snap card, and $10 for adults. Two free storytelling shows for kids are on the schedule plus outdoor acrobatics by Acrobellum, and arts and crafts.
Theatre eXceptional will also be performing Into the Night in the main festival – a reminder that the world is made much more interesting by having every sort of person in it. “Benny was born with Down Syndrome. He lives alone with his mom and a special friend who understands his desire for a bigger life.”
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A number of exciting Fringe artists
shared the work they’ll be presenting.
Find the full schedule here.
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Tom Sivak
Oh, Gasparella!
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The world premiere of Oh Gasparella! will take place at the Tampa International Fringe Festival on July 29. There will be 5 performances over the course of 9 days. Karla Hartley directs and Melissa Misener stars as Gasparella.
Since arriving here in 2013, Oh Gasparella! will be my tenth show to receive its first public performance here in Pinellas County. This is due, in no small part, to grants I’ve received from Creative Pinellas and St Pete Arts Alliance, but it is also testament to the fact that there is an audience here willing to see something new – something no one has ever seen before. I often thank my lucky stars that the roulette wheel of life dropped me off here, where the arts are so vibrantly supported by our community.
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Clearly, the initial inspiration for Oh Gasparella! was Tampa’s Gasparilla pirate festival. Changing that one vowel made the word into a girl’s name, reminding me of Cinderella. And at that moment, everything just fell in place. I could envision the entire show. It would be a parody of Disney Princess films, with the main character being an unseemly heroine.
Gasparella would be a big, strong girl who wishes to be a pirate when she grows up. Being physically different than her peers, she would be mocked and ostracized by her schoolmates. She would eventually succeed at her goal but her childhood would be difficult. Like any Disney Princess she needed a signature song, like Mulan’s “Reflections” or Ariel’s “Part of Your World.” Gasparella’s song would be “Different.”
All that fell out of the sky into my head in a single flash. I can’t say that’s ever happened before.
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In addition to this feeling of a great foundation to build a musical upon, I also felt comfortable with the story as it connected to my own childhood playground experiences. After all, they say “Write what you know” and being a budding pianist as a child was no ticket to popularity. The song “Different” could have been my song when I was 9. I felt different than the other kids and this feeling didn’t come from inside – I was labeled as such. Today, I can look back and laugh, but at the time, somebody yelling “Hey Liberace!” at me was not fun.
Whereas the initial idea and basic plot came to me in an instant, that’s just where the work begins. As I fleshed it out, it was 30 minutes long with a cast of 9. I had envisioned the show as a “fringe” show, which meant to me it was something quirky, funny and off-the-wall. When I was given a slot in the Tampa International Fringe Festival, I found out that the revenue generated by a fringe show could not support a cast of 9.
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My first rewrite got the cast down to 6. A second rewrite brought it down to 4. Of course, everyone would be playing multiple roles but that’s a standard element, prevalent in many, many shows. In this case, there was one scene I had to toss – it was just undoable with a cast of 4 – and in other cases, I tried to be inventive and “off-the-wall” to make it work.
For instance, in one scene, young Grogg, Gasparella’s brother, originally stayed onstage to watch his sister take part in a Miss Damsel Contest. But I had no one to cover the Crier, who introduced the damsels and narrated the event like a Paris fashion show. Grogg was feeling low for his poor showing in the previous scene’s Swashbuckler competition, so I used that as an excuse to get him offstage and wrote this exchange between Grogg and his father, Jagr. . .
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GROGG: Do I have to watch Gasparella be a Damsel?
JAGR: No, son. When a cast is this small, ye can just become another character.
GROGG: Can I?
JAGR: Aye, son. It’s for the good of the show.
GROGG: Thanks Dad!
(GROGG puts on the CRIER’S hat.)
CRIER: Hear ye, hear ye! I bring ye fresh Damsels! Yet to be distressed!
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Hopefully, Grogg will get a laugh when he instantly becomes the Crier – and instead of this quick character shift being a liability, it becomes fun instead. Lemons from lemonade.
This is not the only meta moment in the show, but one of many moments in the show where the characters display a self-awareness that they are on a stage in front of an audience. I like the dual reality that this brings. It adds a layer of “wack” to the proceedings. (Wack, as in wacky.) With 9 actors, the stage would have been overcrowded – and had a much lower Wack Percentage.
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Oh Gasparella! will have its first audience in less than 2 weeks. Being an outsider, Gasparella faces the same challenges that many people face every day – exclusion and social isolation. Gasparella succeeds in her goal of becoming a pirate – her deeds make her famous as we celebrate a festival named in her honor, or pretty darn close.
I’d like to leave you with a quote from Gasparella herself.
“Arrrrrr!”
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Brooklyn Culture Jammers
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The Brooklyn Culture Jam is a theater group founded in 2012 in the aftermath of the Occupy Wall Street movement. How to Party Like It’ll Never Be 2029 is a takeoff on the Prince song that asks the question – as we drift closer to global calamity and don’t know how to repair it, how should we respond? A serious subject with laughs.
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Cannonball Cabaret
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Cannonball Cabaret presents Fringe on Fringe at Tampa Fringe. We are a vintage vaudeville cabaret company in Tampa Bay, offering offbeat entertainment that is a balance of bawdy yet classy, sexy yet funny, and old-school yet modern.
Coming with corsets, fishnets, and plenty of laughs, our Cannonballers offer entertainment that is suitable for any adult.
Performers lead audiences through an enjoyable experience of dance, song, comedy, audience participation and more. Launched by longtime cabaret director and performer Maggi “Kitty O’Pearl” Soluna in December 2017, the Cannonballers have performed for audiences in Tampa, St. Pete, Gulfport and Clearwater.
Cannonball Cabaret strives to give back to the community by regularly hosting fundraisers for groups such as CASA, PetPals Animal Shelter and Pet Skunk Advocates & Rescue.
calicoentertainment.wixsite.com/cannonball-cabaret
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Strange Girls
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“The world hasn’t changed but the days have become more unusual.”
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Meet four strange girls, each stranger than the last. Bent and warped by modern life. How do they survive in a world that doesn’t understand them?
Written by Bridget Bean, Laila Lee and Dawn Truax, The Strange Girls Project presents four disturbing tales of obsession featuring women who, although a little warped, are just longing to belong to something – no matter the cost.
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This unique theatrical performance features the work of three veteran performers, each a master of solo storytelling on stage. Bridget Bean (Noelle) is a most delightful seasonal theme park Mrs. Claus and a spooking psychic for Tampa’s Vault of Souls, and performed her solo show Mrs. Bliss’ Titanic Adventure at the Orlando International Fringe Festival and Tampa International Fringe Festival. Laila Lee (Esmeray), a natural storyteller, won “Most Courageous” at Shameless Stories in Tampa and the “Jenny Award for Telling it Like it is” in the 2019 International Winnipeg Fringe Festival for her one woman show, The Light Bringer (also at this year’s Tampa Fringe). Dawn Truax serves as head of Stageworks Theatre‘s Education program, bringing the performing arts to kids in foster care and juvenile detention, and has acted in a heck of a lot of shows all over the Tampa Bay area including her one woman show Roarin’ Judy and the show that inspired Strange Girls, Jane Martin’s Talking With… Madison LeVine (Gecko Girl) is a student at Blake High School for the Arts.
Strange Girls been described as “funny and creepy” and packing a “real emotional gut punch.”
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Vinceró – The Italian Opera Experience
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Vincerò is an evening of powerful music masterfully performed by an international cast and an irreverent take on their own profession and many of the misconceptions that surround it.
Audiences will experience live performances of the best-known and most beloved arias from Italian opera. At the core of Vincerò is its heartfelt message – that by opening hearts to music and sharing in emotions like those Opera inspires, anyone can learn to hear beyond words, and that is a transformative experience.
Audiences and critics have said. . .
“The music danced in my hair and went out into the bright day to mesmerize
the buildings, traffic, and people outside. It was just a magical afternoon”
“a rare introduction to the magnificence of the art.”
The show has been recognized as “Audience Choice” by the Italian National Opera Society and during our Premier Run in June at the Hollywood Fringe Festival was awarded “Pick of the Fringe” and Nominated for the Festival Encore! Producer’s Award. Clearwater guitarist Greg Smith joins this international ensemble.
vinceroopera.com
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More Performing Artists
to Experience
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Home Grown
Going to the Top – a new one-act by Matthew Belopavlovich explores coming out, discrimination and the power of community.
The Light Bringer – Laila Lee brings to light her experiences growing up Muslim in the South, and how she discovered her own place in the world.
ONE FIVE ONE – previous fringe sell-out, Scott Swenson returns with the next evolution of his improv
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From Afar
El Diablo of the Cards – From Brazil, award-winning clown/magician, Ewerton Martins developed a unique card magic style, combining improvisation, a clown’s foolishness and amazing magic skills. Performed in the 2022 Prague Fringe Fest, winning the Swindon Fringe Best Performer Award and the Best Solo Performance Award at Hamilton Fringe. Ewerton studied acting in France at École Philippe Gaulier and attended the Nouveau Clown Institute in Spain.
Tithonia: A Lesbian Space Opera – an original musical from Skysail Theatre in Asheville NC.
StarSweeper – a heartwarming and heart-breaking adventure from Brooklyn with sharp humor and deft storytelling, flashing a light of hope into the darkness of today’s reality.
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