Alone Together
Ted Brengle
“A love story, shattered.”
From: Oxford, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
36 minutes
Comedy, drama
Alone Together follows the course of a relationship between two people, from friends to lovers to strangers.  After a fashion.  Love is a delicate equation, after all. A balance of conflicting forces: passion, trust, and the loss of control both of them necessitate. If that balance ever breaks down, it can seem like the world itself shatters. And the fiery pieces that rain down in the wake can come to rest next to each other oddly; arrayed in new patterns that are sometimes illuminating, sometimes joyous, sometimes painful, and sometimes inescapable. Sitting in the ruins, those who are left behind can huddle near the fading warmth of these embers.  Alone at last.  Alone together.  

Amid the Noise
So Percussion
“Subtly dynamic street scenes set to breathtaking soundscapes.”
From: Kyoto, Japan
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
52 minutes
Family Friendly, Inter-disciplinary, musical
Amid the Noise amplifies the everyday with subtly dynamic street scenes of Kyoto, Osaka, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Bali set to breathtaking soundscapes and quietly surging beats.  The 12 short films are a bi-product of the collaboration between filmmaker Jenise Treuting, composer Jason Treuting and producer Lawson White on the documentary ‘Invitation and Ultimatums.’  The Brooklyn-based quartet So Percussion recently released ‘Amid the Noise’ as their 3rd album on Cantaloupe Music.    ‘(Amid the Noise) creates a unique experience...a comparison of the dichotomy of the films natural and mechanical world and the natural percussion and mechanical programming of the music.’   - Wes Barker    ‘Rich and Engrossing’ - Time Out NY    ‘These short films serve as an effective visual metaphor for each of the albums tracks, as what might initially appear to be an inert or vacant frame can be seen, upon closer examination, to be teeming with continuous quiet activity.’ - Pitchfork Media

Ancestral Voices
MN2 Productions
“An interdisciplinary work that explores a story of two sisters.”
From: Cleveland, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
Inter-disciplinary
Ancestral Voices is an original dance-theatre piece which explores the story of two sisters: one destroyed by fate and the other one thriving with her good fortune. Fate has set for them two disparate paths and though they were inseparable as children, their destinies as adult women have dissolved that once tender union.  Elements of Ukrainian life rituals (baptisms, weddings and funerals) as well as folk music and folk lore regarding the changing seasons (spring songs, summer fire festival songs, winter songs) are integrated into the work.  The story draws its text from Ukrainian folk songs and the poetry of Oleksander Oles, Lesia Ukrainka, Taras Shevchenko and Mykhailo Drai-Khmara and is presented through a fusion of modern dance, puppetry, folk music and theatre.  Choreography by Natalie M. Kapeluck and Mark Tomasic.  Written and directed by Nadia Tarnawsky.  

Art of Longing
Ovation Theatre Company
“Ordinary people set out to uncover the extraordinary.”
From: Covington, KY
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
55 minutes
Comedy, drama, inter-disciplinary
Ordinary people set out on individual quests to discover "the extraordinary" in life. Through their encounters they uncover sometimes troubling truths about themselves and their fellow travelers. Ultimately, their search leads them to a crisis they can only resolve by relying on each other, and to a surprising vision of hope in an unsettled world. The Art of Longing is the original creation of an ensemble of actors blending movement, theatre and spoken word. Ovation Theatre Company is proud to present this journey of extraordinary discovery.

Caberlesque!
BSide Productions
“Blending the best of European Cabaret with American Burlesque, Caberlesque! is a cheeky, sassy, sexy romp!”
From: St. Regina, SK, Canada
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
80 minutes
GLBT, women’s issues, comedy, inter-disciplinary, musical
Join Ms. Sugarpuss and friends as they take you on a sexy journey through the romance of Berlin 1933, with the music of Kurt Weill and Irving Berlin, the brash raunch of Amsterdam 1967, with the music of Jacques Brel and Henry Mancini and into the smoky burlesque houses of contemporary NYC - where anything goes!

 
Calculus: The Musical!
Matheatre
“A comic ‘review’ of the concepts and history of calculus.”
From: Austin, TX
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
50 minutes
Family friendly, comedy, musical, educational
Calculus: The Musical! is a comic ‘review’ of the concepts and history of calculus. With musical parodies that span genres from light opera to hip-hop, Matheatre puts the ‘edge’ back in ‘education!’

Casualties
Sally Domet
“Young woman seeking self-identity encounters others who are ‘Casualties’ of life.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
90 minutes
Drama
Casualties traces a young woman’s odyssey in her quest for self-identity.  The play begins in the downtown tenements where Angie grew up, then leads from the fifties to the sixties, at which point she hooks up with draft-dodger Bruce, and then with Bruce’s buddy Rick, who is just fresh from Vietnam.  Rick is haunted by images of war and attempts to escape by burying himself in drugs and booze.  Angie battles a different enemy:  ghosts and images from her past.  These include her abusive stepfather Mac, her Grandma, and an aged woman called Old Mary who is known to be psychic.  Other pivotal characters include a Cherokee woman named Wilma who guards a secret, and Angie’s eccentric uncle Stanley who is a misfit in society.  The play revolves around issues of survival of the human spirit in the face of the killings, sexual abuse, post-war trauma, and feelings of isolation.      

Christmas in Bakersfield
Traveling Kurkendaal Productions
“This is ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ meets Brokeback Mountain.’”
From: Los Angeles, CA
Third-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
GLBT, minority issues, comedy, solo
Les finally meets Mike the man of his dreams. But when Mike takes Les home for the Christmas Holidays he forgets to tell his Republican, Caucasian, Conservative parents one very important detail, that Les is African American. OOPS!

Contains Adult Themes
Against Type Players
“Two performance pieces that explore humanity’s relationship to the mind.”
From: Maineville, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
90 minutes
Solo, drama, inter-disciplinary, shadow theatre/movement-based
Contains Adult Themes, two one-person performance pieces from writer/performer Kristin Larsen and Against Type Players, provides unique perspective on humanity Ts relationship with the mind and how it affects interpersonal contact.  In The Rest is Up to You, a young girl named Inne loses her imaginary childhood friend as she falls under the seductive spell of Maroon, a controlling ventriloquist dummy.  My Dresser Drawer reveals the artist Cid and her encounters with Verbal, a dream figure who may hold the key to ending Cid Ts struggle with self-mutilation.  Both pieces employ found props, movement and shadow manipulation to embody the human impulse and resistance to change.

Exhale Dance Tribe Project
Exhale Dance Tribe
“A Hypnotic Human Experience.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
Third-time Cincinnati Fringer
50 minutes
Family friendly, GLBT, minority issues, women’s issues, dance
Exhale Dance Tribe, founded by Andrew Hubbard and Missy Lay Zimmer in 2000, is a company of any given number of dance artists.  Exhale celebrates the full range of modern and rhythm-based dance and features diverse and versatile performers. Exhale is a company that is constantly daring to explore and expand notions of individuality and nonconformity.  Based in Cincinnati's vibrant arts community, the dance tribe has appeared as part of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival 2004 - 06, Choreographers Without Companies, Dance Cincinnati '06 , Exhale’s annual ‘Evening at the Aronoff’ (jarson kaplan theater), performances with Know Theatre of Cincinnati and New Stage Collective, as well as New York premieres : 'under construction' and 'plutonian ode' in association with Planet Dance and Zodiac Dance.

Extreme Puppet Theatre
Soque du Soleil Productions
“Puppets gone wild - real puppets, uncensored, and out of control.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
Comedy, puppetry
Extreme Puppet Theatre by Soque du Soleil Productions is an adult variety show which exposes for the first time the sordid history, the hand-to-mouth lifestyle, and bizarre sexual practices of today's puppet population.  See puppets as you've never seen them before!  Watch puppets on the fringe of becoming unraveled as they search for the meaning of life, the universe, and everything puppet.  Using different forms of puppetry, including shadow puppets, hand puppets, marionettes, sock puppets, and postmodern puppets, Extreme Puppet Theatre is an adult show that is filled with humor, insight, and random acts of puppet debauchery.  Its Monty Python meets the Muppets on crack.  Keep the children at home for this one.

girlfight
Performance Gallery
“Accidental conflict.  Mythical battle.  Unintended consequences.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
Fourth-time Cincinnati Fringer
45 minutes
Comedy, drama, inter-disciplinary
Two women -Different perceptions -Conflict.  The outcomes are endless.  This provocative new ensemble-created performance piece explores conflict through physical theatre, sound and character. Both violent and funny, personal and epic, 'girlfight' challenges the way we view the world.  You'll gasp, you'll laugh, and you’ll recognize yourself.  P.S.  'girlfight' is a 'challenge play' with LePetomane Theatre.  See their piece and have fun looking for the mutually incorporated words/themes and props.

Glenn’s Letters
Xavier University
A documentary performance regarding the death penalty, based on letters by students and inmates on Ohio’s Death Row.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
A documentary performance on the death penalty, based on actual letters written by Xavier University students and inmates on Ohio’s Death Row.  We will dramatize the interactions between the students and inmates with footage of inmates in an “inside/outside” synergy that brings attention to a consistent life ethic and allows the audience to put a human face to real life inmates on Ohio’s death row today.  

How To Fake Clinical Depression
Daydream Productions
“Starving artist fakes clinical depression to buy bass of dreams.”
From: Sherman Oaks, CA
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
Comedy, solo
For the last three years, major pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer have been recruiting research subjects off of Craigslist Los Angeles to test new anti-depressants by offering them money in exchange for taking their drugs.  See how a starved actor/bassist   twisted the study to his own diabolical needs, and got waaaay more than he bargained for.

I Do… I Think
Derby City Productions
“Happy ever after...If she can survive the wedding first!”
From: New York, NY
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
Women’s issues, comedy, solo
Is life truly about the destination or the journey?  Is a wedding about the party or the marriage?  Would being a runaway bride really be all that bad?  These are some of the questions New York actress (and Midwest bride) Amanda C. Thompson explores in her hilarious take on the ‘blissful day’ in her one-woman show I Do...I Think.  And once you survive the wedding, then what?  The first year of marriage isn’t quite the honeymoon when clashing traditions and overbearing mother in laws are thrown into the mix.  Come laugh, and cry, as she recounts the most stressful day (and year) of her life!

Input
MegLouise Dance
“Choose your own adventure - a moving experience.”
From: Cleveland, OH
Second-time Cincinnati Fringer
40 minutes
Family friendly, women’s issues, comedy, solo, inter-disciplinary, improvisation, dance
Let us move you.  Take 50 strangers, 8 dancers, 3 questions and one stage.  Input your perspective and leave the rest to us. Its a dance performance of collective design and every show is different.

iLove
The Satori Group/New Stage Collective
“A sensual montage of love and being in America today.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
Second-time Cincinnati Fringer
80 minutes
GLBT, women’s issues, comedy, drama, dance, performance art
iLove is an ensemble theater piece inspired by Charles Mee's Fetes de la Nuit.   It's a collection of both borrowed and created images, vignettes, and scenes that speak of love, philosophy and revolution.  Fetes de la Nuit is a play set to the back drop of the worker revolution in France in May of 1968, and deals with issues surrounding a cultural revolution.  It is about relationships affected by the need for change, or striving for change.  It points to the truths in our society, and recalls a time when revolution was more readily embraced. Our goal is to illuminate the atmosphere of pre-revolution in America today just as Mee underscored the themes of love, philosophy and revolution with the atmosphere of May 1968. Using contemporary sources ranging from the spoken word poetry of Saul Williams to the films of Richard Linklater and Jean Luc Godard, Alone, Together is an un-original, original work.

I Take It Back
Odds & Ends Productions
“How much does one vote really count?”
From: Pittsburgh, PA
Second-time Cincinnati Fringer
45 minutes
Comedy, solo, drama
I Take It Back is a political coming-of-age story that follows an Ohio woman’s quest to take back her vote cast for George W. Bush during the 2004 presidential election.  Using a mix of multimedia elements, a simple set and the intimate theatrical form of solo-performance this piece sets out to uncover the importance of personal truth in the political voice of each voter.        A visit from God and a conversation with her surprisingly conservative vagina force the play’s heroine into action that sends her on a comical journey to revoke her misguided vote.  WARNING:  This play is based on real events. So you will be stuck in a room with a rehabilitated former Bush supporter.  Please refrain from throwing eggs.  

The Kid in the Dark
Mark Halpin, Richard Hess, Andrew Smithson
“A song cycle dealing with love, loss, fear, and hope.”
From: Coldspring, KY
Fourth-time Cincinnati Fringer
50 minutes
GLBT, musical
The Kid in the Dark is an original one-act song cycle dealing with love, loss, fear, and hope. Five CCM students perform original songs by Mark Halpin and Andrew Smithson, under the direction of Richard Hess.
Le Petomane Project
Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble
“True-life memoirs, forgotten telephone book lore, intra-ensemble personal attacks, and the lost tale of a mysterious and powerful being of pure electricity.”
From: Louisville, KY
Second-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
Comedy, musical
This project may or may not include: true-life memoirs, forgotten telephone book lore, intra-ensemble personal attacks, and the lost tale of a mysterious and powerful being of pure electricity known in its former corporeal state of Benjamin Franklin.  

Mad
Ink Tank
“One family’s courageous attempt to understand their schizophrenic son.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
Third-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
Drama
A true story, Mad explores one family’s courageous attempt to understand their schizophrenic son as they fight to keep their family together in the face of chaos.  Faced with sudden illness, the Dalton’s struggle to find answers and solutions for their son, as each are forced to confront their own inner demons.  Mad illustrates the daily struggles involved with coping with Schizophrenia and the courageous stories of love, sacrifice and heartbreak that accompany caring for someone with a mental illness.  Written by Jennifer Dalton, Mad is a personal account of her family’s experience with Schizophrenia.  Dalton intertwines her own experiences with those of her family to tell the story of a man and a family paralyzed by illness.  

Monkey’s Paw
The Snacktues
“It’s either a hallucination or a new take on a very old ghost story.”
From:  Cincinnati, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
55 minutes
Comedy, drama
Monkey’s Paw is a one hour play about the fear of fatherhood.  It is fairly grim, funny and probably not for everyone.  It uses the monkey’s paw fable as an allegory and counterpoint.  It’s either a hallucination or a new take on a very old ghost story.

Noble Parasites
Maple Leaf Theatre Productions
“A very funny post-apocalyptic tragedy about a society living underground.”
From:  Yellow Springs, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
Comedy, drama
In an underground civilization that rejects life on the earth’s surface, a young woman finds a forbidden, secret-filled book. A very funny post-apocalyptic tragedy.  “Sharply written always involving” – Now Magazine (also named Outstanding Script & Outstanding Production).  “Alarming and entertaining” – Eye Weekly. “Shot through with trademark martini-dry humour deliciously written sci-fi” – Toronto Star  

On Edge
Stephen Hunter
“A thrilling tale of betrayal, love, and sacrifice.”
From: Cleveland, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
Comedy, drama
Two brothers bonded by a piece of jewelry and a secret, find the true meaning of brotherly love. One a star baseball player and the other a street purse salesman, they are two worlds apart, but secrets are revealed and they find out that they truly aren’t that many leagues away from being the same man.

Think Fast Go Slow
Todd Juengling
“Jazz guitar meets Simon: Pure electro-acoustic love.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
45 minutes
Family friendly, solo
In Think Fast Go Slow, guitarist and composer Todd Juengling creates electro-acoustic magic with his guitars, four Simons (an electronic memory game with flashing lights and sounds, for ages 7 to adult), phrase recorder, and various tools, toys and percussion.  He combines solo guitar performance with 20th century electronic music, minimalism, jazz, and visual elements into a unique and coherent whole.  Sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, humorous yet completely serious, a bit atmospheric but always in the groove.

True + False
Big Picture Group
“Half true, half false.  Can you tell the difference?”
From: Oxford, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
90 minutes
Comedy, drama, inter-disciplinary, multimedia
Do you believe what you read in the papers?  What politicians promise?  What your lover tells you?  What you tell yourself?  In a series of personal monologues, half true and half false, True + False explores the blurry boundary between fact and fiction.  Set in a multimedia junkyard of discarded televisions and hidden cameras, of live and pre-recorded images, the performance tests the audience’s ability to believe their eyes or trust their judgment.

Tommy Nugent’s The Show
Tommy Nugent
“One man, one act, one bullet.”
From: Dearborn Heights, MI
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
60 minutes
Comedy, solo, drama
Without the strength to start over yet again, Pentecostal preacher turned professional gambler, turned law school drop out, turned street magician, turned failed motivational speaker Tommy Nugent (of 2002’s hit Tommy Nugent’s Burning Man) takes a (final) page from hero Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo book of life and stages one last solo play - a play with more laughs than you’d expect and more truth than you may realize.  Guaranteed to be the best show featuring animal traps, straitjacket escapes and Russian roulette you’ll see all week!  

The War On Weather
Theatrezine
“There’ll never be a rainy day in America again, thanks to The War On Weather.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
50 minutes
Minority issues, women’s issues, comedy
America is in a protracted battle against foreign weather systems. Through policy and technology everyone in the U.S. is enjoying blue skies at a delightful 75 degrees, 365 days a year. In the War On Weather young men and women risk their lives to guarantee that U.S. citizens can live in a country where the skies are not cloudy all day. Weather manipulation was first used during the Vietnam War to prolong the monsoon season and block supply routes. Now meteorologic weapon strategies are being developed to ensure national security. This play uses actual U.S. military documents on weather control technology as a factual basis for the story. In these times of terror, where fear of all things foreign is fueling war… so keep your eyes on the sky, this may be satire but it isn’t sci-fi.

Wet Dream
Jammingtalent Productions
“Wet Dream....we hope you come.”
From: Cincinnati, OH
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
40 minutes
GLBT, minority issues, women’s issues, comedy, solo, drama, musical, dance, performance art
Wet Dream is a multi-media production that allows us to experience an erotic, fantasy-like performance.  Veronica enters her bed room after a night of hard partying.  She dresses for bed as she sings her blues away.  She soon passes out, and begins to dream a sequence of intense fantasy- using aerial dance, live vocals, performance art and video.  This is definitely a high- fashion product ... we hope you come.

Woof! The Road Show
Ragged Blade Productions
“A two-man musical about dogs, pancakes, sex, and theater.”
From: St. Louis, MO
First-time Cincinnati Fringer
70 minutes
GLBT, comedy, musical
Don’t you just hate it when you’re trying to make out and there’s a dog panting at your feet? Woof!  Adam and Jon are touring a show. A gay romance, come to think, that Adam wrote without realizing he’d have to deal with an acting partner who keeps trying to make it happen in real life.     If that’s not bad enough... a group of frustrated writers (and even the Wednesday Mah Jongg club (keep work shopping the play and our actors never know what’s in the script from one show to the next.    Can they ever transfer the onstage love to back stage... even if there’s a clause in the contract that forbids it? An unusual play with dry humor, a bit of a vaudeville style, some makin’ out, and some great songs.