2015 Houston Fringe Festival

An Unimportant Failure – TETHER theatre/dance
9/25 at 9pm, 9/26 at 1:30pm – The Barn

An Unimportant Failure is a play and a paper cut out.  An imagined myth, the piece will use dance, song, and object to tell the story of the two forgotten sisters of Icarus: the keepers of all lost things.  They must discover where people go when we loose them and how it feels to be left behind.

TETHER theatre/dance is an ongoing collaboration between choreographer Devon J. Adams and performing artist Zoey Cane Belyea.  They are fascinated by the place where one artist’s ignorance meets the other artist’s experience.  Both based in Austin, Adams and Belyea each pursue their own projects along side this work.  Adams dances with Chaddick Dance Theatre and has performed nationwide with Ballet Repertory Theatre of New Mexico, the Angelo Dance Project, Blackbird Dance, and Sparrow Dance Productions, as well as producing and choreographing her own work.  Belyea is a core collaborator with Gale Theatre Company and has worked with Mouth Radio, The Vortex, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Book-It Repertory, Annex Theatre, and studied most recently as a Core Company member at the 2014 Orchard Project retreat.

Blurred Lines – Mobley & Mullone (paired with Juxtaposition)
9/24 at 9pm, 9/25 at 7:30pm – Frenetic Theater

Mel Mobley is the Head of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Louisiana at Monroe where he currently holds the Biedenharn Endowed Professorship in Music. As composer, conductor, performer, and advocate of new music, Mel has been part of numerous premieres around the country. He has been featured as a performer and/or composer at contemporary music festivals in around the country. His recent collaborationswith partner Tina Mullone have worked to break down the barrier between dancer and musician as well as between live and recorded performance. He has had recent premieres performed by the Monroe Symphony Orchestra, TheBlack Bayou Brass Trio, and the ULM Wind Ensemble. His work “Covering” will be released by PARMA Recordings this fall on compact disc and the NAXOS database. He also performs with several regional symphonies and with his percussion ensemble, The Implosion Percussion Group.Dr. Mobley is a member of the National Composer’s Association, USA (NACUSA); the Louisiana Composers’ Consortium (LCC); the Southeastern Composers’ League (SCL); and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAPP).

Tina Mullone (Monroe, LA) is a proud Texas native. She began her dance training under the late Fernando Schaffenburg. She continued to study at Dallas Black Dance Theatre and the University of Oklahoma. After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History, she performed and taught for JAADE Dance Theater, Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth and Beckles Dancing Company. Besides the Fort Worth/Dallas metroplex area, Tina taught at the Texas Ballet Theater School and Texas Christian University. She performed with Kariamu and Company: Traditions and Bianca G. Harris Dance Ensemble (Philadelphia, PA). After receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree from Texas Christian University, she continued teaching at several Dallas/Fort Worth community colleges. She has performed in Germany, Mexico, New York, Philadelphia, Louisiana and Texas. Over the years, Ms. Mullone attended numerous dance workshops including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Philadanco Dance School, Urban Bush Women and the William Evans Dance Institute. She is currently Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Ms. Mullone continues to commute from Louisiana to Texas to work with Beckles Dancing Company, Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth (as Associate Artistic Director) and co-director of M2 (m squared), a performance art ensemble based in Monroe, LA. She sits on the South Regional board for the American College Dance Association.

Cirque Fe Noir – Feline Noir / Royal Rumble – Its BeJermaine Suga and The Minx
9/25 at 10:30pm, 9/27 at 6pm – Frenetic Theater

Not your ordinary circus sideshow, Cirque Fe Noir is a provocative and whimsical blend of mystery and fantasy. Experience a journey into the deepest corners of your wackiest dreams. But this trip isn’t for the bashful at heart – Everybody’s got an inner ‘freak’.

Feline Noir is a Houston based neo-burlesque troupe with a twist. Known for their out-of-the-box story lines, unpredictable visual elements, and daring performance style, Feline Noir consistently amazes their audiences with unconventional interpretations of a timeless art. Feline Noir performs various styles of dance, pole, fire, spoken word, song, and other talents.

Award-winning Audience Favorite duo from the Houston Fringe Festival 2014 returns with a power-packed, living-art performance. Its BeJermaine Suga and The Minx play two heroic figures that set out to captivate and dominate a far-away land. They’ve got this dominion and dimension under control.

Its BeJermaine Suga and The Minx are dancers, choreographers, singers, music lovers, businesspersons, and friends. The two are also prominent members of Feline Noir, a Houston based neo-burlesque troupe known for their out-of-the-box story lines, unpredictable visual elements, and daring performance style. Feline Noir consistently amazes their audiences with unconventional interpretations of a timeless art.

Fault Line – Perpetual Motion
9/26 at 7:30pm, 9/27 at 4:30pm – Frenetic Theater

Fault Line will explore the metaphor of seismic shifts by creating an eight by eight foot wall of boxes that will be deconstructed into multiple platforms.  Aerial apparatuses such as a horizontal ladder and harnesses will lift the performance off the ground and into the air.  The choreography for Fault Line was created by director Michelle Moeller, company choreographers Stephanie Crosby, Kayla Jenkins, and Amy Nevius and artist in residence Amy Querin of Fresno Dance Collective.

Perpetual Motion is in it’s 12th season of creating original modern and aerial dance. Their repertory is evocative and visceral, aspiring to harness the energies of the human imagination.  They blend post modern and aerial dance techniques with a signature grace and technical ingenuity to create dance on all planes. Perpetual Motion is a recent recipient of the Mid-America Arts Alliance grant “Artistic Innovations” for their Spring 2015 concert, which will integrate performance, film technology and invented apparatuses. In addition to presenting original concerts and tours, Perpetual Motion Dance is committed to educating both adults and youth through classes, workshops and residencies.

History of happy hermaphrodite: part 1 – Koomah (paired with Trigger Happy)
9/25 at 9pm, 9/27 at 6pm – Super Happy Fun Land

Framed around a humorous therapy session with a pet cat; an unapologetic story of trauma, survival, sex, and defiance is formed through a series of short performance vignettes utilizing movement, music, and video.

Koomah is an intersex-bodied trans identified queer interdisciplinary grassroots artist, performer, filmmaker, and part-time hermaphrodite unicorn. Active in the arts since 2003, Koomah abstains from formal schooling in the arts in exchange for immediate experience. Koomah challenges audiences to ask questions, see from new perspectives, be vulnerable, and ponder social norms. Koomah is a performance artist with Continuum, a performer with the Houston Gendermyn, a frequent performer at QUEERLESQUE!, and a solo visual and performance artist. Koomah has performed, showcased artwork, and screened films nationwide.

Integration – Jaime Fruge
9/24 at 9pm, 9/27 at 6pm – The Barn

Integration is a multimedia dance project that explores the idea of social conformity and what happens to humanity when Earth as we know it no longer exists. The evening will present a visually stimulating environment that promises to capture the audience’s imagination of a world where humans no longer identify with individuality and conform to the larger social mass. Integration’s original choreography, video projection, and costume design coupled with the engineering and construction of a confined space will lead the audience through the destruction of earth and the transport of humanity to another world where individual thought no longer exists.

Jaime Fruge is a native Houstonian, who began her dance training at the City Ballet of Houston and continued her studies at Houston Ballet and the High School for Performing and Visual Arts where she graduated in 2001. She spent many summers on scholarship training with Joffrey Ballet in New York. After graduating high school, Jaime received her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with an emphasis in costume design from the University of Southern California in 2005. She spent 4 years in Los Angeles working as a professional costume designer and stylist for artists such as Gwen Stefani, Mary J. Blige, Faith Hill, Jennifer Lopez, and Sean Combs. Jaime has worked on countless music videos, advertising campaigns, and world tours. She moved back from Los Angeles 5 years ago to come full circle and rediscover her original passion, dance. She developed the high school dance program at YES Prep Southeast where she inspired and invigorated a new generation ofdancers and choreographers. Currently, Jaime is continuing her studies as a Masters of Fine Arts in Dance candidate at Sam Houston State University under the direction of Dionne Sparkman Noble, Andy Noble, Dana Nicolay, Jennifer Pontius, Erin Reck, and Elijah Alhadji Gibson. Shehas worked with choreographers such as Luis Fuente, Jesse Zaritt, Jane Weiner, Margot Marshall, John Brinkman, and Janie Carothers. She has performed with City Ballet of Houston, Houston Ballet, and as a guest artist with Freneticore Dance in Rebecca French’s Sacred Harp. She hasdanced in Jennifer Pontius’s Stars and Dana Nicolay’s Free Fall and Free Birds. Her choreography has been presented at Sam Houston State University. Jaime will premiere an evening length work as part of Frenetic Theatre’s 2015 Artist Board Programming and is excited to be a part of Fringe Fest 2015. Jaime fuses her dance and costume design experience with her love of the visual arts to create compelling work inhopes to evoke an emotional, social, or political response. www.jaimefruge.com

Juxtaposition – Kelly Switzer, George Heathco, Shanon Adams, and Daniel Adame (paired with Mobley/Mullone)
9/24 at 9pm, 9/25 at 7:30pm – Frenetic Theater

Juxtaposition is a work combining dance, puppetry, a live score, and videography and explores the varying stages of the mental state. By juxtaposing various media, the artists will show the intersection of reality and unreality, sanity and insanity, live and not live, digital and analogue.”

Juxtaposition will be created by Kelly Switzer, George Heathco, Shanon Adams, and Daniel Adame. For more information about their other work, please talk to them after the show. They love that.

Laplace Tiger – Brandon Bell (paired with Technopoetry From The Nightshade Lexicon)
9/24 at 6pm, 9/25 at 7:30pm – Super Happy Fun Land

Brandon Bell performs Alexander Schubert’s Laplace Tiger, a work for drum kit, arm-sensors, live-electronics and live-video. Z

The recipient of a 2014 Presser Graduate Music Award, percussionist Brandon Bell is currently the Malcolm W. Perkins Teaching Fellow at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, where he is working towards the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. At Rice, Bell also curates the New Art/New Music series at the Rice Gallery. In addition, Bell is the percussion manager of the Aspen Music Festival and School in Aspen, Colorado.

ONBEINGS – Verge Dance Company
9/25 at 7:30pm, 9/26 at 12pm – The Barn

A series of stories, each one unique yet similar in the simple way that all stories are…they weave us together through our own interpretations. ONBEINGS will take you through a series of life moments that connect dancer to viewer and one stranger to another.

A native of Southwest Louisiana, Hannah Bacon-Brightwell began her dance training at the age of 13 and went on to graduate from Northwestern State University of Louisiana where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BA in Business. During her time in college, Hannah furthered her dance training in modern/contemporary dance and choreography through the university program as well as traveling to various festivals and intensives. Upon graduating, she moved to Austin, Texas with her husband where she now is an active member of the dance community through teaching at various studios, Ballet Austin’s Butler Community Center for Dance and Fitness, and the Austin School for the Performing and Visual Arts. As the Artistic Director for Verge Dance Company, Hannah brings unique movement and visceral stories to life in both unique and traditional performance settings. Through continued training via workshops and intensives around the country, Hannah continually pushes to find new ways to explore the art of dance and expose this incredible art form to people from all walks of life.

Raised By Gays And Turned Out OK! – Elizabeth Collins
9/24 at 7:30pm, 9/25 at 10:30pm – Super Happy Fun Land

A true story based on the life of Elizabeth Collins, a Los Angeles based comedian and storyteller, about her relationship with her father who comes out as gay while being married to her mother. Follow her through the twists and turns of being part of a modern family in Texas during the ’90s.

Elizabeth Collins, a Houston native, lives and performs in Los Angeles, CA. She performs standup all over town and the world! Making her first international debut in Paris last spring. She premiered her one woman show, “Raised By Gays and Turned Out OK!” at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in June. Jason Rohrer, Bitter Lemons critic stated the show was “extremely funny” and “Collins writes with the wry observation of a David Sedaris”.

Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Save The World!: A Maladjusted All-Star Comedy Disaster – The Hideout Theatre
9/25 at 9pm, 9/26 at 6pm – Frenetic Theater

Follow the misguided adventures of famously dysfunctional literary couple F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald as they continue their side-career as assassins for hire in the Jazz Age of the 1920s. Warning: This one is NOT for the kiddies. Winner: Best Original Comedy – Houston Fringe Festival 2014.

The Hideout Theatre (since 1999) is a 2-stage improv theater and coffee house in the heart of Downtown Austin, TX. ‘F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Save The World!’ comes from The Hideout’s Stargazer Series, curated by Artistic Director Roy Janik. The Stargazer Series specifically promotes and stages intimate, diverse, and experimental improvised theatre. All members of the Fitzgerald creative team are veteran improvisers of Austin’s robust comedy scene and are delighted to create this truly messed up odyssey together.

Sparkle Noir – Jhon Stronks
9/24 at 10:30pm, 9/25 at 10:30pm – The Barn

Sparkle Noir: A solo performance that combines dance, song and text to reveal an inner world influenced by the lives, work and deaths of Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt and Whitney Houston. Sparkle Noir is a coming out story that charts a course for self-discovery through a landscape of hopelessness and death unraveling the story of a voice lost and found. 

Jhon r. stronks is a dance maker who is often accused of presenting his audiences with seemingly disobedient work that behaves according to its own sanity. Stronks’ passion for giving address to the gaps between what is perceived and what is present, lands his work somewhere between a cry for personal consciousness and a plea for social justice. Stronks dives into alternative dance making systems creating an open space for the dancing to inhabit. jhon’s choreographic work has received honors in the Houston Press’s Best of 2013 in both the Contemporary and Modern Dance Categories, as well as being named one of Houston Press’s 2014 Master Minds.

Technopoetry From The Nightshade Lexicon – Lacey Schmidt (paired withLaPlace Tiger)
9/24 at 6pm, 9/25 at 7:30pm – Super Happy Fun Land

The author of the Amazon Kindle e-book “The Nightshade Lexicon: A complete book of worthless poetry for the common hominid. ” performs stand-up techno multi-media interpretations of 5 poems from the book. For both free written and audio examples, you can see the author’s blogspot at http://laceyschmidt.blogspot.com/ or see free pages from the book here.

Born on an air force base in back-country Georgia, but raised in urban Texas sprawl by existential humanists, Lacey Schmidt is a Zen ying-yang-yahoo with a great love of psychology, fiction, poetry, absurd humor, photography, wildlife, fast cars, random technology, and her wife. You can find Lacey on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ if you’re so inclined.  Publications are available on Amazon and include a  poetry book, The Nightshade Lexicon, and the lesbian romance novel, A Walk Away.   Lacey continuously posts new poetry on her blog and free music on Soundcloud.

The Kid – David Scott Heck
9/27 at 3pm – Super Happy Fun Land

A distraught mother abandons her baby boy. An unsuspecting tramp finds the child and cares for him. Six years later, CPS comes to take the boy and our hero fights to save the orphan from the public system. A father’s love drives him to protect the kid.

THE KID is the first modern day remake of a Charlie Chaplin silent film. It was filmed 100% in Texas with all Texas talent. David Scott Heck produced, cast, directed, filmed, scouted locations, assisted with editing, and acted in this ambitious adaptation of one of the most famous silent films ever made.

The Pretty One (and other things that need to be said) – Cameryn Moore
9/24 at 7:30pm, 9/26 at 9pm – Frenetic Theater

Award-winning performer/playwright Cameryn Moore returns to the Houston Fringe Festival with her fourth solo play—but first fictional work!—The Pretty One (and other things that need to be said). After five years of sparking conversations across North America and the UK with her raw, autobiographical works—Phone Whore, slut (r)evolution, and for | play—Cameryn turns her scrutiny on others in this multi-character gallery of mini-plays inspired by the lives that intersect with hers. She lays bare the liberation and heartbreak that co-exist in the sex lives of strangers… who really aren’t so strange after all. Cameryn partnered with acclaimed Montreal director Tanner Harvey in this bold break from her previous works.

“Ms. Moore is captivating to watch and has as much energy as a spring tornado.” (The Spectator, UK, about Phone Whore)
“…a mesmerising performance…” (Manchester Theatre Awards, UK, about Phone Whore)

Cameryn Moore is a playwright/performer, activist, accidental educator, and a phone sex operator. She has received multiple awards on the Canadian Fringe circuit for her work, and has performed to packed houses in Edinburgh Fringe, London, Boston, Vancouver, Atlanta, and 45 other cities around North America and the UK. In addition to her theatrical works, she is the creator and host of Smut Slam, a storytelling open mic featuring real-life, first-person sex stories. She frequently appears in storyteling and spoken-word showcases, both in Montreal and on the road. Cameryn’s 2015 world tour is supported by njoy toys, The Slutcracker (Boston), Cliterati, and The Sitting Room/Ludlow Fringe. Her company, Little Black Book Productions, is a fiscally sponsored project of the International Sex Workers Foundation for Arts, Culture, and Education, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization. For more details about Cameryn Moore’s work, go to www.camerynmoore.com

The Speak Up Project – Victoria Comesañas
9/24 at 9pm, 9/27 at 4:30pm – Super Happy Fun Land

The Speak Up Project is a collection of monologues written by college-age victims of sexual violence, bringing a personal element to the national debate about rape and sexual assault among young adults. Please note that the monologues detail traumatic experiences and may be triggering for some viewers.

Victoria Comesañas (Director) is a senior at Rice University studying political science and international studies. Her extra-curricular interests revolve around theatre and the intersection of art and activism.

Trigger Happy: a love story – Julie Moore (paired with history of a happy hemaphrodite part 1)
9/25 at 9pm, 9/27 at 6pm – Super Happy Fun Land

Trigger Happy: a love story is a solo duet about labels, gender politics and balloons. When a clown and her sweet(beef)heart encounter the obstacles of world at large, they must rely on what they know: the food of love.

Julie Moore is a queer clown, actor and artivist originally from Wilmington, DE. She found clowning as a way to synthesize her love of performing and her total impatience with rule-following. Her work strives to be sweetly subversive, illustrating the power of comedy to dismantle systems of power. She is a graduate of Hampshire College, the Academia dell’arte and Mooseburger Clown Arts.  Her work was featured at the CrisisArt Festival in Arezzo, Italy and she’ll be enjoying a residency at Elsewhere museum in North Carolina in the fall of 2015. She currently lives in Austin, TX.

Within – Dimensions Contemporary Ballet
9/25 at 6pm, 9/26 at 3pm – The Barn

Dimensions Contemporary Ballet will be performing a variety of works from Modern dance to Contemporary Pointe. The show consists of 4 pieces total; 2 of which are in partnership with live pianists, a collaborative work by Director, Heather Samuelson and Company Member, Keith Haynes, and a requiem piece choreographed in memory of loved ones lost.

Dimensions Contemporary Ballet is directed by Heather Samuelson and Katie Parr-Smith in Nacogdoches, Texas. The company consists of an eclectic group of advanced dancers ranging in age from 14 to adult. DCB’s mission is to promote dance and art in East Texas and to provideperformance opportunities, to dancers, as well as, to promote collaboration between artists in other fields within the fine arts. Dimensions Contemporary Ballet was founded in January of 2015 and had their debut performance on May 30th.

W.K. – Gale Theatre Co.
9/24 at 10:30pm, 9/25 at 6pm – Frenetic Theater

W.K. is a play about love, it’s about your first love and mine. Driven by movement, this collage performance follows a 7 year romance from beginning to end. Filled with swing dancing, karaoke, sex, neuroscience, ping pong, revenge, and lots of kissing, W.K. asks the question: how does your first love change you and can you ever return to the way you were before?

Gale Theatre Co. is an Austin based theatre company. We are dedicated to training actors, presenting new works, community collaboration,and providing artistic spaces for underrepresented voices. We strive to make performance that is aesthetically arresting, emotionally compelling, physically daring, and ensemble driven. For more information, www.galetheatre.org.