Madeleine Monday - Fifth Birthday

Time, indeed, marches on. My favorite moppet is five today. Since she just started kindergarten she doesn't have a lot of friends to invite to a party. Just the family this year. All of her presents were books, which delighted her. Well, mom got her a stuffed birthday bear a few days early, which was also a big hit. 

Phone cam shots but not too bad.   

Drama

I've taken more than 5,000 pix over the first four days of The Fringe, with next weekend still to go. Lots of them are junk, of course, but there some gold nuggets amidst the gravel. This was taken yesterday and is the one that sticks with me the most. The play is called Pain by Tony Marr, Jr. It is about the lives of young black men and the huge barriers that face them, try as they may to do the right thing.

This scene was a drug deal gone bad. Toy gun, of course. So much more to edit. The festival resumes Thursday night.   

Drip Painting Explained

A favorite from last year's Fringe, Matthew Marcum, returned for another performance of Pollock: A Frequency Parable. It is hard to explain. The show starts with images and words of  from the painter Jackson Pollock. It proceeds with the energy of Pollock's painting technique through physical expression, singing that slips into ululation, ecstatic, seemingly out of control but leading to an emotional conclusion. Once again, I thought it was a knockout.         

Bit Off More Than I Can Chew

The Fringe season is on full boil. I shot one production Thursday night (albeit a long one) and three last night, all terrific. And I've taken, um, something over 3,000 shots so far. Now my excess is repaid with an editing overload. The first show was called the The Gringo. According to the festival program:

*Local Headline Act* "The Gringo" is a contemporary musical that looks at culture and privilege to ask the essential question: Is home a place you find or a place you fight for? On the same day local favorite street artist El Fantasma is gunned downed by police, a new notably talented, and notably white, artist named Ishamel arrives on the scene. Composer, music director, and arts educator Colin Healy presents his new full-length musical "The Gringo" during the festival’s opening weekend.

 This is just a sample.  SO much more to come.

           

The Fringe Is Here!

The St. Lou Fringe's opening party took place last night. Impresario Matthew Kerns introduced the season and interviewed the principals of some of the major shows. Local star Desire' Declyne will lead the late night show, As We Stumble Along. The evening's main entertainment was the hip hop duo Same Difference. The crowd had a good time.

The main performances start tonight. There are five venues around the Grand Centre Arts District. Each is named for a person or sponsor that made a significant contribution to the festival. They named the Kranzberg Studio Theater for - sniff - me. I was knocked out, humbled and elated. I guess they like my work.