2022 In-Person Festival Schedule & Show Descriptions

VOGEL HALL

1:00pm — Kathryn Cesarz & Jesse March // THE UNSTRUNG HARP

A live theatre physical comedy performance inspired by Edward Gorey’s illustrated story of the same name, THE UNSTRUNG HARP follows author C.E. Earbrass in his home as he writes his next novel. Combined physical theatre, physical comedy, shadow puppetry, and stage magic make this dreamy portrait of a creative in solitude come to life.

2:15pm — KAD // Christopher B. Good and the Partytime Friends

KAD // Dreams of Drowning

Dreams of Drowning is a surrealist exploration of the grieving process. Throughout the piece the characters use poetry, movement, and music to embody the process of mourning from death to life in a reflective dreamscape. With choreography by Andrea Burkholder and performed by Kelly Coffey and Don Russell.

Christopher B. Goode and the Partytime Friends // Vocations

A short one-act exploring how adults heal and process their worlds through play by re-imagining their childhood dream jobs with improvisation and music.

4:00pm — Joshua Yang // Water Street Dance Milwaukee

Joshua Yang

“The object to ART is to give life a shape” – William Shakespeare

Water Street Dance Milwaukee

Founded in 2019 by Artistic Director Morgan Williams, Water Street Dance Milwaukee is a contemporary repertory dance company created on the foundations of authenticity and collaborations. While maintaining a home-based in Cedarburg, the company has expanded its reach nationally to significant cities and dance festivals. Touring within the past seasons to St. Louis, New York City, Chicago, Columbus, Indianapolis & Madison. In 2019, Water Street Dance Milwaukee was named Overture Center Rising Stars Winner recognizing the company’s talent and potential on a national level.”All I can say is go see this remarkable troupe as soon as there’s another chance… They should be seen across the country.”

5:30pm — TJC Productions // The Spectrum Revisited

At the very first Milwaukee Fringe, he brought to the stage his childhood experiences of mental health testing and diagnosis through comedy, song and dance. Now, six years later, Thom returns with a sequel with subsequent revelations, some history lessons, and even more comedy and song to tell what he’s learned since then what being on the Autistic Spectrum truly means.

Written and performed by Thom Cauley

Content warnings: Some language, as well as discussions of medical abuse, child abuse, and eugenics.

6:45pm — Valentine 8 // The Timeless Vessel

A short love story shaped by a collage of theatre, music, and dance. 

Special Thanks to Chris Stawski for sponsoring the show; Corey Steiner for designing the graphic; and Brian Rott for helping direct and devise the theatre parts.

PECK PAVILION

2:00pm — Hour 22

Hour 22 is a Milwaukee area 3 piece rock band. We have a creative new take on rock music, putting our Milwaukee spin on it. Hour 22 brings high energy music for the masses. Music should bring bring people together, the time is now to get loud and rock the day away.

3:00pm — Tessa Ritchey // Kaleid Dance Collective // Rae Zimmerli // Wingspan Dance

Tessa Ritchey // al(one)

The piece explores how two dancers can exist independently from each other, while continuing to dance as a collective. Observers will peer into this world where solos collide to create a duet and how two dancers can be simultaneously alone and together as one.

Kaleid Dance Collective // Keep Watching

Keeping Watch is a one person show by dancer and choreographer Rush Johnston. Through movement and self-authored text Rush address themes of queerness, love, grief, and joy in their upbringing in the American South. Rush is a queer, Indigenous, disabled artist whose work questions perception and identity as a means of exploring universal truths.

Rae Zimmerli // Weaving the Elegy

Weaving the Elegy centers on the perspective of someone who has just lost the love of their life and the trauma and grieving that comes with a such a thing. It’s inspired mainly by the painting “Anguish,” by August Schenk and the poem “Making a Fist,” by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Wingspan Dance // Roots

RootsRoots explores where we came from and what people and places made us who we are today. “Where are you from” and “who are your people” are ideas that show themselves through who we’ve become.

4:30pm — Milwaukee Irish Arts // Dead Man’s Bells

Dead Man’s Bells is a gothic rural tale told by unreliable narrators whose intermingling narrative draws the audience in through fourth wall breaks and the reconstruction of events through staged memory. Three sisters take us on a journey through the misdeeds of their brother, the family farm that’s up for grabs, and the actions they felt driven to. Communally woven, it explores the shared chorus of siblinghood and the weight of unspoken family secrets.

Featuring Libby Amato, Maura Atwood and Madeleine Craig

5:30pm — Nick Ortiz, Saxophone // cit-Escapes: Improvisation, Electronics, and Saxophone

Combining the sounds of saxophone and electronics, Nick Ortiz performs and improvises to the music of Morgan Easterday, Philip Glass, Pete Martin, and Alan Theisen. A comprehensive program can be found at https://nickortizsaxophone.com/fringe/

ROVING ARTISTS

2:30pm @ The Fringe Stage — Sunstone Studios’ Clown Corps

Pop-Up Performances — Angry Young Men Ltd. // Late Night All Day

Angry Young Men Ltd (The beer-fueled smartassess who brought you ‘Night of the Living Dead – the Puppet Show’, ‘Full Frontal Püppetry’, & ‘Shakespeare?!? I Hardly Know Her!’) is once again, “tryin’ somethin’”.

Lumpy the Golem Boy is hosting a late night talk show. Here’s the clever twist: It’s a mobile late night talk show. A talk show set, with a puppet behind the desk, will be wandering the grounds. Come on up for a chat! Tell the folks at home the latest thing you’re working on!

Interactive hijinks at its most Pop Arty-est! That’s ‘Late Night All Day’.

VISUAL & AUDIO ARTIST TABLES

David Bremner

As an artist I do sculpturing, painting, and drawing, but I love to explore more about different art mediums. My style of art seems to play more playful. With my art as a sculptor I design glass bottles, I make sculptures out of clay such as animals, I make sculptures where you can hang it on the wall, and I make jewelry. I also make sculptures out of cardboard. I make my art sculptures by using clay, wood, metal, cardboard, bottles, jars, tools, glues, beads, and string. With my art as a painter I paint nature, animals, and shapes (patterns, lines, colors, and abstract work). I use acrylic paints when I make my paintings on canvas, wood, and cardboard. With my art as a drawer I like to draw my own cartoons, especially draw buildings, portraits, and nature. I use pencils, color pencils, crayons, and markers whenever I draw on different kinds of paper. With my art as a sculptor, a painter, and a drawer, I have been making a lot of animals in their original colors, in different colors, and especially in cartoon form when they are wearing clothes.

Jared Lee

Shortly after the start of the pandemic, I, like several others, was looking for ways to continue to create new work even with the restrictions and precautions due to COVID. I started working on a project that would allow theatre to continue to be made without the need for space, and in doing so, I looked backward to radio plays and forwards to podcasts. The Theatron Project was created to explore performance ideas in a digital space. This podcast had four main programs: Refresh or Reshelve, The Adaptation Project, Cold and Drunk, and Theatron Presents. One specific piece that came out of this experiment was Morningstar, a new six-part mystery miniseries.

Morningstar is an original six-part miniseries written by Cody Walker and Directed/edited by Jared Lee. Taking place in rural SW Missouri, Morningstar follows Deputy Diggory Simmons as he investigates a gruesome murder in small-town America and uncovers the mystery of his past, a blues connection with the devil and the crossroads, and a much larger/biblical fight going on. Using over 18 actors from around the country and recorded individually. Each actor received only their part, so the overall mystery remained intact even to them.

Nemogreater

Nehemiah R. Edwards, also known by his moniker, Nemogreater, is a contemporary artist born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. An autodidact in the arts, Nehemiah is self-taught in painting and digital art.

With his expressionistic style of painting, Nehemiah uses his playful iconography of angel and demon characters to showcase the conflicting relationship between our morality and vices. He also creates abstract work that implores viewers to surrender their sense of self to receive a transcendent experience, escaping personal woes in exchange for a moment of serenity. Using acrylics, oils, and unconventional mediums, he works on large-scale, self-crafted canvas, as well as found-objects to deliver his message.

Driven by his desire to help others through his creative endeavors, Nehemiah’s ultimate goal is to educate and assist as many people as possible in knowing what it means to experience true Love and to find inner peace — despite one’s circumstances.

VENDOR TABLES

Karla’s Cake Pops

Ara’s Crafts & Creations

Beautiful Roots

Spip & Clips Wedding and Floral Designs

Confidential Goods

Little Beefy Food Truck

Gloss House MKE

Adams Creations

Jacqueline Slade

Whimsical World of Waarvik

Mission Art Gallery

Soulite Cooking

Shun’s Online Goods