Tag Archives: Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company

Stormy weather ahead: Only if you are a theater lover

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This year’s LEFF will wrap with the 24-Hour Theatre: LEFF Edition on March 7. (LEFF)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

There is a festival celebrating laughter and comedy (LaughFest) and a couple celebrating the arts (ArtPrize and Festival of the Arts). We even have WYCE’s celebration of local music (The Jammies).

So with so many local college and community theater organizations, it only makes sense that Grand Rapids has its own festival to celebrate theater.

Now in its eighth season, the Lake Effect Fringe Festival, better known as LEFF, returns to celebrate local theater by hosting an array of productions by several local theater companies.

“You are going to see works that are not produced in the larger theaters in town or works by local playwrights,” said Mary Beth Qullin, one of the organizers. “There is a lot of comedy or improv that goes on during the Festival. It is something different almost every weekend.”

In fact, starting Feb. 11 and running through Mar. 7. the calendar at the Dog Story Theatre, 7 Jefferson SE, is packed with a variety of shows, and Qullin said there is something for about everyone in the mix.

To kick off the 8thAnnual Festival, Fictional Friends Improv is performing a one-night only fundraising event “Throw $ at LEFF, Tuesday, Feb. 11, to help raise funds to cover the space rental fee for the remaining Festival participants. The event starts at 8 p.m.

The Fictional Friends Improv has a lineup of fan favorite games, some classics from the vault that haven’t been performed in years, and of course a few things that have never been performed for an audience, or performed at all for that matter.

Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company performs at LEFF Feb. 13 – 15 at Dog Story Theatre.


The rest of LEFF schedule is as follows:

Feb. 13 – 15: The Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Co., Michigan’s only year-round touring Shakespeare Company, presents Oliver Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer.”  This comedic farce follows the exploits of the Hardcastle family. Mr. Hardcastle wants his daughter Kate to marry eligible bachelor Charles Marlow. The problem is that Marlow is hopelessly intimidated by women. Mr. Hardcastle and Marlow’s father plan for the younger Marlow to visit the Hardcastle home, but because of the tricks of Hardcastle’s stepson Tony Lumpkin, young Marlow and his friend Hastings believe that Hardcastle’s house is an inn. Kate takes advantage of this deception to pose as a maid in the “inn” so that she can observe her potential mate without him knowing.

Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday. Thursday’s performance is a fundraising event for the LEFF and is pay-what-you-can. Tickets are only available at the door on Thursday, Feb. 13, in $5 increments.Pigeon Creek is Michigan’s only year-round touring Shakespeare Company.


Feb. 20 – 21: The Brutal Sea presents its new full-length original play “Mangoyle!” Enter the crime-spattered Urchin District of Sinneapolis, where Mayor Sparromarten has created a living gargoyle to solve the critical mystery of his missing vacation photos. Meanwhile, a coven of punk-rock witches trade their protest signs for direct magical action, and lurking deep in the shadows — are those…gnomes? You won’t want to miss this wickedly hilarious show!

Show times are at 8 p.m. Thursday – Saturday and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Thursday’s performance is a fundraising event for the LEFF and is pay-what-you-can. Tickets are only available at the door on Thursday, Feb. 20, in $5 increments.  This show contains mature themes and language.


Feb. 27 – 29: Hole in the Wall Theatre Company, Grand Rapids’ only Commedia Troupe, presents “Naples’ Story: Welcome to the Neighborhood!” Inspired by a collection of Italian scenarios from the 1500s, “Naples Story” shows us how life’s little adventures take hold as we meet the residents of a small neighborhood in Naples.

 The Hole in the Wall Theatre Company’s small cast will portray the entire neighborhood in 90 minutes of sketch-improv. Show times are 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Thursday’s performance is a fundraising event for the LEFF and is pay-what-you-can.   Tickets are only available at the door on Thursday, Feb. 27, in $5 increments.  

March 3: Grand Rapids’ Maggot Baby will screen its horrific movie “White Girl Wasted” along with the terrible “Lobster Cabin” and a few of their repugnant short films as a fundraising event for the Lake Effect Fringe Festival. “White Girl Wasted” began filming seven years ago, briefly appeared on YouTube, and then disappeared into Maggot Baby’s Box of Embarrassments. Have a laugh at this no-budget horror/comedy’s first public screening ever, featuring new footage and filmmakers in attendance. WARNING: This event is 18+ only. Show time is at 6 p.m.

March 5 and 6: Pyrus Calleryana presents “TV Program.” It’s late. A frightful howl pierces the silence of the night. Sleep escapes you. You have nowhere to turn. Nowhere… except the channels.

Join Pyrus Calleryana on a delightfully disturbing journey into the depths of a late night TV wormhole. Bizarre burlesque from beyond basic cable and more as-seen-on-TV weirdness than your remote control can handle. Don’t touch that dial!  Mature Audiences only. Show time is 8 p.m.

March 7: Wrapping up this year’s LEFF is the 24-Hour Theatre: LEFF Edition. Five writers, five directors and all the actors we can muster! Five new short plays written, rehearsed and produced within a 24 hour period. Come see your favorite local actors, directors and writers produce some new plays!

Interested in Participating in the 24-Hour Theatre: LEFF Edition?


We are in need of actors! If you are interested, please message 24-Hour Theater with your email and preferred role. No experience needed.


Schedule:
March 6, 8 p.m. – Writers begin writing at Little Space Studio, go as late as necessary (usually done by 2 or 3 a.m.)
March 7,  8 a.m. – Directors called @ Dog Story Theater
9 a.m. – Actors called @ Dog Story Theater, rehearse throughout day
8 p.m. – Shows go live!
Co-produced by Rachel Finan and Cody Colvin


The Lake Effect Fringe Festival seeks to highlight performer-focused theater in a non-traditional theater space, creating an intimate performance experience for audiences who can expect different seating configurations and differing levels of interaction with the performers at any given performance. All performances take place in the black box performance space of the Dog Story Theater, 7 Jefferson SE, Grand Rapids, 49503. Tickets for all events can be purchased in advance on the Dog Story Theater’s website: www.dogstorytheater.com, and are $15/adults and $10/students and seniors, plus Eventbrite fees.

6th annual Festival continues to focus on local playwrights, directors, composers and performers

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GEM Theatrics, featuring Gary E. Mitchell and Mary Beth Quillen, will be performing “2 Across: A Comedy of Crosswords and Romantic” Feb. 16- 18. (Photo by Terri Foley)

By Mary Beth Quillin

 

The Lake Effect Fringe Festival kicks off its 6th season of bringing new theatre to West Michigan all through the month of February on Thursday, Feb. 1, at 8 p.m. with a performance by No Outlet Improv.

 

Troupe members Nick Milbratz, Kristen Hirtsch, Sean Francis, Eirann Betka, and T.J. Corbett bring short-form, fast-paced, interactive fun to audiences of all ages.  No Outlet is a Grand Rapids original entertainment group that is working throughout West Michigan to promote and perform improvisational theater.

 

There is a full calendar of events that are guaranteed to have something for everybody scheduled at the Dog Story Theater, 7 Jefferson SE, Grand Rapids throughout the month of February, right into early March.  Again this year, Dog Story’s popular Comedy Outlet Mondays will continue throughout the Festival (Feb. 5, 12, 19 & 26) at 7 p.m. each Monday night, for the low price of just $6 Comedy Outlet Mondays (COM) is an experimental comedy hub in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids. From 7-8 p.m., audiences only pay $6 to watch a variety of local artists performing brand new comedy from improv, to sketch, to puppets and music and beyond!

The second hour opens up the stage for those who wish to watch, or participate in, a free open comedy lab. Here, anyone can try new games, network, and may even be inspired to create an act and return as a performer. COM has become an ongoing circuit of performing, playing, producing, and polishing, all leading back to establishing new artists/art forms in Grand Rapids. It is brought to the community by No Outlet Improv Troupe and Dog Story Theater.

 

This year’s full schedule includes:

 

Auditions!! – Jan. 30

 

The 10 Minute Plays and 24-Hour Theatre will be holding auditions at the Dog Story Theater, 7 Jefferson SE, Grand Rapids on January 30 at 7 p.m.  More info is available on the Dog Story Theater website; www.dogstorytheater.com

 

 

Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company – Feb. 2, 3 at 8 p.m. and 4  at 3 p.m.

 

The Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company will present The Knight of the Burning Pestle, by Francis Beaumont; this play within a play is a 1607 burlesque of citizen drama and chivalric romance.  Pigeon Creek’s productions present Shakespeare and his contemporaries’ works in a lively, audience-interactive, and accessible atmosphere that brings the plays to life for modern audiences.  This play by one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries blurs the boundaries between audience and actors with absurd comedy. Join us for all of the fun!  The Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company is Michigan’s only year-round, touring Shakespeare Company.

 

 

The Brutal Sea – Feb. 8 & 9  at 8 p.m. and Feb. 11 at 3 p.m.

Local group The Brutal Sea presents Chaos & Entropy, by local playwrights Kimmy Snyder and Declan Maher;  a multidisciplinary collage. It involves short plays, sketch and improv comedy, performance art, video content, and poetry. This piece offers the audience a space for emotional exploration, catharsis, laughter, and expressions of hope and forgiveness.  It contains strong language and is not suitable for children.

 

 

Last year’s production of “Love & Semiotics” at the Lake Effect Fringe Festival. (Photo by Hunter Pamer)

Dog Story Theater – Feb. 10 at 8 p.m.

 

24-Hour Theatre Local playwrights, directors and actors will work all day and present their completely original works to the audience at 8 p.m.  One performance only. (Actors interested in participating should attend auditions for the 10-Minute Plays on January 30 at 7 p.m.)

 

 

GEM Theatrics – Feb. 16 & 17 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 18 at 3 p.m.

 

The husband and wife performance team of Gary E. Mitchell and Mary Beth Quillin return to the LEFF with the Michigan premiere of 2 Across: A Comedy of Crosswords and Romance, by Jerry Mayer. The play first premiered at the Santa Monica Playhouse, in Southern California, in 2004. The Los Angeles Times said of the original Santa Monica production, “2 Across strives to entertain and succeeds admirably. This is a charming, character-driven comedy.”  Two strangers, a man and a woman, board a San Francisco BART train at 4:30 am. They’re alone in the car, each is married, and both are doing the New York Times crossword. She’s organized and sensible. He’s a free spirit.  She is a crossword pro, he always quits. When he tosses his puzzle away, she snaps, “Crosswords are a metaphor for life; those who finish, succeed, those who don’t, fail.” Boy meets girl, does boy get girl?

 

 

10-Minute Play Festival – February 22 & 23 @8:00 pm

Titles of plays will be announced soon! Local directors and local actors will take on scripts submitted by local playwrights for an evening of 10-Minute Plays produced by Hole in the Wall Theatre Company.

 

ACTORS: auditions will be held on Jan. 30 at Dog Story Theatre at 7 p.m. Directors need to plan to be present for these as well, so you can cast your shows.

 

Casting will be announced that week. Directors will be responsible to coordinate rehearsal schedules with their cast.

 

 

Hole in the Wall Theatre Company – Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 25 at 3 p.m.

 

J. Corbett leads Grand Rapids’ only Commedia Dell’Arte troupe in the original comedy, Yes, We’re Closed. A shopkeeper is suddenly locked out of his store, with the precious money he owes to a vicious loan shark locked inside…the neighborhood gets pulled into the madness, as desperate measures, scandalous revelations, and questionable prescriptions run wild in the streets.

 

 

Alternative Acts Theatre Company – Feb. 24 at 3 p.m.

 

Hole in the Wall presents the premiere production of Alternative Acts Theatre Company, a group of students from Aquinas College.  I’m So… is a theatrical exploration of the stigmas and societal noise surrounding mental health issues. One Performance Only.

 


No Outlet Improv – Mar. 1 at 8 p.m.

 

No Outlet Improv returns with one more fun evening of interactive improv! Final Festival Improv Event

 

 

The University Wits – March 2 & 3 at 8 p.m. and March 4 at 3 p.m.

 

The University Wits present The Last Five Years; a musical by Jason Robert Brown, directed by J.J. Lindke and starring Emily Diener and Steffan Copenhaver.
The story explores a five-year relationship between Jamie Wellerstein, a rising novelist, and Cathy Hiatt, a struggling actress. The show uses a form of storytelling in which Cathy’s story is told in reverse chronological order (beginning the show at the end of the marriage), and Jamie’s is told in chronological order (starting just after the couple have first met). The characters do not directly interact except for a wedding song in the middle as their timelines intersect.

 

 

The Lake Effect Fringe Festival seeks to highlight performer-focused theater in a non-traditional theater space, creating an intimate performance experience for audiences who can expect different seating configurations and differing levels of interaction with the performers at any given performance.  Along with the Dog Story Theater, organizing partners include; GEM Theatrics, Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, and The University Wits. All performances take place in the black box performance space of the Dog Story Theater, 7 Jefferson SE, Grand Rapids.  Tickets for all events can be purchased in advance on the Dog Story Theatre’s website: www.dogstorytheater.com, and are $14/adults and $8/students and seniors.  Comedy Outlet Mondays are just $6.

Local theater festival marks fifth year, continues to grow

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By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

 

Five years ago, a group of theater lovers looked around Grand Rapids and saw a lot of community-wide events centered around specific themes such as LaughFest and ArtPrize. And this group decided it was time for Grand Rapids to host a community-wide event for theater.

 

Thus the Lake Effect Fringe Festival was born.

 

“Can you believe it?” wrote Mary Beth Quillin. one of the organizers and a member of GEM Theatrics, in announcement about the upcoming event. “The little theater festival that could is now celebrating five years at the Dog Story Theater.”

 

During those five years, the event also has grown from mostly weekend events during the month of February to programming throughout the month, and this year, has expanded into the first weekend in March.

 

Week day events include Comedy Outlet Mondays performing every Monday at 7 p.m. during the Festival. Also during the week is The Brutal Sea’s presentation of “Love & Semiotics,” a new play written by Kimberly Snyder and directed by Alex Michael Cook. The production, set for 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 8 and 9, is about a young woman who is visited by a novelist’s ghost and is forced to confront her relationship with reality and herself. Due to language and themes, the production is for mature audiences only. Christopher Van Der Ark is set to do a reading form “Collage of a Dystopian Midwest: a play by various authors” Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. and local playwright Stephen Douglas Wright will read from “The Ghost of Jimmy Dean” March 1 and 2 at 8 p.m.

 

Hole in the Wall Theater performs Feb. 25 and 26.

There are several Wyoming and Kentwood participants in the festival including members of the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, who performed “Titus Andronicus” last weekend. Coming up, Kentwood resident Ann Celeste Cloyd directs the Blue Star Players’ production of “36 Questions,” where two college seniors attempt to replicate an experiment to create real love in a laboratory setting on themselves. “36 Questions” is at 8 p.m. Feb. 18 and 3 p.m. Feb. 19.

 

Also from Kentwood is the Hole in the Wall Theatre Company, a Commedia Dell’Arte group that will present “The Whole Vine Yards” at 8 p.m. Feb. 25 and 3 p.m. Feb. 26. In this tantalizing tale, the diVonstro family vineyard has slowly been going bankrupt over the last three generations, and Modestina, the current head of the estate, is at the end of her financial rope. Then a mysterious box with a treasure map is discovered with everyone from the vineyard owner to the neighbors to the servants racing to get their hands on it.

 

Other productions throughout the month include:

 

One of the original LEFF participants. The University Wits, returns this weekend, Feb. 10 – 12, for Yasmina Reza’s dark comedy “God of Carnage.” Four parents come together to “calmly” discuss the fight between their children, but as tempers flair and neuroses collide, the night evolves into disturbing and hilarious mayhem. Show times are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

 

Also this weekend are two songwriting workshops, the LEFF Songwriting Workshop with Julia Yob from 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, and the two-hour musical-writing workshop M.Y. Musical World at 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12.

 

The following week, Feb. 16 and 17 at 8 p.m., Art by Ellis will present “The Bald Soprano,” the classic French farce that launched Theatre of the Absurd a half-century ago. Directed by Roger Ellis, the story centers around the Smiths who entertain and insult their guests the Martins, who can’t remember whether they actually know each other.

 

Feb. 23 and 24 at 8 p.m., Midwest Stage Company presents David Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” which takes a look at sex and relationships.

 

Since the festival’s inception, GEM Theatrics has wrapped it up and will do so again this year March 3 and 4, with the West Michigan premier of “Chapatti,” by Christian O’Reilly. The husband-and-wife team of Gary E. Mitchell and Quillin play two lonely animal-lovers in Dublin. When Dan (Mitchell) and his dog Chapatti cross paths with Betty (Quillin) and her 19 cats, an unexpected spark begins a warm and gentle story about two people rediscovering the importance of human companionship. Show times are at 8 p.m.

 

LEFF performances are all at the Dog Story Theater, 7 Jefferson SE. Tickets are $14/adults and $8/students and seniors. Comedy Outlet Mondays tickets are $5 each. For more information, visit www.dogstorytheater.com.