Friday: Nerds, bedroom stories, a troubled teen, and some coffee

Happy rainy Saturday morning! You have to admit, apart from a few episodes of much-needed rain, the Fringe staff ordered up some pretty outstanding weather for this year’s festival. Or maybe you don’t remember 100-degree festival days, when the only show criteria that mattered was the strength of the AC in that venue. Do you have any idea how many organic CSA vegetables are languishing in my refrigerator? It’s depressing. Bob is making sweet corn for breakfast, a feeble attempt to alleviate the veggie guilt. Just hang in there. We’ll eat you on Monday! But, until then, I’ll survive on pierogies and Jimmy John’s as my closing weekend hodgepodge schedule takes me running across the metro like a headless chicken.

Recovered from Thursday’s fever, I was back in the saddle Friday and started with The Finkles’ Theater Show at the Rarig Xperimental. Goofy, funny, charmingly nerdy couple put on a theater show. Check out their show page…the photo says it all. Last chance Saturday at 5:30. I ducked out for a brief appearance at Bob’s office party, then returned for Bedroom Stories created and performed by Fergus Rougier at the Rarig Xperimental. Stories, movement, dramatic lighting…as we were leaving the theater, a friend said “I don’t really know what that was, but it was cool.” A nice fringe-y Fringe show. Last chance Saturday at 8:30. Upstairs for Alice Unwrapped presented by Nautilus Music Theater, performed by Jill Anna Ponasik with piano accompaniment by Michael Pearce Donley. I have to say, I liked this more than I expected to. I’d been hearing rhapsodic reviews. Music theater isn’t my bag of cats, but this is a really nicely done, emotional show and Jill Anna is unquestionably extremely talented. Last chance Saturday at 4. After learning my lesson, I made reservations to see 2 Sugars, Room for Cream presented by Shanan Wexler & Carolyn Pool Productions at U of M Rarig Xperimental. It’s an unequivocally lovely show; funny, true, relatable. Last chance Sunday at 5:30. Did you hear that the Ferrari McSpeedy boys (the uber-talented Mike Fotis and Joe Bozic) are reprising their 2002 Fringe hit Punk Rock Omaha at the Rarig Thrust at 1:00 Sunday (as their final installment of Comedy Go!)?? I wasn’t Fringing in 2002, so missed this first show in what turned out to be a trilogy. Plan to be there! Kate Hoff is a fundraiser, printmaker, and alternative-theater denizen. Her prints were included in the Visible Fringe show in 2004—also the year she began blogging about the festival. A few years, countless blog entries, and a hundred-some Fringe shows later, Kate joined the Fringe board in early 2008. The views expressed here are hers alone and do not represent the official position of the Fringe (unless noted).