2013 New York International Fringe Festival Press Conference Part 1

I went with Sarah Tuft and Jervelle Frederick to see the 9 previews brought out for the press to taste. We each took 3 to write about so as not to be greedy or go mad with so many flavors and stories. Kinematik Dance Theater (the first of my 3 appetizers) is an international all female company headed by Svea Schneider. We were served a slice of Perfect Prototype one of the pieces they will perform at the Fringe. Ms Schneider says about the work, "Women [in the media] resemble these flawless mannequins but we're not flawless and we're not mannequins." In Perfect Prototype each performer "wears" a new kind of extension - limbs! Vaguely hearkening back to Alwin Nikolais, only with more simplicity. The dancers move between beauty and distortion - breaking away from the sameness of perfect into a new kind of grace.

In Sheeple three Bush-era teenagers triangulate in layers of love and politics. They're about to be buried in teenage absolutes and a struggle to be right. In this sampling we see three teenagers on the edge of an argument, two are kissing and one is trying to score some pot. I'm coming back to see them dig themselves out; who will convince who? Will they consider some version of tolerance? As the playwright Mara Wilson said "Everything you know might not all be correct" and the director Max Reuben continued "other people can have different beliefs than you, and it's not the end of the world"

Michelle Sutherland, the director of Gertrude Stein Saints! tells me that "Gertrude Stein felt that the Saints' relationship to God is the same as an artist's relationship to a work of art". The large cast sings and moves Stein's libretto with music they created together in six rehearsals! In the short section we get to try, they move through musical genres and sing all over the stage. I'm riveted by how the depth and sound of their voices change depending on where they are in space - It's as if the lush moves are making the sound and the sound is creating the dance.

Here is where you can see them:

KINEMATIK

KINEMATIK Dance Theater

Choreographer: Svea Schneider

1h 45m

VENUE #8: The Theater at the 14th Street Y

FRI 9 @ 9:15 MON 12 @ 2:00 SAT 17 @ NOON SAT 24 @ 9:30 SUN 25 @ 1:45*

Sheeple

Acceptable Targets

Writer: Mara Wilson

Director: Max Reuben

I1h 50m