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& billions more
1 Quandary Place
Abundance
ADVENTURES OF A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER
Barroom Philosophers
Border Crossings
The Children's Museum
Class Notes
Embarrassment & Death
The Falls of Vincent Millay
Found and Lost: Goals for 2002
Frisco Fred's Cabaret!

Fuck You Cancer
Great Hymn of Thanksgiving / Conversation Storm
The Hasheesh Eater
Heavy Metal Playground
HER KIND: The Life & Poetry of Anne Sexton
i hate my friends
Jesus Rant
Kiss My Booth
Korean Badass
Low Hanging Fruit
Monkey Poet Stand-Up!
Organic Boxed Chicken Stock

parts is parts:
Party of One
RM3
The Sewers
Shopping as a Spiritual Path
Spotless
The Stetson Manifesto
A Strange Black Passion
Super Glossy!
TeleMongol
Terrible Voice
Tesla's White Pigeon
Turn of the Screw
You Go First

& billions more RIPE Theatre, winners of the SF Fringe Best Ensemble 2006 and Best of the Fringe 2002, are back with a hilarious and awkward look at the moments just before the end of the world. When control of your fate is not an option rationality goes out the window. Fringe goers say, "RIPE Theatre is another company that doesn"t insult their audiences," and "hysterical, fast moving, well acted, and clever writing." Critics say, "Wonderfully wry...simply brlliant...RIPE is a force to be reckoned with..." Don't miss this show!

1 Quandary Place Have you ever hated your noisy neighbor? Did you ever wonder how he or she might not be here anymore? But you would never do anything like that, right? Come to a place that can't be found on Google maps. It's where you are when you don't know where you are. It's who you are when you don't know who you are. A series of short interconnected comic plays (Nobody Likes Me, The Perfect Memory, Are You Happy?)reveal the secret quandaries that exist at every human address.

Abundance When a young girl disappears in a small southern town, a national media circus explodes around the attempt to find her. "Abundance" is told in five interlocking monologues and explores our media fascination with making private grief public.

ADVENTURES OF A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER A solid pick! CBC Winnipeg. Uber Schlepper- Steven Karwoski ( ARE YA WORKING? -- "Karwoski's sincerity and charm wins us over..." SF Guardian) turned-Uber Shepherd trades slinging hash for dodging spitballs. In this high-energy performance, Karwoski battles evil administrators, spars with his fourteen year old alter ego-William the Conqueror and discovers the special in Special Ed. "Karwoski proves himself tougher than a Navy Seal, smarter than an ace detective…. amusing and very well written" --San Francisco Weekly

Barroom Philosophers What is the best way to live life? Who has the answers? Paul does! Or does he? Years of separating himself from society may have given him the perspective he needs. Or maybe years of drinking just makes him think he does. Now, Paul faces a group of strangers who have all the questions in the world, and at the end of the day Paul just may have the answers, or may just have an unpaid bar tab.

Border Crossings Pat Benatar, Pablo Neruda, and Poison come together to solve the age-old mystery: Love or Lust? China had the Great Wall. The US has the Rio Grande. Whether man-made, natural, or internal, there are all sorts of borders to keep people out. One man travels to Mexico and discovers his barriers for love. He meets a young woman who's willing to risk her life and travel the world to meet her mate. Why can't he open up to the woman lying next to him?

The Children's Museum Past, present and future collide when two sisters reunite in the family home. Together they unlock an ancient hidden world of prophets, fairytales and black holes. The award-winning creator/performers of The Chaos Factory and The Quickening Theatre weave a story of terror and dreams through the fine line between reality and fantasy. "The museums in children's minds, I think, automatically empty themselves in times of utmost horror to protect the children from eternal grief." Kurt Vonnegut (Slapstick)

Class Notes People ask comedian Kurt Bodden if he felt pressure when he was a student at Harvard. "No, the pressure comes when you're a graduate -- and you read what your classmates say about themselves in your alumni magazine." He takes you through actual Harvard class notes: the impressive, the pretentious, and the just plain weird. With his background in improv (Edinburgh Fringe), standup, sketch comedy (Groundlings training), and solo performance, Kurt makes the alumni notes hilarious -- especially if you've ever felt that you don't quite measure up.

Embarrassment & Death Growing up was trickier than Ozzie and Harriet let on! Thirty-five naked five-year-olds face their first Swimming Lesson at the YWCA; the class trip discovers How Things Work at the slaughterhouse, and the perpetual neighborhood baseball game confronts the falling Fighter Pilot. Alternately amazed and determined, a boy navigates the ambushes of his daily life as death passes by and sometimes circles nearer. In these touching and laugh out loud stories, Steven calls up the everyday and the fantastic from a Midwestern boyhood, discovering the feelings and experiences that connect us all.

The Falls of Vincent Millay Would you risk falling in love, falling apart, falling free, falling from grace? If you could let go of all the rules, as easily as a silk gown slips from soft shoulders, as readily as honey words drip from painted lips, as gently as rain drops onto waiting earth would you? Vancouver's Silk Purse Productions (3 solid years of sold-out shows at the Vancouver Fringe!) takes you on a trip through the life of an artist who soared with the jazz age and who finally fell deeper than death. Warning: Poetry, sex, cigarettes, love, drugs, death, and drink.

Found and Lost: Goals for 2002 "...amusing and intriguing..."-Orlando Sentinel
"4 Stars"-Montreal Gazette. inFluxdance presents an original dance theater piece inspired by stories surrounding lost and found items, and explores the idea of how picking something off the ground could be a catalyst for a series of events. Walk down the street with them and uncover miniature moments of surprise, and madness that would otherwise stay crumpled up in the gutter or stuck to a telephone pole… Witty, yet poignant, the show integrates dance, theater, and American Sign Lanuage, adding a level of accessibility you rarely find. Come see Montreal's "2006 Spirit of the Fringe"!!

Frisco Fred's Cabaret! A comedy showcase of performers from Comedy On The Square hosted by Frisco Fred - "The world's only near-sighted comic/magician/juggler/escape-artist & tightrope walker". We will be fresh from representing San Francisco at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - "The largest theater event in the Galaxy." Magic by Big Al Catraz, Adam Sachs, Dorian Rodell & Eric Masters, Stand-up by Tony Sparks & Friends, Music by Kitten On The Keys & Mark Silverman as well special surprise guests. Video clips & each nights line-up on www.comedyonthesquare.com It's fun, funny, sometimes breathtaking, always entertaining. - if you're looking for entertainment with a spark to it, you won't go far wrong here." (Edinburgh Metro -2002 about Frisco Fred )

Fuck You Cancer Fuck You Cancer: A terminally funny one man show, is about a young man with a diagnosis of cancer who wakes up at 3 AM and takes too much medication. He hallucinates a journey inside his own body and all of his organs come to life. He must find the malignancy and kill it before it kills him. Inspired by Hawke's battle with thyroid cancer. "….a brilliant and funny show. An inspiring piece of theatre." Carole Wears, Prague International Fringe "...an unharnessed comic imagination that is a delight to behold. " Kate Taylor, The Globe and Mail.

Great Hymn of Thanksgiving / Conversation Storm Dinner table conversation becomes a battlefield in the War on Terror, the sounds of dialogue replaced by newscasting, storytelling, congregational praying, and an ever-recurring state of emergency, the sounds of the table itself - scooting chairs, singing wineglasses, squeaking forks - overrunning the discussion. Elsewhere, three friends from three sides of the political spectrum unwillingly argue their way through a ticking time bomb scenario, dissecting, dissolving, and brutalizing their own opinions in the process. "Introspective, recursive, highly charged... stunningly choreographed into visual theater as well as an aural melange." KFAI Minneapolis. "Moving, funny, and provocative... theater at its best."
Austin 360

The Hasheesh Eater SAN FRANCISCO, 1863. Through the dark eyes of Victorian fiend and scandalous best-selling author Fitzhugh Ludlow, THE HASHEESH EATER conjures a psychedelic vision of one 'elevated' evening on the dirt streets of a remote bohemian boomtown. Late night departure from good taste, driven by feverish visions, delirious dialogue, gratuitous pantomime, swearing and excess. "Entirely committed, aggressively comic, their boldness has no limits," NY FRINGE, BEST OF FRINGE SF '05.

Heavy Metal Playground Live Evil is the heavy metal playground that exists only in the mind of wannabe rocker Laurent Martini, whose love of Motley Crue drove him to pen over 100 song lyrics during his teen-aged years has he tried (albeit in vain) to evoke the rocker lifestyle: loose women, boozing, and life on the road. The only drawback to his dreamed super stardom and tattooed lifestyle has been Martini's upper-middle class upbringing, elite private French schooling, and living at home in San Francisco's Marina district until the age of 25. Two-parts fist-pumping arena rock concert, one-part failed high-school talent show, Live Evil is an endearing cocktail ultimately about a childhood dream that refuses to fade.

HER KIND: The Life & Poetry of Anne Sexton After a successful New York premiere, Wild Child Presents brings the two-woman, multimedia performance, "HER KIND: The Life & Poetry of Anne Sexton," to the San Francisco Fringe Festival. Pulitzer Prize-winning author, "Anne Sexton was the modern woman poet who first gave extended voice to issues of female identity," (Diane Middlebrook). "HER KIND" incorporates character portrayals, video clips, modern dance and Sexton's vivid poetry and explores the macabre, riveting world of one of the most popular and controversial American poets of the 20th century.

i hate my friends A therapist, Dr. Dooley and his beloved dog, are coming from L.A. to S.F to attend a convention for Mental Health professionals. He is scheduled to give a lecture the next day. Things shift, things break down, friends are in crisis, patients are stalking, bad practical jokes are pulled and answers from heaven fall from the sky. This funny physiological farce will take you to the dark side of Friendship and back again.

Jesus Rant (The Religio-Comic Ravings of a Former Christian) In his West Coast
debut, New York City storyteller H.R. Britton comically skewers his
fundamentalist upbringing, rails against religious hypocrisy, and
delicately sketches a portrait of the historical Jesus. The hour promises 50% humor, 30% soul-searching, and 20% pure ranting. FringeNYC Propaganda called Britton "an extremely likeable performer," and Hi!Drama called him "a most incredible storyteller" who "has the ability to have you forget your surroundings and escape into the story he's telling."

Kiss My Booth THE TRADE SHOW: a transient world of hope and aspirations where exhibitors dream of fame and discovery. By offering tastey food bits and alluring displays they attempt to arouse the jaded buyers who have fallen out of love, and are longing to feel something again. A man with buttons for eyes is selling stuffed animals... a woman on a short leash offers Cajun snack treats from her silver tray. Italian farmers wait patiently outside of our heroine's 10 x 10 square foot booth that's jam packed with a variety of treasures, including sublimely beautiful pastas...

Korean Badass One Dream. Plan A: Be the first Asian Steve McQueen. Plan B: Die. Korean Badass a hell-for-leather solo performance by Stevie Lee Saxon. Korean Badass is the journey a man endures trying to honor his father and keep his integrity in the jungle of Hollywood. He is a maverick, forging a path that has not been walked before, hoping his ability and passion will give him that one shot to make his mark. Did we say, make a mark? No, make a gash and run it to the hilt.

Low Hanging Fruit Low Hanging Fruit. a sophisticated play about internet porn. a strong character-driven narrative with six evocative dances. a hard hitting comedy that tackles fundamentalism in our modern sexual culture. "The spirit behind this story of a young man's obsession with sex is so infectiously fun and heartfelt... Playwright Jade Raybin captures many funny details of the world of post-college living. The annoying habits of housemates! The humiliation of house parties!" -- Molly Rhodes - SF Weekly

Monkey Poet Stand-Up! A frank and funny show not for the faint of heart! Join poet Matt Panesh on a scathing and darkly comic tour of the world we live in: sex & sexuality, relationships, debt, death, beauty, ugliness, politics & religion. No stone left unturned. No punches pulled. Fresh from music festivals across Britain, he's been described as "Sex-God!" by Citizen 32 Magazines Live Organizer, "Ace!" by Copland Smith, writer, and "Very Moral" by Albert Radcliffe, Canon Emeritus of Manchester Cathedral. Miss him at your peril! Warning: contains words. Thanks to all the bigots, warmonger's, politician's, zealots, paedophiles, robbers, thugs, killers of children, rapers of old women and all the other scum under the sun without whom... I'd be happy.

Organic Boxed Chicken Stock Amy Tobin - vocalist and writer of "The Esther Show" rock opera and the band A Little Friction - reveals a new cabaret and story about modern life and fantasy villages. It's about a perfectly normal girl having a psycho-sociological-spiritual evolutionary crisis caused by computers, items individually wrapped in plastic, asphalt and gloss. She copes by traveling as a bard to another land where she's having an affair with the butcher. "Amy's voice will grab you by the lapels, pin you to the wall, and make you listen. What more do you want from life?" - d heath, fan

parts is parts: is an intricate set of explorations on the theme of compartmentalization, wound from a sequence of performance art installations initiated by kim harmon at various bay area galleries. fused with visions, blood,and the lovely type of hope that only blossoms out of political and personal despair, parts is parts: spirals soaring original music, acrobatic choreography, and intense doses of ridiculous sincerity to beg the sometimes terrifying question: how does it all fit together?

Party of One Party of One is a fabulous romp through the psyche of Captain Melisande Blue. This divine ride through clown and bouffon features a feisty turnstile, dinner dates with luggage, and a two and a half foot tall mini version of Gone with the Wind. This show directed by Sue Morrison stars Noel Williams as Captain Melisande Blue. RSVP today! It is the party you don't want to miss!

RM3 With music of rock singer/songwriter Ben Folds as a backdrop, "RM3" tells the story of friendship, love and politics among a young campaign manager, a Congressional candidate and a press secretary in a progressive Southern city. How do you separate politics from friendship, workplace camaraderie from love? This new dramatic musical echoes current events, although it was written before this year's headlines of the affair between San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his aide. Directed by Janet O'Hair (director of last year's acclaimed Fringe entry, "Visting Bertha") and music direction by Tom Shaw.

The Sewers "The febrile imaginations of the Banana Bag & Bodice collective, one of downtown's most intelligent, anarchic new additions, spits up this tale of a childless town bewitched by its own septic system." -Time Out New York, David Cote. Banana Bag & Bodice proudly returns to the SFFringe with its most successful show to date, The Sewers, having received high critical acclaim in NYC and awarded Best Production at the Dublin Fringe Festival, 2006. From the makers of other fringe favorites: The Young War, Sandwich, GULAG HA HA, and The Bastard Chronicles

Shopping as a Spiritual Path A high-spirited, heart-gripping romp through disease, divorce and disfigured dating, "Shopping as a Spiritual Path" has played to packed houses and standing ovations from Berkeley to Boca. Terri Tate, a survivor of near-fatal oral cancer, takes us on her harrowing and hilarious search for healing, husbands and inner peace. We watch her narrowly escape her inner critic, the Vile Bitch Upstairs, and find fulfillment on the clearance rack at Marshall's. Winner of grants from the Marin Arts Council and the Lloyd Symington Foundation, "Shopping" will be out on DVD this summer. Anne Lamott calls it "Brilliant!"

Out-of-Towers FREE Sneak Peek of excerpts from 8 Fringe Shows from Out-of-Town Performers. A fast paced show by the performers from Great Hymn of Thanksgiving / Conversation Storm, The Falls of Vincent Millay, Super Glossy!, Spotless, Monkey Poet Stand-Up!, Party of One, Found and Lost: Goals for 2002, A Strange Black Passion. FREE. First Come First Admited.

Spotless Caroline is a teenage insomniac-hypochondriac trying to get to New York; Ernie lives with his mom, thinks he's from the Bronx and is in love with Nurse Pamela; and Angie hides in her closet, looking at pictures of her dog. All three are custodians at a hospital. Emily Morwen weaves these three stories together in this fast-paced, physically exciting comedy-drama. "Some actors have an endearing quality to the point that it is virtually impossible not to smile from ear to ear when you watch them. Emily has this quality in abundance -- so honest, funny at times, and most certainly heartfelt." - NYtheatre.com

The Stetson Manifesto The fight against the corporation is on! Fueled by whiskey, tradition and Tennessee Ernie Ford records, an aging cowboy leads a revolt against a changing world comprised of unyielding corporate culture, superfluous litigation and zealousness for technology. Under his influence, a young ranch-hand must face difficult choices in order to retain his integrity and career. The Stetson Manifesto is a darkly comedic, modern western in the vein of Clifford Odets, Sam Shepard & Horton Foote.

A Strange Black Passion Yellow Taxi Productions presents "A Strange Black Passion" a new play based on the real life love affair of DH Lawrence & Frieda Weekley. On the eve of the Great War a young English writer and a married German mother of three fall in love, abandon their families, run off across Europe together, and develop a new style of writing that will change fiction forever. Yellow Taxi Productions has won nine NH Theatre Awards in the past five years and been named "Best Theatre on the Edge" by NH Magazine.

Super Glossy! Cosmopolitan meets The Stepford Wives meets The Venture Bros in this sci-fi satire on women's magazines. Courtney McLean is dorky and single everywoman Jane Fuller, who reluctantly caves to society's pressures after *$@%ing a Hollywood heartthrob and unwittingly becomes a pawn in the plot to brainwash the women of Earth! "Clone Courtney as many times as you need for kick-ass theatre guaranteed" Scott Stein, Maxim magazine "McLean tears at breakneck speed through a universe of colorful characters… and so accomplishes the highest moral function of theater to promote understanding." DC Theatre Reviews

TeleMongol CANCELLED DUE TO SCHEDULING CONFLICTS.

Terrible Voice Performing autobiographical monolog, Dona Budd is a mix of William Faulkner, the school smartass, and a voraciously curious toddler, with a smattering of Mae West. She finds the world infinitely delicious, her curiosity is blind to convention, and she never saw a rule she didn't want to break. Her performance unfolds a hard-hitting, funny, and untold version of a strange white child growing up in an incomprehensible pre-civil-rights South. With startling combinations, she looks as boldly at the dark side as at the delights-the taste of crayons, a segregated children's matinee. Dona takes you places you've never been.

Tesla's White Pigeon, Part 1: Static Winner, Best Play by a Local Company, SF Fringe 2004! "When that pigeon died, something went out of my life. Up to that time I knew with a certainty that I would complete my work…" Comets, eclipses, tea leaves. Graffiti, fortune cookies, kamikaze crow thudding against the window. Go on, just try to stop reading the signs. Our brains are hardwired to communicate-to receive communications. Stare at the static, listen to the white noise long enough, and you'll hear it talking to you. "[mugwumpin's work is] absorbing, nothing but theatrical-and therefore hard to describe. A catalogue of possible influences and parallels wouldn't do them justice." Berkeley Daily Planet

Turn of the Screw "Thrilling. Invigorating. The production's beauty is in its sheer inventiveness." - SF Examiner. "Spine Tingling." -SF BayTimes. A first-time governess takes charge of two children at an isolated estate. The home, she finds, is haunted in more ways than one. Or, is her own mind more tangled than the locale? foolsFURY unlaces Henry James' Victorian corset and digs deep into the story's archetypes, freudian nervous system and classic psychological terror. Adapted by Jeffery Hatcher, the compact play has received numerous awards for its dissection of James' dense prose and the quick cold chills it elicits in its viewers and in its second incubation with foolsFURY it provides a prime playground for the companies trademark unorthodox theatrical style.

You Go First Improv without a net: two veteran Bay Area improvisors step out on stage. No games. No format. No words shouted from the audience. Someone had better say or do something. William Hall and Tim Ereneta push beyond clever ad-libs to dive into characters and stories, bringing the audience along on a journey to explore modern life and middle age.