Camouflage

Produced by Camouflage Productions

Author: Gail Roberts

We all have something to hide — or something we'd rather not face, and pretty often, we're bedeviled by both.  As we get older the blinders get tighter and our attitudes, sometimes brought about by circumstances only vaguely remembered, harden. In Camouflage, a woman journeys by bus, but the physical journey also takes her into her past and, in the process, holds out hope for change.

By interacting with an entertaining array of people from the present and from the past (Gail Roberts plays them all!), Camouflage underscores a very contemporary human condition:  Our preference to hide our own foibles from ourselves and others.  It's as up to date as today's breakfast; wherein we try to convince ourselves that bacon is as good for us as Fiber 1. 

We hope that audiences, after seeing Camouflage, may reflect on how to make their lives a little brighter and to love those close to them, if not unconditionally, at least somewhat more so. 

Mark Schoenberg, director

Jihad for Vent and Dummy

Produced by Coulter and Star Ventriloquists

Author: Ronald Coulter and Sid Star

Jihad for Vent and Dummy is about you, the audience.  The fun and secrets of ventriloquism invite you to frolic with belief.  Expect a shocking play within a comic show.  You will experience provocative content before it is verbalized.  Is this a solo show?  Yes, but never tell my puppet partner, Sid Star, or our stagehand.

Jihad means holy war.  Jihad is always one collection of beliefs at war with a different collection of beliefs.  Apparently we're going to kill each other over these conflicting beliefs.  Jihad...  explores the process rather than the content of belief.  Here is an opportunity for personal and political discovery embracing hope.  Laughter can so do this.

Actors, ventriloquists and clergy are athletes of belief.  We have robust ability and elaborate techniques to inspire and manipulate belief.  Often this manipulation is in your best interest.  Usually it's harmless; sometimes it's not.  Jihad for Vent and Dummy suggests an alternative human dynamic that is superior to belief's dangerous conceit.  COME PLAY WITH US.

Ronald Coulter, writer/performer

The Surprise

Author: Martin Dockery

The Surprise is a comic, true monologue about a man exploring the expansive ruins of an ancient, powerful world as his own small world — his family, his girlfriend — is busy collapsing into a set of equally spectacular ruins.  

What exactly can we rely on in today's world with its rapidly dissolving foundations? As our nation threatens to crumble into ruin, and our sense of national identity begins to fray, we are faced with either radically accepting and reorienting, or giving ourselves over to history.

These days, particularly, we like to think we at least have our family to rely on. But whose family is truly reliable? The Surprise is the funny story of trying to keep it all together as everything falls apart.

Martin Dockery, creator/performer

Coffee Dad, Chicken Mom, and the Fabulous Buddha Boy

Produced by Mischief and Mayhem Theatre

Coffee Dad, Chicken Mom and the Fabulous Buddha Boi is a show about family and love and finding out that who you thought you were and who your family thinks you are may not be the same person. It is also a show about love and finding peace with yourself, where you've been and who you're becoming.

Coffee Dad, Chicken Mom and the Fabulous Buddha Boi is pertinent for an audience today or any day because there isn't a single person in the entire world who hasn't struggled with gigantic questions of self and hasn't worried or wondered how their family will react. These moments of uncertainty and the desire for support are the things that bind us together as human beings. The desire for love and acceptance and certainty extends through the hearts of every global citizen.

We have chosen to present this show because it is simple, beautiful, well written and well performed. We want to expose this gorgeous, touching play to an audience beyond our tiny sphere of Western Canada and ultimately we want to remind people that they are not alone in their struggle and no matter how dark it seems someone is on your side and someone is there, sitting in a dark kitchen, holding your hand.

Michelle Kennedy, director

End of the Trail

Produced by EXIT Theatre

Author: Sean Owens and Kenny Shults

The show is about best friends, more than anything else, and how important such a relationship can be. It's also about how hard life can be, how ludicrous each of us can be as we struggle through it, and how our warped perceptions of life, and everything in it, often contribute to, or perhaps are responsible for, our collective and respective madness.

Many of us wonder what's next. These times feel so new and uncharted. We are all on the brink of an exciting and perhaps daunting new era. Our desire to know what's on the other side, often paired with our penchant for fear of the unknown, can generate a lot of big questions with no answers. It's how we embrace the questions and the unfamiliar that make us human, frail and small. But it's this understanding that makes us powerful and big — this remembering that we are all a little bit crazy that makes seeing our show worth while.

We chose to present this show to remind ourselves and everyone else that life is a mystery and that the very best we can hope to do is make some meaningful connections and try our very best to enjoy moments of this life.

Kenny Neal Shults, co-author/actor

How Does a Drug Deal Become a Decent 3rd Date?

Produced by Green with Envy Productions

It's a thoughtful, mature and humourous look at the the thoughtless, immature and deadly serious world of dating. One girl and the three funny fellas who fail her. Hey, going out on a limb here, are you free Friday? You are very cute.

There are very few themes that apply to any time in all of mankind's history. War and love come to mind and as we all know, war + love = dating. It's the things on earth everyone has in common — poor romantic choices and math. So about Friday...dinner and a movie? Those jeans are very, very attractive.

There are premises writers return to again and again because they are universal, they are recognizable and above all they are human.  And misery loves company. And company loves hilarious misery. Am I right? Really, the two of them should date. Wow, you have a great smile, you know that?

Carmine Lucarelli, director

The Dysfunctional Guide to Home, Perfection, Marital Bliss

Produced by Dysfunctional Theatre Company

Author: Jennifer Gill, Rachel Grundy, Amy Overman, Amy Beth Sherman, Theresa Unfried

The Dysfunctional Guide to Home Perfection, Marital Bliss & Passionate Hot Romance is the single greatest book on marriage ever written.  It covers over 500 years of recorded history (and some unrecorded history, too).   Our show is about this book.  You can expect to see five women drinking a lot of wine and playing a lot of different, random characters through time.  We wear little black dresses, drink heavily, talk about men and ponder why the hell we're married and why the hell we bother.  It's a bit like Sex & the City, but with one more woman and a much smaller wardrobe budget.

Since 50% of marriages end in divorce, I think trying to figure out why the other half don't is pretty topical.  Plus we're really, really funny.  And smart.  This is a crazy, funny, romantic comedy.  Women will relate to it; men will gain valuable insight into the female psyche.  Plus, what other show features a 15th century English prophet/crazy woman?  No other show I'd bet you.

We love FRIGID and we're proud to have been a part of every FRIGID festival.  We've wanted to do this piece for a long time and FRIGID's open, experimental atmosphere is the perfect place to premier a new work, especially one as surreal as this show.

Amy Overman, writer/actor

The Hefner Monologues

Author: John Hefner

My show's about making a name for yourself when someone else already has. In my case, that name happens to be Hefner. And yes, I do mean THAT Hefner! I''m the black sheep of the white bunny family: the estranged Anti-Hefner, a manic, awkward geek with a tendency to flail his arms and put on impromptu stripteases set to "You Put The Lime In The Coconut!" This is not your typical "identity monologue" show. And it's all true. Even the really crazy parts.

People should see my show because it's funny, honest, and 100% wank-free. Also, because I am poor and would like to eat. Man cannot live on Hot Pockets alone!

I chose to present this show, first and foremost, to entertain people. I''ve always admired performers like Richard Pryor, John Leguizamo, and Christopher Titus: people who can make comic gold out of even the most painful and embarrassing parts of life. I wanted to tell my own story from the sorely-underrepresented awkward arms-flailing geek-boy perspective.

John Hefner, writer/performer

95/Turnpike/95: Chickens in Jersey

Produced by International BTC

95/turnpike/95: Chickens in Jersey is the story of Milo and Jane, two toll booth workers on the Jersey Turnpike experiencing a freakishly slow work day.  As Milo waits for his dream woman and Jane waits for her steam whistle, they're faced with the impending doom of the Rooster of the Turnpike — the horrid Chicken Truck — and the difficult choice of: do I stay or do I go?  Audiences can expect language with no restraints, eccentric characters — both odd and endearing — chicken clucks a-plenty and a whole lotta feathers.

Known as the butt of many a culture joke, this show contains two perspectives of the great Garden State — New Jersey, love it or hate it.  At the heart is a question that everyone faces at some point in life, but on the surface is an absurd funny picture of these two eccentric characters that don't take life too seriously, and neither does this play.  Overall, we feel audiences will want to see this show because it's thoughtful, but mostly, just plain entertaining.

We mainly chose this play because it's a fun piece to experience and in this festival especially, we're granted the chance to experiment and indulge our stranger side… and the show's pretty strange.  When it comes down to it, we figure with seasonal depression and an economic recession (rhyme!) — why not make 'em laugh?

Amanda Sage Comerford, co-playwright

BAGS: Obsessions of a Hoardaholic

Author: Lee Michael Buckman

In BAGS: Obsessions of a Hoardaholic, I explore our obsessive nature by exampling my own bouts with OCD through my life. It's funny, reflective, extremely honest  and a little sad. It's an intimate piece about how you can be taken over by thoughts that attempt to run your life and my attempts to seek the roots of it to further understand myself. I also play and sing a few introspective songs on guitar.

As we  all  look deeper into ourselves to further understand who we are and the things/events that shaped us into who we've become through our triumphs and our flaws, it's important to honestly look at them without censoring or feeling that we are    wrong in anyway. In this piece I unabashedly look at them all.

At first I wrote this show to out myself as a hoarder and an obsessive because I thought it would be entertaining, but as I started to perform it, I started to get responses from people that had either been touched by this same trait, either directly or indirectly or those that had witnessed the passing of a parent. I was trying to alienate myself from people by saying  how different I am but through putting it out there honestly, I'm seeing how alike we all really are.

Lee Michael Buckman, author/performer

Hysteri-KILLY! A One Freak Show

Author: Killer Killy Dwyer

Hysteri-KILLY! is a hilarious, psychedelic, witty wet dream.  It's like if Carol Burnett, Andy Kaufman's ghost, the Spice Girls, Sigmund Freud and a banana peel all had the same best friend — that best friend is my freak show.  It's a manic-depressive, cockeyed-optimist toy train wreck, with catchy original music that will have your toes tapping, possibly turn you gay and have you leaving the theater with a life changing experience and a brand new car.  It's rock and roll meets performance art. It's super heros and super egos.  Hysteri-KILLY! Is art imitating art imitating life imitating art.

My show is pertinent to today's times because it is priced for a crappy economy...well, that AND it's a multi-personality, multi-media comment on an over medicated, over stimulated society.  It's a silly and surreal observation of ourselves, our stressed and saturated psyches, and our inner children yearning to be free from fear and failure. The audience should expect to be surprised, to laugh at inappropriate things at inappropriate times and to have their inner children experience a play date with Hyster-KILLY!

This show chose to present me.  I gave birth to it.  It owes me just like any child owes their parent.  My parents (its grandparents) don''t approve of my bastard love child and have since disowned us both.  That's how bad ass my show is.  Good show.  Good. (Pats show on head) Good.

Kelly B. Dwyer, writer/director/performer

Y, marilyn unstitched

Author: Irene Glezos & Brad Calcaterra

Y, marilyn unstitched is a solo play that explores the inner landscape of a woman who was given the name Marilyn Monroe.  It's about a longing for self in a world strongly bent on defining and possessing us, a world where others are sure they know us even if we aren't sure we know ourselves.  Weaving truth with imagination '— and with liberal use of free association, alter egos, pill-induced manic episodes, and, especially, an open heart, Y follows MM as she tries to solve her own death.  We like to call the process by which we arrived at this play, and, for that matter, the playing of it:  "making proper use of the crazies."

This show is pertinent because who wouldn't want an intimate hour with Marilyn!  I would!

Y, marilyn unstitched was developed by Irene Glezos and Brad Calcaterra in an ongoing workshop called "Risk" under Brad's direction at the Sally Johnson Studio over the course of one year.  In "Risk," a group of solo performers meet on Mondays to explore their truth in front of each other.  We call it "Live Diary" or "Stand Up Drama."  Out of these improvisations, characters emerge, and stories begin to take shape. We believe that the things we want to hide from or about which we are ashamed are actually the seeds of our creativity.  The performer's improvised material is videotaped each week, then transcribed and shaped into the play.   The attempt is never to impersonate but rather to engage an archetype, and through the character and play, to find ways of telling our own truth. 

Irene Glezos, co-creator/actress