A Night of Surprises

I started Day One of Fringe early with another photoshoot. This time, the tech rehearsal of Ingrid Garner’s brand new show, “A Hollywood Horror Story.”

If you’ve been coming to Fringe the last couple of years, you know Ingrid from “Eleanor’s Story,” her award-winning adaptation of her grandmother’s memoir about growing up as an American girl in Hitler’s Germany. It’s a show about survival, told with restraint and emotional precision. Nothing about Eleanor was overtly sexual.

So imagine my surprise when Ingrid walked onstage as Vampira.

Before Elvira. Before Morticia became a household name. There was Maila Nurmi — a Finnish-American actress who created television’s first horror host in 1954. Vampira was striking, subversive, and unapologetically sexual in an era that didn’t know what to do with that. Nurmi moved through a Hollywood that included James Dean and Ed Wood, and her story is the kind of wild, tragic, fascinating tale that feels impossible until you learn it’s true.

Ingrid Garner IS this character. And I don’t mean she plays her well — I mean she becomes her in a way that makes you forget you ever saw her as Eleanor. It’s a complete transformation: the physicality, the voice, the danger of it. The writing is sharp, the multimedia elements are gorgeous, and Ingrid’s passion for this material radiates off the stage. There were times I stopped shooting and just watched.

It’s another must see.

After the shoot, I grabbed dinner (a Detroit-style pepperoni pizza at Taglio) and then headed over to Gabriel’s Corner for the evening shows.

First up: “Papa.”

I generally hate audience participation. I don’t want to be touched, spoken to, or pulled out of my seat. But Madeline Rowe, who stars as Frankenstein’s creature in this inventive clown show, has a gift for making you feel safe enough to play along. There’s an Igor-like assistant — think Teller of Penn & Teller — and together they create something that’s physically precise, deeply silly, and surprisingly sweet. The audience is never the butt of the joke. You’re part of the show, not the target of it. Rowe did something similar in “Knight, Knight” a couple of years ago, and they’ve only gotten better. I’ll have a lot more to say about “Papa” in my review over at the League of Cincinnati Theatres — stay tuned.

Then came “1 Gay Wedding and Absolutely No Funerals: Reception to Follow.”

Ben & Justin Present won the Audience Pick of the Fringe last year with the first installment, and this sequel — sorry, “second act” — picks up at the reception. It’s goofy. It’s farcical. The cast commits to the absurdity with an energy that makes the whole thing feel like a giant party - but a party that involves a dead maid of honor and her severed hand in an ice bucket.

There’s audience participation here too, starting mild and turning decidedly less mild by the curtain call. I won’t spoil it. But you’ll walk in as a theatergoer and walk out as a wedding guest.

After the shows, my friend and fellow theatre journalist Liz Eichler and I hopped on the Gest electric car complimentary shuttle (sponsored by Artswave) back to Know Theatre for the 60 Second Previews. If you haven’t experienced these, picture every artist in the festival getting one minute to pitch their show to a room full of patrons and fellow artists. The energy is warm, supportive, and genuinely encouraging — people cheering for each other’s work, getting excited about shows they hadn’t considered.

This is the part of Fringe I look forward to the most. The after hours gatherings. The benches outside the Know. The quiet conversations with people I might only see once a year. The catching up. The “what did you see tonight?” and “you HAVE to see this one.” Fringe is a theatre festival, yes. But for me, it’s always been about connecting with friends and making new ones.

Day One is in the books. I’ll see a bunch more shows tomorrow and then Rope Burn - my new novel - is sponsoring Fringe-a-oke in the Know Underground around 10pm.

See you there?

“A Hollywood Horror Story” runs at Know Theatre. “Papa” and “1 Gay Wedding and Absolutely No Funerals: Reception to Follow” run at Gabriel’s Corner. Cincinnati Fringe Festival, May 29 – June 13. Tickets and passes at cincyfringe.com.

Kirk Sheppard is a proud member of the American Theatre Critic/Journalists Association. He writes about Cincinnati theatre—but mostly about being human. Check out kirksheppard.com for more information.