FringeNYC Encore Series Begins Today

Now in its 7th year, the FringeNYC Encore Series gives theatre lovers another chance at seeing some of the most critically acclaimed and most crowd-pleasing shows from the Festival. Beginning September 7th, the FringeNYC Encore Series will present 19 "Best of The Festival" shows in rotating repertory at SoHo Playhouse and The Huron Club (both located at 15 Vandam Street between 6th Avenue & Varick) as well as at The Players Theater (115 MacDougal Street between Bleecker and Houston Streets). Tickets are $18, available at 212-691-1555 or www.SohoPlayhouse.com.

This year, the FringeNYC Encores Series is curated by a group of seven professional theater producers led by Darren Lee Cole. For the first time, the Encore Series features international work and a FringeJR production. Past Encore Series have served as a launching platform for many commercial and regional runs including Silence! The Musical, Krapp 39, Triassic Parq, and more. A complete schedule is as follows:

ALL MY CHILDREN
Writer: Matt Smith / Director: Bret Fetzer.
Max Poth takes "what-might-have-been" to extremes. He tracks down the now-grown children of long-ago girlfriends, and tells them he's their real father (knowing that he's not). A strange lark takes on a life of its own.
Huron Club. 9/12 at 8PM; 9/14 at 7PM; 9/16 at 5PM; 9/17 at 8PM

BELOW
Writer: Tess Howsam / Director: Karyn Joy DeYoung.
“Something’s dead.” Driven into a world of uncertainty, disease, and darkness, a group of survivors dwelling beneath an abandoned toxic metropolis are suddenly threatened by the arrival of a child-like stranger. Will they survive this new assault?
SoHo Playhouse. 9/8 at 8PM; 9/15 at 5PM; 9/23 at 8PM; 9/28 @ 7PM; 9/29 at 8PM

CANON IN D MINOR*
Writer: Jessica Liadsky / Director: Rachel Slaven.
Beth is lost after her best friend takes her own life in their final year of school. She glides the bow of her violin through the music that connected them in this tender and poetic story of friendship and forgiveness.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/15 at 8PM; 9/22 at 8PM; 9/27 at 7PM; 9/29 at 5PM; 9/30 at 5PM.

DANNY VISCONTI IS HILL-BENT: MY NIGHT WITH Hillary Clinton
Writer: Danny Visconti with Adam Wachter / Director: Connor Gallagher.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is Danny Visconti's idol. After a chance meeting with the Secretary of State, Danny is immediately sucked into a scandalous night of booze, strippers, and prank-calling Michele Bachmann...all set to music!!
Huron Club. 9/10 at 8PM; 9/15 at 5PM; 9/27 at 7PM; 9/29 at 3PM; 9/30 at 8PM.

5 LESBIANS EATING A QUICHE*
Writer: Evan Linder and Andrew Hobgood / Director: Sarah Gitenstein.
It’s 1956 and the Susan B. Anthony Society for the Sisters of Gertrude Stein are having their annual quiche breakfast. Will they be able to keep their cool when Communists threaten their idyllic town? “Sharp, smart and hysterically funny.” – Time Out Chicago.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/12 at 9:30PM; 9/23 at 5PM; 9/25 @ 8PM; 9/27 at 9PM; 9/28 at 9PM; 9/30 @ 8PM.

GAY CAMP*
Writer: Philip Mutz and Susan-Kate Heaney / Director: Phillip Fazio.
It's gay. It's camp. It's Gay Camp! 'Confused' campers Josh and Anton are sent to be 'cured' at Camp Acceptance. Prepare for a deliciously evil headmaster, gay Twister, Santorum surprises, and more innuendos than you can shake a dildo at!
The Players Theatre. 9/21 at 10PM; 9/22 at 10PM; 9/27 at 10PM; 9/28 at 10PM.

HAVE I GOT A GIRL FOR YOU*
Writer: Josh Mesnik / Director: Sara Sahin.
How does a newly sober gay musical theatre actor get his life on track? He gets a job running a female escort agency of course! The hilarious true story of the most unlikely new member in the oldest profession.
The Players Theatre. 9/13 at 10PM; 9/14 at 10PM; 9/15 at 7:30PM; 9/21 at 7:30PM; 9/22 at 7:30PM.

INDEPENDENTS*
Writer: Marina Keegan, Music by Stephen Feigenbaum, Lyrics by Mark Sonnenblick / Director: Charlie Polinger.
Strapped for cash, burnout crewmembers of an antique tallship become Revolutionary War reenactors. Armed with a less-than-potent combination of Wikipedia and marijuana, they face disaster in this folk musical about friendship, adulthood, and whatever those three-cornered-hats are called.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/7 at 7PM; 9/8 at 5PM; 9/11 at 8PM; 9/14 at 9PM; 9/18 at 8PM; 9/21 at 7PM.

LENNON IN DENMARK
Writer: Vibeke Hastrup & Frede Gulbrandsen / Director: Frede Gulbrandsen.
An encounter between a young woman and John Lennon in a remote part of Denmark forever changes her life. But for the better? A journey of love, forgiveness, being stuck and letting go. It’s never too late to begin again.
Huron Club. 9/15 at 3PM; 9/16 at 8PM; 9/18 at 8PM; 9/20 at 7PM

MAHMOUD*
Writer: Tara Grammy and Tom Arthur Davis / Director: Tom Arthur Davis.
One Iranian actress, three characters: an Iranian engineer-cum-taxi driver, a fabulously gay Spaniard, and a pre-teen Iranian-Canadian girl. Their stories intertwine in unexpected ways in this personal and hilarious story. Learn more about Iranians, and maybe even yourself.
Huron Club. 9/22 at 8PM; 9/23 at 3PM; 9/25 at 8PM; 9/29 at 5PM; 9/30 at 5PM.

NIGHTFALL ON MIRANGA ISLAND
Writer: Justin Moran and Jonathan Roufaeal, Music by Adam and Matt Podd / Director: Justin Moran, Music Direction: Adam and Matt Podd.
Somewhere off the coast of Guatemala: our swashbuckling hero, Declan Bruntfodder, has finally tracked the legendary pirate captain Vicious Martin LaFoe to his hideout on the lawless Miranga Island in a quest to find his sister kidnapped ten years ago.
The Players Theatre. 9/8 at 7:30PM; 9/13 at 7:30PM; 9/15 at 10PM; 9/28 at 7:30PM; 9/29 at 7:30PM

PIECES*
Writer: Chris Phillips / Director: Brian Zimmer
When an openly gay Hollywood power player is brutally murdered, his body parts distributed around the city of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles Public Defender Rory Dennis is assigned the defense of Shane Holloway, the damaged young man accused of the crime. While unlocking Shane's past, Rory is forced to confront his own scorching ambivalence about his place in a community to which he's lost almost all connection.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/7 at 9:30PM; 9/9 at 8PM; 9/12 at 8PM; 9/13 at 7PM; 9/16 at 8PM; 9/17 at 8PM.

PULP SHAKESPEARE*
Writer: Ben Tallen, Aaron Greer, BrIan Watson-Jones &Jordan Monsell / Director: Jordan Monsell
"This lively and imaginative re-invention" (LA Weekly) imagines what it might be like had the cult film “Pulp Fiction” been written by William Shakespeare. Set in Elizabethan England, Pulp Shakespeare weaves the story of a pair of murderers, their boss’s alluring wife, and a desperate knight, all brought to life by a cast of acclaimed Los Angeles Shakespearean actors.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/19 at 8PM, 9/20 at 9PM, 9/22 at 3PM, 9/24 at 8PM, and 9/26 at 8PM.

RATED M FOR MATURE
Writer: Greg Ayers / Director: Paul Dobie
Inspired by real events. This hard-hitting dark comedy follows Eric, a troubled teen bullied to the breaking point. He's able to find refuge in an online game but when his computer is taken away, who will pay the price?
SoHo Playhouse. 9/10 at 8PM; 9/14 at 7PM; 9/16 at 5PM; 9/20 at 7PM; 9/22 at 5PM.

SALAMANDER STARTS OVER*
Writer: Armando Merlo, Director: Leigh Ann Pedra
The words every teenage punk dreads: All-Boys Catholic School. But this isn't your average preparatory education. Eccentric teachers. Militant coaches. Dance-fighting students. Add these with the love of a Cuban mother and see how Salamander starts over.
Huron Club. 9/7 at 7PM; 9/9 at 8PM; 9/13 at 7PM; 9/15 at 8PM; 9/19 at 8PM; 9/28 at 7PM.

STANDBY - THE MUSICAL
Writer: Book and Lyrics by Alfred Solis, Music by Keith Robinson and Amy Baer, additional book and lyrics by Mark-Eugene Garcia / Director: Marc Connor Eardley
Five travelers, haunted by troubled pasts, await the flight of their lives. Their unresolved baggage lands them on standby, where the end of the line is the beginning of a journey to redemption in the afterlife.
The Players Theatre. 9/7 at 7:30PM; 9/14 at 7:30PM; 9/20 at 7:30; 9/27 at 7:30PM; 9/29 at 10PM.

SUPER SIDEKICK: THE MUSICAL
Writer: Gregory Crafts, music and lyrics by Michael Gordon Shapiro / Director: Steve Knight, Music Director: Stephen Bent
Adventure! Romance! Ninja koalas! Sorcerer Slurm has captured the greatest hero in the kingdom! Can lowly sidekick Inky save the day? "...perfect for small children, with audience participation, a perfect hour run-time and catchy musical numbers" -L.A. Theatre Review
SoHo Playhouse. 9/8 at 1PM; 9/9 at 1PM; 9/15 at 1PM; 9/16 at 1PM; 9/22 at 1PM; 9/23 at 1PM; 9/29 at 1PM; 9/30 at 1PM.

THIS TOO SHALL SUCK
Writer: Matt Graham
A merry romp through performance anxiety, professional Scrabble, stand-up comedy and the psych ward, Matt Graham's one-man traumedy reveals his transformation from drunken bum into reclusive cat lady/professional gambler. How bad can it suck?
Huron Club. 9/11 at 8PM; 9/21 at 7PM; 9/23 at 8PM; 9/24 at 8PM

THE ZEBRA SHIRT OF LONELY CHILDREN*
Writer: Matthew Trumbull / Director: Matthew Freeman
In this comic monologue, Trumbull stumbles through a world of urn catalogs and last-minute eulogies. It explores the bond between Trumbull and his useful-minded father, Jonathan, a dying Minnesota engineer who donates his cadaver to science.
SoHo Playhouse. 9/8 at 8PM; 9/16 at 3PM; 9/23 at 5PM; 9/26 at 8PM; 9/29 at 8PM.

* Denotes FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award Winner.