Review: HARRISBURG FRINGE FESTIVAL 2024 DAY 3 at Various Harrisburg Venues

Saturday was another beautiful day for the Harrisburg Fringe Festival! The shows started at 11am and continued well into the evening. While the Festival is now over, this reviewer highly recommends that you keep your eyes on these performers and on next year’s Harrisburg Fringe Festival!

Bear-ial, by Tyler Joseph Rossi, is presented by The Orpheus Theatre Company under the direction of Leigh Ann Hoes. Using DnD as a framework, Bear-ial introduces the audience to Blake, a non-binary college student grappling with their family's inability or unwillingness to accept her. Their friends, with whom they play DnD, are their chosen family. The cast does a great job with a tough topic, and the DnD concept is very cool. There are definitely some jokes that only make sense to the DnD crowd, but the show's main themes of family conflict and the importance of friends are quite relatable. See Bear-ial Sunday, July 21st at 5:30pm at Open Stage. The Orpheus Theatre Company

Trace Morgan presents a heartfelt and beautiful tribute to some of the best storytellers throughout the history of music. The performance includes songs from Billy Joel, Dolly Parton, Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, and more. Information about the artists is interspersed among the songs, giving the audience a brand new appreciation for their music and the stories they tell. Trace Morgan's gorgeous voice and guitar skills bring the songs to life. If you missed Trace at Fringe, check out his website at https://tracemorganmusic.com/ and Trace Morgan

Teatro Paloma presents "Fade". This play by Tanya Saracho explores the intricacies of race and class in the Latinx community and beyond. It reminds us how easy it is to make assumptions about people we don't even know based on how they look or speak or dress or act. The actors, Alexandra Felix and James Martinez, interact well, making the characters multidimensional and real. Visit http://www.teatropaloma.com/ for more information about Teatro Paloma's future projects.

Pale Erections is a performance that will make you sit up and pay attention. At times disturbing and distressing, the play follows two militia soldiers defending a Confederate monument at a Civil War battlefield. During their time together, and especially after they come across a stranger, they are confronted with questions of history, morality, truth, and justice, as one of the characters continuously states "this is my country". The cast features Jeb Beard, Frederick Hardman, and Richard Sautter. Each of these actors gives an emotional, energetic, and believable performance. With all of the strife in our country, this is a production that really hits hard, and the actors handled these difficult themes extremely well. You have one more chance to see this show on Sunday, July 21st at 4:10pm at Open Stage. https://politefictions.com/themonumentsplay/

The Offbeats, a group of talented singers, instrumentalists, dancers, and storytellers perform a completely Improvised musical based on suggestions from the audience. It is absolutely incredible to see a whole group perform an improv piece! They delivered a hilarious, amazingly coherent show, clearly putting a great deal of trust in one another. The way they developed the story and their characters on the fly was incredible. Catch their performance Sunday, July 21st at 11am at Open Stage!

Core Memory wows audiences again at their second appearance at the Harrisburg Fringe Festival. An incredible juxtaposition of technology and music, Core Memory presents the audience with an auditory and visual masterpiece that pulls on the emotions and feeds the soul. Brothers Harry and McKinley Foster take the stage with Gioia Gedicks for their 2024 performance, and it is magical. If you missed them at Fringe, check them out on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/corememorybeats/

Mother, a contemporary dance performance, includes choreography by Mia Vera, Kevin Krum, Michelina McGrady, and Jessica Yahner, with live percussion interludes by Alec Reich. The dancers, Michelina McGrady, Bryanna Urban, and Mia Vera, are mesmerizing. Their movements are precise, yet fluid, and beautifully synchronized. The choreography and the way in which the dancers execute it tell a story about family and relationships from generation to generation that transcends speech, the movements speaking loud enough for all to understand. If you missed this performance at Fringe, be sure to follow Full Circle Studios at https://www.facebook.com/thefullcirclestudios?mibextid=ZbWKwL

Cool it Cowboy Productions brings their Neo-Futurist show Quarter Life Crisis to Fringe. The tenets of Neo-Futurism are "the time is now, the place is here, you are who you are." This production features 17 short, original plays devised and performed by the ensemble and shared with the audience over the course of 1 hour. This year the ensemble features Alexandra Johnson, Gabriel Guevara, Mia Thornton, Madison Eppley, Lunden McClain, Kierstin Frantz, and Jack Feinberg, with lighting designer Jade Jarrell, stage manager Najuma Norman, filmographer Alexander Zematis, and assistant stage manager Autumn Sleva. Audience participation is what propels the show from one play to the next, making this a high energy production. The actors each bring their own style to the stage, creating an eclectic performance that keeps it feeling fresh and new every moment. Catch Quarter Life Crisis at Gamut Theatre on Sunday, July 21st at 2:50pm and follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558518814702...

The Amazing Berne, Stephen Berne Smith, presents Occultus: A Dark Magic Show, explaining that it becomes dark magic when the audience can no longer tell if it's a trick or real magic. With humor and historical details interspersed throughout his performance, The Amazing Berne captures the audience's imagination, making them question whether or not they can trust their own eyes. As advertised "this show is a little too "fringy" for a traditional magic show". You can see The Amazing Berne perform Occultus today, Sunday, July 21st at 12:55pm at Open Stage.

There’s one more installment of this reviewer’s Fringe Thoughts to come tomorrow! Stay tuned for next year’s Harrisburg Fringe Festival by following them at www.hbgfringe.com and on facebook at www.facebook.com/hbgfringe.

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