BWW Preview: The Fringe Festival Comes to Kansas City

The Fringe Festival returns to Kansas City from July 16 through July 26. The festival will be held at 20 venues in the metropolitan area, including the Arts Asylum, Unicorn Theatre, and Union Station among others. Over 116 performing groups, many returning from the 2014 Fringe Festival, will produce the over 480 shows during the two week span. The Grand Hall of Union Station and the Blue Galley in Aquarius/Vulcan's Forge will host the festivals visual artists.

Egads Theatre Company will present The Grand Illusion at the Arts Asylum located at 1000 E. 9th in Kansas City. The Grand Illusion tells the journey of Spencer Brown from his first drag performance in grade school to creating his female illusionist Daisy Buckët, currently touring with the "dragapella" group of Kinsey Sicks.. Chris Holbrook, Sam Wright, and Brandon Shelton sing back up for a show promising laughter, lashes, and lyrics.

The Heartland Men's Chorus brings the Big Gay Sing to the H&R Block City Stage at Union Station. Big Gay Sing is a fun-filled, sing-a-long-tastic evening packed with all of your favorite iconic big gay songs from the world of television, pop music and Broadway. This collision of karaoke bar and choir concert features fabulous singers, a live band, lyrics on the screen for you to sing along and special guest soloists and first-time drag performers straight from the audience. Join Heartland Men's Chorus and host, Kansas City's blonde bombshell femme mimic, Daisy Buckët, in a concert event where you are the star!

Lot in Life Productions with Phoenix KC Theatre features Sue Aside by Vicki Vodrey at the Just Off Broadway Theatre at 3051 Penn Valley Dr. Directed by Warren Deckert Sue Aside features Laura Jacobs and Scott Cox. Sue left Trevor 18 months ago and since then he has done everything she wanted to try to get her back. He stayed on top of his diabetes, stopped drinking, watched his diet, and named his new dog after her. Will Sue take him back or will his plan of a surprise meeting backfire?

Whim Productions returns to the Fringe Festival with two shows on the H&R Block City Stage at Union Station. With Badder Auditions. Kevin King (Artistic Director of Whim Productions) plays the director that takes the audience behind the curtain of theater, before rehearsals begins, to the audition room. This production of Badder Auditions is a follow-up to his hilarious Bad Auditions from the 2014 KC Fringe Festival. Alphabet Soup: Stories from Queer Voices are four tales of life in the gay community that have not been explored elsewhere. The playwrights include Nick Sawin, Cynthia Hardeman, Raphael Isabella Tate, and Kevin King.

Best Light by Kansas City playwright Michelle Johnson comes to the Just Off Broadway Theatre. Luke is a talented and successful artist who also works a "day job" as a graphic designer. He and his longtime girlfriend Maya are devoted to each other. The only wrinkle in an otherwise beautiful life is Luke's bipolar disorder, where taking his medication regularly to keep life in balance sometimes conflicts with the creative urges to which Luke needs to surrender. What choices does Luke make? What choices does Maya tolerate? When you are bipolar and play fast and loose with your medication, sometimes love means always having to say you are sorry. Best Light features Davis DeRock and Meredith Wolfe.

Never Ever After a production of the Kansas City Film Festival comes to the Just Off Broadway Theatre. The untold story of Huck Finn and Peter Pan is a tale of sexual awakening, rites of passage, and loss of innocence. Phil Kinen wrote Never Ever After, which features Keegan Cole as Peter Pan and Broadway World's Best Actor in a Musical Jake Leet as Huck Finn.

Tickets for performances run from $5 to $15 and the one-time purchase of a Fringe admission button. For show times and additional information go to the Kansas City Fringe Festival Website. Photo of Spencer Brown courtesy of Egads Theatre Company.

To post a comment, you must register and login.