LADIES AT A GAY GIRL'S BAR: 1938-1969 - SOLO PERFORMANCE
Written, performed and choreographed by Maggie Cee with consultation from Kali Quinn Come spend an evening at a “gay girls” bar. The Stonewall Rebellion is on the horizon, but across the U.S., working-class lesbians are fighting to create spaces where they can be themselves. They dress up, they flirt, they dance, and they become a powerful force for queer visibility. Maggie Cee uses dance, soundscapes, oral history and fictional monologues to focus on the fems -- the feminine women whose stories are too often forgotten, but whose strength and determination made the gay girls’ bars come alive. Performances: Friday, October 18 at 9pm Saturday, October 19 at 6:30pm Sunday, October 20 at 6:15pm 
COMEDY IMPROV SMACKDOWN: ADULTS vs. KIDS! - COMEDY
Presented by Handful Productions A "Whose Line"-style hour of comedy improv featuring two opposing teams: adults vs. 12-14 year-olds! With suggestions from the audience and an array of "improv handles" pulled from a hat, our randomly-selected audience judges will award points to each team for originality, spontaneity, hilarity, and sass. Who will emerge victorious? Will the adults get it done, or will the kids mop the floor with their saggy bums?? Performance: Friday, October 25 at 6pm 
ANOTHER LIFE - THEATRE
by Helen Miller In this dramatic play, a family celebrates the parents' 20th wedding anniversary. Over the course of dinner, the father reveals that he is gay...and leaving to be with his lover. What happens to the family dynamic when someone chooses to pursue another life? Contains strong language. Performances: Friday, October 18 at 7:30pm Tuesday, October 22 at 7:30pm 
MOONLIGHTERS - THEATRE
by Cin Martinez Moonlighters is a futuristic take on a social service field office. Each employee discovers moments of rebellion as a way not to lose themselves in their line of work as they uncover how they got there in the first place. Performances: Monday, October 21 at 6pm Tuesday, October 22 at 9pm 
NIAGARA: A New Musical - MUSICAL THEATRE
Book by Lauren Widner Music and Lyrics by Lauren Widner and Ryan McCurdy Directed by Lauren Widner Choreography by J. Clayton Winters Music Direction by James Andrzej Rushin Dramaturgy by Katie Walker Niagara is a new musical telling the interwoven stories of six people as they travel towards the shores of the world's most famous waterfall, confronting their pasts along the way. A frank examination of universal themes meets a lyrically clever score that blurs the lines of musical genres. This will be a staged presentation of the first act of Niagara with the ability to speak with the creators and offer feedback afterwards, giving Hartford Fringe's audience the rare opportunity to both see and contribute to work being actively developed. Performances: Saturday, October 19 at 4:45pm Sunday, October 20 at 3:30pm 
The WHISH Band: SONGS OF FREEDOM - MUSIC
A concert for families...especially kids! The audience will be taught songs learning sign language along the way. All songs have a theme of peace, freedom, and social change like Open the Window, Calypso Freedom, Turn the World Around, Pete's Rainbow, and others. Using guitar, vocals and percussion instruments from indigenous peoples, guests will learn the Pete Seeger method of call and response. Attendees with special needs or have English as a second language will be able to participate and all guests will take home a songbook as a gift to keep the music flowing. Performances: Saturday, October 19 at 11am Saturday, October 26 at 10am 
WOODHULL/BEECHER - THEATRE
by Leslie Gabel-Brett Victoria Woodhull – bold activist for the rights of women, outrageous, and notorious. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher – preacher, abolitionist, brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and known as ‘the most famous man in America.’ Their lives intersected. Victoria could see the future. Scenes from a new work-in-progress featuring Victoria Woodhull and Hartford’s own Henry Ward Beecher. Performance: Wednesday, October 23 at 9:15pm Thursday, October 24 at 6:00pm Friday, October 25 at 7:30pm Saturday, October 26 at 1:45pm BEST OF THE FEST - 2nd PLACE Friday, November 1 at 7:30pm 
YOU PEOPLE! - COMEDY
Presented by Carl Yard Six comedians, each representing his or her race, culture, gender or group, take the stage! They will share their stories of how they are treated when in society everyday. A hilarious evening as comics help society to laugh and learn at the same time. Performances: Thursday, October 17 at 6pm Saturday, October 26 at 7:15pm 
MASKS AND THE MONSTER - THEATRE
Created by THE OTHER VOICE Directed by Joni Weisfeld THE OTHER VOICE is a non-verbal, physical theatre company dedicated to the exploration of the unsaid. Utilizing an adventurous and varied physical style, the diverse and evolving company members seek to un-earth the hidden components of the human condition: The Other. The company's first piece, Masks and The Monster is a wordless physical examination of who we want to be, who we really are, and what we are hiding from. It is a physically charged theatrical event that forces us to look inward, to question the differences between the True Self and the Masked Self. And the Darkness underneath it all. "Masks and The Monster" is a non-linear, pulsating, freeing, exhausting, ugly, beautiful journey into our collective humanity... Contains mature content. Performance: Sunday, October 20 at 8pm 
CAPITAL CITY STAND-UP: THE RISING STARS OF HARTFORD COMEDY
featuring Mo Green, Cliff Mula and Ish Gupta A stand-up comedy showcase featuring the rising stars of Connecticut’s Capital City! Headliner Mo Green is a Hartford-based comic who has performed all over the United States. He has appeared on Bric TV, Amazon Prime, and at major clubs in NYC and Los Angeles. He has opened for AJ Johnson and Nikki Carr. Feature Cliff Mula can’t snap his fingers or whistle but he’s from Hartford so he’s got a story to tell. He has hosted at the Hartford Funny Bone, and has appeared at Treehouse Comedy Club, Loft Comedy Club, Brew Haha Comedy Club, and numerous venues in NYC and Los Angeles. Host Ish Gupta teaches kids, sings songs, and tells jokes. He’s got a lotta weird stories he would love to tell you. He was recently featured in The Hartford Courant, and regularly appears at venues all across CT and MA. Performance: Friday, October 25 at 9:15pm |
SEAHORSE: A LOVE STORY - DANCE
An original composition conceived by Nature, directed and choreographed by William W. Allen, in collaboration with Shelly Berkowitz. Join us for an original dance composition inspired by the courtship of wild seahorses. Their drama of love and life in a marine environment imperiled by plastic trash comes to the stage with the accompaniment of a live flutist, and the comic relief of a school of little fish. Performances: Saturday, October 19 at 10am Monday, October 21 at 8:15pm Wednesday, October 23 at 6pm Saturday, October 26 at 11:30am 
GRANDMA'S EYE PATCH - SOLO PERFORMANCE
Performed by Julia VanderVeen Written/Created by Julia VanderVeen and Aitor Basauri Directed by Aitor Basauri Join Julia and her grandmother as they walk down memory lane and discover that some of the most profound life lessons bear repeating. Contains mature content. Performances: Saturday, October 19 at 3:30pm Sunday, October 20 at 1pm 
THE COMEDY STYLINGS OF BRENDAN K. WILLIAMS - STAND UP
Written & Performed by Brendan K. Williams Mr. Williams, who left his hearing in San Francisco and is now hearing impaired, is currently living and performing around the state of Maine and back home in San Francisco. His comedy styles comes from combining stories about his unique childhood with pop cultural references. In his first one-man show, Brendan jokingly opens up about being born with multiple birth defects and needing six months of surgery to getting busted for trading with foreign enemies at age 18. Contains strong language. Performance: Saturday, October 19 at 8pm Sunday, October 20 at 5pm Saturday, October 26 at 6pm 
BLACK IRISH - THEATRE
Written & Directed by Jeffrey Kagan-McCann Black Irish is a funny and bittersweet story of Ruairí Phelan, a young American who travels to a small town in Ireland to meet his grandfather’s family...relatives who believed their Uncle Patrick had died years ago. Unknown to his grandfather’s relatives, they are surprised when they meet him. This play first premiered in 1998 International Seattle Fringe Festival. “Kagan-McCann is an up and coming African-American playwright” – Seattle Gay News “…through a script sprinkled with interesting twists and emotions, making this one-act as intoxicating as a slug of good whiskey." – Melanie McFarlane of The Seattle Times Performances: Thursday, October 17 at 8:45pm Saturday, October 19 at 12:30pm Sunday, October 20 at 11:30am Tuesday, October 22 at 6pm Saturday, October 26 at 4:30pm BEST OF THE FEST - 1st PLACE Friday, November 1 at 8:45pm 
THE WOODHULL PROJECT - SOLO PERFORMANCE
Written & Performed by Emma Palzere-Rae Presented by Be Well Productions The Woodhull Project explores how Victoria Woodhull, a U.S. Presidential candidate in 1872, would perceive our progress with politics and women's rights. Set today Victoria returns to life as a guest lecturer at a women's college. Through dialogue with the audience and flashbacks of her extraordinary and scandalous life, we learn about this woman - the first to speak before Congress, the first to open a stock brokerage, and the first to be arrested under the Comstock Law - who was written out of history. Performances: Thursday, October 17 at 7:30pm Monday, October 21 at 7pm 
THE SECOND STEP PLAYERS - COMEDY
a relevant and irreverent look at mental illness The Second Step Players, America's favorite stigma-busing comedy troupe, will offer its signature sketch comedy that entertains while examining the state of mental health in our society. Using Conscious Comedy, SSP will delight, inspire, and raise awareness through its original sketches featuring actors who are in recovery from psychiatric disorders. Each sketch will have you laughing...and leave you thinking. Performance: Saturday, October 26 at 12:30pm 
LET'S STOP THE MADNESS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE (PART 1) - THEATRE
A Developmental Workshop by CMS Theater Family Project Overwhelmed with all of the violence, problems and negativity in the world, a mother and daughter have a conversation about what they can do to make our world a better place. Their discussion evolves into an interactive experience for the audience to contribute to solutions that can transform our corner of the globe. A stage reading that utilizes spoken word, video and dance, this uplifting workshop performance will inspire you to stop the madness and bring the light. Performances: Wednesday, October 23 at 7:45pm Thursday, October 24 at 7pm 
KATHY'S SECRET - THEATRE
A Staged Reading by T. Melvin Thomas Following a repast for Kathy (formerly George), her family - Great Aunt Jessy, mother Carol and father Reverend Sanders - are forced to face their fears and misconceptions upon meeting Kathy's fiancé Clayton. Performance: Friday, October 18 at 6pm 
STRANGE FRUIT - THEATRE
A Staged Reading by Jacques Lamarre Inspired by the book Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song by David Margolick Directed by Eric Ort Millions of people around the globe have been moved by Billie Holiday’s haunting and mournful interpretation of the standard “Strange Fruit.” It’s evocative imagery of black lynching victims hanging from Southern trees and Holiday’s gripping performance have become indelible in the American consciousness. So how did a protest song written by a white, Jewish, Communist school teacher become a protest song that is inextricably linked with the African American community? Songwriter Abel Meeropol comes face-to-face with Holiday as he tries to convince her that she is the only one who can do the song justice. Contains strong language. Performance: Thursday, October 24 at 8:30pm Saturday, October 26 at 8:45pm BEST OF THE FEST - 3rd PLACE Friday, November 1 at 6:00pm |
