Portfringe 2014

WHAT I REMEMBER ABOUT THE DAY I FORGOT, UNTIMELY RIPPED, THE MILLER’S TALE, SURE-MINDED UNCERTAINTIES, SSPPSSM, WE ARE THE BROKEN PEOPLE

PortFringe is a annual unjuried annual theater festival in Portland.  This year’s festival will feature over 100 shows over five days in five venues throughout Portland.  SPACE is proud to be a host venue again this year.  (More information about PortFringe below the show listings).  Sunday’s shows are:

What I Remember About The Day I Forgot @ 12:00: A story as monstrous as it is magical, The Kneading Collective creates a striking devised retelling of a classic tale. Join us as we use myth to confront transition and apprehension – accompanied by puppets, chicken-chasing, bread-breaking, movement, magic, music, & absurdity!

Untimely Ripped @ 1:00: Untimely Ripped, a devised work by Tandem Theatre, examines H.H. Holmes, known as America’s First Serial Killer. Using movement and Shakespeare this yarn is spun to explore the question: What happens at the exact moment we stop being? Created by the ensemble, and directed by JJ Peeler, this daring new project sheds light on the moments right after our last breaths. Smashing together the stories of Holmes’ victims and Macbeth, Untimely Ripped investigates the birth of America’s historic obsession with notorious butchers.

The Miller’s Tale @ 2:00: Mediaeval mayhem in rhyming verse ensues in this updated version of Chaucer’s classic. A clever astrologer connives to bed a carpenter’s sexy and savvy young wife, while a conceited cleric squares out the love quadrangle with painfully hilarious results. Think of it as Chaucer meets Blackadder!

Sure-Minded Uncertainties @ 4:00: Sure-minded Uncertainties explores how activism, community, and stewardship of the earth influence and shape our modern world. Using fictionalized realism, the show follows fantastical modern day, fringe-dwelling characters including a scientist, a naturalist, an ancient wise woman, a tailor and a chrysalis as they navigate through a series of short stories. Our performance presents vibrant storytelling; merging ancient traditions, shadow puppet theatre and contemporary art forms – including film, video, sound, and computer-generated animation.

The Society for the Preservation of Sapphic Social Mores @ 6:00: Beatrice Llewellyn and Phyllis Troubridge (played by Rachel Kahn and Maggie Cee) are the founders and directors of the Society for the Preservation of Sapphic Social Mores (also known as SPPSSM). They use use humor and parody to skewer contemporary queer social norms, pointing out misogyny, prejudice, and poor sartorial choices while paying tribute to their femme forebears. Phyllis and Beatrice set out to bring their message to a younger generation of Sapphists by attempting to assimilate into the world of Radical Cheerleading, covering topics such as consent, thank you notes, polyamory, and alternate spellings of the gender commonly known as “woman.” www.thefemmeshow.com and facebook.com/sppssm

We Are The Broken People @ 7:00: In a world where you never know who the person next to you is, where fear causes us to expose our dysfunctions through reacting under the pressure that fear brings. Here is the story about how to sift through all of that and expose your superpower.

More about PortFringe in their own words:

We are PortFringe! We support new, edgy, and experimental theater in our city of Portland. We celebrate the imaginative and the weird. We seek to eliminate financial and logistical barriers so that artists can focus on their work (and maybe even make money doing so). We celebrate and contribute to Maine’s vibrant performance art community. We do this out of love and passion – for theater, for creativity, for cardboard props, and packed houses. Plus, it’s super fun.

The mission of PortFringe is to support theater and performance artists, to encourage experimentation and innovation, and to provide an accessible, affordable outlet for exciting work that enriches our creative community.