Here are some best bets for the Calgary Fringe Fest
The Calgary Fringe Festival, the city's annual independent theatre party, opens Friday and continues to Aug. 10, featuring 20 in-person shows. This year's venues include Festival Hall, the Fellowship Hall in the basement of the Lantern Church, a theatre at Wood's Homes, the Rose Room in the Alexandra Centre and the basement of the Next Page bookstore. You can find out more and get tickets at tickets.calgaryfringe.ca. To save you some work, theatre critic Louis B. Hobson has two picks every day of the festival.
FRIDAY CELEXIA
Much to her dismay, when Alexa Mcginn was a youngster, she was placed in her school's remedial reading and spelling classes. She loved words, and how they enriched her life so she was confused and disheartened. Fortunately, after much insistence on her part, the school discovered Alexa was dyslexic, and she was returned to regular classes.
Mcginn's fringe play Celexia takes its audiences on Alexa's journey to, not just being reunited with words, but to using them to create her plays and stories. Celexia runs at 5:15 p.m. in the Lantern Church's Fellowship Hall.
TAKING IT ALL OFF
In his solo show, Calgary film and stage actor Stuart Bentley takes his audiences on an intimate voyage of self-discovery that looks at everything from yo-yo dieting to the harsh reality of losing a partner to dementia. It's the realization life can take twists and turns that prove things are not always what they should be, but what they are.
Though it is an unvarnished, deeply human journey, about what it means to become a caretaker, and to deal with grief, Taking It All Off is also filled with joy and hope, and the power of resilience. It may not be about getting physically naked but it's definitely about getting emotionally naked. At 8:45 p.m. in the Lantern Church's Fellowship Hall.
IN THE ABROAD
Having emigrated to Canada from Nigeria, Samuel Kugbiyi is inthe-abroad, a term used by Africans who left for new lands. Kugbiyi wants his audiences to understand what it's like for a young immigrant to battle loneliness, as well as economic and cultural shock.
He's been singing, dancing and entertaining since he was nine, so Kugbiyi is telling his story through a one-man show which he calls a musical and dramatic rant. Kugbiyi says In The Abroad just may elicit a few tears, but will encourage a great deal of laughter, and merriment. It runs at 1:45 p.m. in the Lantern Church Fellowship Hall.
DJ CHRIST: SAVING HUMANITY
Chris Visser calls his fringe show a what-if experiment. He hypothesizes what might happen if Christ returned today with no knowledge of the past 2,000 years. He would probably have an identity crisis and have to start all over again to redefine and rebuild what Christianity has become to reach a modern audience. Because he's tackling these major topics with humour, Visser says there will be music, dancing, and perhaps even miracles. He asks his prospective audiences to take the show as a thought experiment and nothing else.