FronteraFest Short Fringe, January 16

Notes from the FronteraFest at Hyde Park Theatre on Friday night

Letters of Compliment and Complaint
Time of Elements
Calm, A Play for 5 Voices and Piano
Pens and Strings
Girls, Girls, Girls

The Hyde Park Theatre's FronteraFest short fringe, serving up 5 short plays an evening, is off to a rushing start, judging by the house on Friday night, January 16. The place was full -- so much so, that at curtain time the management put in an additional row of folding chairs between the stage and row 1 (where I was sitting). This was a sociable, generally young crowd, attracted by the ads and the FronteraFest reputation to enjoy an unpredictable evening in which the per-show cost was $2.40 (or $2.60 if you booked in advance on-line).

Mocha Jean Herrup's Letters of Compliment and Complaint was a cheerful lecture by that writer, director, performer, and spiritual humorist outlining various tussles with entities ranging from a landlord to a taco vendor to two airlines. She used PowerPoint slides to announce each episode (eliciting cheerful groans when the Time Warner logo showed up) and to draw a moral lesson in each case. Accompanist James Dean Jay Byrd prefaced Mocha Jean's show with an admonitory little ditty and blew the closing when he forgot the lyrics, to the amusement of everyone. Mocha Jean, who teaches film studies at Austin Community College, was adept and at ease on stage -- she fixed the recalcitrant PowerPoint at the opening and prompted her accompanist at the end as he dissolved into chuckles. Entertaining and personable, with some good Reminders for Living.

Time of Elements, a silent dance piece staged by Mysti Jace Pride in collaboration with Eve Springer, was announced as a four-part interpretation of the elements of wind, fire, water, and earth. Both dancers were impressive, lithe and inventively choreographed. Mysti Jace was onstage throughout, convoluting herself in grace and energy, and she ended the presentation by settling her head with thanks on the shoulder of her partner.

Michael McKelvey of St. Edwards University worked with five high school students in his Performers' Workshop to produce Calm, a play for 5 Voices and Piano (book by Nigel O'Hearn, music and lyrics by McKelvey). The performers' ages were no barrier, given that they were playing students at a co-ed bording school 'in somewhere, USA," and O'Hearn produced skits with the eternal situations of high school life. Slim, over-brainy student Lenny (Ryan Borses) makes a class presentation on the Russian revolution, advocates the example of Kulak violence against collectivisation, and rages when other students are indifferent. Daniel (Brian Boart), whose class thoughts are on getting away to the john, mendaciously sweet talks Julie-Ann (Monique Huff) and flirts provocatively with Alice (Khara Brown); the two girls spar in words and sing about their jealousies of one another. Roommates Daniel (Bogart) and Harry (Mark Murray) have a momentary brush with homosexuality and each blames the other. Then that would-be anarchist Lenny comes back with matches and a gas can. . . . The acting rises well above the script, though, and the short musical numbers provide the players the opportunity to show that they can sing, too. Calm got my vote for 'best of the evening," since the story was coherent though trivial, and all players showed promise.

Pens and Strings comes from Dallas-based Audacity Theatre Lab, which has its own web site and its own blog. Back to Pirandello -- we have a writer scribbling away in a bar, and there, speaking to us, is the character he is creating. Rasa Lina as the imagined horrible former girlfriend is assured, funny and sympathetic; Oscar Contreras plays the minor role of the frustrated author; and Angela Parsons appears first as the waitress and then as the writer's re-imagining of her. There's some amusement in watching Lina go limp when the scribbler gets writer's block. The two imaginary women quarrel with one another and then decide to take it all out on the writer, with predictable results. This is a copybook exercise, but not less amusing for all that.

The four women in Girls, Girls, Girls were unidentified in my program. Perhaps someone had forgotten to stuff their leaflet into the folder. They announced their intentions to improvise a musical comedy, but once she'd invited suggestions of a venue, the leader kept the audience shouting until she pretended she heard "barn." Then they slipped smoothly into a skit about a single mom on a farm with two credulous daughters and a mysterious stranger who comes to call. They had certainly done this one before. Funniest was the short, attractive young woman who was pretending to be a ruff tuff cowboy type, but daughters and Mom were nicely imagined.