Beth Accomando’s recommendations for 2025 Fringe, including Riot’s “Death and Murder”:
“Rince Panic” — Michael Prine delivered spellbinding dance last year, so I’m confident he can do it again.
“Death and Murder and Poison and Scene” — Riot Productions looks to combine backstage melodrama with wicked humor.
“Pretty Beast” — I have been richly rewarded by female Japanese comedians in the past, so I’m game to gamble on this.
“Sonnets from Suburbia” — I will gamble on anything Shakespeare or Shakespeare adjacent.
“The Last Census” — Asian Story Theatre stirs up some political commentary.
“The Queen of Fishtown” — Feels like you are on the stoop of Katierose Donohue Enriquez’s hometown in Philly.
“Nighttime Julianne” — Lani Gobaleza was impressive on preview night.
“Makani Kai” and “Fre3sty13” — Both served up beautiful dance and music on preview night. Definitely worth checking out.
By Lauren Hance, author of “The Holy O” Play and host of the “What the Fringe?!” Podcast, this insider’s guide to San Diego’s International Fringe Festival (in the San Diego Reader) names Riot’s Production “Death and Murder and Poison and Scene” (by Sarah LeClair, starring Tim Benson, Delia Mejia, Brendan Macneil, Katee Drysdale and Cory Hammond) as its number one pick for 2025.
“Last year’s winner for Outstanding World premiere, local producer Sarah LeClair of Riot Productions, presents a new ensemble comedy. Leclair was once in a production of “A Perfect Crime” which has been running off Broadway for over 30 years and holding strong with a one-star review on Yelp. LeClair thought she could salvage this baffling crime drama, and started rewriting the script. Upon sharing the nw script with her friends they told her it was most definitely a comedy. Her pride was slightly damaged, but LeClair rewrote her rewrite and turned this disaster of a play into a hilarious farce. Think “Clue” meets “Noises off”.
San Diego Union Tribune: Best Things to do this week in San Diego (“Ashland”)
“Ashland”: Riot Productions will present a staged rading of this screenplay by Laura Preble about two resilient women who band together to form a found family to support one another and find resources for their two autistic sons. 6:30 p.m. Friday; 4:30 p.m. Saturday. City Heights Performance Annex, 3795 Fairmount Avenue, San Diego. Free but tickets are required.”–David Coddon, San Diego Union Tribune.
SD Voyager–The Role of Luck for Women
“What role has luck played in our business model? None. As women your odds of making it into a show are critically low and you have to work incredibly hard for every step you take. Nothing is given to you because of any work you’ve done in the past. No work is guaranteed because of your former successes. We have tow ork for every inch that we gain, whether that’s been in classes and lessons and master classes and audition coaching, or whether that’s been in networking and supporting each other’s shows, and just showing up to auditions. In the case of Riot, it’s meant drawing on existing networks of friends and acquantainces and having knowledge of people’s special skills in writing and directing and organizing and producing. It’s meant going to see dozens of shows to be able to recruit the right people for casting when we didn’t have that inside of an existing network. It’s meant talking to everyone; about everything, all the time in order to constantly be moving forward on producing the next project.
In short, it’s not luck, it’s not talent, it’s not magic.
It’s grit.
TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK HERE
Bold Journey–On Amplifying Women’s Voices
We ask the women we know in the theatrical community what they would do if they had the freedom to do whatever they wanted. Actors came back saying they had always wanted to direct. Musicians said they had scripts they’d written, directors had music they’d been working on. Successful women hadn’t been able to do the kinds of projects they’d been interested in branching out into because there wasn’t space in our community for them and no one would give them the opportunity.
We want to amplify not only the women-written projects that put women at the center, but we want to give opportunities for women to change and grow and excel in new areas where they perhaps haven’t yet had the chance to expand into.
We’re trying to create space, above all, for women. TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK HERE.
Canvas Rebel Magazine–On Real BIPOC Inclusivity
Financial gatekeeping excludes performers, writers, and storytellers from the intersection of communities of color and communities of poverty: even to participate at the lowest levels we are expected to have free access to transportation, pay for training, gain experience by paying for it or by being unpaid for a 20-40 hour a week part time job to performing in a show. Auditions are required for college programs and it’s difficult to compete without years and thousands of dollars of lessons, requiring money and transportation.
When performers, writers, and storytellers live at the intersection of communities of poverty and color and are excluded from training, education, and the stage itself, the writing, storytelling and performing in film and stage is overwhelmingly stories from white people to white people.In order to create real inclusivity we must invest in diversity financially–arts programs at all educational levels, engaging school outreach by theatres, and investing in diverse productions.
TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK HERE.