The Off Center for the Dramatic Arts proudly presents new and wild performance work at the 6th Annual Burlington Fringe Theater Festival, featuring 18 shows over 3 days in genres ranging from live video performance, theater, performance art, puppetry, comedy, improv, story-telling to spoken word with Cello. Performers showcase their work in 20 minute slots.

Saturday, October 12, 7 p.m.

General Audience

Performers: Dennis McSorley, Maggie Phelan, Martin Gil, Eric Pachner, Jessie Owens and Danielle Tekut, and Lauren Costello.

Dennis McSorley - What's It to You

Dennis is an actor and storyteller who has been a part of Off Center for sometime. He has debuted all of his solo work here in the spirit of the Off Center mission. He has twice been in the Spring New Artist showcase, many past Fringe line-ups and the XMAS Holiday gigs. This time he again is trying out something new: ‘What’s It to You’.  Both audience and him will find out soon enough.

Medium Boy - Harry

Medium Boy invites you to meet Harry, a modified version of a classic improv form. With help from the audience we’ll draw from our real lives and yours to create a window into a world of comedy that has never existed and will never exist again. You’ll see quick scenes, long scenes, crossovers, and callbacks. Nothing’s been pre-written and it’s all made up on the spot so each show is unique to its audience. Come share a moment with us! You’re going to like the way you laugh, we guarantee it. Medium Boy is a long form improv team from Burlington, VT that will take you on a tour of all things strange and wonderful, building new worlds with a focus on relationships, character building, and absurdity. They’ve been featured in the Big Pond Improv Festival, Hartford Improv Festival, and can be seen during their fall residency at Vermont Comedy Club. Medium Boy is Emily Kueppers, Maggie Phelan, Lindsey Desrochers, Linda Biafore, Rachael Sherman, and Ash Diggs.

Martin Gil - Drum Speech

The Man and his conga will discuss the politics of money and power, displacement, inclusion, and social depravity. Perhaps a visitation by important persons will occur, perhaps not. 

Born in the mountains of the planet Mars, tempered in the heart of the sun, Mister Gil discovered writing expressively soothed the angst precipitated by his feelings of being an outsider here on Earth. Schooled in Vermont, Marty has traveled this planet in search for meaning, for an answer to the question of existence. For him, performance of his written word, is the icing on his cake, made with oat and rice flour; gluten free.

Eric Pachner

The history of man would be nothing without the enduring companionship of the Dog. Join me in exploring the questions surrounding our love for Dogs. Have you ever pet a dog that sees you? Knows you? Your lover doesn't know you as well as that Dog. Will the Dogs be our salvation? Or are we totally doomed!? See spot run.  

Erich Pachner is a dog wrangler and a human wrangler with a foot on the train and a foot up sh*t’s creek. He hopes to give offerings to a living god up the creek. But the creek is Niagara Falls. So he camps out on the maid in the mist.

Jessie Owens and Danielle Tekut - The Wet Frontier Between Me and Me

The Wet Frontier Between Me and Me is one part of They Say a Lady Was the Cause of It, an evening-length dance performance that is currently being created by Jessie Owens. The full performance, inspired in part by Orlando, by Virginia Woolf, and Undine Geht (Undine Goes), by Ingeborg Bachmann, will premier in February, 2020 at the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center. Creator and choreographer, Jessie Owens and co-choreographer, Danielle Tekut will present excerpts of the material they have created for The Wet Frontier Between Me and Me. It explores the concepts of agency and identity, beyond the way society has written them, and beyond the roles we assume in our daily lives. The performance will include the use of movement, recorded music, and spoken word. 

Lauren Costello - "I Fake It So Real I Am Beyond Fake" How do we navigate through tumultuous situations when our emotional response is at odds with, or detrimental to, our maintenance of a status quo that we value? If we suppress or hide our emotions for an extended period of time or with such triumphant accomplishment, can we lose our sense of self in the process? What if our inner voice fades behind that of a constructed self? This piece is a thematic exploration using music made with cello, guitar, vocals, tape, field recordings, and noise, along with interview clips from Courtney Love, Sylvia Plath, Kazuo Ishiguro, Nicole Kidman, Lars Von Trier, and many others, of the experience of fearing emotions when the dissociative process breaks down.Lauren Costello is a Burlington based multi-instrumental musician. She performs her solo music under the moniker 'ouzkxqlzn' and plays cello in the Wren Kitz band, the Dead Shakers, and occasionally with the Jessica Rabbit Syndrome.