S. F. Fringe Festival Names 2011 Best of the Fringe

The 20th annual San Francisco Fringe Festival, which closed its 12-day run on September 18, has announced the 17 winners in its various "Best of the Fringe" Awards for 2011.

Seventeen shows were chosen from the 44 participating in the 2011 festival. Winners come from the Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, Springfield, MO ...and Mauritius. They represent a wide variety of theatre work - solo and ensemble, original plays, clowning and mime, and ecological installation, according to Festival producer Christina Augello.

The 17 "Best of" are listed here by title, producer or creator, and home town. This year, the SF Fringe dispensed with awarding shows by category.

"We decided to award the artists on the basis of purely good work," Augello said.

Best of the 2010 San Francisco Fringe Festival

Title Producer/Creator City

4 Clowns 4 Clowns Los Angeles
Afield Phoenix Arts Assoc. San Francisco
Alma Colorada Catherine Debon Oakland
Donna/Madonna John Paul Karliak Los Angeles
Elite Waste Gregory Kloehn Oakland
Girl in, but not of, the ‘Hood Genevieve Jessee Oakland
Hamlet vs. Zombies Skinny Improv Springfield, MO
Lorraine Olsen is Figuratively
Speaking Loraine Olsen San Francisco
The Madogs of Diego Trup Sapsiway Rose Hill, Mauritius
Over There: Comedy Is
His Best Weapon P. J. Walsh Brewster, NY
Quatre-Vingt-Quatre Dirty Swan Projects San Francisco
Radio Star Horse Trade Theatre New York, NY
The Secret Adventures of
Fat Woman & Remedial Girl Sarah Lau San Jose
Sousepaw, "A Baseball Story" Shelby Company New York, NY
Spitting In The Face Of the Devil Bob Brader New York, NY
Steve Seabrook: Better Than You Kurt Bodden San Francisco
Submarine The Crew Oakland

"Best of the Fringe" Encore Performances - Sept. 30 & Oct.1

Encore performances of four of the shows will be staged September 30 and October 1 at EXIT Theatre, 156 Eddy Street, in Downtown San Francisco. Tickets for each show are $20.00 or $40 including a $20 donation, and all proceeds go to support the 2011 San Francisco Fringe Festival scheduled for next September

Friday, September 30

7:00 p.m. - Girl in, but not of, the ‘Hood

She's not in Kansas anymore, or...she never was. After finishing college, a young Black woman reluctantly returns to her family's home in a gritty Oakland, CA neighborhood. She's eager to distance herself from the ghetto, but before she can move forward, she must travel down the rabbit hole of her past. A riveting solo performance crafted through a collage of characters, monologues, and storytelling. Created and performed by Genevieve Jessee.

9:00 p.m. - Lorraine Olsen is FIGURATIVELY SPEAKING

Actress Lorraine Olsen unveils the work of a professional art model in the vibrant world of bay Area studios, salons, and educational institutions. Structured as a typical drawing session would be, with artists sketching her as she assumes a series of progressively longer poses, she simultaneously recounts personal episodes that reveal her intrinsic role as a catalyst for the nurturing and development of Figurative Art.

Saturday, October 1

7:00 p.m. - Afield

World premiere play by last year's "Best of Fringe" winner Linda Ayres-Frederick. With Miriam's arrival in a desolate field of land mines, farmhand Samuel becomes hungry enough to barbeque the pig who could save his life. With Carolyn Doyle (AEA), Bruno Kanter, Heidi Wolff. Directed by Joe Weatherby.

9:00 p.m. - Steve Seabrook: Better Than You

Veteran comedian Kurt Bodden becomes master motivator Steve Seabrook and takes the audience into a safe, nurturing place of empowerment...Survivors of actual personal growth seminars say the show is "hilarious' and "nails the tone perfectly."

ADDITIONAL FRINGE FESTIVAL AWARD

Outstanding Volunteer Award

The annual Barbara Holloway Volunteer Award went to Thibaut Gasnier.

"The backbone of the Festival is our tireless cadre of volunteers, without whom this 12-day theatre marathon would be impossible to stage," Augello says.

For "Best of the Fringe" Info & Tickets

For complete descriptions of the four encore shows in the Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 "Best of the Fringe," go to www.sffringe.org. Or call the fringe hotline at (415) 673-3847. All shows are at EXIT Theatre, 156 Eddy Street in downtown San Francisco. Tickets are $20 per show available at www.sffringe.org.

The 2011 San Francisco Fringe Festival

The 2011 San Francisco Fringe Festival featured over 200 performances of 44 shows in 6 venues in 12 days. The Fringe Festival features fresh, exciting theatre of all kinds for open-minded audiences of all persuasions. This year's Fringe brought performers from New York, Los Angeles, Springfield, MO, Mauritius, and all over the Bay Area. "The Fringe" looks forward to its 21st year in 2012, offering bright, new, often hysterical, and sometimes shocking theatre by up-and-coming writers and performers, as well as seasoned veterans.

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