Advertisement 1

Preview: Flying solo with divas, video gamers and false profits

Article content

More than half of the artists at the 2019 Calgary Fringe Festival will be flying solo.

Storytelling monologues are a popular genre of the fringe circuit because they are inexpensive and practical to tour.

Vancouver’s Jeff Leard, who is bringing False Profits to the festival, is a 10-year veteran of the fringe circuit whereas Toronto actor Patrick Avery-Kenny and St. Albert’s Melanie Gall are just getting their feet wet with their respective shows, Gamer Boy and Ingenue: Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland and the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content
Article content

Leard has already delighted Calgary fringe audiences with his hilarious monologues Sperm Wars, The Jupiter Rebellion and The Show Must Go On — all of which were award-winning shows during their fringe tours. Leard will be premiering his newest show False Profits in Calgary for six performances at the Alexandra Centre before he takes it to Edmonton and Victoria.

Also a stage carpenter for the Vancouver Arts Club Theatre, Leard says he spends much of the off-season “thinking about what I’m going to tackle next. You have to keep your material fresh. You can’t keep bringing back the same shows. When I was trying to find a topic for this year, I kept thinking about what a mess our world is in and trying to figure out how we got (here).

“As I was doing research, I discovered some rather infuriating facts that I am going to share with my audiences. I can’t possible share them all because I have only 60 minutes.”

Leard promises False Profits will not veer into Trump bashing although that might seem an obvious, not-so-sacred-cow to bash.

“Trump is his own ongoing, one-man show and he’s not really important to what I’ve discovered.”

Article content
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content
Patrick Avery-Kenny in Gamer Boy, showing at Calgary Fringe Festival.
Patrick Avery-Kenny in Gamer Boy, showing at Calgary Fringe Festival. Calgary

TAKING HIS GAME ON THE ROAD

Performance is embedded deep in Patrick Avery-Kenny’s DNA and it has its roots in Calgary.

His uncle is Bill Avery, who was the creative force behind the Stampede Grandstand Show for 26 years, and his grandfather is the late Randy Avery, who created The Young Canadians and masterminded the Grandstand Show for the first 20 years.

Avery-Kenny says he fought the urge to be a performer by studying history at King’s University College in London, Ont., but got involved with the King’s Players and his love of history quickly became history.

“I started doing improv and sketch comedy and then transitioned into musicals and plays. I’ve always had the idea for Gamer in my back pocket because it is my story,” he says.

“When I was 13 all I wanted to be was a professional video game player. I entered an online tournament whose grand prize was a cash prize and the opportunity to compete in a major tournament.

Avery-Kenny was living in Toronto at the time and the tournament was in Dallas. His show explains how he was able to participate without his parents knowing. He plays his 13-year-old self in Gamer Boy.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

“You could say I’m using my gamer self to make another major journey. I’ve already performed the show in Toronto, London and Montreal and now I’m headed for Calgary.”

Gamer Boy plays in the Lunchbox Theatre at various times from Aug. 2 to 9.

Melanie Gall sings Deanna Durbin at the Calgary Fringe Festival.
Melanie Gall sings Deanna Durbin at the Calgary Fringe Festival. Calgary

MELANIE GALL IS RAISING HER VOICE IN TRIBUTE TO WINNIPEG DARLING DEANNA DURBIN

Winnipeg songstress and actress Deanna Durbin was a contemporary of Judy Garland. During their shared heyday, Durbin was the highest paid actress in the world and a darling of musical films. Her popularity saved Universal Pictures from bankruptcy in the 1940s, yet, St. Albert opera diva Melanie Gall knew she couldn’t create a show simply about Durbin.

“Deanna’s films are not played as frequently as Judy Garland’s so people don’t know who she is. I wanted to do a show about Deanna but I knew unless I slipped Judy in there I couldn’t make it fly,” says Gall, who has sung in such prestigious venues as Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre.

‘In my research, I discovered there was a rivalry between Deanna and Judy. It was probably more a publicity thing than of their own making, but this rivalry is how I was able to create a show mostly about Deanna but with Judy on the sidelines.”

Advertisement 5
Story continues below
Article content

Gall admits it was not easy researching Durbin because “when she retired from public life she demanded privacy. That’s why there are no biographies of her. I have plans to write one if I can learn even more about her. Deanna died in 2013. Her son announced her death to the head of her fan club and that’s how it became public. She was 93.”

Ingenue: Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland and the Golden Age of Hollywood is a jukebox musical of Durbin’s songs. She includes such Garland favourites as Over the Rainbow but it is Durbin classics as When they Begin the Beguine, Molly Malone, Spring Will Be a Little Late this Year and Can’t Help Singing that make up the majority of songs in the show.

Gall was able to sell out the 300-seat venue she was assigned at the recent Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

Ingenue plays at Lunchbox Theatre at various times from Aug. 3 to 10.

Information about all the shows and artists plus dates and times of performances are on calgaryfringe.ca

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    This Week in Flyers