Rogue Round-up, Day 1

Friday night lights: Rogue-style brought me to three very different shows and my first guest spot for the Festival!

Cassini LIVE (#933)

Rogue 2026 kicked off, for me, with the newly award-winning Cassini LIVE, an operatic-cinematic theatrical piece that is sure to give you awe and pause. Led by live organist Tony Imperatice and singer Bernadette LaMontagne-Schenek, this show delivers an appreciation, if not a wholly engaging celestial lesson, on the Cassini mission to Saturn. 

Cassini LIVE, a film by Tony Imperatrice and Claudio Laso, is an exploration of Cassini’s space exploration of Saturn, by way–as audiences will learn–of Earth, Venus, and Jupiter. The five-act structure: Launch, The Long Journey, The Moons, The Rings, and Destiny, provide beautifully captured, edited, and scored images while being accompanied by Imperatrice’s soaring score and LaMontagne-Schenek’s glistening vocals. The choice to personify Cassini’s seven-year journey through opera and organ is inspired, giving breadth and depth to an experience most earthlings will never experience, at least first-hand. And yet, through a soothing blue lighting in the Hart’s Haven space, audiences enjoy the seeing the disciplined ease Imperatrice and LaMontagne-Schenek have in their musicianship while fully absorbing the Cassini mission through Laso’s crafty and plot-driven editing. Cassini LIVE is for anyone and everyone who simply appreciates quality artistry, and even more if you're fan of astronomy. Go see this show!

You can catch Cassini LIVE at Hart’s Haven (Indoor Stage) on:

Saturday, 2/28 at 6:30p

Sunday, 3/1 at 6:30p

Friday, 3/6 at 7p

Saturday, 3/7 at 5p

As It Happens and Other Fairy Tales 

The Stargazer Lounge brings the spoken word group, Elastic Ink, to its living room for a variety of essays in a most-intimate, cozy fashion. Writer/speakers Brooke Aiello, Casey Ballard, and Heather Parish bring a pair of essays each to the Lounge for an evening of astute, nuanced, deeply personal, and at many times darkly comical pieces on family, love lost, love earned, and love let go of. 

What is to be gained from a trip to As It Happens and Other Fairy Tales is the privilege of hearing three gifted writers deliver their words in real-time. The experience is immediate and pensive, with all three writers being wholly welcoming in their challenging of social, familial, and political norms. What even is a norm at this point though, right? All six essays don’t color one’s thinking of current issues facing you–whether personal, political, or public–but simply inform your thoughts and behavior while compellingly challenging one's own system of beliefs. 

I found Parish’s essay about her mom and truth to be extremely specific in how universally it relates to how our memory can betray and inform, whether accurately or not. Ballard’s essay on losing a journal being connected to losing a father was compellingly home-hitting and emotionally affecting in the ways one wants out of writing that is personally entertaining in all forms of genre. Aiello’s essay titled, “A Eulogy,” explores the complicated verbiage one puts to processing losing a true love, warts and all. The summation of the show is: Authenticity. The essays, the delivery, the pauses and the processing, the banter are all Authentic. The writing is superb, and the deliveries are terrific, but its the Authenticity which makes As It Happens and Other Fairy Tales a show you must see!

You can catch As It Happens and Other Fairy Tales at Stargazer Lounge on:

Saturday, 2/28 at 6:30p

S’Will: El Sueno de Midsummer (#934)

The Fools Collaborative is back with their newest drunk Shakespeare endeavor: El Sueno de Midsummer, a one-hour adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Set locally (Clovis and the Tower District), the gloves are off when it comes to spoofing and commenting on the villains who plague our current climate, while offering many laughs and yes, a shot to sobriety. The opening night performance brought a full house (this is common for S’Will so, if you plan to attend one of their shows, pause your reading of this review, buy your ticket, and then come back) to experience the hilarity and hijinks the seriously talented cast delivers. Helmed by Miguel A. Gastelum, with concept by Gastelum and assistant director Haley White, this version of …Midsummer is sure to entertain whether you’re a fan of the Bard or not. 

The Fools gather for a performance of this well-known comedy in true honoring of the text that matters and the comedy that busts your gut by way of references, Improv, and modernizations of the text's well-known characters. Alison Botello-Nieto is a standout as Helena/Quince/La Shy Girl, using every ounce of physical and verbal comedy at her disposal. Mia Amor Hernandez delivers a terrific Lysander (among other roles) with crafty timing and a knack for the modern takes. Noah Miranda gives their Puck an entertaining energy that is both palpable and enthralling as the iconic sprite. Madeline Nielson is a hilarious Hermia (among other roles), imbuing the ingenue with legit comedic integrity.

Damen Pardo is fabulous as Theseus and Titania, giving a bumbling redneck-ian twang that kills with laughter opposite a dancey-flirt; both roles fit Pardo’s timing and delivery like a glove. Willow Rogers is superb in the trio track of Egeus/Starveling/Oberon, with the latter being a most entertaining turn in pairing with Miranda’s Puck. Lastly, the designated drunk in the performance I saw is Diego Sosa (Demetrius/Bottom). I shan’t spoil the too-accurate modernized portrayals of both, but Sosa’s impersonations of easily recognizable characters proves to be a sure-fire entertainment with audiences. 

There’s a reason S’Will is a never-miss for me. It always brings the party while never giving short-shrift to what is going on socially, politically, and historically. The responsibility of drunk Shakespeare is to remind audiences why the Bard is done–whether purely or by adaptation–still today, but it's done so while having an intoxicatingly swell time!

You can catch S’Will: El Sueno de Midsummer at ViSTA Theatre on:

Saturday, 2/28 at 9:30p

Sunday, 3/1 at 3:30p

Thursday, 3/5 at 7p

Saturday, 3/7 at 6:30p

Triple Threat 

I had the pleasure of guesting for Minion Productions and Grant Evan Knutson’s inaugural performance, Triple Threat. I was one of two guests–partnered with Rogue Festival performer Noam Osband–and we presented a talent most people know we have, a talent not many people know we have, and a talent we certainly don’t have (assigned by host Knutson). Intertwining the acts of talent is a variety/talk show format that allows the audience to get to know the human behind the Performance Artist. It’s a heartfelt string of chatter that has intent, respect, and a feeling that--at least for me being 1 of 2 in the “hot seat”--a chance to just be Me. That can’t be faked, or rehearsed, or prepped. It’s a credit to this new format already having heart driving the hilarity and talent showcasing.

I look forward to seeing Knutson and the Minion Productions team develop Triple Threat, as it serves for Knutson to flex a side of his gift for hosting in a fashion that allows for his usual Controller of Chaos responsibility to give way for safe expressions of emotions, artistry, and humor. 

You can catch Triple Threat at Hart’s Haven (Indoor Stage) on:

Saturday, 2/28 at 3:30p

Sunday, 3/1 at 8p

Thursday, 3/5 at 7p