A new version of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure for City Garage by Charles A. Duncombe Vienna is corrupt, brimming with sex and vice. The Duke, lax in enforcing the strict laws, leaves the city in the hands of a puritanical reformer eager to impose moral order. This substitute begins ordering executions but when a beautiful young novice, pleading for the life of her brother, provokes his own lust, he resorts to sexual blackmail. When she threatens to expose him, he mocks her. Who would believe her rather than him? In this version of Shakespeare's play for City Garage, gender politics, power, and sexuality are examined through a contemporary lens. A cast of seven playing multiple characters take a text from 1604 and create an intense, darkly comic, biting commentary on our own times. Then, as now, power and sex are inextricably entwined and the question of how to obtain justice remains just as difficult to answer.

3: BLACK GIRL BLUES is a tale of three close friends - Keisha, Jill and Stephanie - who grew up together and now at thirty years old are confronted with facing their demons. Keisha, an urban socialite, has her life crushed when she realizes her long term boyfriend has had a child with another woman. Jill, a housewife in denial, admits to her husbands betrayal. Stephanie, an executive in the upper echelon world, has to face the core of her mental illness. 3: BLACK GIRL BLUES meditates on the ways we choose to present ourselves and the forces that cause us to come clean. Created and Performed by Danielle Mone Truitt Written by Anthony D'Juan Produced by Truitt Love Productions and CMA Entertainment

A young woman comes to terms with her voice and does anything she can to heal herself in this world. The show explores the highs and lows of the performer's family, friends and career, and how it led to a time where her mental health was at a breaking point. Explore these moments through comedy, tragedy and rebirth as audiences relate to these aspects of the performer's life through originally written music and dance. Jenna-Rose Hannah, the writer and performer of the project, is an actress, singer and songwriter who has been performing in musicals since she was 6 years old. She recently released her first single, "Daddy's Little Girl", featured on Spotify.

From the face that launched a thousand AHS memes, gifs, clickbait, and fan art, American Whore Story is an anthology of autobiographical tales of self-compromise. In the show, Grossman reveals her history of hustling, from her compromised love life to her compromising odd jobs. She drives the Red Bull car (then crashes it into a shopping mall), masquerades as a native-speaking Spanish teacher (at the Playboy Mansion and beyond), dicks around as the giant condom at a gay pride parade (as one does)... the list goes on. A straight-from-the-heart, sweet-and-sour candy confection for anyone who's ever felt compromised, American Whore Story takes its audience on a transformative trip to Burning Man, an acid trip to a 60's Rat Pack rager, and along Grossman's circuitous, albeit hilarious, triumphant trip to #1 on IMDb.

Annex is a dark comedy of queer family, mental illness, and magical realism. Elliot is a single parent who's never had full custody of their trans teenage son due to ongoing mental health issues. Their friends Michael and Lee, who helped raise the Kid, are looking for ways to move forward in their lives. Their best friend Georgia is less available than ever due to a new relationship. Frustrated by the ongoing demands of balancing a job as a tarot-reading advice columnist, aspirations as a parent, and their role as community oracle, Elliot conjures a mysterious entity known as Belinda Carlisle. At first, the talking bowl of pink light seems like a miracle cure, providing Elliot with energy, focus, and stability that they hope will allow them to show up for their son and friends. But as Elliot becomes more and more dependent on her help, Belinda Carlisle becomes something more threatening.

Hollow Visions Productions is excited to bring the thrilling The Arsonist of Venice to the 2023 Hollywood Fringe Festival. In The Arsonist of Venice, a celebrated novelist and hero of the activist left returns home to Venice, CA after serving time for a string of brazen arsons. Now he is planning something far more sinister, and those who love him are helpless to stop him. Drawing inspiration from legendary playwrights like Eugene O'Neill, Sam Shepard, and David Rabe, The Arsonist of Venice is a raw, honest study of a brilliant, wounded character, brought to life by a seasoned Hollywood actor.

Bluestem Productions presents the world premiere of Back Porch, a new comedy by Eric Anderson. Life imitates art when Hollywood descends upon a small Kansas town in 1955 to shoot scenes for the classic film, Picnic. Sparks fly in more ways than one in Anderson's delightful homage to both moviemaking and the play that inspired the Columbia film.

A THREE-ACT immersive dark comedy musical, the play is designed to culturally inspire change and the way people think and feel about homelessness. Thousands a year die from issues of homelessness. This play is about the severe nature of homelessness in L.A. Follows 5 homeless characters and their stories living on Skid Row in Los Angeles.

South African born Lola Luvv swore she'd be a world renowned actress by the age of forty. But that's in seven days and currently she's no closer to her goal than when she moved to Hollywood. She still walks dogs and cleans up their monster shits. After catching a glimpse of Academy Award-winning director Alejandro Gonzalez Iņarritu at the Alta Dena Wholefoods, Lola's convinced it's a sign she's destined to play the lead in his TV show "The One Percent." What follows is a manic ride of determination, desperation, ketamine and chickens where the only thing at stake... is her life.

It's 1947 in Hollywood. Nick has arrived on a bus to chase his dream - infiltrating the crime gang that murdered his brother. But he falls in love with a grifter partway through the con. Can Nick trust him or his heart?

Written and performed by probably the oldest person doing a solo show at this year's Fringe (and almost surely the oldest one with major partial deafness), this is a semi-comedic look at what life's like for Art Shulman and what it can be, since he turned 80 and retired.

Gillian Holroyd is a witch! One of the few modern people who can actually cast spells and perform feats of magic. She casts a spell over an unattached publisher, partly to keep him away from a rival and partly because she is attracted to him. He falls head over heels in love with her at once and wants to marry her. But witches, unfortunately, cannot fall in love and this minute imperfection leads to a number of difficulties. Ultimately, Gillian breaks off with her companions in witchery, preferring the normal and human love offered her by the attractive publisher. But before the happy conclusion of the romance, Gillian comes very near to losing him anrealizes d that one has to stop living in terms of "self" if love is ever to be realized.

His story keeps changing. Disturbing revelations push the detective to make a decision on whether or not to protect one of her own or to pursue a formal investigation that could upend her life. Blue touches on the inextricable links between power, violence, and the conflict between guardianship and enforcement. Ultimately, the play asks, "What happens when those granted the power to protect us see us as the enemy?

The year is 1619, three years since the death of William Shakespeare. His closest friends are struck with the epiphany that most of his plays exist only in the fragile memories of aging actors, and become passionately determined to immortalize his work in what becomes the first printed collection of his plays. Lauren Gundersen's love letter to The Bard and the world of theatre revels in a comically outlandish but true story of love, loss, and laughter.

Lucille Lortel Award-winning, multiple Drama Desk Award nominated actor George Salazar (Be More Chill, The Lightning Thief, NBC's Superstore) and Rick Cosnett (The Flash) star in the world premiere of a dark comedy about two writers who meet at a shared co-working space and fall in love - or something like it. One is a famed novelist, and the other is fledgling writer who's mostly funny on Twitter. One is nearing middle age, and the other is flailing through their twenties. One is white, and the other is definitely not. As they mate, date and cohabitate, they grapple with issues of race, sex, power and the model minority myth, all to find out who's really on top.

In this uplifting comedy, which won a 2023 Solofest Best of Fest Official Selection, Wilhide brilliantly depicts the journey of a woman who hits rock bottom after having two simultaneous crash-and-burn relationships with unavailable men. She starts attending 12-step meetings for love addiction, only to uncover some much deeper trauma that she has to face as she rebuilds her relationship to herself. Paige brings a comedic twist to some dark and taboo topics, as she brilliantly depicts the ever-humiliating journey of a love addict. Learn More at breakupaddict.com

Four humans tainted with an egregious sin are forced to work together in a deadly rehabilitation test... but none of them remember what they have done.