by Melanie Moseley,
Richard Fisher, & Edward Hinojosa

The Rogue Festival will be here soon, we are on the home stretch-it opens on March 1! Here we have 3 more Rogue Show Previews in this post, with several more coming this week. You will be able to find them all in our Arts & Entertainment section along with a guide to Rogue article that went up on Monday. We also have a Rogue Festival event page with many of their press releases, and an article about this year’s Muse. Once Rogue starts, you can come back here for Rogue show reviews and possibly some video interviews! Reviews will be going up during the weekend and throughout the next week.

Sexology: The Musical! at the Rogue Fringe Festival
by Melanie Moseley

When I was growing up, I thought that you were supposed to find your “one true love,” get married, and sail off into the sunset together. Forever. Before I even knew the word “monogamy,” that idea was burned into my brain. I didn’t know there was any other option.

I found myself in a series of monogamous relationships from my teens to my 40s. Inevitably, I would end up cheating on my partners. I felt guilty, I felt like a liar, and I felt disconnected from all of my relationships — still I felt compelled to cheat. As a bi-sexual woman, there wasn’t any way for one man to fill all of my needs. The fact is one person cannot fulfill anyone’s needs. Then my husband handed me a copy of The Ethical Slut, and I fell down a rabbit hole.

Ethical non-monogamy exists! Polyamory exists! You can have long-term, loving, sexual relationships with multiple partners. It takes work. It takes clear, honest, and transparent communication. It takes planning (you should see my Google calendar!). It takes personal reflection to figure out how to deal with jealousy and insecurities. It takes knowing what your boundaries are and sticking to them. As Cunning Minx says in her podcast Polyamory Weekly, “It’s not just about the sex.”

As an actor, musician, storyteller, comedian, and teacher, I created this one-woman musical exploring my journey from monogamy to solo polyamory in order to spread the word about sex-positivity. Whatever your relationship structure looks like, from monogamy to non-monogamy to polyamory to relationship anarchy to solo polyamory, this show has something for you!

I am thrilled to bring Sexology: The Musical! to the Rogue. This piece premiered at the Come Inside Festival in Portland, Oregon, and has been performed to sold out crowds at events through Sex Positive Portland.

Join me on this journey! Who knew you could have the most connected relationships and the best sex of your life starting in middle-age? I do! And you can too. You can even start earlier! Why not? I wish I did.

Schedule:
Sexology: The Musical! performs at the Vista Theater
1296 N Wishon Ave
Fresno, California 93728

Friday, March 1 at 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 2 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 3 at 8 p.m.
Friday, March 8 at 7 p.m.
Saturday, March 9 at 3:30 p.m.

Tickets are available here: roguefestival.ticketleap.com/sexology-the-musical/dates

Melanie Moseley has an MA in Theatre Arts from the University of Oregon. She is a storyteller, actor, improvisor, teacher, and musician with more than twenty-five years of experience in education and performance art. She toured nationally with Brainwaves Improvisational Comedy and Mortified. She performs with the improv rock band Canoofle and the sex-positive duo $3 Bill. She performed her first one-woman show, How to Swallow and Still Keep Your Girlish Figure, in Oregon and Colorado. Follow her travels and her van life on her website.

Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll Performed by Richard Fisher and Written by Eric Bogosia
by Richard Fisher

Relish in the dark, drug-fueled glory days with a comic nod to hedonistic greed as Rich Fisher dives deep to bring you the straight dope in this mix of Eric Bogosian tales from another era – with sharp, satiric jabs and an equal measure of compassion and disgust.

This monologue was originally written as an eleven character, two-hour performance piece. Drawing from my own personal experiences, as well as Eric Bogosians wonderful, sometimes twisted, sometimes hysterical, often heartbreaking characters, I found five personalities that I was particularly attracted to. This early ‘80s to early ‘90s era was filled with monumental changes in our society. Ever-changing attitudes towards sexual preferences, drug use, music, politics, technology, and every other corner (private or otherwise) of our lives.

Richard Fisher

From rock stars to the business of rock and roll, from the struggling homeless making conversation with imaginary listeners to the ever curious uninformed masses we’ve all encountered, embraced, and possibly have run away from, screaming, these are people that we have witnessed and acknowledged, that co-exist in our lives and in our communities.

When not on stage (and when are we not?), I have been a fine art hot glass sculptor since I was nineteen. Along with the performing and visual arts, I also own Herbs of Ayurveda, a full service Ayurvedic herb supply business making custom herbal formulas for clients throughout the U.S. When life, time, and finances permit, I enjoy traveling and immersing in foreign cultures, especially Tibet, Nepal, Bali, and Peru.

Along with performing, I am on the board of directors for, and help to produce the Nugget Fringe Theatre Festival in Grass Valley every January. My love and gratitude to my loving partner Nandi, for her patience and understanding as I undertook this task.

I can’t imagine anything more inspiring to my creative force than to spend time with all of these wildly creative, wildly inventive, wildly enthusiastic people here at the Rogue Festival!

Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll
All seats $7

March 1 @ 8 p.m.
March 2 @ 1:45 p.m.
March 7 @ 6 p.m.
March 8 @ 7:15 p.m.

At Veni Vidi Vici
1116 N. Fulton St.
Fresno, California 93728

You can purchase tickets here: roguefestival.ticketleap.com/sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll

Triptych
by Edward Hinojosa

Electric Guitar, Violin, Electric Piano, Cello, and … a Clarinet?? Turns out it sounds pretty good! I’m EJ Hinojosa. I was raised in a great little town called Kingsburg. I live in Fresno now, where I work as a composer and a teacher at Roosevelt School of the Arts. My friend and creative partner, Mariah Bosch, is a gifted poet–a Fresno native and a mentee of The United States Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera. I’d like to tell you about what she and I are doing for the Rogue Festival 2019.

Sometime last year I was scrolling through my Instagram feed when I found one of her poems—she’d simply taken a picture of it. It had been published in a magazine. As I read it, I weirdly discovered a couple of tears slowly sliding down my face. Odd.

EJ Hinojosa and Mariah Bosch

I was impressed. Mariah and I have known each other for years, but I didn’t know she was such a gifted and insightful writer. I sent her a message and asked if she’d like to meet for coffee.

I had a question I wanted to ask her.

“How would you feel about a musical/poetic collaboration?”

We perused her sizable catalogue of poetry, searching for one that could be set to music. It wasn’t long before I was struck by a large poem, in three parts, which she called “Triptych”.

I was sold.

In Art, a Triptych is a painting or a relief carving on three panels. For this project, “Triptych” refers to Mariah’s poem, as well as the three-movement composition I’ve written to support it. Like the poem, the composition is written in three parts— each one lasting roughly fifteen minutes.

It’s Contemporary Classical Music, drawing ideas from Rock, Jazz, and even a little Honky Tonk.

The poetry contains Mariah’s thoughts on the past, the present, and the future. She explores themes of primal violence, requited love, and the desire to protect good things to come. It’s a moving piece of literary/verbal art that will leave the audience with big emotions and deep thoughts.

Our musicians are an all-star cast drawn from Fresno’s absolute finest:

Anthony Arias, Clarinet
Chris Janzen, Electric Guitar
David Aus, Electric Piano
Lianna Stuart, Violin
Kelvn Diaz Inoa, Cello

We’d love to see you at any of our five shows, all hosted by Vista Theater at 1296 N. Wishon Ave. Fresno, CA 93728

March 1 (8:30 p.m.)
March 2 (2 p.m.)
March 3 (6:30 p.m.)
March 7 (8:30 p.m.)
March 9 (5 p.m.)

For more information, you can visit fresnoroguefestival.com, ejhinojosa.com, or by searching for “Triptych, Rogue Festival 2019” on Facebook.
Tickets can be purchased here: roguefestival.ticketleap.com/triptych

If you love theatre, be sure to check out our new Mysteryrat’s Maze Podcast, which features mysteries read by local actors. The first 13 episodes are now up! You can check the podcast out on iTunes and Google Play, and also on podbean.

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