Dorian Follansbee’s Rogue show, Other People’s Showers, begins just there – in a shower. Speaking from behind a shower curtain over the sound of running water, Dorian offers musings on showers in a lengthy, charming monologue. But when she emerges, in her fuzzy bathrobe and hair in ponytails, the atmosphere changes.
Most of us have seen one-person shows. Whether it be stand-up comedy, a dramatic monologue, or a musical presentation, it would appear that producing and performing in this simple form of entertainment is a piece of cake. You write and memorize your lines, jokes or songs, practice (maybe in front of your friends and family), then walk onstage to thunderous applause.
The pandemic has brought us many new ways of enjoying entertainment that we may not have been familiar with before 2020—Zoom shows, StageIt online concerts, online conferences, Virtual Rogue Festival, Facebook Live book launches, and more. The creativity and resilience of performers, both local and around the world, has not only been amazing but inspiring. Fresno musician Tony Imperatrice not only has performed online concerts, but he has also started his own YouTube show called Other Stages. We chatted with him this week to learn more.
Here we are in the 12th week of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying shutdown, with a return to normal—whatever that was—still far away. We’ve worked from home, done our best to keep our kids mentally stimulated without going flat-out mental ourselves, practiced social distancing on those rare occasions when we braved going out in public, and embraced facial coverings as a fashion accessory.
The Rogue Festival will be here soon-it opens on March 1! Here we have 3 more Rogue Show Previews all of which involve music, and all by local performers! There are more preview articles this weekend, and more to come all the way up to Rogue!
Throughout the week we will be posting reviews here of Rogue shows! Check back several times a day! And then go out and enjoy the Rogue Festival! So far we have reviews of Hotter Than Potter, Babe in the Hollywood, The Paranormal Pair, Meddle to the Petal , ASS or How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love the Bong, Neighborhood Watch, S'Will, School of Fish, Bikeface, Mansplaining, Does Fresno Get Into Your Stuff?, The Sibyl of Mars, The Dish, Magical Mystery Detour, Flower Tome Companion, Jeans and Jazz, Street Magic Live!, Standardize This!, State Your Name for the Record, Figmentally Yours, That Kidney Show, Aim for the Heart, Walking While Black in Moscow, & Bring It On Down to My House.
Life can take a variety of twists and turns that lead us to some amazing adventures. This past year Aileen and I went on the adventure of a lifetime when she donated a kidney so that I could receive a transplant. During this year’s Rogue Festival we will be telling you all about it in a humorous and poignant “he said, she said” narrative.
So, what is it like to be a professional musician? What is it like growing up studying to be a classical pianist? Do parents ever really support there children’s life choices? And, what exactly IS a real job? I will explore these questions, and many more, in my new show I’m a Musician; Do you Want Fries with That. At each performance you will enjoy humorous stories from my many varied life experiences and you will get to hear and see me performing some amazing music.
My wife and I got involved with the Rogue Festival back in 2002. At first we were venue owners hosting visual art and live shows. In those first years we saw many interesting shows; a lot of them were personal stories. This inspired me to do my own story Confessions of a Church Organist. My show was well received, and I wrote and performed several more all about different parts of my life. Some were good and some not so good. All of this experience inspired me to break away from my own story and tell the story of someone I greatly admired, Virgil Fox.
