When Fresno’s Rogue Festival comes to the Tower District in February and March, I am there, to review shows . . . and to eat. Over the years, I have written many Great Food Search articles in March about restaurants in the area. I have been asked, “Haven’t you eaten at every place in the Tower that serves food?” and my answer is, “Not yet.”
An unplanned pregnancy. An abusive husband. Multiple affairs—and pies. That’s entertainment? It sure is!
Waitress, the 2016 musical based on the 2007 Keri Russell film of the same name, is being served at Roger Rocka’s Dinner Theater in a Good Company Players production through May 18. Treat yourself!
Can a 130-year-old comedy still make people laugh? The Good Company Players have proved it can with its production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, playing at the 2nd Space Theatre through April 19.
He has a quiet air about him, this man called a magician. Neatly bearded, neatly dressed, he doesn’t look like a person who would be hobnobbing with the First Lady of Iceland, but he is! That is Keith Brown. His show at the Fresno Rogue Festival is called Absolute Magic, and the name of the show is pretty accurate!
“How many times have I told this story?” Erika MacDonald asks this question repeatedly in her Rogue Festival show The Barn Identity. Each time she tells it, another tiny piece of the story falls into place. Is it about swirling leaves? Barns falling down? Going to a movie? An old woman in a bed? Losing identity? Architecture? Poetry?
Ladies—when a man with no home or job moves into your life in exchange for sex, you have a problem. Leigh Ratliff chronicles that problem in her Rogue Festival show Hobosexuals: How to Avoid.
Do you speak French? if you do, you will enjoy Confessions of a French Interpreter, because Natacha Ruck is French. If you do not speak French, you will enjoy Confessions of a French Interpreter, because Natacha Ruck is a French interpreter. She travels far and wide, translating questions from reporters to French filmmakers, and translating answers.
What if William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in the 1990s? And some of the actors were drinking on the job? It would probably look like The Fools Collaborative Presents S’Will: The Emo Prince of Denmark.
2025’s Fresno Rogue Performance Festival is a Magician’s Wonderland. No less than four magic acts entertain the masses this year. Magic of Eric led off my tour of tricksters. A good old-fashioned performer with a pack of new tricks, Eric Hiett ties knots that transform ropes into rings that link and change shape at his command.
Tim is a solo performer but he is never completely alone onstage as he transforms, over a very short period of time, into a multitude of characters without the use of props or obvious costumes. It’s just vocal inflection, movement and attitude that provide the individuality. The twist is, he doesn’t rely on cartoonish caricatures to get the point across.
