
by Mallory Moad
Well, here we are, nearing the end of what has been a very disruptive twelve months. We’ve all been faced with changes. Our workplaces, schools and social outlets have been turned inside out and backwards in order to remain functioning during the pandemic. But this year might be remembered as more than one of turmoil and loss. It could also go down in history as that time when the performing arts hijacked Zoom.

by Martin Dockery
What’s the right word to describe this past year?
Ridiculous?
Harrowing?
Surreal?
Intimate?

by Melanie Gall
In 2013, I first performed my French music cabaret, Piaf and Brel: The Impossible Concert at the Fresno Rogue festival. At that time it was a two-person show, and the two weeks I spent at the Rogue fest were two of the best weeks of my life, with a whirl of breakfast parties with Marcel, late-night doughnuts in the Tower District, and more sun that a girl from Northern Alberta usually gets in March.

by Mallory Moad
For the past seven months, we’ve been on a seemingly never-ending emotional roller coaster ride and for many, these feelings have become commonplace. We’ve been bombarded from all directions by social unrest, political upheaval, international health crises, natural disasters, and deep personal loss. Our schedules, diets and sleep cycles have been disrupted. In short, the world has been thrown for a loop.

by Lorie Lewis Ham
In the current state of our world everyone is having to be creative, and the entertainment industry has done an amazing job of that. Some theatre companies are managing to put on shows using Zoom or YouTube, musicians are doing online concerts, there are virtual tours through museums, conventions are having streaming panels, and art galleries are also having virtual exhibits. Spectrum Art Gallery in Fresno is currently having an online exhibit called Stay @ Home and we chatted with their current curator Jesse Merrell recently to learn more about it. Jesse is also on the Board of Directors and heads the Exhibition Committee.

by Rebecca Potts,
Mallory Moad & Terrance McArthur
The Rogue Festival is here! You can find all of our Rogue Festival articles, and our upcoming show reviews in our Rogue Festival section! We will be posting reviews throughout the festival.

by Terrance Mc Arthur
Going Rogue.
In zoology, it’s an elephant going against the herd and attacking man and animal alike. In politics, it means breaking party lines and going against the rules. In Fresno, it’s having a good time, going to a bunch of shows in the Tower District in March.

by Evelyn Jean Pine
A languid tear rolls down the young man’s rugged face.
“My daughter loves these videos,” says my friend, holding her phone in front of my eyes. “She’s transfixed by the feeling.”
That was the teardrop of an idea that became my one-woman play, Freeloader in the House of Love, which opens on Friday, March 6 at 6:45 at Goldstein’s at the Fresno Rogue Festival. The show won the SOLD OUT Award at the San Francisco Fringe and BEST STORY Award at the Boulder Fringe.

by Terrance Mc Arthur
Suppose you were an Englishwoman in 1922, vaguely unsatisfied with your marriage, and you saw an ad for an Italian castle for rent for the month of April? Wouldn’t that intrigue you?

by Noam Osband
Growing up in a very religious Orthodox Jewish family, I didn’t know any non-Jews until I got to college. However, I was lucky enough to have an uncle who made me watch Sunday morning televangelists. He thought it was ludicrous, absurd theater, and I sat there transfixed and inspired. As a kid, I would jokingly lay hands on and provide healings to my friends.

by Eric Hiett
At the age of 7, I, Eric Hiett, became fascinated with magic. Owning a couple books, I was able to put a show together to perform before some friends in the neighborhood. My first real show was when I was twelve and in the eighth grade and performed before the entire school. Everything went wrong and ended up more as a comedy show than a magic show. I continued practicing magic and when I entered college, I was performing before fraternities, sororities, and other college organization.

by Hope Lafferty
This memoir with legs charts Lafferty’s ongoing war with gravity—stories centered around a box [?] and inspired by her lifelong impatience, klutziness, and second-guessing.

by Eleanor O’Brien
Eleanor O’Brien is bringing her risqué and provocative solo show How to Really, Really? Really! Love a Woman to the Rogue Festival. O’Brien is new to the Rogue, but not new to touring fringe festivals. She is the artistic director of Portland-based sex-positive theater company Dance Naked Productions, and has been making shows about sexuality since 2005.

by Lorie Lewis Ham
We’ve all heard of book clubs, and often see photos of people enjoying books and coffee, or books and tea, but what about books and beer? Marissa Raigoza is part of a group that asked that same question and came up with Books, Beers, and Buddies in Fresno who meet at Goldstein’s Mortuary & Delicatessen. KRL took some time to sit down and chat with her about this interesting idea.