5 at the Fringe

The Drama League presents 5 at the Fringe, a showcase of works staged by five recent alumni of The Drama League’s Directors Project. Among the works are two world premieres, a US premiere, a New York premiere, and a rare John Guare revival. The five shows play in rotating repertory.
Cedric Turner’s one-man show Mister Bluesman, directed by Lorna Littleway, is one man’s musical odyssey. As Isum “Slamfoot” Sowell, the playwright and star shines as a guitarist who takes audiences on a blues-laden journey from a one-mule hamlet near Memphis to Chicago’s South Side.
The Monument, a searing drama written by Colleen Wagner and directed by Marie-Louise Miller, is set in post-war Bosnia, where a young soldier faces execution for crimes against humanity.
In Joshua Scher’s outrageous comedy Velvet Ropes, two pals are trapped inside a modern art museum. With no understanding of art, they bumble about trying to relate to the works that fill the rooms. Matt August directs.
Girl Under Grain reinvents the Book of Ruth as a modern myth of rural migration, poverty, labor, and love as set during the Great Depression. Jean Randich directs.
John Guare’s Cop-Out explores the tensions between the police and the citizens they have sworn to protect and serve. The show juxtaposes the disparity between the mundane reality of a police officer walking the beat and the glamorous escapades of his fictitious alter ego, Arrow. Michael Alltop directs.