Fresh Fruit Festival 2005

Two and a half weeks of summer fun begins in New York City July 11- July 31 with the arrival of the third annual Fresh Fruit Festival a celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender arts and culture.

Click individual titles for information and tickets:

Ain’t We Got Fun
This offbeat original musical extravaganza takes place in a Chicago Prohibition Era speakeasy, and focuses on the timeless theme of two boys in love. They dance, sing and kiss-while fighting all obstacles that keeps them apart and that includes a stock market crash, a gaggle of gangsters, bootlegged alcohol, and the closet. For his musical, McFadden unearthed a treasure trove of little known foot-tapping tunes from the 1920s, including “Gay Love”, ” and “He’s a Good Man to Have Around. Great summertime fun.
July 28-29: 8pm; July 30: 8:30pm; July 31: 8pm; Blue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th Street. Tickets: $25.

Cocktails With Coward
“I’ve been to a marvelous party / We didn’t start dinner till ten/ And young Bobby Carr/ Did a stint at the bar/ with a lot of extraordinary men…” Who but Noel Coward could pen such a lyric. Sophisticated, witty, brilliant and gay Mr. Coward lit up stages from London to Broadway. Sip your cocktail and spend an evening with Mr. Coward.
July 15: 8pm; July 16 and 18: 6pm; July 17: 2 pm; Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery. Tickets: $25

Diagnosis: Jew Pain
What does a nice Jewish boy do when both the boy and girl next door look equally appealing? Funny and smart, this one man show brings alive Feldman’s journey as outsider: A Jew in a Christian nation. A Bisexual in a world of sexual battlegrounds.
July 27: 10:30pm; July 30: 7pm; Blue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th Street. Tickets: $20.

Fresh Fruit Festival: Opening Night Gala
Bananas and Apples, Oh, My!
Fresh Fruit at the Museum of Sex
Food from the best restaurants in New York , drinks a plenty and a walk through the galleries of sex featuring the Museum of Sex’s special exhibit, “Men Without Suits,” plus a chance to mingle with the stars of this year’s Fresh Fruit Festival.
July 11: 7pm-9pm; Tickets: $50

Fresh Fruit Cocktail: A Benefit for The Fresh Fruit Festival
All Unnatural Ingredients
A Benefit for The Fresh Fruit Festival
MAC award winning LGBT cabaret artists including Fred Barton, David Gurland, Marieanne Meringolo, Carolyn Montgomery, Richard Skipper (as himself), Marcus Simeone and special guest John Wallowitch break stereotypes and expectations as they perform songs by the best contemporary LGBT songwriters including songs by Tom Anderson Fred Barton, Karen Benedetto ,Gerry Dieffenbach , Dick Gallagher, Michael Holland, Jeff Matson, Jim Morgan, Bob Ost and John Wallowitch.
July 13: 9:30pm;,The Duplex, 61 Christopher Street. Tickets: $15+ two drink minimum

Fresh Fruit Play House and Open Mic
Hosted by Didi Delicious and Clover Honey
Got Talent? Bring it to the Bowery Poetry Club to celebrate the opening of the Fresh Fruit Festival – 5-6 minutes of anything you want. Arrive a half fifteen minutes before show time to sign up . Performers who bring a friend are free of charge!
July 12: 8pm; Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery. Tickets: $6

Fruit a la Mode, an evening of LGBT poetry
Vittoria repetto widely published lesbian poet identifies herself as the “hardest working Guinea Dyke Poet on NYC’s Lower East Side”, is the head of the Italian American Writers Association, and host of Bluestockings Bookstore’s Women’s Poetry Jam. She brings together a remarkable program of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender poets who give expression to our life and time. Poets include: Aiyan Adams, Cheryl B., Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, CA Conrad, Carol Polcovar and VIttoria repetto. Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery. July 19, 6pm Tickets: $6

FRUIT MELANGE: An evening of short works by women
“Woman’s Taxi” a video by Slovenian artist–activist Aprilija Luzôr records women as they talk about their experiences with rape , violence and its aftermath.
“Calamity Jane Sends a Message To Her Daughter” by Carolyn Gage featuring Leslie Bernardini. Come hear the real Calamity Jane — vulgar, debauched and raunchy. Jane is, as you always imagined, a feisty butch woman who was born too soon, her spirit perfectly embodied by Leslie Bernardini fills the stage with life.
“Pamachene Belle” by Carolyn Gage featuring Leslie Bernadini;
Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby, a 19th century lesbian and first hunting guide in Maine( who knew and loved Annie Oakley) was not the 19th century’s ideal of womanhood. In this play she struggles to find a place to exist in this inhospitable terrain.
“From Brooklyn to Maui” written and performed by Aiyan Adams;
Who are we? How do we learn to be ourselves? Where do we belong? This Hawaiian, African-American poet and performer explores these questions as she reveals her struggle to find her own place in this complicated universe.
“Tender Hooks” written and performed by Paige Collette; It isn’t easy being a mafia wife, especially when your daughter chooses an alternative lifestyle. Paige Collette is hilarious as she takes you through the ins and outs of marriage, divorce and child-rearing mafia- style.
July 29: 6pm; July 30: 5pm; Blue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th Street. Tickets: $15

The Girl That I Marry
Praised for her “gorgeous soprano voice.” and likened to Barbara Cook, Elaine St. George takes a new look at old standards as she sets out her funny, tender and satiric point of view in favor of gay marriage., using tunes by Arlen, Berlin, Kern, Mercer, and Sondheim .
July 13: 7pm; July 14: 9:30pm; The Duplex, 61 Christopher Street. Tickets: $15+ two drink minimum

Homo Hip Hop Poetry Jam 2
This award winning festival event returns and it’s not your twelve year old nephew’s Hip Hop. This jam brings together top spoken word LGBT artists to amaze you with their verbal acrobatics while revealing the courage and desperation of growing up different in a hostile world. In words that sear, amuse and shock, poets let us to see why, though different and diverse, LGBT people are united .
July 29: 10:30; Blue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th Street. Tickets: $15.

Low Brow
Radio personality Serrano’s one man show charts his life as a gay / skinhead / punk- rock / elder. His encounters with the gay and punk rock culture illuminate a world of hilarious complexity. For an evening of insight and stiletto wit, join Pedro in this gay man’s journey into the punk rock scene.
July 28: 10:30pm; July 31: 6pm; The Blue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th Street. Tickets: $15

Pen Pals
Award winning playwright imagines an America with right wing Christians in power – civil rights destroyed. In this America two women, one a Christian fundamentalist , one a radical lesbian, navigate a friendship begun in adolescence? An insightful and touching drama of the conflicted America we are daily becoming.
July 21and 23: 6pm; July 22 and 24: 8:30pm; The Blue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th Street. Tickets: $25

Somewhere in Between
What sex is God? What is a man? A woman? And do we have to choose up side or is there Somewhere in Between? Transgender Israeli playwright Ronny Almog and his troop of talented performers challenge our ideas about “the other sex” and our own in this clever, funny multi-media assault on cherished gender notions.
July 24 and 27: 7pm; July 25 and 26: 8pm; Blue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th Street. Tickets: $20

Trans/Gender/Rock Explosion
The Fresh Fruit Festival and Urban Productions present
Trans/Gender/Rock Explosion hosted by Robert Urban.
Take a walk on postmodern rock’s wild side. Party with the girls that rocked rock.
July 16: 10pm; The Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery. Tickets: $16 (1 drink included)

Waafrika
In a Kenyan village, two women — one white, one black – fight to survive in a place where being gay is punishable by death. Written by African playwright Nanna Mwaluko Waafrika brings us into a frightening terrain giving a deeper dimension to the international struggle for lesbian and gay civil rights, as well as our world and ourselves.
July 21 and 23: 8:30pm; July 22: 6pm; July 24: 3pm; Blue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th Street. Tickets: $25

What’s Your Problem?!
Saving the world from rampant stupidity is the goal of this fun filled musical revue filled with snappy tunes that say all the things you’ve thought but never said out loud. It’s talented four men cast looks at celebrity, love, sex and afterlife. You’ll smile with understanding.
July 25, 26, 28: 6pm; July 27: 8:30pm; Blue Heron Arts Center, 123 E. 24th Street. Tickets: $20.