Playbill: Five Random Choices at the 2015 Boulder International Fringe Festival

How do you Fringe? Do you pick names out of a hat, or consult a Ouija board? Part of the fun at any fringe festival is deciding what you’re going to see, and at the Boulder International Fringe Festival, that means picking and choosing from theatrical fare on display everywhere from the traditional stages of the Dairy Center for the Arts to the banks of Boulder Creek. At tonight's Opening Night Hullabaloo and All-You-Can-Artist Buffet!, hosted by Fringe executive producer Alexis Cooley at Twisted Pine Brewing Company, 3201 Walnut Street in Boulder, you can even sample one-minute excerpts of everything on the fest’s two-week slate. (The fun runs from 7 to 11 p.m., Wednesday, September 16; admission is a $5 donation at the door.) Or you can start from scratch like we did, and pick names from a hat…
Red Bastard
Dairy Center for the Arts
6:30 p.m. September 17
8 p.m. September 18
6:30 p.m. September 19
5 p.m. September 24
8 p.m. September 25
8 p.m. September 26
Tickets: $13 to $15
Boulder performer and producer Gemma Wilcox, whose own shows have consistently risen to the top at past Boulder fringe fests, ships in New Yorker Eric Davis’s Red Bastard, a one-man show that’s been heaped with awards and kudos at Edinburgh, the granddaddy fringe fest of them all, and around the world — pretty much wherever it goes. As a devil’s advocate dressed in a shapeless red blob suit, Davis pulls the audience into the act in a performance you will never forget.

Geppetto new trailer from Concrete Temple on Vimeo.

Concrete Temple Theatre
Geppetto: Extraordinary Extremities
Dairy Center for the Arts
8 p.m. September 17
6:30 p.m. September 18
8 p.m. September 19
6:30 p.m. September 21
Tickets: $13 to $15
Also from New York, Carlo Adinolfi gets lost in his own mythological mashup as the puppet-maker Geppetto in Extraordinary Extremities, which was inspired by the true story of Hugh Herr, a man whose legs were amputated after a climbing accident and who now designs technologically advanced artificial limbs. Of course there are puppets — amazing ones — and beautiful sets where the drama plays out.

Jill Vice, Tipped & Tipsy
Wesley Chapel
8:30 p.m. September 17
6 p.m. September 18
7:30 p.m. September 19
7:30 p.m. September 20
Tickets: $13 to $15
Jill Vice spends all of Tipped & Tipsy philosophizing on a bar stool and morphing through characters in this 2012 San Francisco Best of Fringe award-winning solo show. As the critics say, it's built to last.

Normal Heights
First United Methodist Church Parlor
7:30 p.m. September 17
7:30 p.m. September 18
4:30 p.m. September 19
6 p.m. September 23
6 p.m. September 24
4:30 p.m. September 25
Tickets: $13 to $15
California’s Jim Walker returns to the Boulder Fringe (where he was a five-star favorite in 2013) with a “one-and-a-half-man” musical propelled by tunes from locals Gary and Meridith Grundei. Walker plows through themes of sexuality and family secrets in this poignant hour: “Razor-sharp [with] tightly scripted lyrics…a pithy, affecting production which dares to speak – as it says we all should – directly from the heart,” says Fringe Guru UK.

Pretending Things are a Cock from Jon Bennett on Vimeo.

2hoots Productions
Pretending Things Are a Cock
Dairy Center for the Arts
6:30 p.m. September 22
7:30 p.m. September 23
5:30 p.m. September 24
9 p.m. September 25
9 p.m. September 26
Tickets: $10 to $12
We couldn’t pass by this one-man storytelling fest from Australian Jon Bennett, who’s taken the Moth Story Slam in New York and won effusive notices everywhere from Melbourne to San Diego. And he pretends things are his cock. Do you need to know anything else?

For a complete schedule, tickets and more information visit the 2015 Boulder International Fringe Festival online. 

Find a stage near you: Check out Westword's online listings for more theater events for this week. And watch for our Winter Arts Guide, coming out on October 1.