BWW Blog: Faux/Real is For Real: TWISTED MANHATTAN Blows Up New Orleans!

This November, New Orleans is being taken over by a festival of fearless, fabulous, and original artists! In past years, this festival has been called The New Orleans Fringe Festival, but this year a new title has emerged: The Faux/Real Festival of Arts. The goal of the festival is to nurture emerging and established performing artists by presenting exciting, fearless, and affordable theatre to the community and also to create ties between artists from all around the world. Faux/Real allows artists the freedom to showcase their eccentric, wild, fresh, and original works adding to the electric culture that New Orleans is already offering.

From November 4th to the 22nd, New Orleans locals can come enjoy the festival, which promotes not only performing artists but literature, food, and drink as well. Faux/Real's mission is to facilitate top-tier readings, tastings, performances, and parties in one of the most fascinating cities on Earth. Faux/Real is trying to reach out to a wide, adventurous, and diverse audience in an effort to connect artists on an international stage and give them a chance to show their stuff!

One of the shows at this year's festival is Twisted Manhattan which I wrote and directed. Twisted Manhattan is very loosely based on the Manhattan Project and the creation of the world's first atomic weapon. Joining the Mad Scientists of Manhattan are a movie star, a baseball legend, a president or two, a future world-class composer, and a few Russian spies. Traveling with a show is always a challenge. We were coming from Houston with enough set pieces, props, and costumes to sink a ship. This festival was a fantastic experience and so worth it in the end. Twisted Manhattan, which made its World Premier at the Faux/Real Festival of Arts on November 14th, is the first play in my 'Twisted' series which takes epic historical moments and dips them in glitter solely for entertainment purposes.The second installation, Twisted Olympus, will debut Off Broadway at the 777 Theatre in New York City next August.

Playing the role of Ever Moore, Antonio Leos, Jr. was thrilled to make his Faux/Real debut. He said, "Working on this show was a great experience. The cast was incredibly talented and the show was a real challenge for me as an actor, but I learned a lot about characterization as we went along." Queen Royal, playing the role of Marilyn Monroe said, "I'd been to New Orleans before for basketball tournaments, but this time was something special. The theatre we performed at was surrounded by beautiful murals and intriguing art shops. I learned a lot about flexibility doing this show as we only got to rehearse in the space for half a day. It was hectic but fun! I really had the chance to grow as an actress."

Show highlights for me included my boisterous and unapologetic Joe DiMaggio (one of the funest roles I've ever taken on), Will Gough's smart and controlled portrayal of Professor Albert Fall, Royal's bubbly, yet heartfelt version of Marilyn Monroe, NeNe Adam's beautiful singing voice, Roderick Jordan's hilarious take on Theodore 'Jet' Plane, and Clayton Younkin's subtle and well-devised humor throughout as Professor Gregory Moore. Other highlights included Ahreon Holly's powerful portrayal of Simon and the lighting and sound talents of Javion Cox. A trailer of scenes can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0UdZBNAMMc on my YouTube channel. Also, more information on the 'Twisted' Series can be found at Adambrandner.com.