Line-Up Announced for 2018 Fresh Fruit Festival

The 16th Season of the Fresh Fruit Festival promises to be a great one and already began at the top of the year! Powerful nights of staged readings, discussions, and poetry events have been added to All-Out Arts' Festival of works celebrating the diversity of the LGBTQ Community through live performance.

A recent rousing awards night complete with Lifetime Achievement awards set the stage for the following new array of empowering works set to run - once again - at The Wild Project, 195 East 3rd Street. All tickets $18 unless otherwise stated and available at OvationTix https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/527

This year's line-up is as follows:

WEEK-1, July 9 - 15

Prophesy
by Karl Hinze
7/9 8pm, 7/13 6:30 pm, 7/15 7 pm (85′) World Premiere

Mark, Finn, and Joe are juniors at Holy Apostle High, where religion class is not quite as interesting as their various crushes on teachers and each other. But there are deeper secrets bubbling under the surface, and when the boys learn about Catholic Mystics, Mark wonders if that might explain the strange things he's been seeing and hearing... A show for anyone who has had a crush on a teacher, questioned the existence of God, or survived high school (preferably with soul intact).

The Song of Bernadette
by Maura Campbell
7/10 6 pm, 7/14 4:30 pm, 7/15 5 pm (95′) Regional Premiere

Award-winning playwright Maura Campbell's lyrical tale of genderfluid teen Carolyn, whose beloved sister Mary is obsessed with the martyred Saint Bernadette (possibly living in their Ouija board). Their supernatural experiments yield lessons on love-but is love more powerful than death? Burgeoning queer identity, memories of dazzling Alaskan snowscapes, and a healthy dose of magical realism, loom large in this tale of salvation and forgiveness.

All My Love, Kate
by Joe Breen
7/10 8 pm, 7/14 8:30 pm, 7/15 3 pm (95′) World Premiere

For years, Jack and Danny have lived quietly and privately, keeping their life together separate from the world outside their door. But after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the couple finds themselves separated by an ocean, a war, and a world that would rather pretend they didn't exist. What does it mean to be a patriot? When you have to sign your love letters with someone else's name, how do you fight for your country? A love story told across miles, memories, and dreams.

Half Me, Half You
by Liane Grant
7/11 6 pm, 7/12 8 pm, 7/14 2 pm (120′) World Premiere

It's 2017, and Jess and Meredith are the picture-perfect interracial lesbian power couple. But if the cracks in their facade-and in America's face-are showing now, what will they look like is 2033? What happens to our country, and our relationships, when their very foundations get tested? In this tale of fractured love and civil war, IVF becomes a platform for a broader discussion about parenthood, fascism, and anyone forced to fight just to be valued as people.

Peace Camp Org
by Mariam Bazeed
7/12 6 pm, 7/13 8:30 pm, 7/14 6:30 pm (75′)

"She'll come back to you a lesbian! In America, everyone is a lesbian!"
Mariam, an Egyptian Muslim girl with Bell's palsy and a fraught family life, snags herself a spot in a peace-building camp in the U.S. Only when she arrives does she realize that, there in far-off Maine, she has put herself right in the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Live music, puppetry, and satire underscore the sometimes bleak, often humorous experiences of turbulent youth, international strife, and queer awakening. Based on a true story. - In English and Arabic

+ SOLO SHOW +

An UnCommon Core
written and performed by Abigail Swetz
7/11 8:30 pm, 7/15 1:30 pm (60′) Regional Premiere 1-Person Show

Meet Abigail Swetz, shepherding her 8th grade students safely through a heartbreaking year. Racism, police brutality, homophobic violence: all processed and exorcised by the magic and power of her students' in-class poetry. Featuring poems written by the students themselves, this solo show embodies a sensitivity and raw honesty that will cut you to the quick-and give you hope for the future.

WEEK 2, July 16 - 22

Helps to Hate You a Little: a Lovestory
by Ella Boureau
7/16 6pm, 7/17 8:30, 7/22 4 (90′) Regional Premiere

When the world sees you as a monster, what kind of monster do you become? Lesbian sadist Nasreen finds out-when a closeted lover turns half of New York against her. A re-imagining of the Persephone myth in the Internet age, Queer culture blends with Algerian heritage in a parable (with werewolves) that bridges more than two worlds.

. . . Where You Eat
by Dennis Bush
Thursday 7/19 8:30 pm, Friday 7/20 7:30 pm, Saturday 7/21 4 pm (118′) World Premiere

Does our sexuality define us? Does it enhance us? Is our sexual expression limited by society, the people in our lives, or by us? Eight men and women (straight, gay, and up for anything) combine and uncouple in this edgy comedy about sex, love, and identity. By the writer of the audience-acclaimed, multiple Fruitie Award-winning play (MARY)TODD. *note: nudity, adult situations* - Read More -

The Ugly Kids
words by Anna Michael, music by Tony Macht
Tuesday 7/17 7 pm, Friday 7/20 6 pm, Saturday 7/21 2:00 pm* (60′) World Premiere Musical

It's beautiful being friends with the ugly kids. College student Chris wants to embrace that ugliness, and to let in her weird new poetry club friends. But her need for control, and her struggle with an eating disorder, makes it hard to let go-or to see her roommate, Alice, as a person instead of a savior. Jazzy piano and interspersed spoken word underscore this truthful yet joyful story about learning to save your own life. *Talkback after 7/21 show

+ SHORT PLAYS +

Mind the Gap: An Evening of Short Plays
July 18 at 6:30 pm, July 21 at 7 pm (90′)

Three one-act plays about bridging gulfs-gulfs between people, and within them.

Kalen's Ellen - by K. J. Dwyer

An Irish-American playwright tries to understand his long-dead immigrant grandmother. As Kalen tries to reconstruct Ellen's past, they must untangle their own stunted relationship.

Red and the Wolf - by Ingrid Oslund

A kinky encounter between strangers makes both women question who is predator and who is prey.

Wimberley - by Julia Maldonado

Late at night, at their old swimming hole in a small town in Texas, childhood friends Evan and Todd reunite after Evan's mysterious absence. But drinking beers and tossing the ball around won't stave off some uncomfortable truths-no matter how much Todd would like them to.

Leasing Office, Please Hold
written & performed by Adin Lenahan
Saturday, July 21 at 9 pm (60′)

Fruitie Award-winning solo performer Adin Lenahan's enlightening study of the various voices and faces we put on the survive the day.

SHORTS - Sunday, July 22 at 2 pm
All our Short Play Contest winners! (80′)