Robert Campbell’s OPEN HEARTSONG SURGERY To Premiere At Rochester Fringe

Rochester Fringe will feature the premiere of Robert Campbell’s poetry film open heartsong surgery at ROC Cinema on Tuesday, September 16, at 6:30 p.m. The film, described as “a poetry film all about love,” combines moving text onscreen, abstract visuals, and Campbell’s own voiceover to explore love as a multifaceted and evolving concept. Tickets are $10 and available now.

Campbell, who serves as the film’s poet, editor, and narrator, describes the piece as “like reading a chapbook, hearing an audiobook, and watching abstracted visuals underneath it all like a nineties music video.” The project continues his recent shift toward blending theatrical arts with poetry, photography, and digital filmmaking.

A lifelong theatre artist, actor, director, and teacher, Campbell is also the founder of 717 Arts, a Harrisburg-based nonprofit that produces the Harrisburg Fringe Festival. His previous multimedia Fringe projects include Asylum 11 (Philadelphia Fringe), the story of a comic book author kidnapped by his own creations, and river mountain kaleidoscope (Harrisburg Fringe), a love letter to the Susquehanna watershed told through poetry, film, and cabaret.

Performance Information