EVENT: The Last Straight Man in Theatre (Fringe 2011)

Too Much Free Time Productions presents  

THE LAST STRAIGHT MAN IN THEATRE  

A comedy  

Canadian Fringe veteran and New York based actor/comedian Kurt Fitzpatrick will be performing his solo show The Last Straight Man In Theatre at this year’s Montreal Fringe Festival.  The show is a multimedia, multi-character comedy that involves a live Fitzpatrick portraying  a cast of characters on stage, while interacting with filmed versions of himself as even more characters.  Characters include Guardino, a male prostitute, Will, a rebellious teenage boy, and Mary, a preaching black waitress.  The result is a strange, wild, and hilarious ride through one weird night in a neighborhood of Kurt’s imagination.  The show is directed by Alison Cousins from Ottawa, ON. 

The Last Straight Man in Theatre had a successful tour of Fringe Festivals and theaters in the U.S. Midwest in the summer of 2010, and enjoyed further success during a  ten-week run at Flushnik Studios in Brooklyn. It previously played at Fringe Festivals in  Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Ottawa, and will be performed in this year’s Wakefield Fringe.  The Fully Fringed review of Kurt’s Ottawa performance stated, “This play is not for the faint of heart or those who like their world to make sense… It will make your fingertips buzz with the joy of the unknown. It’s what theatre should be: challenging and exhilarating.”  The show received a five-star review from Suite101.com.  25th Street Theatre critic Jason 

Dubray named the show the #1 Production of the 2009 Saskatoon Fringe Festival, Outstanding Male Performer, Outstanding Solo Show, and Outstanding Multimedia Show.  

More information is available at www.KurtFitzpatrick.com and www.MontrealFringe.ca 

Salle/Venue 7, Portugueses Association, 4170 St. Urbain, Montreal, Quebec.  $10 admission  general, $8 students, seniors

Friday, June 10 11:30pm,   Saturday, June 11 1:15pm,      Monday June 13 9:45pm  Friday, June 17 1:30pm,     Saturday, June 18 11:30pm,   Sunday, June 19 8:00pm

Too Much Free Time Productions presents  

THE LAST STRAIGHT MAN IN THEATRE  

Company Bios 

Kurt Fitzpatrick (writer, actor) has performed his solo shows Hooray for Speech Therapy and Rebel Without a Niche over seventy times each throughout North America.  In 2008, Kurt began creating multi-character short films online, including The LOST Reel and Quaker Love. New York stage credits include the NY premiere of TJ Dawe & Rita Bozi’s 52 Pick-Up (Gene Frankel Theatre) as well as blessed unrest’s Come If You Dare 2 (Interart Theater), the John Patrick Shanley play Psychopathia Sexualis (Producer’s Club), and the dark comic musical Black Peter (Stage Left). Other credits: Improv and sketch comedy: Unusual Suspects, Klaatu, and the Tenderloins.  Touring: Louie Louie (National Theatre for Children).  Feature Films: Kin (also writer/director) and Economics 101, which he starred in with SNL’s Bobby Moynihan.  TV: Gossip Girl and roles on the various Law & Orders.  Kurt is a graduate of Temple University and trained at HB Studios, Second City, and Upright Citizens Brigade.  Kurt is a regular performer in New York City, performing monthly in Sunday Night Improv and as Chuckie Loo in Lindy Loo’s Country Cuzins variety show at Banjo Jims. 

Alison Cousins (director, dramaturge) is a Canadian freelance theatre artist based in Ottawa, ON.  Since earning her undergraduate theatre degree at Queen’s University, she has completed three Canadian Fringe Festival tours: two as director/dramaturge for Acky-Made’s acclaimed productions of Old Growth and The Fugue Code, and one as performer/writer of her own solo show, Aphrodite’s Turn.  Favorite directing projects include the award-winning Ridgemont Theatre Co. production of Counterplay, the workshop productions of Walter Loves Donna and Concentration at the Ottawa Writers Festival, Gypsy! The Musical, Anne Merritt’s Reaching for the Hip and Ashley Belmers’ Smoke.  As an assistant director, Alison has worked with Daryl Cloran (Return: The Sarajevo Project, TheatreFront), Richard Rose (No Great Mischief, GCTC), Dennis Fitzgerald (Stone in His Pockets, GCTC), Janet Irwin (Arsenic and Old Lace, GCTC), and Colin Taylor (Songs of Love and Medicine, DRAM FEST ’05).