A Love Letter from Don't Look Down to the Cincinnati Fringe Festival
A sincere thank you to all the movers and shakers and visionaries and volunteers for making the Cincinnati Fringe Festival such a wonderful experience. It was a professional experience all around, and everything ran so smoothly, which is a huge accomplishment. Things don't run so smoothly without a great deal of planning and hard work, and it is a testament to CinEx and the leadership of Jason that year two of the Fringe was such an unqualified success. Bravo.
As I get ready to head out for our final performance, I want to congratulate my pick of the fringe, and I'm biased and proud of it, and want to point to the accomplishments of Adam Wagner and the cast of Don't Look Down: Josh Breckenridge, Preston Boyd, Katie Klaus, Joe Medeiros, and Zach Dietz at the piano. As we started two weeks ago we had no show, just a pile of 13 songs and some musings written by Adam. It was a pleasure, in a true artistic collaboration, to decide together what we were saying, who would sing what, who we were, what songs went together and what didn't, and then to watch you learn the material and breathe life into each individual song. To be able to lean over to Zach and say, "Can we have everyone sing here, and can there be harmony?", and 30 minutes later hear what had been created on the spot, was thrilling. I am very proud of your work, and know that you are so talented that you make it look easy. What could have been just a concert, with people coming out to sing solos, instead evolved into a coherent 45 minute evening, with a visceral arc that the audience loved to ride along with you.
The Fringe provided Adam a chance to hear his work live on stage. He could not have that opportunity anywhere else in this town, so thank you Cincinnati Fringe Festival. The Fringe provided the actors a chance to work in an intimate setting where sharing with an audience directly was paramount, so thank you Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
The Fringe embraced us, and allowed us to do our best work, despite presenting what some people thought probably wasn't very 'Fringy" material, so thank you Cincinnati Fringe Festival. In the world of musical theatre, we were extremely Fringy, so comparisons are useless as the actors in the show head off to appear in Beauty and the Beast and Crazy For You and The Pirates of Penzance around the country. Don't Look Down was a unique theatrical experience that pushed our envelopes in so many ways, so thank you Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
Thank you Adam, for allowing me to touch your work, to shape your life story musically and make it audience worthy. Thank you Zach for your magical hands on the keyboard. Thank you cast for stretching and taking this journey. Thank you Doug for 50 amazing light cues that helped us in our story telling.
I'm a little sad that no show with local roots has the chance to represent in the Pick of the Fringe. I'm so proud of every Cincinnati artist involved with every show who made the decision that they had something to share and used this opportunity to give a little bit of their artistic souls to our lucky audiences. It's hard to do that in your own backyard, and harder to get noticed.
I noticed, and I'm proud of us.
As Adam Wagner taught me to say,
Take care, and give care,
-Richard Hess
Director/ Don't Look Down: A Song Cycle
As I get ready to head out for our final performance, I want to congratulate my pick of the fringe, and I'm biased and proud of it, and want to point to the accomplishments of Adam Wagner and the cast of Don't Look Down: Josh Breckenridge, Preston Boyd, Katie Klaus, Joe Medeiros, and Zach Dietz at the piano. As we started two weeks ago we had no show, just a pile of 13 songs and some musings written by Adam. It was a pleasure, in a true artistic collaboration, to decide together what we were saying, who would sing what, who we were, what songs went together and what didn't, and then to watch you learn the material and breathe life into each individual song. To be able to lean over to Zach and say, "Can we have everyone sing here, and can there be harmony?", and 30 minutes later hear what had been created on the spot, was thrilling. I am very proud of your work, and know that you are so talented that you make it look easy. What could have been just a concert, with people coming out to sing solos, instead evolved into a coherent 45 minute evening, with a visceral arc that the audience loved to ride along with you.
The Fringe provided Adam a chance to hear his work live on stage. He could not have that opportunity anywhere else in this town, so thank you Cincinnati Fringe Festival. The Fringe provided the actors a chance to work in an intimate setting where sharing with an audience directly was paramount, so thank you Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
The Fringe embraced us, and allowed us to do our best work, despite presenting what some people thought probably wasn't very 'Fringy" material, so thank you Cincinnati Fringe Festival. In the world of musical theatre, we were extremely Fringy, so comparisons are useless as the actors in the show head off to appear in Beauty and the Beast and Crazy For You and The Pirates of Penzance around the country. Don't Look Down was a unique theatrical experience that pushed our envelopes in so many ways, so thank you Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
Thank you Adam, for allowing me to touch your work, to shape your life story musically and make it audience worthy. Thank you Zach for your magical hands on the keyboard. Thank you cast for stretching and taking this journey. Thank you Doug for 50 amazing light cues that helped us in our story telling.
I'm a little sad that no show with local roots has the chance to represent in the Pick of the Fringe. I'm so proud of every Cincinnati artist involved with every show who made the decision that they had something to share and used this opportunity to give a little bit of their artistic souls to our lucky audiences. It's hard to do that in your own backyard, and harder to get noticed.
I noticed, and I'm proud of us.
As Adam Wagner taught me to say,
Take care, and give care,
-Richard Hess
Director/ Don't Look Down: A Song Cycle
posted by CincyFringe at 1:12 PM
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