Verstehen
I break for the Nautilus
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2008
Local Update #1
It’s Fringe! On Thursday the 16th my friend and I attended our very first Orlando Fringe show. Even though I’ve lived here for several years this is my first time attending Fringe. I always seem to forget about it until it’s over. This year I planned ahead by reading up on all the shows (there are over 200!) and picking my top choices.
The festival goes until May 27th. If you’re interested in going to Fringe, you’ll want to download the app. You can buy your tickets from there. They’re pretty reasonable; I think they cap out at about $12. You’ll also need a snazzy button which is a one time purchase of $10 (cash only), which you can buy at any of the venues. It’s about 30 minutes from Disney property (without traffic) and parking is SUPER limited so unless you’re taking a cab or Uber I definitely recommend getting there early. Almost all the venues are in an area called Loch Haven Park.
We saw a show called Le Cirque Nuit, which is (very loosely) based on a novel called The Night Circus, which I read ages ago but can’t remember well. The circus acts were awesome. The framing story was a little thin but that's not really what we came for anyway.
The theater lobby had an art gallery, including this piece with characters from The Animatronicans.
After the show we went to one of my favorite bars, Lil Indies, which is on Mills Ave near downtown Orlando. It's got such a cool vibe (think abandoned house that happens to have a bar in it) and I'd heard the bartenders make excellent mocktails. I was not disappointed.
Saturday morning I ran a 5k in Maitland, a town just a couple miles from me. It was to benefit the Maitland Library. The weather was perfect and the route was gorgeous. Not my best time, of course, given my lack of training and growing an extra person in my belly, but I'm glad I went. I'd been thinking of blowing it off.
Psyching myself up!
Entrance to the Maitland Library. I'd actually never been here before.
Some beautiful houses and buildings on the route.
Can't remember the name of this lake...
Chapel on the lake. Wouldn't this be an amazing place to get married? On the loop back there were people doing yoga on the stage.
After the run there were some goodies, including donuts. I snagged a picture before I swallowed the whole thing.
I was't expecting a medal for a 5k, but it's so cute!
Sorry, boys, I'm taken!
On Saturday my husband and I saw two Fringe shows: Infestation (a parody of a 50’s B horror movie) and Florida Man (a play where the audience chooses the “Florida Man” headline and the actors acted out how he would have gotten to that point).
The stage before Infestation. A guy sitting behind us was saying that he'll just come to Fringe without tickets and then buy whatever shows are available. I thought that was a neat idea!
This was in the Fringe courtyard, near the main venues.
Stage with free music and other acts.
Hubby and I enjoying our time in between shows. We loved that it was easy to get tickets to shows even last minute, and that none of them are very long.
Florida Man!
Then I saw two more on Sunday: Romeo and Juliet Plastered (seems pretty self-explanatory) and Shadow Tales for a Darkened Theater. That was the only one that I explicitly didn’t like. It was a series of Twilight Zone-style vignettes and some of them were a little problematic in terms of messaging. No pictures from that night, sadly.
And then more Fringe on Monday! I saw the show I'd been most looking forward to, the Animatronicans: Under New Management.
As I've mentioned before, this is DEFINITELY not family-friendly. The first installment had some showings after Fringe so if you do have a chance to see it and you like Disney insider humor and don't mind crass humor, it's absolutely worth checking out!
I don't have any plans to do any more Fringe stuff until at least tomorrow or later, but last night I got a push notification from the Fringe app that there would be an announcement about a surprise show. A few minutes later, I got this notification:
I showed it to my husband a little before midnight, figuring he'd get a chuckle out of it. Then I went to bed. A few minutes later, he burst into the bedroom and frantically threw on his clothes, yelling, "I can't believe you didn't tell me about this sooner!" Apparently he actually wanted to see it! He left, and not long after, I got this in a text from him:
So needless to say, so far our first Fringe experience has been pretty unique and amazing! I would definitely urge anyone visiting central FL during the festival time to check out at least one Fringe show if they can!
It’s Fringe! On Thursday the 16th my friend and I attended our very first Orlando Fringe show. Even though I’ve lived here for several years this is my first time attending Fringe. I always seem to forget about it until it’s over. This year I planned ahead by reading up on all the shows (there are over 200!) and picking my top choices.
The festival goes until May 27th. If you’re interested in going to Fringe, you’ll want to download the app. You can buy your tickets from there. They’re pretty reasonable; I think they cap out at about $12. You’ll also need a snazzy button which is a one time purchase of $10 (cash only), which you can buy at any of the venues. It’s about 30 minutes from Disney property (without traffic) and parking is SUPER limited so unless you’re taking a cab or Uber I definitely recommend getting there early. Almost all the venues are in an area called Loch Haven Park.
We saw a show called Le Cirque Nuit, which is (very loosely) based on a novel called The Night Circus, which I read ages ago but can’t remember well. The circus acts were awesome. The framing story was a little thin but that's not really what we came for anyway.
The theater lobby had an art gallery, including this piece with characters from The Animatronicans.
After the show we went to one of my favorite bars, Lil Indies, which is on Mills Ave near downtown Orlando. It's got such a cool vibe (think abandoned house that happens to have a bar in it) and I'd heard the bartenders make excellent mocktails. I was not disappointed.
Saturday morning I ran a 5k in Maitland, a town just a couple miles from me. It was to benefit the Maitland Library. The weather was perfect and the route was gorgeous. Not my best time, of course, given my lack of training and growing an extra person in my belly, but I'm glad I went. I'd been thinking of blowing it off.
Psyching myself up!
Entrance to the Maitland Library. I'd actually never been here before.
Some beautiful houses and buildings on the route.
Can't remember the name of this lake...
Chapel on the lake. Wouldn't this be an amazing place to get married? On the loop back there were people doing yoga on the stage.
After the run there were some goodies, including donuts. I snagged a picture before I swallowed the whole thing.
I was't expecting a medal for a 5k, but it's so cute!
Sorry, boys, I'm taken!
On Saturday my husband and I saw two Fringe shows: Infestation (a parody of a 50’s B horror movie) and Florida Man (a play where the audience chooses the “Florida Man” headline and the actors acted out how he would have gotten to that point).
The stage before Infestation. A guy sitting behind us was saying that he'll just come to Fringe without tickets and then buy whatever shows are available. I thought that was a neat idea!
This was in the Fringe courtyard, near the main venues.
Stage with free music and other acts.
Hubby and I enjoying our time in between shows. We loved that it was easy to get tickets to shows even last minute, and that none of them are very long.
Florida Man!
Then I saw two more on Sunday: Romeo and Juliet Plastered (seems pretty self-explanatory) and Shadow Tales for a Darkened Theater. That was the only one that I explicitly didn’t like. It was a series of Twilight Zone-style vignettes and some of them were a little problematic in terms of messaging. No pictures from that night, sadly.
And then more Fringe on Monday! I saw the show I'd been most looking forward to, the Animatronicans: Under New Management.
As I've mentioned before, this is DEFINITELY not family-friendly. The first installment had some showings after Fringe so if you do have a chance to see it and you like Disney insider humor and don't mind crass humor, it's absolutely worth checking out!
I don't have any plans to do any more Fringe stuff until at least tomorrow or later, but last night I got a push notification from the Fringe app that there would be an announcement about a surprise show. A few minutes later, I got this notification:
I showed it to my husband a little before midnight, figuring he'd get a chuckle out of it. Then I went to bed. A few minutes later, he burst into the bedroom and frantically threw on his clothes, yelling, "I can't believe you didn't tell me about this sooner!" Apparently he actually wanted to see it! He left, and not long after, I got this in a text from him:
So needless to say, so far our first Fringe experience has been pretty unique and amazing! I would definitely urge anyone visiting central FL during the festival time to check out at least one Fringe show if they can!