Tricknological Dramaturgy: B Dolan @ Edfringe 2017

Sage Francis & B Dolan present

TRICKNOLOGY

The Show That Promises To Fix Your Life In One Hour

**SNAPCHAT (BDolanSFR) or INSTAGRAM (BDolanSFR) message for a free Physic Reading**

6:35pm 4th -27th August @New Town Theatre
Tickets: http://bit.ly/Tricknology

Following their award winning and smash success 2016 Fringe debut show ‘Strange Speech/Famous Development’, Sage Francis & B.Dolan are back to bring us ‘TRICKNOLOGY’. 

In this hour-long demonstration of patented spoken word, freestyle techniques, motivational daredevils, freestyle psychic readings the legendary Epic Beard Men expose the diabolical trickery

of slam poets, battle rappers, improv comics, sh*t mentalists, self-help gurus, li(f)e coaches, faith healers and reality TV presidents. This is what ‘The Secret’ would be if it actually worked. And if it was funny. 

'Think it, see it, feel it, know it, smell it, stop it!' 

It's time to violently open your chakras and get your squad goals realigned by these two monsters of the stage.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Many people report feeling as if they’ve shifted into a simulation or an ‘alternate universe' in the past year.  It’s almost as if we are living in some kind of worst-case-scenario timeline where Prince, David Bowie and Charlie Murphy have died, democracy is being hacked, social media is collecting detailed analytics about us while basic facts are in hotly contested dispute, and our global fate is being manipulated daily via Reality TV production tactics.  

This performance was conceived to investigate why and how that shift could possibly have happened.  We approached this as two writers who wanted to investigate and monetize your ability to hack those glitches in the human mind, and talk about how charlatans, demagogues, slam poets, and even we as rappers rely on things like “Confirmation Bias” and bait-and-switch to manipulate a captive audience.  

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

I think it may be more important now than ever, for many reasons.  Everything about our modern life encourages us to consume media and sound off about it on our timelines in isolation.  Just being together in a physical space and experiencing the same thing can feel like an inherently political act, even if the subject-matter isn’t.   

The ability to look at each other and talk about ideas with no screens in between feels very vital to me.  Shows have a new feeling this year, and people have a different look in their eye when you talk to them.  That look lets me know people need to be here. 

How did you become interested in making performance?

I don’t ever remember making a conscious choice to be a performer.  For as long as I can remember, I was commanding people’s attention.  Even when I had no idea what to do with it.  So I tried a lot of things.  Sage Francis and I have both performed in a lot of ways.  

We met as spoken word artists, work together as rappers, have both performed with or without a DJ or a band... in a thousand different settings and crowd-sizes.  With crowds who sometimes don't speak our language.    At this year’s Fringe I’ll be attempting, for the first time, to perform as a cold-reading psychic.  It’s been a continual process of developing through those different modes and shows and fleshing out who I am / can be onstage over the years I think.   So my continuing interest and passion comes from pursuing and developing that always.    

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

With this show, Sage Francis & I started by assembling scraps of ideas we were inspired or struck by.  Documentaries, books, Youtube videos, instrumentals, and ideas we wanted to riff on.  We’re in constant contact throughout the year due to our music work, so for awhile we were just passing ideas back and forth and adding them to a google doc. 

Then at a certain point we started drawing connections between modes of performance and ideas to perform, and making an outline.  Bits of writing started to come together and sections started to get fleshed out and attached to musical ideas.   

We are going to be leaving a hopefully manageable amount of room in the show for improvisation however, and I expect the show to be ‘written’ live in some sense.  

I think Francis also is planning on bringing some of the interactions together as we go and trying different things, as our aim is to give the show a "Self-Help Seminar" feel and flow.  In a few sections I’ve written a couple different variations on the ’script' that I can move about within, or tailor to an audience member I’m talking to…  I expect both of us to experiment with deliveries and beats like a stand-up comedian would, throughout.  

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Not at all.  Haha.  Not at fucking all.  Which I think we’re both excited about.   The usual for both of us is an hour long rap show with bits of spoken word mixed in, or performing time-trusted songs and pieces that people know and like on record.  

We will incorporate some of that this go around, but we’re both also attempting to do a lot of new and experimental material.  

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Anything short of a psychotic break is fine.  Transcendent moments and spontaneous emotional release may occur.  During the show we will aim to provide moments of hope, despair, anxiety, bewilderment, confusion and delight.  

We will paint a dark picture with bright colors.  We intend to act like we are absolutely positive this shit is going to change your life, and if it doesn’t then we can’t be held responsible and it’s on YOU.  We send the positive energy out into the universe, collect our guarantee, and go back to our awesome lives.  I can't jumpstart your battery if you're not gonna put the clamp on the lead, you dig?

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

As mentioned, we mined a couple modes of performance that have been dominating our attention lately in regard to the state of the world.  First, we watched Donald Trump perform at his stump speeches for a year.  We watched Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra documentaries and perceived their modes of performance and performative personal narratives.  

We also consulted both of our own back catalogues for some themes and performances that could be repurposed or brought into the show.  From there Francis went nuts procuring costumes and props.  I started giving freestyle psychic rap readings to fans one at a time via Snapchat to try and figure out how that part of the show could go.  

I also researched cold-reading and received a number of psychic readings. With other parts of the show that are more like monologues, songs or poems it’s been a more traditional memorization / rehearsal process.  

So it’s been a very unusual prep process, which is still underway heading into our first show.  

FINGERS CROSSED.  FRINGE FESTIVAL. EPIC BEARD MEN.  ADVANCED PLAYER MODE.  TRICKNOLOGY.

SAGE FRANCIS and B. DOLAN are two internationally renowned hip-hop lyricists & spoken word poets. Born and raised in Rhode Island, the duo share over 30 years collective touring history. 

Both dynamos - respectively touted for their lyricism, activism, humour & performance art - are represented in the UK by Scroobius Pip’s Speech Development label.

Each moved to New York City in search of the art-form, stumbled into the spoken word scene & developed a knack for razor sharp lyricism & stagecraft. Sage became an internet hit & received wide media critique in 2001 for his powerful, post 9/11 song ‘Makeshift Patriot’ & later formed Strange Famous Records.

B Dolan has been releasing records on SFR since 2008. The performer enjoyed wide-spread attention for his activism in addressing homophobia in Hip-Hop and notably for his video single/campaign “Film The Police” which Russell Brand learns about in a highly entertaining episode of ‘The Trews’

In 2016, Dolan launched the ‘Make Racists Afraid Again’ hat campaign to counter-act not just President Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ merchandise line but to express solidarity with those opposing racism, homophobia and fascism worldwide. Make Racists Afraid went viral. It was adopted by protests far and wide, from Germany to USA. It even found it’s way onto USA Open golfer Andrew Johnston’s wardrobe. 

A Synergy Concerts & One Inch Badge presentation
@SynergyConcerts / @OneInchBadge / @BDolanSFR / @SageFrancis / @New_TownTheatre / @TheStandComedyClub

Poetic Dramaturgy: Neil Hilborn @ Edfringe 2017

Synergy Concerts and One Inch Badge present

NEIL HILBORN

The most watched poet of all time makes his UK debut

11:15pm 9th -15th August @New Town Theatre

12PM 21st – 27th August @Stand 3

Tickets: http://www.seetickets.com/tour/neil-hilborn

With a debut sold out UK tour under his belt NEIL HILBORN makes his Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut August 2017. Neil Hilborn is the most watched poet of all-time with over 100m views online. He is the viral poet behind the internationally successful poems “O.C.D.”, “Joey” and “The Future” and is also the author of the Amazon Bestseller “Our Numbered Days”.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

This performance was inspired by my issues with my mental health. Many of my poems deal with mental illness, and with this show I wanted to find a way to put them together with storytelling and jokes. I’m trying to show my journey toward self-acceptance, but hopefully in a subtle, unpretentious manner.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

I think it’s one of the best spaces we have. It’s easy to dismiss someone’s story when you have the distance of a TV or computer screen, but with live performance there is an actual, physical being in front of you. It’s difficult to ignore an idea when a performer embodies it in the real world. You can’t change the channel on someone standing on stage.

How did you become interested in making performance?

Being a performer kind of snuck up on me. I had been a writer since I was a small child, but I had never even considered reading any of my poems out loud until a friend introduced me to spoken word poetry and took me to a couple poetry slams. It just seemed like a cool way to think about poetry, so I wrote a couple performance-oriented poems and entered some competitions. I lost them all horribly, but I enjoyed the instant feedback I got from audiences and their energy, so I kept writing and kept coming back, and now it’s nine years later and somehow I’m a professional writer and performer. I'm still astounded that this is a job and that I get to have it.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I’ve been developing this show over the past couple years of touring, and the process has been pretty organic. I had certain poems and stories that I did every show in pretty much the same place, but I changed some poems out, moved them around, allowed myself to improvise and go on tangents, and I always paid attention to audience reaction with any new bit I was doing. I think of my set as though it were a combination of music and comedy: some poems I’m going to do every single show, but everything around them changes so that the show doesn’t feel stale and so that I seem invested in and surprised by every performance.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

This show is my only production, so I would say yes, definitely, yes.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I try to hit a full range of emotions in my show, so I hope that I can make the audience ugly cry, then laugh until it’s uncomfortable, then cry a little more, and ultimately I hope they leave feeling inspired.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I don’t think I have a conscious strategy when it comes to audience experience. I design the set around a certain emotional arc so that the audience goes through joy and sadness intermittently, but beyond that I just pay attention to the audience’s reactions and energy when I’m in the room, and I try to give them more of what it feels like they want

Neil began writing and performing slam poetry whilst a sophomore at Macalaster College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He joined the college’s slam poetry team and in 2011 placed first in the College National Poetry Slam.

After graduating with honors in his Creative Writing degree Hilborn began performing with Button Poetry, a Minnesota collective that produces and distributes poetry in various formats, such as published books and YouTube videos.

In 2012 Neil toured the mid-west with Button Poetry’s “The Good News Poetry Tour” and self-published his first chapbook “Clatter”, which was re-published the following year by Button Poetry.

Having been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child, and later with bi-polar disorder while at university, Hilborn has often used his poetry as a means of therapy and of exploring the issues of his own mental health. In 2013, a video one such poem "O.C.D.” went viral, garnering millions of views across social media platforms. As of 2017 the video has garnered more than 62 million views and is the most watched slam poem on the internet.

Hilborn's second book, “Our Numbered Days”, was released on May 14, 2015.

“Our Numbered Days” features some of Hilborn's most well known poetry, including "Joey" and "OCD" and has become an Amazon best-seller.

A Synergy Concerts & One Inch Badge presentation

@SynergyConcerts / @OneInchBadge / @Neilicorn / @New_TownTheatre / @TheStandComedyClub

Dickless Dramatuurgy: Aisha Josiah @ Edfringe 2017

Fundamental Theater Project

Dickless

New Town Theatre

6.50pm, Aug 3-27, no show Tue 15 August

One part The Scarlet Letter, one part The Inbetweeners, Dickless blends the beats of performance poetry with the twists of a whodunit in a show that explores gender identity, the roles we choose to play, and the roles thrust upon us.

New Town Theatre, Freemasons’ Hall EH2 3DH 6.50pm (70 mins)
Preview: Aug 3 £9 /£8
Tickets: 4 – 27 August (not 15): £10 (£9)
Box office enquiries: edfringe.com

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I began writing the script for Dickless in my final year as an undergraduate student at New York University. I had been interested in questions of identity, in exploring how the various ways we are socialised can impact our innate sense of self. I wrote the first ten pages for a class assignment and was drawn to the character of Saff, as a young woman who simultaneously thrives in and is threatened by a patriarchal society. 

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

Arguably, it's the only space for such discussions, as any act of communication between people inevitably involves some aspect of performance. That said, I think theatre, because of its liveness, remains a particularly powerful arena in which to have these discussions.

How did you become interested in making performance?

Growing up, I listened to a lot of radio and would record adaptations of my favourite books on an old dictaphone, which I realise in hindsight, was quite an odd hobby! It wasn't until I was a teenager that I went to see my first real theatre production - “When The Rain Stops Falling” at the Almeida theatre in London - and was so enthralled, I ended up joining their youth theatre program, where I naturally fell into playwriting.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

Once I'd decided that Dickless was definitely a one person show, the primary question became, how do I keep an audience interested in this story from moment to moment? 

Does the show fit in with your usual productions?

Perhaps in tone? I tend to gravitate towards fairly provocative characters and subject matter, and Dickless definitely follows this trend.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope that audiences simply enjoy the ride, to be honest. Saff and Oli are quite the anti heroes and I think it's exciting to be able to live vicariously through them. It's also great fun to create a badass female character that isn't a love interest or a idealised figure, but someone who is brash, vulgar and unpredictable, so I hope audiences get a kick out of it, too.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

Sometimes a strong character will do most of the heavy lifting for you as a writer - I definitely found this to be the case with Saff and Oli, both of whom have distinct goals and worldviews. The strategy, really, was to strip away anything extraneous, avoid any theatrical gimmicks, and allow these characters to speak directly to the audience, without a filter.

Women never bought Freud's idea of penis envy: who would want a shotgun when you can have an automatic?”


Dickless is the new work from Peter Shaffer Award recipient and Tisch School of the Arts alumnus Aisha Josiah, produced by Sam Underwood’s Fundamental Theater Project.


Narrated by Saff (who’s on the run), and Oli (who should be), what starts as an internet rumour and an incriminating photo fast becomes an adrenaline fuelled quest for revenge, replete with headless cats, bizarre sexual conquests, and girls behaving monstrously.


Gossip, scandal, and a rumour mill in overdrive – the brutal underworld of small-town England unravels over the course of one night, with consequences that will forever alter the lives of those involved.

Bubble Dramaturgy: Kasia Lech @ Edfringe 2016

A Polish fairy tale about the fall of Communism hits the Fringe!

Polish Theatre Ireland

Presents

Bubble Revolution

Silver Merick Studio

Performed in English with a Polish accent and a slight touch of Irish

 ‘Because us Poles, or Polacks as they call us in the West, us car-thieves, drunks, trouble-makers – that’s all we know. Just do it? Do it! But make sure you are wearing Nike shoes! All we can do is start revolutions.’
Julia Holewińska, Bubble Revolution

55 years after the Berlin Wall separated Western and Eastern Europe, 40 years after ration stamps for sugar were introduced in Poland, 27 years after the fall of communism, 24 years after the first Coca-Cola fridge appeared in Polish shops, Polish Theatre Ireland (PTI) is debuting at the Edinburgh Fringe with a one-woman revolutionary fairy tale about growing up during and after the fall of communism in Poland. 

It is a story of a child wishing for an unlimited source of Nutella, it is a story of a girl wanting to be Michael Jackson, and a story of a woman dreaming about love. Bubble Revolution is the story of Wiktoria, aka Vica, and her journey through a magical land filled with memories, colours, scents, and sounds of the past. And as Vica learns that the world has promised her too much, her imaginary world is disturbed by the ‘drab monochrome’ reality of capitalism...

What was the inspiration for this performance?
Julia Holewińska’s play was the inspiration. But I also responded to Helen Cusack’s Irish review in which she commented on how interesting it is that Vica (main character) tries to express her identity in a language that is foreign to her. I thought: why not use the potential of it? 

Silver Merick Studio

Why not use my own status of a ‘foreign body’, my Polish accent with Irish sneaking through it, to add more layers to the text. That is why Bubble Revolution is about growing up as communism in Poland was falling down, but it is also about reframing foreignness.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
In 2008, Ania Wolf, Helen McNulty and I set up Polish Theatre Ireland, a company that merges and intertwists Polish and Irish theatre traditions. John Currivan, Anka Wysota, and Konrad Kania worked with us from early days. Ania brought Beata Baryłka in. 

I ‘collected’ two Englishman on the way: Jamie Mepham and Josh How. Josh is a student of mine, well he graduates this year. He studied technical theatre, so he is funded by our university (Canterbury Christ Church University) to come with me to Edinburgh and provide technical support for the show.

How did you become interested in making performance?
When my brother and I were little, my parents were divorced and when capitalism came in 1990s they both started making separate ‘businesses’. Basically, we were home alone a lot. And I had this game: the Princess (played by me) was spending a night in a village, where she befriended the Peasant Girl (also played by me).

The Princess and the Peasant Girl sat for hours talking, eating bread with salt and washing it down with tap water... No one was impressed by my acting abilities; however I was punished for drinking (undrinkable) tap water... So it seems like acting was in my stars... 

But then this American soap Generations was on TV and Debbi Morgan played a prosecutor and she kept saying that she wouldn’t bend the law for her family... For some reason I found that very inspiring and kept repeating it all the time, and went to a law school, which I left after one year for drama school...

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
I think, recently, intercultural collaboration and translation have underlined my creative processes. In this particular case, I created a document that translated every single cultural reference for John. Our war-negotiations (well that’s how we work) started from there... I believe in collaborations and an actor being a creative artist.

Beata Baryłka

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I hope the audience will engage with Vica’s (main character) experiences and memories in a way so they resonate with their own memories of childhood. In the ideal world, I hope they will feel like sharing them with me or others after the show. Because, I want the memories and experiences evoked by the performance to be shared between Polish and non-Polish audiences. So we can all see our-child-self in a ‘foreign’ memory.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
The audience and their understanding have been at the heart of the process. The play is full of cultural references and we want the audience to appreciate and engage with them. That is why we needed to make sure we gave the audience plenty of signposts, so they could follow the story and engage with the experiences. In the performance itself, there are elements of immersive theatre and multimedia ‘translating’ the context.  

But Bubble Revolution became really a multi-media platform! There is a website with a virtual exhibition of life in 1980s and 1990s Poland, a twitter account that ‘translates’ the reality of communist Poland through random facts and Polish shopping guide, and a YouTube channel with videos that teach speaking Polish through eating sweets. In short, there is plenty for the audience to engage with before, during, and after the performance.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
No. In drama school we were trained to use the ideas of Stanislavsky, Kantor, and many other practitioners, but we were also taught to mix them and twist them according to the needs of what we created on stage. So, I think I embrace this idea in my work. I also think every acting teacher I worked with, every director had an impact on me. Even those I frustrated...

Bubble Revolution is a manifesto of thirty-year-old Poles, the biggest group that emigrated to the UK and Ireland after May 2004. According to the 2011 censuses, Poles are the second-largest foreign community in the UK and the largest in Ireland. Polish language is the second most commonly spoken language in England and Ireland. 

It is the most commonly spoken language in Scottish schools after English. The production, created through intercultural collaboration, uses multimedia and elements of immersive theatre to evoke Polish experiences and memories in a way so they resonate with and are shared between Polish and non-Polish audiences.

‘The current socio-political climate and negativity surrounding Poles highlight the need for more unprejudiced interactions. Bubble Revolution is about change, connection, and sharing. It is about an encounter and dialogue. I want to reframe the idea of foreign. There will also be a word or two of Polish that the audience may learn’, says Kasia Lech, the actor and co-creator of the show.

For the purpose of the Edinburgh Fringe, Bubble Revolution will be accompanied by a virtual exhibition of life in 1980s and 1990s Poland.

Bubble Revolution is proudly supported by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and School of Music and Performing Arts at Canterbury Christ Church University, Polish Aid Foundation Trust, Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Edinburgh, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Bubble Revolution
4-28 August (not 16) at 13.45
August 6 and 20 Performances in Polish language
55 minutes
Magic @ New Town Theatre, Freemasons Hall,
96 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3DH

Writer:                         Julia Holewińska
Director/co-creator:     John Currivan

Performer/co-creator: Kasia Lech

Touching Dramaturgy: Ciarán Myers @ Edfringe 2015

TOUCH

A co-production of Ciarán Myers and Asylon Theatre presented by Universal Arts at the New Town Theatre. 96 George Street, Edinburgh.

Touch, at the New Town Theatre, comes from a team from Ireland, Poland, Canada, London, and Peru—all with strong ties to Edinburgh and Scotland.

Jacky is sweet. She wants to get to know you better. She wants to help you.

So why is there blood on the stage?

Jacky used to teach people how to see and understand each other better. But when she starts to find that difficult in her own life, it unleashes a dark habit. In the true spirit of immersive theatre, she relies on you to help her navigate the narrow roads between her love and self-loathing. Maybe you have as much to gain from her in return.

Written by Ciarán Myers, a recent Central School graduate and award-winning writer in Almost Random Theatre’s 2015 Valentine Plays Competition.
Starring Katarzyna Wizental, coming all the way from Poland to play Jacky.

Directed by the Artistic Director of Asylon Theatre, Marta Mari.
Original score composed and performed by Raymond Considine.

Costumes designed by Ellen Rey de Castro.

19th – 30th of August. 7pm. (65 minutes.)

The Fringe

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?

Ciarán Myers: The concept for Touch occurred to me years before I was prepared to write the script. We don’t generally like to talk about it but I do think all creative people can nod their heads at this notion: making something feels a little bit like therapy. The struggles of the main character are a sort of heightened metaphor for everyday insecurities and private “daemons” that keep us down.

Also, I just love the idea of presenting a mystery. You walk into the theatre, and there’s a young woman covered in bandages. It’s a question and a promise … where did she come from and where is she going to take me? As a writer I’m a bit sadistically thrilled with how long I can keep these answers back from the audience. It’s an opportunity for me to toy with you and hope that you’re playful enough to jab back at me. It’s called a “play” after all!

Where does your piece at the fringe fit with your usual work?

I usually tend to write politically driven stories with juggernaut themes in strange environments. By contrast, Touch is a heartfelt monologue in a small room with a kindly stranger. If the critics love it, I’ll have an identity crisis.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?

I’m certain that my magnificent director Marta Mari has a strong handle on this. But I’d like to just throw some adjectives at you … I want the audience to feel comforted, reassured, teased, entertained, and just a little bit empowered. Despite my answer to the very first question, this show is for you much more than it is for me.

The Dramaturgy Questions

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work?

I don’t like the word “dramaturgy” because I prefer to think of myself as more of an artist than an organizer. But I can’t deny that dramaturgy is the alpha and omega of everything I do. This play in particular leans on the relationship between actor and performer. It’s a monologue and she won’t be talking to the walls behind you. As you get to know her better, the question is, how will YOU be affecting the character? 

I’ll let you in on a special secret. There is more than one ending. And I don’t think you’ll be aware of which one you are unwittingly bringing her to. 

(Maybe come see us twice?) Dat’s dramaturgy, yo!

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work -  have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?

This play showcases my geeky fandom for Tim Crouch. The sense of experimentation here is much softer than in most of Crouch’s work, but the role of the audience is just as crucial. Here’s a portrait of fascinating difficulties in a character’s life, dependant on your relationship with the way it is presented in order for the presentation to work. Theatre is a playful medium and I set out to exploit that.

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process?

One of the reasons I write theatre instead of novels or short stories is because I love collaboration. For Touch, in particular, I’ve told the creative team that they should feel a sense of ownership over the play and they have bravely obliged. The script has traveled a great distance since we started working together and credit goes to the actor and director for the way they were willing to toy with it. I very firmly believe that if I allow for just a little fluidity in my role as the playwright, the ultimate product is almost always better.

What do you feel the role of the critic is? 

For Touch, the critic is tremendously important! If you happen to see a different ending than your favorite critic got to see, a review will be your access to the rest of the show. That’s always the role of criticism though, isn’t it? An extra limb of the project itself, responding to the play, offering insight to those who see it and audience to those who don’t. 

Because there is more than one ending, the critic will create necessary documentation, just like this interview, so that we have the opportunity to talk about it. Which ending do different people like more? Why? Did you notice how tonight’s production brought us to where we ended up? Did you not? These are all important parts of the play that might be completely lost without criticism. Come criticize me! 

 
“Come sit next to a stranger, maybe you’ll fall in love. It’s happened before!”

Touch is a warm and charming story that guides us through the calamitous corners of our sense of self worth.