KC Fringe Festival - Tickets and Higher Power

The KC Fringe Festival is going to take place next weekend at venues all over the mid and down town areas. They've just announced their ticket plans, and it's a different approach than you might expect, so pay attention!

First thing is, if you want to see a show, you have to buy a button for $5 before you can buy a ticket for $5. In a way, that makes your ticket price $10, but not really, because you can buy 5 tickets for only $20, which means that, if you expose yourself to a bunch of new artists (which is the whole point of the Festival - wait - be careful about the "exposing yourself" thing), it'll only cost you $5 per show, plus you get a button to keep as a souvenir.

Now that all that business is out of the way, GO SEE HIGHER POWER. "Sex, drugs, rock and roll, and Catholicism collide in the lives of three young Midwesterners as a last-ditch drug deal causes the undoing of family and friendships." Do you really want to miss out on all that? Or, to draw from the show's production blog, as written by the play's author -

Higher Power is an intense show, and there's no way around it. A lot of awful things happen and a lot of brutal things are said. But nothing could prepare me for what this show is becoming. The show is sexy, the show is violent, the show is gutwrenching. In Chris's staging, the show is a living, breathing thing that doesn't hold back from being as real as it needs to be.

If that sounds a little pretentious, well, yeah, I can see that, but I've met these people, and they are onto something pretty great, and they are funny and talented, and way too sarcastic to let Sam take himself too seriously for very long.

After its run here, this show is off to Minneapolis, and then it is going to the Big Apple - New York City. The writer of the play (Sam Ryan) and the director of the play (Chris Plante) are local kids going places.

Here's my guaranty. See Higher Power. (Really. Please.) If you think it's great, tell people right away, so they can catch the show before it closes. Or call your friends in Minneapolis and New York and tell them about this homegrown play that's coming to their cities - kind of like you're sending them flowers, but you're sending them a great play instead, which is way cooler than dyed carnations in a cheap vase.

And, if you don't like it, just let me know, and I'll give you a 10% discount on guest memberships to this blog. (Offer not valid in Alaska, Hawaii, or North Korea. Or Delaware, for that matter. Texas either. Must be 18 or older to redeem prize. Void where prohibited by law.)