Fresno’s internationally famous Rogue Festival continues through March 7. Shows occur at several venues throughout the Tower District.
Each show has a different fee, ranging from $10 to $15—depending on the artist. All ticket sales go directly to the artists. The Rogue festival strongly believes in empowering artists and wants its performers to make money.
A sampling of shows is included below. For a complete schedule, visit fresnoroguefestival.org.
Shanties and Stories with Strangely
March 6, 7 p.m.–7:55 p.m., Hart’s Haven, 950 N. Van Ness Ave.
Fuzzy Fan Favorite Strangely returns with new songs and tales from several years spent mucking about in boats. Strangely comes from a youth as a sea-dwelling beardo with an undeniable skill for crowd work, and a penchant for balancing things on the face.
Now an international professor of niche nerd-doms who plays accordion in ever more impressive ways, Strangely is renowned for leading performances that walk the line between sing-along and barely contained riot. Hailed as a “charismatic and slightly deranged” (outinperth) “tour de force” (fringereview), Strangely’s performances are always a “meeting with the unusual” (KingsRiverLife).
Fugue
March 7, 12:30 p.m.–1:20 p.m., Vista Theater, 1296 N. Wishon Ave.
A woman attempts to share her life story without artifice when a soundtrack intrudes, creating on-the-spot musical detours and fantasies, script revisions and a reappraisal of her identity. Written and performed by Kate McKnight featuring original music by Kate McKnight and Jonathan Napoles.
Spilled Dictators by Andrew Rosdail
March 7, 2:30 p.m.–3:25 p.m., Grove at Veni’s, 1118 N. Fulton Ave.
In an unspecified totalitarian country, a man is interrogated because he’s not sad enough about the dictator’s death in this political satire.
Playwright Andrew Rosdail wrote his original draft of the play in 2012 after the death of Kim Jong II, when there were reports of mourners being punished for insufficient grief at his funeral. He revised the script in 2017, a few months after the first inauguration of our current president.
Directed by Renée Newlove. A talkback follows each performance.
