Rake Theater Presents

Fluency

Written and directed by Kimberly Patterson

At The 2008 Orlando Fringe Festival, Blue Venue

May 17, 18, 22, 25, 2008

 

Boynton Beach, FL – April 1, 2008 – Rake Theater is proud to present their first production in Florida – Fluency – as part of the 2008 Orlando Fringe Festival.

Are you fluent in the language of love? Jack and Olivia sure aren’t. They meet, and their chemistry is great! But they quickly realize they need to do more than just make out. Jack and Olivia need to figure out how to communicate with each other. What’s worse, they have to do it live, on-stage, in front of an audience.

Fluency is a meta-theatrical romantic comedy. It looks at how this couple communicates: Olivia struggles with her words, while Jack loves to talk. Neither of them have any trouble with body language. It explores the pitfalls of the first date and the first phone conversation, and shows how 21st century technology becomes a handy tool.

Fluency also examines the performance of communication itself, in the most obvious of venues: Olivia is a playwright, and she’s writing about Jack. She worries that her concept is pretentious, but Jack reminds her that the play-within-a-play is an old theatrical tradition. Now, in this era of reality TV, it’s hard to tell where the boundaries of performance and real life begin and end.

Fluency stars Katrina Keene as Olivia and Joe M. Mauri as Jack.

Rake Theater was founded in New York City in February 2006. In our inaugural season, we presented the sell-out hit Oedipus for Kids! at the New York Musical Theater Festival. Our home base is now in South Florida, but our members continue to work and thrive all over the country.

The annual Orlando Fringe is an unjuried theatre festival that takes place in Loch Haven Park. In 2007, over 30,000 patrons enjoyed 77 shows, 243 pieces of visual art and 45 kids shows during the 12-day festival. As the oldest non-juried Fringe Festival in the United States (17 years old in 2008), the Orlando Fringe proudly provides a venue for theatrical performing artists to display their creative talent and novel performances. Staying true to the Fringe roots, all acts will remain uncensored, exposing patrons to performances ranging from mild to wild.

 

Fluency will be performed on May 17 at 11:00am, May 18 at 7:30pm, May 22 at 9:20pm and May 25 at 7:50pm in the Blue Venue (at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 E. Rollins St.). Tickets are $8, plus the purchase of a festival badge. For reservations, visit www.orlandofringe.org.