The 2022-23 Fringe Theatre Season features coming-of-age stories about growing up and finding your voice in the world. We are proud to showcase three wildly different and beautifully challenging productions that might just change your perspective.
First, Evandalism follows RedCloud’s life growing up as an Indigenous youth in East LA as he finds his passion for music as a performer, writer, and artist.
Next, Freaky Green Eyes asks questions about domestic abuse and the lengths we will go to avoid seeing what is right in front of us.
And finally, Boy Trouble offers a cutting, playful, and surprising interrogation of toxic masculinity and casual sex in the Grindr age.
An exciting Season of innovative works and original stories is ahead, but before you join us at the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns, we want to give you a glimpse into the creation process behind our first Season show, Evandalism.
Q&A With RedCloud
We sat down with RedCloud to discuss Evandalism, read below to learn more about this incredible new work.
Why are you telling this story now?
RedCloud: Working with youth and students in the city, gangs are not as prevalent an issue as it was for me in Los Angeles, but I think it’s inspirational when you compare what I experienced in Los Angeles to what happens in small towns, how something that happened in a bigger town and on a bigger scale can reflect the life path that a lot of youth go down. And, maybe I can be not necessarily an inspiration but a measuring tool.
Like: ‘man, all that sh*t happened to this man, and he’s here smiling, and he’s brown like me, and he looks like me, and he has this message that I need to hear right now.’ Or: ‘I have a kid whose going through it hard right now. Looking at this dude and hearing his story – right here, right now – gives me hope that maybe my kid will be okay.’
How did this story come to be?
RedCloud: It totally just happened to me. It’s therapy for me. This is something that I love sharing with students and youth wherever I go. It’s a reflection of the truth. I’ve learned to build on it when I share this story with kids. At first, I’d give them the cold truth, and then I realized that’s kinda hard. So now I put some sugar with the medicine, and I make it a little funnier. Then I found this cool little formula that is basically: ‘smile now, cry later.’
Give it to them, back and forth: smile, cry, smile, cry, and that’s life. It happened to me, I shared it with people, and as I learned the different levels of sharing the story, I’ve learned how to mold it into a way that people can take the whole thing, and it’s not too much. I’ve learned what to leave out. Maybe the stuff that I leave out would be good to share with a certain crowd, but I’m learning how to do that.
What do you hope your audience takes away?
RedCloud: I hope I can be that measuring tool for somebody who has a kid or a family member that might be going through it hard. Did they get arrested three times in the seventh grade? Did they jump into a gang? Did their dad overdose from heroine? If they see the odds, I think it will be inspiring to them to see me, this dude, who’s now a teacher, married to an award-winning actress, touring the world, and still looks like a frickin’ thug.
I want people to see that I’m happy and love life and I want them to want that for their son, nephew, niece, or anyone who is going through it hard right now. I want them to know that there’s hope. It’s a story of hope.
If you could go back to your younger self, what advice would you give?
RedCloud: Oh, f*cking chill out. Chill out. It’s not the end of the world. Everything’s going to be okay. You’re not going to have answers for these when you’re in your forties! So, you might as well chill out. Don’t worry so much, my boy. You’ve got this. You’ll be okay. It seems like the end of the world, and it’s not. You’re going to do so good. You’re going to have a big house and a beautiful wife and beautiful kids, and you’re going to be really successful, so you just be happy and stop trying.
Evandalism (Nov 15-26)
Evandalism is a new play created by Henry RedCloud Andrade (writer and co-creator of the North American touring success Bear Grease). A high-energy, one-person storytelling performance rooted in hip-hop, Evandalism explores the intersection between theatre, music, projection, and visual art.
This world premiere runs November 15-26, 2022 in the Backstage Theatre.
ASL Interpreted Shows: November 16, 17, & 22
Relaxed Performances: November 16 & 22
Each season show will also include a minimum of two ASL-interpreted performances and two relaxed performances. Offer What You Will tickets are available for every performance. Learn more about Offer What You Will and Relaxed performances by clicking the links below.
Offer What You Will ProgramRelaxed Performances
Get your tickets to Evandalism today!
Here’s a playlist curated by MC RedCloud to help you get in the Evandalism mood.