That's right: it's time to heat up your winter nights again, with the 14th season of FronteraFest. The Short Fringe, the Long Fringe, or Mi Casa es su Teatro -- FronteraFest is five weeks of alternative, offbeat, new, and just plain off-the-wall fringe theatre presented by Hyde Park Theatre and Austin Script Works.

For complete FronteraFest 2007 information, including times and locations for the Short Fringe, the Long Fringe and Mi Casa es su Teatro, and to purchase tickets, visit the FronteraFest website.

Mi Casa Es Su Teatro - Tomorrow!
Saturday, February 10 at various locations around Austin

This perennial audience favorite is being curated by Shrewd Productions this year. It features site-specific productions all around town. Mi Casa, tickets are $3 for all shows, and are available only at the door, in cash. No reservations.

11:30 - 12:30
Shrewd Productions
Flatline in Midair + Brunch!
To kick-off this year's Mi Casa Es Su Teatro, Shrewd Productions presents a delicious breakfast spread while audience members watch a story of suspended hope. Monika Bustamante's Flatline in Midair was an Austin Script Works Out of Ink production, and it is restaged here in a dilapidated, East Side, Depression-era home. Like the house itself, these characters need a little love, patience, and guidance - but just imagine what they once were, and what they might still become.
Audience capacity: 25
Location: 1100 Angelina Street , 78702
Park on the street, enter house through side gate, back door

1:00 - 1:40
Greg Romero
RADIO GHOSTS: an electro-theatre collaboration
A father tries to speak to his lost son through radio waves. A woman carrying a wool blanket appears and shatters the world. A physician tests his imagination with a patient who continually falls into fires. Using Electronic Voice Phenomenon as inspiration, Radio Ghosts is a multi-layered work that combines live performance and recorded sound, creating a real-time, performative conversation between what is live, what is electronically composed, and what is beyond our imagination. Originally commissioned by Austin Script Works.
Audience capacity: 25
Location: RedHouse ArtSpace, 103 Laurel Lane, 78705
(The corner of Laurel and Speedway b/w 31st and 32nd street)
Park on the street

2:00 - 3:00
Theatre Action Project/Changing Lives Youth Theatre Company
Fantastic TAP-tastic Art-ival
The FANTASTIC, TAP-tastic ART-ival, a Theatre Action Project production, will feature: a performance by Changing Lives Youth Theatre teens, and activity booths for the kids - mask and puppet making, interactive poetry, stilt-walking, tinikling, face painting, and a sing and drum-a-long.
Audience capacity: unknown
Location: Allgo space, 701 Tillery Street, right side of building

3:15 - 3:45
Loaded Gun Theory
Big Box God
Consultants Cynthia and Richard invite the neighborhood to tour Hyde Park United Methodist church and provide input on their much improved mixed-use plan for the site and for the neighborhood. Cynthia and Richard have been hired to repurpose the site to reach out to the "unchurched" and compete against the Big Box churches popping up on the outskirts of Austin. This comedic site-specific piece was written by Timothy Thomas of Loaded Gun Theory.
Audience capacity: 100
Location: Hyde Park United Methodist Church @ 4001 Speedway
There is parking across from the church.

4:00 - 5:30
St Idiot Collective
Spurt: a coming of age valentine
Presented as a site-specific performance and set in a house, SPURT: a coming of age valentine explores the flaps and folds of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, specifically focusing on the awkward years that encompass puberty. SPURT is a collaboration of two facets in St Idiot Collective, sketch comedy troupe Think Tank and the Very Articulate Girls ( V.A.G.), a female-based group composed of local actresses, writers and directors. SPURT runs Feb 8th -17th, with a special MI CASA MATINEE.
Audience capacity: 12
Mature audiences only.
Location: 1118 Gillespie, Austin TX 78704

5:30 - 7:00
All Participants
Wrap Party
Location: 1118 Gillespie, Austin TX 78704

Read about tonight's Short Fringe performances after the jump...

Short Fringe - Fri, Feb 9, 8:00PM at Hyde Park Theatre, $12
SOLD OUT - Waiting List starts 1 hour before show time at venue.
The Short Fringe comprises five shows nightly, each up to 25 minutes

Fortune Cookie Smash by Isabella Russell-Ides
Totally hot Holiday Harriet (three parts Hollywood, two parts holiday and one part punk princess) complains that it’s another Christmas and she’s alone AGAIN! Still, she is stunned when her TV producer explains to her that the reason her love-life sucks is that she is way too unique and therefore doesn’t really work in real life. Okay, fine then. Real life, schlemiel life. She’ll hire an actor. This romantic comedy, written & produced by Isabella Russell-Ides, directed by Bill Johnson, features Kelly Greenwalt, Tim Mateer and Alan Lester.

Pieces and Parts by Anne Gourley
Are we more than just a series of experiences? What can you not leave this life without having said? This show attempts, in pieces and parts, to reveal something about being human. The characters of the show, all portrayed by Anne K. Gourley, invite you to sit and watch…

Spooky Actions At a Distance by Hank Schwemmer
Certain things will be said. Uncertain things will be implied. 60% chance of accompanying gestures.

12:21 by Kirky G. and friends
12 original, short, so-fresh-they-might-just-bite plays performed in 21 minutes (or under) in an order decided by the audience. (Kirk German.)

The Mommy Confessions: Final Installment by Rhonda Kulhanek
The third and final installment of The Mommy Confessions, a continuation of Rhonda F. Kulhanek’s one-woman show. The new series of original monologues will leave you laughing and crying at the hilarious and heartfelt lives of those who shouldn’t be mothers, those who couldn’t be mothers, and those who…well, those who are our mothers whether we like it or not!

Photo of Greg Romer and lighting designer Kim Cowan (Radio Ghosts) by Wylie Maercklein

Austinist is an Official Media Sponsor of FronteraFest 2007