Name: Tina Brock

Madwoman of Chaillot (2010)

Type of Artist: Producing artistic director, absurdist theater company

Company:  The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium

Fringe shows I’ve participated in:
Tales of a White Hoe, solo show, 2004 – performer, director, sound design
The White Hoe Returns, solo show, 2005 – performer, director, sound design
Catastrophe, director’s female assistant, 2006 – performer, director, sound design
Come & Go, Flo, 2007 – performer, director, sound design
For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, Amanda, 2007 – performer, director, sound design
Desire, Desire, Desire, Blanche, 2008 – performer, director, sound design
The Chairs, old woman, 2009 – performer, director, sound design
Madwoman of Chaillot, Countess Aurelia, 2010 – performer, director, sound design
Ivona, courtier, 2012 – performer, director, sound design
The Castle, innkeeper, 2013 – performer, director, sound design
Rhinoceros, 2014 – director, sound design
Exit the King, 2015 – director, sound design

2016 Fringe show I’m participating in: Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs, old woman – director, sound design.

First Fringe I attended: Not sure. . . perhaps 1998? Beckett’s Endgame, directed by Mark Lord, and starring Pierce Bunting and Maggie Siff is the show that sticks as the starting point.

First Fringe I participated in: Tales of a White Hoe in 2004. The most memorable moment was getting through a solo show without dying, as a solo performer.

First show I produced/created at the Fringe: Three One Acts: Works by Beckett, Ionesco and Durang in 2006. In the middle of one of the long silences during Beckett’s Catastophe, the blender whirring, whipping up frozen margaritas at L’Etage Cabaret was a highlight.

Tina Brock and Bob Schmidt, The Chairs (2009)

The Fringiest show, venue, action, or moment I ever experienced: So many.
Carmen Funebre, Teatr Biuro Podrozy (2002), beautiful, disturbing street theater; Beckett’s Endgame, Mark Lord, Pierce Bunting/Maggie Siff (1998); Cynthia Hopkins’ Accidental Tourist (2005); The Wooster Group, The Emperor Jones (2007); The Cherry Orchard, Hungary’s Moving House (2001).

A Fringe show that influenced me as an artist: Richard Maxwell’s Caveman (2004), examining opposites and the absurdity of everyday experience. Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, Mark Lord, Pierce Bunting/Maggie Siff; these two performers in the same room performing Beckett was pretty special. Cynthia Hopkins’ Accidental Tourist (2005): many levels of engagement. The Wooster Group, The Emperor Jones (2007): Same as above. The Cherry Orchard, Hungary’s Moving House (2001): A fresh aesthetic, beautiful.

The craziest idea for a Fringe show I wish to one day do or to have done: A John Zorn-inspired/accompanied Ubu Roi.

Fringe notes: Good times at the National on Second Street; spending the entire Labor Day Weekend seeing as many shows as possible.

Photos: Johanna Austin