The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
- Length: 90 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Allen Main Stage Theatre
- Genre: Theatre
All Shows
day is 14Discover firsts, favs and FUN.
Across the Sea: Finding My Voice
Across the Sea: Finding My Voice is an intimate concert blending jazz, opera, pop, and original music, tracing vocalist Sandra Keerthi’s journey through identity, artistry, and belonging. Through reimagined covers, original songs, and personal storytelling, she shares her evolution from performing jazz in India to operatic repertoire and discovering her path as a singer-songwriter. A reflective and heartfelt musical experience.
- Length: 45 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Ensemble Theatre
- Genre: Music
And Now ... with Extra Bits
Paradigm Shift Dance Company presents a spectacle of theatrical sophistication, technical excellence, and absolutely avoidable mishaps! Audience favorites shine alongside equally disastrous premieres in a production full of costume snafus, molting ballerinas, mechanical mishaps, and emotional meltdowns. Think "Swan Lake" meets "The Play That Goes Wrong," or "Singin' in the Rain" meets "Monty Python"—each piece performed with complete commitment and varying degrees of success.
- Length: 50 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Allen Main Stage Theatre
- Genre: Dance
Another Middle Earth Press Conference
The mouth of Sauron is back to give an update to the people of Middle Earth. In the wake of the War of the Ring, Sauron's press secretary returns to give answers to your burning questions about the All Seeing Eye and the current state of Middle Earth. Another interactive comedy from writer and director Brad Craddock, author of the sellout Fringe shows "A Middle Earth Press Conference," "An Afternoon Seance," "The Elites," "Something Wicked," and "Learning Targets."
- Length: 40 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Club SOTA
- Genre: Theatre
Baby Jane, Baby Jane
Whatever REALLY happened to Baby Jane and Blanche Hudson? Find out in this original comic thriller by playwright Brad Craddock, author of the sold out Fringe shows "Learning Targets," "The Elites," "Something Wicked," "An Afternoon Seance," "The Fighting Girls Guide to Politics," and "A Middle Earth Press Conference." Fast, witty, and unexpected, "Baby Jane, Baby Jane" is a glitter-dusted battle royale with a bloody heart beating beneath the sequins.
- Length: 50 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Black Box Theatre
- Genre: Theatre
Bella and the Witch
Inspired by the story of Baba Yaga, "Bella and the Witch" is a dance theater piece by Laurie MacFarlane with props by Martha Schermerhorn and music by Parker Callister. When Bella’s mom sends her on an errand to her mysterious aunt’s house, Bella must use her wits, charm, and even some magic to defeat the witch and return safely home. Called a “bizarre world of witches, moving trees, and stolen light” by City Magazine, "Bella and the Witch" is fast-paced, funny, and just a little bit scary!
- Length: 30 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Black Box Theatre
- Genre: Multidisciplinary
BIODANCE's 20th Anniversary
Celebrate our 20th Anniversary with repertory favorites, current and returning performers and collaborators, with a mix of new work and a hint of nostalgia! Choreography by artistic director Missy Pfohl Smith and special guests, with media by W. Michelle Harris, will highlight this incredible group of collaborative dancers and multidisciplinary artists!
- Length: 90 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Allen Main Stage Theatre
- Genre: Dance
Broadguess
The Office and Second City alum Dee Ryan performs in this interactive, comic solo show. "Who is William Shakespeare and why is he getting away with MURRRDER?!" Detective Broadguess, working the Elsinore Castle beat (Ghosts. Again), gets a hot tip about a well-dressed young woman drowning in a brook by the castle and becomes entangled in the COMEDY and TRAGEDY of the Shakespearean world. Zounds, there is something rotten in Denmark...and Verona...and Scotland!! BEWARE, there will. Be. Improv.
- Length: 60 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Ensemble Theatre
- Genre: Comedy
Catharsis Time!
Join us for our fourth year of "Catharsis Time!" Created by local author Sara Zavacki-Moore and playwright Matthew Dwight Moore, the show features a terrific cast of hand-picked creatives. This year’s theme will be “resilience,” and will feature some of Rochester’s best storytellers. As a special bonus, we will be offering a free expressive writing workshop to explore the benefits of creative writing and mental health.
- Length: 50 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Ensemble Theatre
- Genre: Comedy
Charming Disaster's Musical Oracle
NYC goth-folk duo Charming Disaster returns to Rochester with an interactive cabaret-concert where audience members determine the set list by drawing cards from the Charming Disaster Oracle Deck—a Tarot-style divination that makes each performance unique. Featuring the duo’s playfully dark original songs inspired by myth, magic, monsters, and mortality (including brand new, unreleased material). What mysterious destiny awaits? Find out before it’s too late…
- Length: 60 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Black Box Theatre
- Genre: Music
Cloudy with a Chance of Science: A Night of Science, Weather, and Humor
A meteorologist, three comedians, and the RMSC walk into a Fringe Festival show for an interrogation of atmospheric proportions. Find out what happens when you let three comics interview and learn from a mystery guest meteorologist. Emceed by the Rochester Museum & Science Center. Join us for some laughs while learning about something that makes all Rochesterians run hot and storm off.
- Length: 60 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Ensemble Theatre
- Genre: Comedy
DANDELION
Created and performed by Cat D. Olson / CAT + THE COYOTE, DANDELION is an evolving contemporary performance memoir built from collections of personal histories and imagined futures. Begun in 2022, the work explores nostalgia, survivorship, aging, self-perception, family, loss, and the shifting meanings memories take on over time. Blending movement and theatrical performance, DANDELION invites audiences into an intimate meditation on how we carry, revise, and relive our personal histories.
- Length: 60 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Black Box Theatre
- Genre: Multidisciplinary
David Kilimnick: Thoughts From A Waiting Room
Comedy in Crisis…Yes! A stand-up show about sickness! Three years in the waiting room and now David shares the reality of love, hardship and joy with you in laughs. Ever spent time in the ICU, nursing home, or living room with a cousin complaining about a toothache? From crushed ice to controlling your couch in the waiting room. From cancer to aneurysm. From tearful joy of being with Mom and Dad to missing them daily. Life’s a hoot with David Kilimnick. "Father of Anglo Comedy"—Jerusalem Post.
- Length: 60 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Club SOTA
- Genre: Comedy
DIY Oracle Card: Design Your Future
Oracle Hour: come in and create your own mystical oracle cards. Drop by to design one or more personalized affirmation cards with your own divinely-channeled artwork to guide your spiritual journey. Pop in and we'll supply all the materials and prompts needed to inspire. Simply bring an openness to explore and interpret. Step out of the past and into your future. With artistic guidance from Sha-Mom Jan.
- Length: 55 Minutes
- Tickets: Not Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Commons
- Genre: Multidisciplinary
DRAGMASTER
Based off the hit Fringe and TV show, "Taskmaster!" Kyla Minx is the DRAGMASTER and she's looking to put some of the funniest people in Rochester to the ultimate test! Vivian Darling is by her side and is overseeing these challenges as the DRAGMASTER's assistant. Who will make a fool of themselves? Who will annoy their teammate? Who will win the ultimate trophy—Kyla's Golden Tucking Panties? The insanity has only just begun.
- Length: 60 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Club SOTA
- Genre: Comedy
Dust Bowl Faeries: The Cloven Pendulum, A Gothic Murder Mystery
Join Dust Bowl Faeries for a night of musical intrigue as we deconstruct the mysterious death of the band's taxidermy spirit animal, Hazel the ram. Hazel lives on in the afterlife as a re-gendered faerie familiar, but her spirit cannot rest until the truth about her death is revealed and justice is served. Help us solve the mystery while enjoying an evening of dark cabaret music. Audience members are invited to participate as murder suspects and jury members in this macabre musical tableau.
- Length: 60 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Black Box Theatre
- Genre: Music
the estate sale
Kelly Dee, who has blended the community-building buzz of a rummage sale with a bounty of big laughs in this hilarious hybrid of one-woman comedy and shopping opportunity, returns to Rochester with a second act of her play, "the estate sale: more stories to tell and sh!t to sell." Be warned: This "estate sale" will inspire you to clear out your literal and metaphorical attic, if only to make room for more must-have finds.
- Length: 50 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Black Box Theatre
- Genre: Comedy
Et al. - Queerky Science on the Fringe
Et al. - Queerky Science Nights is an after-hours science series where top scholars present in a queer bar, and we dance. Now the show goes Fringe, on stage! Live science (colors?), dance, music, and a mystery expert whose field will make you question everything your senses tell you. You'll be part of it. Who gets to call something a fact? Come find out. Intentionally uncensored. Gloriously unresolved.
- Length: 60 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Allen Main Stage Theatre
- Genre: Multidisciplinary
Extra Credit Comedy
A pastor and two teachers walk into a school, and the lesson is laughter. Take your seat for an hour of stand-up comedy about class, family, and the strange homework assignment known as adulthood. Johnny B is joined by fellow middle school teacher Mike Levy and host Pastor Matt. It’s clean, clever comedy that earns a solid A+ for laughs—no studying required.
- Length: 60 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Club SOTA
- Genre: Comedy
Fairy Magic
A fairy themed magic show including bubbles, flowers, beads and bells! A unicorn puppet will help entertain, given the mystical bond between fairies and unicorns, and the natural affinity between children and puppets. No magic wand needed here: pixie dust reigns supreme. Bubbles will turn into orbs, flowers appear from nowhere, individual beads will magically adhere and grow. A bell will mysteriously ring: a clear sign fairies are near. Come dressed in fairy garb and admission is free.
- Length: 40 Minutes
- Tickets: Required
- Venue: School of the Arts: Club SOTA
- Genre: Kids Fringe
