When you attend an improv show, you kind of know what you're getting. Audience suggestions will be used. Certain theatre games will be played where one cast member will have to guess what the others are acting out. Sex humor will be prevalent.

But even if certain elements are assured, one of the great things about improv is that because of its inherently spontaneous nature, you can't truly know what to expect. And The Escapists, the comedy troupe which brought Keep Moving to the Fringe Festival, manages to shake things up even further.

In Keep Moving, you won't just have "Whose Line Is It, Anyway?"-style routines. The troupe mixes sketch comedy, and even a little song and dance (an amusing, percussive medley of Abba songs, for example, opens the show) into the proceedings.

Some sketches fare better than others. We're glad to have the group interrupt the action for a commercial for "Gyno-mite" (use your imagination to figure out what it does), and one routine shows us just how funny an obsessive, self-righteous librarian can be. But another scene, which centers around an alcoholic mother at an AA meeting, completely falls flat.

The improv section of the show is much more consistent. This is an excellent ensemble of performers who play well off each other, even if a number here or there occasionally drags on too long. Particularly adept are Brian Giles, who made a memorable preacher forced to sermonize about a magnificent, ovulating unicorn, and Ariel Francouer, who stole the show when she represented "lust" during the group's "Symphony of Emotions" gag.

If you're intrigued by a show that crams in Broadway musicals set in IHOPs, trips to Egyptian pyramids and sharp-shooting gynecologists (and really, you should be), catch the final performance of Keep Moving on Sunday at 2 p.m. The show plays at Warehouse Next Door. Tickets are available here

Well folks, we're down to the last three days of this city-wide performing-arts smorgasbord. If you are Fringing hardcore, now's the time to catch up with the shows you missed last weekend. If you can't take it anymore, gather with your fellow Fringers and Fringe artists at the Warehouse Friday and Saturday nights at midnight for drink specials and a handful of special performances Saturday night. But if you're looking for more, head downtown to grab a bite for yourself, as there's still plenty of opportunities to gorge out. In fact, we've still got shows opening this weekend: more dance, an acclaimed puppet troupe, a pair of staged readings, and more.

New This Weekend:

Not Every Woman...What's Your Story?, Floyd Project Dance Company
Combining spoken word with dance, the Floyd Project Dance Company interweaves women's stories, highlighting both individual threads and common bonds. And part of the performance is in Finnish! Finally, a little something for the Finns! [The Warehouse Mainstage, Friday 6:00 p.m., Saturday 2:15 p.m., Sunday 12:00 p.m.]

Sahara Dance Showcase, Raqs Sahara and Sahara Tribal
Get your hookah on one last time before the smoking ban takes effect and join Sahara Dance. They're featuring two of their dance companies in one show that will demonstrate their "artful approach to belly dance." [Calvary Baptist Church - Woodward Hall, Friday 8:00 p.m., Saturday 10:00 p.m.]

Shadows, dream within a dream, Theatre Alliance/Luna Morena
When any of the folks at Theatre Alliance are asked about this show from the guest artists of Luna Moreno, they pause, get quiet, and speak with both hushed reverence and giddy anticipation of the first ever American performance of this acclaimed Mexican puppet theatre. This piece centers on the work of Edgar Allan Poe and, from what we hear, will blow you away. [H Street Playhouse, Friday 8:00 p.m., Saturday 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., Sunday 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.]

Howard Shalwitz, the longtime artistic director of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, co-founded the theatre back in 1980--at a time when the repertory of American plays was limited to academic classics and NYC vogue. With a commitment to new approaches to theatre and a devotion to bringing new playwriting voices into the limelight, Woolly has had not just a tremendous national impact, but has been an important local influence as well as a partner in community development and a force for bringing new audiences to the theatre. Against the backdrop of the Capital Fringe Festival, DCist took to the interwebs to ask him about Woolly's Fringe-minded roots and the Festival's future in the city.

Would it be fair to suggest that Woolly, in your aesthetic and your approach, has a certain artistic kinship with the Fringe movement?

Yes, Woolly always tries to push the envelope in terms of challenging subject matter and styles; we're never afraid of sharp language or images, we love quirky comedy, and we do mostly new plays where the writer is still honing the script. So in these respects we're "fringy." But, for the most part, our plays are still created in the traditional way, where a playwright writes the script, the director stages it, and actors perform it. By contrast, many of the projects in the Fringe Festival are generated by solo performers or small ensembles where the writers and the performers are the same people. Many also involve cross-disciplinary work (like dance-theatre pieces) - so in those respects Fringe can be quite different from Woolly. And Fringe pieces have virtually no set, since there's no time and usually no money for a set, whereas Woolly's plays, especially since the move to our new home, can be rather elaborate in terms of design and technical support.

Today at the Fringe, ethnicity is explored through dance, a pair of cabaret acts make their debut, and some drenched French whores finally get their star-crossed production off the ground. But first, it looks like we spoke too soon about ticket availability for the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy--an alert DCist tipster dispensed the bad news last night--sold out straight up and down. A pity, because Charles Ross is headed to Edinburgh after the Capital Fringe and will remain on tour in the U.K. throughout September.

If, through some circumstance, additonal shows get added, we'll let you know with a quickness. And the where's and how-to-get-there's are always available on our Fringe GoogleMap.

New Today:

La Corbiere, Solas Nua
Solas Nua has had a rough go of it during the Fringe. Originally, Solas was to perform this lyrical play, about French prostitutes lost at sea, in the fountains of Meridian Hill Park. Then the National Park Service brought the clampdown, forcing the company to relocate on the fly. Luckily, they've found a place to play. [Georgetown Swimming Pool, 3400 Volta Place NW, 9 p.m.]

Off White, Mansurdance
Sharon Mansur teaches dance at Winona State in Minnesota, but area dance aficionados have come to know her as one of their own. Mansur, who's worked with other dancers performing in this year's Fringe and who has been nominated many times for Metro D.C. Dance Awards, explores her Lebanese-American heritage and the feeling of being "not quite white." [PEPCO’s Edison Place Gallery, 8 p.m.]

Skipping Backwards, Monstah Black
Monstah Black bills Skipping Backwards as "stories about growing up as a black, queer, androgynous bad-ass in colonial Williamsburg, Virginia," and, living up to that sort of identity mash-up, deploys a genre-bending blend of music, fashion, and full-throated performance. This is cabaret for people who are through fucking around, folks. [The Warehouse Main Stage, 7:45 p.m.]

Viva Zarzuela!, The IN Series
Speaking of Cabaret, no one conjures specific times and places in musical history with as much care as the polyglot IN Series crew, who introduce Fringers to Zarzuela, a Spanish musical genre dating back to the 17th Century that blends romantic song with dramatic scenes that have just a touch of dance. The IN Series have adapted Tomas Breton's "La Verbena de la Paloma" for your viewing pleasure. [Ward Hall, Catholic University School of Music, 8 p.m.]

Let's hear it for the freaks!

Beautiful Freaks And Feats Of Wonder's spectacular sideshow, now playing at the Fringe Festival, relies less on bizarre freaks of nature (though they pay such acts homage during a faux Wolf-girl's singing number), and more on individuals of unusual and extraordinary talent.

This means we've got a fire-eater, a sword-swallower, a contortionist and a magician showing us their skills. And oh yeah--some guy pounds a nail into his head.

And the best part about it? Not only are the tricks of this Cheeky Monkey Sideshow not immediately obvious as "tricks" (I'm still trying to figure out how Steve Wannall's Mysterion the Magician was predicting some of those playing cards), but these performers never take themselves too seriously, and have plenty of personality to add to their unique abilities.

Today at the Fringe, it's your last chance to see a pair of shows from Canada, we give you a good reason to see Atlantis Bones, and Star Wars nerds have their day in the sun. It's everything you need to know about Wednesday at the Fringe, and finding it all is just a click away.

New Today:

Grounded, by Andrew Ullrich
We don't know what Grounded is about, and we don't know who Andrew Ullrich is. Here's what he's given us to go on: "What do a ninth grade geometry class, a late night trip through Maryland and a young man's search for Identity have in common? Something. I'm sure of it." Well, he seems pretty confident. [Goethe-Institut, 6 p.m.]

Living, from Livespace
Livespace, a performance art collaborative featuring dancers, composers and visual artists, hails from New York City and have been doing their thing since 2004. Their Fringe piece takes the participants' own life stories and sends them on an contact-improv collision course with one another. [Calvary Baptist Church - Woodward Hall, 7:30 p.m.]

One-Man Star Wars Trilogy, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
One man. One hour. And absolutely zero minutes spent dicking around with obscure trade pacts, vague CGI-racism, and the crapulent acting of Jake Lloyd. Charles Ross stars in the most buzzed-about offering at the inaugural Capitol Fringe. [Woolly Mammoth Main Stage, 8 p.m.]

Recurring and Recommended:

DCist loved Short Works About Dangerous Devotion and Jay Alan Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical. If you haven't checked them out yet, go get some. Short Works is in the Woolly Rehearsal Hall at 7:45 p.m. tonight, so if you can't get in to see Charles Ross do his thing, there's no need to go home disappointed. JAZIDM has the late night slot at the Canadian Embassy, 10 p.m.

Tonight is also your last chance to peep a pair of plays that tore up the Edmonton Fringe Festival, Never Swim Alone and Spring Alibi. As you might expect, both of them are also at the Canadian Embassy, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively.

Twenty-four-year-old actor and writer Josh Lefkowitz is sleeping on a couch in Columbia Heights these days, but he's hardly down on his luck. After leaving D.C. last year in search of performance opportunities in New York, he's found himself in the back warm embrace of the District, this time in the form of the Capital Fringe Festival, where he is performing his first monologue, Help Wanted: A Personal Search for Meaningful Employment at the Start of the 21st Century.

The performance is overtly an homage to Lefkowitz's personal hero, Spalding Gray, where the young man recounts attempts to find his way as a struggling artist in the post-college world. We know, but it's really not as bad as it sounds. In fact, it's pretty damn funny. Lefkowitz, a la Gray, delivers his monologue sitting behind a plain desk, relying on his gift for deadpan comic delivery and charmingly astute observations about growing up. Whether he's being sucked in to "The Greatest Game Ever According to Time Magazine," or asking himself the really important questions like "What Would Geena Davis Do?", Lefkowitz demonstrates his hapless old soul-nature while winning genuine laughs. His final performance as part of the Fringe Festival is tonight at 7:45 p.m., and you can purchase tickets here.

I know from your performance that you moved to D.C. from Michigan to take a role in a play. How long did you stay, and what prompted you to stay after that first play was over?

I moved to D.C. in Fall 2003 and I stayed until about Fall 2005, so basically 2 years. The reason I stayed in D.C. beyond that intial play was because of all the acting work that was (potentially) available. It seemed to me a burdgeoning and prosperous theater scene, even if I didn't know how to spell the word 'burdgeoning', which I didn't, and still don't. It took a bit of time but eventually I got plugged in and started getting work as an actor, and work begets work, so I stayed.

Two men get stuck in the middle of nowhere, en route to meet up with some "pretty ladies" who they hope will wash the gay right out of them. Shoulder, one of Flashpoint's Fringe Festival offerings, tries to create sympathy for a couple of self-loathing gay men, but ultimately creates just the opposite. This is no Angels in America, a story of men struggling to make sense of their place in a society plagued by political oppression. Though there is one vague mention that the play might take place in the early 1980's (their broken-down 1972 Chevy Nova), there is no other social context to the story, so it's difficult to understand the motivations of these characters, especially sitting here in relatively Gay and Proud Washington, D.C.

Rob Heinly is successful at putting emotion into his character, Rafe, especially considering he spends the whole play seated on the ground after having been inexplicably chained to a tire and abandoned by a policeman who caught the two men "changing a flat tire" in the middle of the woods at three in the morning. Of course, most of this "emotion" is loud, profane vitriol directed at either Mitchell (Christopher C. Holbert) or the constantly screeching cicadas in the background. Holbert is a bit awkward, and seems to read his lines from unseen cue cards like an SNL Host. Randy Tusing is believable as a crazy swamp man, but often spoke what seemed to be important lines too softly to be heard even by this theatergoer sitting four feet away.

Cabaret does not seem to be a format of entertainment that appeals to everyone. In fact, most fans of the style that I know either starred in their high school production of Pippin and/or could be caught singing "Maybe This Time" in the shower. Then again, The Warehouse Next Door was packed with eager audience members and clear Cabaret fans (this writer included) Tuesday night, so either D.C. has a lot of former theatre people, or cabaret's appeal is becoming more universal.

But how does Naked Cabaret, one of many Fringe cabaret offerings, stack up? While it has some engaging performers and well-chosen songs, it also personifies some of the annoying qualities that turn people off of the genre.

What are those qualities? Exaggerated facials (one performer in particular seems to substitute wide eyes and excessive blinking for expressiveness). Corny interaction with the audience. Painfully-protracted banter. And emotions that don't quite ring true; while the show is set-up as an emotional "therapy session" of sorts that lets its performers get their secrets off their chests, the hugs the singers exchange after a particularly emotional number seem forced rather than convincing.

In a play that oscillates easily between explicit sexual fantasies and pointed critiques of African American culture, Nina Angela Mercer’s Gutta Beautiful, part of the Fringe Festival, gives a complex picture of contemporary African American life. Written as a “conversation with [her] block,” Mercer’s story is also rooted particularly in D.C. and her life here.

The loose narrative of the story focuses on Lola, a young woman hungry for both sex and love, but who ends up in a relationship that is both physically and psychologically damaging. While the play touches on issues of race, sex, love and politics, it provides no easy answers. In an interview with Mercer over email, she gives some insight into the play itself and the broader issues it addresses.

Although the play's themes try to capture the universal African American experience, there are many specific references to D.C., such as how the Million Man March failed to make an impact on local African American neighborhoods. How much of the story and its message are particularly rooted in Washington and its history?

I was born and raised here in D.C. Most of the experiences which inspired me to write Gutta Beautiful came from my life here. I think that most people from outside of the District, and also many of the transplants, know D.C. as the seat of the federal government. But for locals, it's a very different life. In popular culture, especially film, our experiences as native Washingtonians are dwarfed by the White House, the Capitol, the Mall . . . But our stories are equally, if not more, important than what goes on in those places. In fact, the policies set by the federal government are the external factors oppressing the characters in the Gutta.

We're at the midway point of the Fringe Festival, and we have all of one show opening today. That show is Erica McLaughlin's Love And Wood, from the Unmentionable Theatre Company. The play's heroine, Morgan, finds herself in a lover's triangle between two affectionate men, and struggles to reconcile the intellectual fullfillment she receives from one with the erotic fulfillment of the other.

Pretty heady stuff, and if the play's anywhere near as compelling as the Unmentionable's own story, it should be well worth the trip. The Unmentionable Theatre Company began at UMBC between a handful of students with seven dollars and a dream. They staged their first productions at someone's apartment, but have garnered a fair share of praise from the Baltimore Sun and the Baltimore City Paper. Now they are enthusiastic Fringers: “We believe this is what a Fringe Festival is all about,” says McLaughlin, “it gives young people like me, full of ideas, a legitimate venue to display our original work. It’s a way in, therefore giving us the opportunity to impact significant change in theater.”

The public face of Capitol Fringe is one of ranging chaos--out-of-the-mainstream art forms take over territory and, for many productions, "check your superego at the door" is the aesthethic order of the day. But behind this backdrop, there are artists and companies who have a lot at stake and who are taking important developmental steps. We find Unmentionable's frozen moment worth mentioning because it's precisely this sort of passion that led those eight companies to crash the party in Edinburgh sixty years ago and establish the Fringe Festival as a whole.

So, go see their show. Tonight at the Goethe-Institut, at 6 p.m.

For the rest of tonight's offerings, which include beloved local burlesque performer Trixie Little as the special guest of the Cheeky Monkey Sideshow, head here. And, as always, get to where you're going with DCist's Fringe GoogleMap.

Is the theatre world crying out for five plays centering around Vice President Dick Cheney? It's certainly a topic that hasn't yet been done to death artistically. But in You Don't Know Dick, a group of short plays being workshopped for the Capital Fringe Festival, the debate is less over whether the topic is valid and more on whether these works have anything new to say.

Some certainly are worth the minimal time investment they require: "Morning Had Broken," which centers around a confrontation between Cheney and his daughter Mary's lover, is the best of the group because it gives Cheney some much-needed humanity. Here, he is certainly not a likeable man, but he is not a monster, and his motivations are comprehensible. Don Kenefick as the Vice President gives an appropriately human performance to match.

"Young Dick/Old Dick" has less to offer in the way of character insight, but delivers the most laughs. Here, Dick from the future comes to warn Dick of the past not to mess things up with his girlfriend, Lynne, who will be his salvation (how or exactly why this encounter is happening is never fully explained). Though not every joke is earned--advice such as "Look into Google" is a little too ripped from Back To The Future to suit this theatregoer--many succeed, particularly the easy laugh and quick response that escapes from Young Dick (Matt Argersinger, who is charming but needs to slow down his delivery a little) when asked if he has a problem with lying.

The rest of these works are less successful. Freedom Fries relies too much on gross-out humor, and also features an embedded reporter whose principles change far too quickly in order to drive home the play's point. "Mother Fear" relies almost entirely on the tiresome concept of a mother whoring herself out for food ration tickets, and we've seen much better takes on an exaggerated, war-torn future. "Troglodytes" contains a pair of nice performances from John Feist as a convincing Cheney and Rebecca Ellis as a Russian woman sequestered with him in an "undisclosed location," but the play's message is muddled.

When taken as a work in its entirety, You Don't Know Dick doesn't really teach us more about Cheney than we think we already know.

You Don't Know Dick plays at the Flashpoint Mead Theatre Lab. It runs July 25 (6 p.m.), July 28 (6 p.m.) and July 29 (8 p.m.). Tickets are available here.

In its first weekend, the Capital Fringe Festival turned downtown D.C. into a moveable feast of performance, as show after show made its Fringe debut. As we enter Day Five of the festival, it’s now time to go get a second helping—a show you want to see again or a show your friends have told you is a must-see. Even still, a handful of shows will get their start today.

At DCist, we’d love to know what you thought of the shows you’ve seen, so drop us a line and give us your own recommendations.

And, as we’ve said before, our Fringe Googlemap will get you to the curtain on time.

New Today:

Bartleby, Journeymen Theatre Ensemble
Washington’s Journeymen Theater launches their new season at the Fringe Festival with Bartleby. It’s Herman Melville meets Office Space in this time-skipping, motion-infused update of Bartleby The Scrivener. [6th and I Street Historic Synagogue, 7 p.m.]

Keep Moving, The Escapists
From Portland, Maine come the Escapists—purveyors of both improv and sketch who describe their approach as the “Powerpuff Girls meets This American Life.” [The Warehouse Next Door, 7:30 p.m.]

Beginnings, Meat and Potato Theatre
Washington’s Meat and Potato use puppetry and masks to drive right to the heart of storytelling—the origin story of the creative spirit—flexing comic and reflective muscles along the way. [Flashpoint, Mead Theatre Lab, 8 p.m.]

Recommended and Recurring

DCist recommends:

Short Works Exploring Dangerous Devotion, Pushing Boxes Productions
Woolly Mammoth Rehearsal Hall, 5 p.m.
Our theater critic Missy Frederick enjoyed Short Works’ variety—three seemingly disparate plays tied together by fine acting.

Like, You’re My Friend and All, Hauptstadt Theatre
Goethe-Institut, 8 p.m.
Missy also loved Andrew Akre and Nathan Holt’s “amazing chemistry” in this pair of brief plays about friendships in flux.

The Street Buzz:
Word around the campfire is that James Beard’s Mama, Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up To Be Actors was a huge seller during the weekend. Few, if any, tickets remain for his Tuesday night, 10 p.m. performance, so get them while you still can.

You Don’t Know Dick was one of the hot tickets last Sunday, but our reviewer wasn’t too impressed. “I’ve been doing poorly with the political stuff,” she’s confided. Maybe in politics-obsessed Washington, polemical content is just too dreary and mainstream against the backdrop of a Festival with many other stories to tell.

Though everyone rhapsodizes about the power of the female friendship these days, there aren't too many works devoted to platonic affection between guys (HBO's Entourage perhaps one exception to the rule). Fringe Festivalgoers, however, have Like You're My Friend and All, which takes a peek at both the comic and darker sides of the male bond.

If co-writers and co-stars Andrew Akre and Nathan Holt aren't close friends in real life, we would be surprised. The two have an amazing chemistry, easily joking with each other, needling each other and sparring when necessary. Their connection is the primary draw of this work, though the writing isn't too shabby either.

Like You're My Friend and All is actually two brief works with two sets of characters and scenarios. The first reunites a pair of college friends: Bryce, an easygoing charmer and John, who is more intense and geeky. As the two walk into their apartment, drunk as can be and slurringly singing Oasis' "Wonderwall" (Bryce's take on why the song refers to the Great Wall of China is inspired), it seems like little has changed since the two were best buds, back in the day. Turns out, the last couple years have been plagued by silence and resentment, and the pair plays out an all-too-familiar scenario of what happens when guys don't follow the "bros before hos" credo, and let a girl get in the way of their friendship.

The second work is much lighter, and here we get to see the two guys, now playing themselves, act as wicked co-conspirators. Sure, it sounds sophmoric to tell you the action centers around a specially-crafted dildo, but trust us: it's a trip to watch these two hatching one seriously wacky revenge scheme.

Like You're My Friend and All is playing at the Goethe-Institut on July 24 (8 p.m.) and July 28 (8 p.m.). Get tickets here.

Short Works Exploring Dangerous Devotion is about as straightforward a title as you could imagine for the three short plays being presented on the Woolly Mammoth stage. Dangerous devotion, indeed: The first piece toys with fascism, the second with love and the third with religion.

Ionesco's "The Leader" isn't too complex a work, but is appealing in its exaggerated absurdity. This play belongs to Katie Atkinson, the ringleader of a group of disciplies to some sort of guru: whether he's a cult figure, a religious prophet or a political maven never is fully explained. Atinkson's wild-eyed, frighteningly fervent performance has us all a little wary, as she truly appears about to become unhinged. The play's statement-of-the-obvious closing (when the leader eventually shows up) has us cracking up as the lights go dark.

Maria Irene Fornes' "Springtime", the second piece, is a more meditative play. In brief vignettes, we see the story of two lovers in Germany. The contrast between Rainbow (Elizabeth Jernigan), spontaneous and vivacious, and Greta (Tina Renay Fulp), an invalid with her own sort of subdued strength, makes for an interesting romance, one in which we're invested as cirumstances try the couple. Fulp and Jernigan portray a palpable, pure affection for each other that drives this work.

In case you were wondering, we checked in with a few people who headed out to the Warehouse last night in the wee hours to see Daniel Burkholder and Jonathan Matis doing their 24 hour long performance piece unmapped, and the pair were not cheating or anything. Kudos to you, gentlemen, for bringing a dose of unhinged ambition. We hope you have a good night's sleep tonight.

The Capital Fringe Festival is going all out to win DC over, and they aren't through by a long shot. Sunday's debuts include and afternoon of burlesque, witty dance from a DC veteran, some Shakespeare, some Poe, some anal sex, and to top it all off, Jamaican dinner!

Theatrical Performances:

Stupid Frailty, MuseFire Productions
MuseFire restages Laura Zam’s seriocomic solo piece about a woman who survives a near-fatal car accident determined to land the mose “delicious” man in Washington for herself. And speaking of delicious, these stagings at the Sweet Mango café include delicious Jamaican dinner! [Sweet Mango Café, 1pm]

Realty and Personality, Old City Theater Company
Thornton Wilder’s Our Town gets a post-modern, punked out spin in this tweaked out satire that asks, “Do you want amortized loans…or do you want the TRUTH?” [6th and I Historic Synagogue, 5:30pm]

Promenading With Lunatics, Treadwell Theatre Company
Treadwell relates the true-life stories of Laura Kieler, Nellie Bly, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, literary women whose common bond is their experience with mental asylums. [The Warehouse Second Stage, 6:30pm]

A MidSummer Night’s Dream, Rude Mechanicals
Maryland’s Mechanicals cleverly transport the beloved Bill Shakespeare comedy from the court to the ecstasy-drenched club scene, as lovers rave and bouncers make asses of themselves. [Woolly Mammoth Rehearsal Hall, 7pm]

Jay Allen Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical is one of those shows that makes you grateful DC now has its own Fringe Festival. Because Zimmerman's story is one that everyone in the city deserves to hear. Pardon my presumptuousness. It's one that everyone deserves to see, to feel and to experience.

Zimmerman is deaf, or at least "mostly deaf" in the Miracle Max sense of the phrase. He cannot hear speech, but can absorb some music below middle C. But it wasn't always this way — Zimmerman had his hearing well into his adulthood, which was previously devoted (naturally) to a career as a songwriter.

But this is no pity party or treacly Hallmark special. Zimmerman's show is hilarious, creative and educational. It's fascinating to hear what it "sounds" like to go deaf, and to have Zimmerman lecture us on things like decibels in a way we understand. The show also features some moving musical numbers — In "Disappearing Act", for example, where Zimmerman compares God to a magician who stole his hearing, a haunting melody weaves its way through those lower measures Zimmerman can still hear. These types of songs are juxtaposed with amusing, multi-media numbers such as "Talkin' Dirty", where Zimmerman puts a Freudian twist on his hearing difficulties (no, that cute checkout girl was NOT whispering "sexuality" to him...)

Naturally, the show isn't dependent on the sense of sound, and it's charming to observe the deaf people in the audience laughing uproariously at the couple of inside jokes Zimmerman throws them in sign language. And Zimmerman does a better job than most solo artists in making audience participation an enthusiastic and endearing experience, rather than creating that teeth-pulling sense of awkwardness that often ensues in such situations (plus, giving a "shout out" to paraplegics that doesn't seem cheesy is an impressive feat indeed).

Jay Alan Zimmerman's Incredibly Deaf Musical is showing at the Canadian Embassy. Its remaining showtimes include today at noon, July 23 (5:30 p.m.), July 26 (10 p.m.) and July 27 (5 p.m.). For more info, check out the show's Web site.

Saturday at the Fringe brings audience goers political polemics, aerial artistry, deconstruction chic and a tour of some D.C. neighborhoods. When you have to navigate, don't forget to use our special Fringetastic new Google Map. The best way to get to the show on time!

Theatrical Performances:

Frozty the Abominable Snowman, Landless Theatre
There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found! For when they placed it on his head, he began to dance around. And, uhm…murder people. A rock musical, swimming in Landless’ secret sauce. [Woolly Mammoth Rehearsal Hall, 3 p.m.]

Pretty Theft, Madcap Players
Angsty Allegra’s looking for happiness, and joined by an autistic man and her unhinged friend, she sets off on a surreal road trip to find it. Capitol Hill’s Madcappers bring the Festival this premiere of Adam Szymkowicz’s cross-country coming of age comedy. [Canadian Embassy, 3 p.m.]

You Don’t Know Dick, The Art Riot Theatrical Co. & Accokeek Creek TheatreCo.
The best thing about the advertisements for this production, a collection of five short plays about Vice President Dick Cheney, is that we are warned that the play “contains profanity.” Well, duh. It’s about Dick Cheney! [Flashpoint, Mead Theatre Lab, 3 p.m.]

Hidden Pages, Q. Terah Jackson
Hip-hop meets experimental drama in this vision of a dystopian future about a fallen city, warring tribes, and the woman who might be able to prevent disaster. [The Warehouse Next Door, 6 p.m.]

Bushwa: A Modern Ubu, The Georgetown Theatre Company
The Georgetown Theatre Company have to be giddy considering that President Bush recently provided their play some interesting synergy by getting caught on camera using the word “shit.” That’s an in-joke for all you fans of turn-of-the-century French Absurdism. [Goethe-Institut, 8 p.m.]

The True Tragedy of the Mortician, Odyssey Productions
From Brooklyn comes this apocalyptic comedy that takes place at New York’s “hottest new restaurant.” Blending the sensual with the horrific with gutty comedy, it’s the only play in the Capital Fringe to boast a character named “The Soothing Voice.” Nice. [Hotel Helix, 8 p.m.]

The Capital Fringe Festival gets started in earnest today, with offerings all over town. Highlights include sci-fi dating, middle school antics, Canadian exports, songs for the deaf, a day-long performance piece, and spoonbending. It could be a little overwhelming if DCist weren't here to guide you through it, no? So before we get into it, let us first introduce OUR AWESOME FRINGE FESTIVAL MAP, which details the locations of all Fringe venues, by date. Special thanks to DCist Tom for putting that together. You can go directly to all of DCist's coverage of Fringe here.

[For more details and directions, click on the links.]

Theatrical Performances

May 39th, by the DC Dollies and the Rocketbitch Revue
“No matter how much things change, some things will always be a pain in the ass.” That’s how local playwright and bona fide Blogebrity Callie Kimball frames her future shock-look at 31st century dating in Washington, D.C. [Touchstone Gallery, 5 p.m.]

Spring Alibi, Northern Sabbatical Productions/LUE42Enterprises
This play about “voyeurism, food, and the 8-track tape” is one of a handful of shows that made waves at the 2005 Edmonton Fringe. Written by Canadian football addict Linda Wood Edwards, the play, her first, won the Nakai Theatre’s 24 Hour Playwriting Competition. [Canadian Embassy, 5:30 p.m.]

4.48 Psychosis, Wit’s End Productions
From the College of William and Mary, Wit’s End Productions mount this ambitous play by Sarah Kane. Kane, who suffered from bipolar disorder, wrote this almost formless piece, which seeks to replicate the P.O.V. of the mentally ill, with the seeming intent for it to be produced posthumously. [Flashpoint, Mead Theatre Lab, 7:30 p.m.]

Lunch, Bouncing Ball Theatrical Productions
Ready to relive your tween angst? With words and music by Shawn Northrip and directed by Shirley Serotsky, who recently staged Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms for Theatre Alliance, Lunch weaves storylines straight from the cafetorium of Benjamin Franklin Middle School. [PEPCO’s Edison Place Gallery, 8 p.m.]

Mamas, Don’t Let Your Cowboys Grow Up To Be Actors, by James Beard
James Beard’s solo piece, about his life chasing after acting glory and dodging the wrath of his family, is based on years of experience and expertly honed in front of friends and strangers. Word is the show’s an absolute comic hootenanny. [National Building Museum Auditorium, 9 p.m.]

Of all the non-traditional spaces hosting performances hosting Fringe Festival performances, none was more...uhm, Fringey, than the one obtained by Solas Nua, a young arts organization devoted to modern Irish culture and DC's go to source for all the latest in Enda Walsh plays. For their Fringe presentation, La Corbiere-Anne La Marquand Hartigan's poetic drama about a boatload of French whores whose travel plans go awry (as they so often do), Solas Nua sought to stage the drama in the fountains at Meridian Hill Park. That's in, not "at."

All was hunky dory for the troupe until about this time last week, when the National Park Service finally came to understand what preposition was in play and put the bureaucratic kibosh on the enterprise. It could be reasonably argued that the Park Service did not want to see Solas' actresses succumb to whatever pfisteria-type monsters swim unseen in the fountain (or at least didn't want to expose themselves to the attendant liability), but with two weeks before the performance was to start, and with funds recently sunk in the printing of postcard-sized advertising for the show, it left directors Michael Dove and Linda Murray and their cast in a tough spot.

Which is why it pleases us to report that an alternative venue has been found and the show is going on. DCist was contacted by both Dove and Murray, who tell us the La Corbiere will be performed at the Georgetown Outdoor Pool at 34th Street and Volta Place, NW. As planned, the show will run from Thursday, July 27 through Sunday, July 30 with performances at 9 p.m. So, go and get wet, Fringe fans.

As you sit in the tiny performance space inside the Casa del Pueblo Methodist Church - which the Rorschach Theatre Company always manages to make look like an entirely new space from its previous production - you're hot. The sweat's dripping down your face. You're trying to avoid any bodily contact with those sitting next to you. You're starting to feel a little faint.

Impressively enough, Rorschach's lack of air conditioning only serves to place its audience even more firmly into the world of The Arabian Night, its offering for the Capital Fringe Festival. The tale is set in an oppressively hot apartment building in an unknown location. It also has a dubiously functioning elevator, a mysterious sound of rushing water that appears to have no source, and a space/time continuum not quite in sync with our own. And that's just the beginning.

The Arabian Night's many stories each start off fairly straightforward. The building superintendent (Edwin Xavier) seems to be experiencing a flashback to his previous marriage. Fatima (Nelina Giridhar) has a set of conventional problems - a weird roommate and a series of annoyances which culminate in her getting locked out of the building. Her boyfriend's state is a little more dire, at least in his own mind; Kalil (Matt Dunphy) is trapped in a broken elevator with no visible means of escape. On the more elusive side of things, we have a roommate whose past is a puzzle (Franzisca Dehke) and a neighbor (Jason McCool) who is using that roommate to play out an elaborate fantasy of his own.

Fringe. When most Washingtonians speak the word, it’s usually in the context of dangerous foreign militias or whatever wackadoo mental sputum has oozed forth from John Hinderaker’s brain that morning. But for the next eleven days, Washington is going to come to know the term in a whole new light, because today is the start of the first-ever Capital Fringe Festival, a merry and motley collection of unique theatre, dance, cabaret and decidedly “other” performances, set to take Seventh Street NW by storm.

While the name “Fringe Festival” may suggest a loose-knit, ad hoc collection of ragtag artists—indeed, that could accurately describe the very first Festival—Fringing is actually a highly regarded tradition nearly six decades old. But some unfamiliarity is understandable. According to the Capital Fringe website, 65% of those polled have never attended a Fringe Festival. These informally branded festivals occur all over the globe, including several here in the United States.

However, the Fringe Festival tradition got its start in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1947. In the wake of World War II, a group of committed artists and city leaders started the Edinburgh International Festival, which was meant to aid the reconciliation of Europe by bringing the continent’s best artists together. From the outset, the Edinburgh International was a pretty big deal, with lofty goals, careful planning, and massive civic support. But in this instance, it would be the upstarts who would make history.

Editor's Note: Over the next two weeks, DCist will be bringing you a veritable onslaught of coverage of the first annual Capital Fringe Festival, which kicks off today. Here, we share with you our critic's take on The Worst President Ever, which we caught last month before its festival premiere — check back in regularly for more crucial Capital Fringe info as the Festival unfolds..

Oppressive acronyms. Mary Cheney. Ann Coulter. Britney Spears.

These are just some of the many targets of Rick Fiori's one-man show, The Worst President Ever, which tackles the policies of President Bush and the culture surrounding him. The less-than-gentle piece has flashes of clever writing, but never quite transcends its haphazard feel and "preaching-to-the-choir" mentality.

Fiori's main persona for President is absolutely crushing on Bush, though his bizarro justifications for W's policies show us where the author's politics really lie ("Who needs any more rice or sand?" he asks innocently when justifying the invasion of Iraq instead of North Korea). Fiori has some decent one-liners up his sleeve, and the adaptable nature of his show keeps us wondering what he'll hammer next--it'll be interesting to see how he takes on this month's political hot-buttons, such as the stem cell veto. Unfortunately, Stephen Colbert has spoiled us when it comes to satirical right-wing skewering, and Fiori's valley girl delivery wears thin by the show's end.