New arts festival bringing ‘weird, bizarro things’ downtown

Ernest Hemmings nearly wasn’t up to the challenge.

The actor/playwright/professional provocateur who’s been pushing people’s buttons in the local theater community for nearly a quarter century somehow dragged the Fallout Fringe Festival, kicking and screaming, into existence.

For its inaugural year, the festival is presenting more than 30 shows and more than 115 performances spread across five downtown venues: Majestic Repertory Theatre, Vegas Theatre Company, Notoriety, Cheapshot and Cornish Pasty Co. (Performances run now through June 25. For tickets and a full schedule, see falloutfringe.org.)

Told that most arts festivals tend to start small, so as to not overwhelm their organizers, Hemmings is taken aback.

“In my opinion,” he says, “this is small.”

‘Go! Go! Go!’

“Originally, this was a conversation over coffee that got out of hand,” Hemmings says of the festival’s origins.

He was catching up with Breon Jenay, the actress and wedding officiant who’s a longtime friend and collaborator, last fall during a gossipy monthly meet-up. By the time it was over, Hemmings found himself orchestrating a sprawling festival.

“Honestly, I kick myself every day,” he says, presumably joking.

The plan was to partner with Las Vegas Little Theatre, which is hosting four shows, Friday through June 15, for its 2025 Vegas Fringe Festival. By the time it was clear that wouldn’t work out, Fallout Fringe was too far along to abandon.

“At this point, the car is already moving,” Hemmings says. “We already have the masked bandits in the back seat. Everybody’s going, ‘Go! Go! Go!’”

Cue the raunchy puppets

With the festival under his TSTMRKT banner, Hemmings and his colleagues began seeking “bleeding-edge work” from creators both local and national.

“We were looking for something that left you with that feeling of ‘Where am I? Why is this happening? What’s going on?’ ” he says. “Some of these might be complete failures. We’re testing these things. And there’s no better testing ground than the desert.”

Roughly 80 percent of the Fallout Fringe lineup came from around the valley.

Hemmings wrote three of the shows, including “Everyone Loves Dick” (Saturday and Thursday at Vegas Theatre Company, 1025 S. First St.), which follows Hemmings’ Dick Ripper on an acid-fueled road trip from a trailer park in Lubbock, Texas, to Las Vegas in search of a better life; and “The Holy Church of Bezos” (Sunday and June 15 at Vegas Theatre Company), which invites the public to a Corporate Easter Mass led by Pastor Business and Pastor Manager.

As for the other shows he can’t wait for people to experience, Hemmings singles out “Anne Zander Is Mother” (June 13-15 at Vegas Theatre Company).

“It kind of blends everything together: the traditional theater along with the clowning along with the absurdism, a very Dada kind of performance style,” he says. “It’s super crazy. It’s probably the most fringe thing that anyone in this town probably would’ve ever seen.”

Hemmings also heaps praise on Kym Priess’ “Loser Lion Party Bus” (Friday-Sunday at Majestic Repertory Theatre, 1217 S. Main St.).

“The performance aspects of it, I think, are going to amuse and shock simultaneously,” he promises. “That’s definitely one that’s exciting me.”

Hemmings bursts out laughing at the mere mention of the local group Loose Thread Puppet Cult, which is presenting the raunchy, 18-and-up variety show “Puppet Slam Pride” (Saturday and June 18 at Vegas Theatre Company).

“It cracks me up every time,” Hemmings says, barely able to speak.

“They’re really good,” he adds, breaking as though he were involved in an old “Carol Burnett Show” skit.

“I wasn’t even thinking, ‘Oh, puppets.’ But they’ve had some really intricate, stylized stuff. I’m like, ‘This is crazy!’ There’s so much I didn’t know until I started doing this.”

That isn’t even the only puppet show in the lineup. The local Poor Richard’s Players is presenting an all-puppet production called “Sockspeare’s Hamlet” (June 15-16 and June 19-21 at Notoriety Live at Neonopolis).

A safe place to grow

“This is another step forward in the constant evolution of Vegas’ arts scene,” says Troy Heard, Majestic’s founding artistic director. “And we were excited to even be able to produce a piece for it.”

Majestic staged the cult musical “Ride the Cyclone” last spring. Now, the group is presenting its precursor, “Legoland,” as one of the eight shows the theater is hosting during Fallout Fringe. (Performances are scheduled Friday, Saturday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, June 14-15, June 21 and June 23.)

Heard says Majestic will keep “Legoland” in its repertory and take it out to other fringe festivals next year.

“That, to me, is what a fringe fest is about,” he says. “It is where the pieces — the plays, musicals, the weird, bizarro things — can get a safe start. And sometimes they’ll click.”

Among those that really clicked, Heard notes “Six” debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, while the Tony-winning “Urinetown” was first seen at the New York International Fringe Festival.

“I’m just excited to see the diversity of offerings,” Heard says. “There’s everything from clownwork to solo shows to confessionals to avant-garde pieces to social commentary.”

Vegas Theatre Company didn’t produce anything new for Fallout Fringe, but it’s hosting a dozen shows.

“Our mission is championing new and innovative work,” says Daz Weller, executive artistic director, “so this aligns really closely with what we are already doing.”

The group, which began as Cockroach Theatre Company in 2003, also is providing rehearsal space, as well as props and technicians.

“It was easy to say yes to, and our whole team came on board and has been fully supportive of it — partly for the creative aspect and partly for kind of the thrill of going, ‘Oh, my God, what are we getting ourselves into here?’”

Plans for the whole valley

Hemmings has big plans for Fallout Fringe and hopes to see it grow with “the entire city being alive.”

He recalls the days of staging shows in junkyards and the back of antique shops, and he hopes to see these weird, small, challenging shows presented throughout the valley, wherever there’s space.

“I would like to see that happen throughout the east side. The west side. Summerlin being involved. Getting Chinatown involved,” Hemmings says. “Just making sure that every segment of our city can showcase itself and stylize their own individual hubs for the festival to match their neighborhoods.”

He’s proud of the city he’s called home for the past 23 years, even though he admits to still feeling like an outsider. And he wants to see its art scene thrive. In his mind, the best way for that to happen exists on the fringe.

“God bless anyone who wants to do ‘Steel Magnolias’ for the millionth time. That’s great,” Hemmings says. “But we have so much talent here — especially with the clowning scene that’s in this town — there should be, like, more bizarro, no-words kinda situations. Like, ‘What the (expletive) am I watching?’ That’s the kind of stuff that we should be seeing.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.