Teaching the Fringe --- Keir Cutler

"Teaching the Fringe" was chosen "BEST OF FEST" Winnipeg Fringe 2008.
"Cutler is a master onstage, balancing spoken word with expressive gestures, interacting with the audience without losing pace or rhythm, and never straying too far from the plot. Most importantly, he treats his audience with intelligence." Winnipeg Sun
"if you want to be seriously entertained by a phenomenal performer, don't miss this." Montreal Gazette.
In 2008 Keir Cutler wrote and performed his first autobiographical show, taking a comic look at the menace of rogue audience members. Wacky, hilarious encounters on the Fringe with the "fringe" element, including being reported to the authorities for one of his plays.
"Teaching the Fringe" is directed by fringe god, TJ Dawe.
" . . . sometimes the real nuts are not up on the stage." Wayne Larsen, The Chronicle, Montreal Fringe 2008
"A fringe festival star is grappling with accusations that he is the pervert that he portrayed in a Winnipeg show last summer." Kevin Prokosh, Winnipeg Free Press
"Warning: this play may contain fiction" Amy Barrett, Montreal Mirror
"How good an actor is Keir Cutler? The hate mail tells the story" Pat Donnelly, The Montreal Gazette
Here's the backstory.
In 2006 Keir wrote and performed "Teaching As You Like It,'" TJ Dawe directed. The third play in Keir's "Teaching Shakespeare Trilogy" where his teacher character has sunk to substitute teaching English in a high school. On the day he's to teach Shakespeare's comedy "As You Like It," he instead spends the class denying the rumour that he's involved with one of the students in the class, who's conspicuously absent that day. As he endlessly justifies himself he digs a bigger and bigger hole and inadvertently admits he's done exactly what he's been accused of. The show ends with him swamped in the guilt of his actions and admissions, waiting for the police to show up and arrest him.
"Teaching As You Like It" toured fringes across Canada and received rave reviews from critics, from the mayor of Edmonton, and from a Toronto psychologist who treats abusive priests, who asked Keir for a video of the piece to show his patients how they justify and rationalize their criminal behaviour.
After his last fringe performance of the show at the 2007 Winnipeg Fringe, Keir was forwarded a three-page letter an audience member wrote to the head of the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. The handwritten letter complains that the show promotes the idea that sexual predation of underaged girls is acceptable, and that it could be used as a textbook for anyone who wanted to take advantage of a student. Accusations that were not made by a single critic in any of the seven cities the play has been performed in.
"Teaching the Fringe," tells the story of Keir receiving this letter, his reaction to it, and his response to it. Along with other stories of encounters with strange audience members, and incidents of censorship in general. TJ directs again. The play is packed with hilarious comic insights and is told with a biting sarcastic edge.
www.keircutler.com

[@1stEnglishGentleman]

I have an idea for a play you could perform. Called, "Shakespeare's 2nd best bed" . Another take on the authorship question using the will from Stratford.