Thursday, March 28, 2024

Coronado Residents’ Creative Work Taking Center Stage at the San Diego International Fringe Festival

Coronado song writer Katie Brady, and CoSA (Coronado School of the Arts) students Troy Cavalieri, Ethan Haas, Tim Baran, and Patrick Clark will be showcasing their talents during the San Diego International Fringe Festival in late June and early July.

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(courtesy of Google Images)

The 2016 San Diego International Fringe Festival will take place over the course of eleven days from June 23 through July 3.  According to its website, the “San Diego International Fringe Festival is a non-profit project of CONTACT ARTS, in association with the Actors Alliance of San Diego, designed to help provide a platform for artists while also helping the community as a whole – boosting arts and culture within the gorgeous City of San Diego.”

What exactly is the Fringe Festival? As stated on its website, “During the festival, artists from across the United States and around the world participate alongside homegrown talent, in art forms spanning from theatre, buskers/street performers, cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, film, poetry, spoken word, puppetry, music, visual art, design and open to any other type of artsyness not listed.”

This year’s Fringe Festival may very well feature artists from all over the world, but Coronado should especially look forward to two productions by the Crown City’s very own residents. Coronado song writer Katie Brady is the writer of the musical The Test, and Coronado’s CoSA (Coronado School of the Arts) students Troy Cavalieri, Ethan Haas, Tim Baran, and Patrick Clark are the writers and producers of The Secret Life of the American Candidate.

The Test

Katie Brady wrote the musical entitled The Test for this year’s Fringe Festival.  The musical, which is about “surviving college application hysteria”, is “best described as:

a) Sara Bareilles meets Stephen Schwartz
b) Dunder Mifflin meets Fortune 500
c) S.A.T. meets L.O.L.
d) ALL OF THE ABOVE.”

It is directed by Courtney Corey, Founder and Director of Theatre Arts School of San Diego.

Katie Brady
Coronado’s Katie Brady is the writer of this year’s Fringe Festival musical comedy entitled “The Test”. (Photo courtesy of Katie Brady)

How did Katie become involved in this year’s Fringe Festival?  She responds, “I found out about the Fringe Festival last year, and I have always been interested in story telling.  I’ve been a song writer for over twenty years; it’s kind of another form of story telling.  I got this bee in my bonnet, and I said, ‘I think I’d like to write a musical.’ I knew last year I needed a little more under my belt so I wrote a play (Turbulencefor last year’s Fringe, and had a blast.”

She continues, “After last year’s Fringe, pretty much the day it ended, I started writing this year’s musical.  I decided to write about the college application process, and make it a musical comedy.”  She laughs as she says, “You can go tragedy with it, but I went musical comedy.  I think I wrote about the college application process because as a mom, I see the system, and I think, ‘It can be an amazing opportunity.’  Here you are, seventeen, and you’re in a process and a system that’s asking you to think about who you’re becoming and what matters to you.  That’s cool.  I think often, and maybe more and more these days, it’s becoming a missed opportunity because it’s so easy to get caught up in this competitiveness and the frenzy that’s created by a scarcity mentality; this idea that there’s not enough and that there’s only this place or this handful of places that are acceptable instead of looking at it as, ‘This is an opportunity to find a fit, and go to a place that’s going to help you grow into who you’re becoming.’  I just found that really interesting.”

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(courtesy of “The Test”)

Katie reflects on the writing process saying, “Every system, I don’t care what it is, is flawed.  Art has a wonderful way of taking these systems, and in a funny, poignant, and hopefully meaningful way, bringing light to the flaws and having a little fun as long as it’s in a non-judgmental way. The minute you start pointing fingers, it cheapens the conversation; it’s kind of the easy way out.  We tried really hard to not point fingers, and just show what we think about the system [college application process].  Hopefully it’s funny and poignant, and leaves you humming a tune.”

Due to Fringe Festival requirements, shows can be no more than an hour, which meant that Katie needed to pare down the musical compositions she wrote for The Test to just ten songs.  The whole story takes place during the S.A.T. (Suite of Assessments) in the mind of one of the characters.

"The Test" is an hour long musical comedy that takes place inside the mind of one of the characters during the S.A.T. (Photo courtesy of Katie Brady)
“The Test” is an hour long musical comedy that takes place inside the mind of one of the characters during the S.A.T. test.  Natasha Partnoy is the leading lady. (Photo courtesy of Katie Brady)

The cast of eleven features seven high school students, and Katie compliments them saying, “I was not as composed or talented in high school.  They’re amazing!  I’m stunned at their talent.”

Katie says she found inspiration from musical artists such as Sara Bareilles, Ten Thousand Maniacs, and Jason Mraz; artists whose songs all have meaningful lyrics.  She adds that Stephen Schwartz, the award winning lyricist of Broadway’s Wicked, is another influence.  Her face absolutely lights up as she talks about her musical role models, and it’s evident just how important music is to her.

Will Katie’s seventeen and fifteen year old children be in the audience at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center for her musical comedy?  “I’ll make them,” she laughs.  It’s very apropos that she’s writing about the college application process because it is right around the corner for her own children.  Her work is a reflection of the emotions that she knows her children and their friends are actually experiencing or will experience.

The Fringe Festival may be the premiere of The Test, but Katie is hopeful that it’s a musical comedy that high school students will not only come to watch, but will also want to perform.  “I’m loving doing it for the Fringe, and the Fringe is such a great opportunity for the up and coming, but I would really love to see this go on. Even some of the kids that are in our show have said, ‘That is so me.’ I think it’s meaningful to high school students to see it and for their parents to see it too.  It gives you a little breath back.”

“Come and see it.  Come and tell your friends and family,” Katie encourages everyone. “We want to sell out the first show.  I have a feeling by the end we’re going to have a large crowd because our actors are so good.”

Of course, Katie admits, she’s already working on ideas for next year’s Fringe Festival! “You can’t help it when you’re in an inspirational and artistic environment,” she laughs.

*To see show times and purchase tickets see additional information at the conclusion of this article.

The Secret Life of the American Candidate

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Coronado High School CoSA students and alumni form the youngest team of producers for this year’s Fringe Festival, where their one-act play “The Secret Life of the American Candidate” will be featured. (Photo courtesy of Patrick Clark. From left to right: Troy Cavalieri, Ethan Haas, Tim Baran, Patrick Clark)

Troy Cavalieri, Ethan Haas, Tim Baran, and Patrick Clark all attended Coronado High School together, where they performed together in the award-winning Coronado High School Improv League, which was started by Tim when he was a sophomore at CHS.  Even though Tim and Patrick, who both graduated last year, were both studying at their respective colleges this year, they still kept in touch with Troy and Ethan, who are both set to graduate from CHS next week. Together the four CoSA students have written and produced a one act play entitled The Secret Life of the American Candidate.

“An equal opportunity offender” is how Troy, Ethan, Tim, and Patrick describe The Secret Life of the American Candidate.  They are the youngest team of producers featured in this year’s Fringe Festival.

Ethan says, “The Secret Life of the American Candidate was an idea I had for the REP Show.  The REP Show is a part of CoSA, a mini sketch group where we do SNL (Saturday Night Live) type skits. Originally I wanted the scene to be a bunch of historical presidential candidates who all went to the same high school so it would be basically like Bill Clinton would be interacting with George Washington.”

He continues, “Then Tim and I started discussing what we wanted to do for the Fringe this year.  We adapted it into Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Ted Cruz are the candidates attending school together.  Originally Jeb Bush was included too, but he dropped out too soon.”

Tim picks up where Ethan left off explaining, “It’s about all four of them running for ASB (Associated Study Body) Class President, and it’s just all the shenanigans, all the drama and intrigue that a normal presidential election would have, but, of course, in high school.”

How do this group of young men feel about being the youngest team of producers to have their play featured in this year’s Fringe Festival?  “It’s stressful, of course, but a lot of fun,” says Tim.  He continues, “We’re facing off against companies who have already put on their shows or are already finished. They’re coming to San Diego to perform their shows, and here we are, just a bunch of high school kids really.”  Troy chimes in, “Just trying to figure it out,” and Ethan responds, “I will say this year is a lot easier.  Tim and I did the Fringe Festival last year with My Big Fat Gay Wedding.  This year is a lot easier because we know what to expect.”

When asked if they’re hoping for a lot of support from the community of Coronado, the group of four nodded their heads emphatically in unison as they said, “Oh, YES!”  Tim said, “The Coronado support is huge for us.  Last year with My Big Fat Gay Wedding we actually not only beat the average ticket sales, we demolished them solely because of Coronado support.  We’re hoping to keep that support going.”  Ethan added, “This year we just want as much support as possible.”  Their Fringe Festival performance last year was held at Coronado High School, but the team is hopeful that a drive across the bridge won’t prevent their loyal Coronado friends and family from watching this year’s one act play at The Geoffrey Off Broadway (formerly known as RAW Space Off Broadway).

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The high school pictures of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and Ted Cruz (courtesy of “The Secret Life of the American Candidate”)

The team of four not only wrote the one act play, but two of them act in it as well. Troy plays young Donald Trump while Ethan represents a high-school aged Bernie Sanders. Danielle Edmonds, who is another CoSA student, stars as teenage Hillary Clinton.  Some of the ensemble will also feature familiar faces as Tim, Ethan, Patrick, and Troy did all of the casting themselves, selecting many of their CoSA peers.  (This fine young group of producers wanted to be sure to thank the high school for donating rehearsal space.)

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(courtesy of “The Secret Life of the American Candidate”)

How do they feel the real candidates would react to this play?  Smiling as he calls Bernie Sanders his “homeboy”, Ethan says, “I would say that he [Bernie Sanders] would be proud he was being shown in such a good light.  He’s not roasted as hard as Ted Cruz.”  Tim laughs as he says, “We hit Ted Cruz really hard.”  Patrick explains that they tried to “roast them equally,” but some candidates proved to be “easier targets.”  They emphasize that all “four candidates are insulted equally” and that they [the production team] “don’t show any favoritism.”  Troy speculates that Trump “would probably sue” them if he found out about their play, but Tim disagrees, saying that Trump “would probably chuckle.”  Patrick laughs saying that Hillary “would probably try to deny that this play exists” and that Cruz “would probably pray for us.”  The four of them agree that Sanders “would probably come watch it.”

*To see show times and purchase tickets see additional information at the conclusion of this article.

Additional Information:

The Test

Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 Tenth Avenue, San Diego 92101.

  • Friday, June 24, 9 p.m.
  • Saturday, June 25, 2016, 10:30 p.m.
  • Tuesday, June 28, 2016, 6 p.m.
  • Thursday, June 30, 2016, 4 p.m.
  • Saturday, July 2, 2016, 2:30 p.m.

To view the Facebook page of The Test click here.

For ticket sales click here.

The Secret Life of the American Candidate 

The Geoffrey Off Broadway, 923 1st Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101.

  • Thursday, June 23 at 6 p.m.
  • Sunday, June 26 at 1 p.m.
  • Monday, June 27 at 4 p.m.
  • Thursday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, July 2 at 6 p.m.

To view the Facebook page of The Secret Life of the American Candidate click here.

For ticket sales click here.

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(courtesy of Google Images)



Coree Cornelius
Coree Cornelius
Resident, Educator, Military Spouse, and Mother."I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list." - Susan Sontag.Have news to share? Send tips, story ideas or letters to the editor to: [email protected]

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