Writers & Books returns for our 8th year as a Rochester Fringe Festival venue! Our staff curates two weeks of exciting, thought-provoking shows, performed in our intimate performance space on the second floor. An array of theater, comedy, spoken word, and multidisciplinary performances are presented, each at a ticket price of under $20. A cash bar on the first floor is open one hour before showtime. All Writers & Books spaces are fully accessible.
Writers & Books will also have a bar set up in the bookstore area for festival-goers to purchase beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) before seeing a show. Come enjoy a beverage at The Raven Bar, a Poe inspired setting in our bookstore, during the Fringe Festival this year. Come for a spell before taking in one of our Fringe shows or just drop in for a beverage with friends during the festival.
“There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
50 Shades of Gay Takes on the ‘80s
“50 Shades of Gay” returns for a third outlandish year to Fringe and, this time, it takes on the fabulous 1980s. Join award-winning comedian Ike Avelli and his talented guests, Tym Moss and Vivian Darling, for a night of comedy, music, drag, costumes and – most importantly – audience participation and giveaways! You’re even invited to dress up in an iconic look from the decade. “The mastermind of creativity, Ike Avelli showcased a riveting adult variety explosion.” (Huffington Post)
Show Length: 60 Minutes Ticket Price: $15.00
Genre: Comedy Ages: Mature Audiences
- Show Dates:
- Wednesday, September 11 at 9:00 pm
- Thursday, September 12 at 9:00 pm
- Friday, September 13 at 9:00 pm
- Saturday, September 14 at 10:00 pm
We are a local improv comedy group made up of performers aged 50 years and above. With more than four centuries of life experience, this team performs short and long-form improv, stand-up and sketch comedy. We started performing in assisted-living centers, cafes and theatre spaces around Rochester, and have graduated to shows and comedy festivals all over the Northeast. Catch us while you still can at the Fringe!
Show Length: 50 Minutes Ticket Price: $10.00
Genre: Comedy Ages: 18 and over
- Show Dates:
- Thursday, September 12 at 7:00 pm
- Saturday, September 14 at 4:00 pm
Best Solo Performance, 2018 Boulder Fringe. Outstanding Performance, 2018 San Diego Fringe. Patrons’ Choice Award, 2017 PortFringe. Critics’ Choice Award, 2017 PortFringe. Best Comedy, 2016 Adelaide Fringe. Best Show, 2016 Pittsburgh Fringe. Critics’ Choice Award, 2016 Atlanta Fringe. After a completely sold-out run at the 2016 and 2017 Rochester Fringes, “The Eulogy” (an absurd, theatrical parody of a funeral speech) returns. CITY Newspaper: “The kind of show you want to see again immediately.” Washington Post: “A comic gem.”
Show Length: 60 Minutes Ticket Price: $16.00
Genre: Comedy Ages: 13 and over
- Show Dates:
- Friday, September 13 at 7:00 pm
- Saturday, September 14 at 6:00 pm
- Wednesday, September 18 at 8:00 pm
It’s Poetry! It’s Theatre! It’s Poetry with Props! After the collapse of human civilization, aliens land on earth and embark on an intergalactic scholarly mission to see what went so horribly wrong that it caused human society to implode. During their exploration, these beings rely on an obscure twenty-first century poet’s work to decode the many mysteries of earth and make their anthropological conclusions, both serious and funny – just as all theatre should be.
Show Length: 60 Minutes Ticket Price: $15.00
Genre: Theatre Ages: 13 and over
- Show Dates:
- Saturday, September 14 at 12:00 pm
- Saturday, September 21 at 12:00 pm
Sladki Doumi Women’s Balkan Chorus
Sladki Doumi Women’s Balkan Chorus performs traditional songs from the Balkans, celebrating a music with asymmetrical rhythms and radiant melodies that “makes your socks go up and down!” The singing style is focused and highly ornamented, harmonious and dissonant in turn. The songs tell stories of hard work, community, love, and pain. Sladki Doumi presents these songs in their original languages, as women (and sometimes men) have rendered them across time, and shares them lovingly with audiences of all ages.
Show Length: 45 Minutes Ticket Price: $8.00
Genre: Music Ages: All Ages
- Show Dates:
- Saturday, September 14 at 2:00 pm
A FABULOUS evening of some of the best divas of drag and stand-up comedians that Rochester has to offer! Musical performances and stand-up comedy will provide an all-inclusive night of enjoyment.
Show Length: 60 Minutes Ticket Price: $15.00
Genre: Comedy Ages: 18 and over
- Show Dates:
- Saturday, September 14 at 8:00 pm
- Saturday, September 21 at 10:00 pm
What do you get when you take a group of actors, writers, directors and producers and give them 24 hours to create, rehearse and “tech” a handful of short original plays? Something uniquely amazing. The experience is profoundly exhilarating, culminating in a thrilling performance with lights, sounds, props and costumes for a live theatre audience.
Show Length: 60 Minutes Ticket Price: $20.00
Genre: Theatre Ages: 13 and over
- Show Dates:
- Monday, September 16 at 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm
We present a program of short plays by and in tribute to Byron Wilmot, a wonderful local playwright who left us too soon five years ago. Some of these plays were written expressly for us and all display Byron’s unique humor. We leaven the program with a song or two (or three) from the Rochester Songbook, a collection of Rochester-centric songs compiled in 1910.
Show Length: 60 Minutes Ticket Price: $15.00
Genre: Theatre Ages: 13 and over
- Show Dates:
- Tuesday, September 17 at 7 pm
- Wednesday, September 18 at 2:00 pm
- Thursday, September 19 at 2:00 pm
The Encounter (Baltimore-based magic team of Annie Montone and Brian Kehoe) is back at Rochester Fringe with their new narrative magic smash-up, “Town X.” There’s been an event in Town X, and the entire community – including you – is on hand for an emergency meeting. The doors are locked, the cell phones down, and the radio says something that sounds like invasion. Part theater piece, part magic show, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen The Encounter.
Show Length: 50 minutes Ticket Price: $20.00
Genre: Theatre Ages: 13 and over
- Show Dates:
- Thursday, September 19 at 7:00 pm
- Friday, September 20 at 9:00 pm
- Saturday, September 21 at 6 pm
After a completely sold-out run at the 2016 and 2017 Rochester Fringes, Michael Burgos returns with his second show, “Tiramisu.” Several years after their relationship ends, Tony – a washed-up American musician – realizes that Teresa – an Italian pastry chef –was the one who got away. Not knowing what else to do, Tony writes a musical about tiramisu and tours it globally, in the hopes that Teresa will see the show and fall in love with him again.
Show Length: 60 minutes Ticket Price: $12.00
Genre: Theatre Ages: 13 and over
- Show Dates:
- Thursday, September 19 at 9:00 pm
- Friday, September 20 at 7:00 pm
- Saturday, September 21 at 8 pm
Manifest This: A Tragicomic Odyssey
Kelli Dunham’s “Manifest This” is a one-person, multimedia, live, comedic storytelling show about what happens when midwestern, genderqueer stubbornness disasterlife meets the Portlandia-esque world of The Secret, #manifesting, queerwoo, Kale As Religion and Ear Candling for Dogs. If anyone has told you that you can cure all your physical/emotional ailments with good thoughts, remote reiki and chakra massaging, this show is for you. Also, if you just like funny nonbinary people.
Show Length: 50 minutes Ticket Price: $10.00
Genre: Comedy Ages: 13 and over
- Show Dates:
- Saturday, September 21 at 2:00 pm
“INFERNO BEMSHI!” mixes and mashes the 1911 film “L’Inferno” with original libretto, music, soundscape and poetry by G. E. Schwartz and Dave Esposito in a real-time phantasmagorical performance, a journey deep into a no-go zone, filled with conspirators, the corrupt, collusionists and murderers. HELL WALK WITH US! And guess who’s condemned to the lowest circle of this inferno!
Show Length: 60 Minutes Ticket Price: $7.00
Genre: Multidisciplinary Ages: 13 and over
- Show Dates:
- Saturday, September 21 at 4:00 pm