VegasFringe 2012: City Life Picks

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, JUNE 1-3; THURSDAY-SUNDAY, JUNE 7-10

Autoerotic asphyxiation! Suspicious religions! Einstein! That's one third of the subject matter at the third annual VegasFringe Festival, setting up shop at the Las Vegas Little Theatre. The festival takes place over two weekends, offering plenty of opportunity to see all nine of the shows presented by eight production companies: Chaos Theatre, Las Vegas Little Theatre, Poor Richard's Players, Found Door, Endless Productions, Olde English Productions, Table 8 Productions and TSTMRKT.

If you only have time to see a couple performances, here are our votes:

A.R. Gurney's Open Meeting (Las Vegas Little Theatre), about a mysterious meeting that devolves into an Oedipal ritual; Erica Griffin's Roles for Women (Table 8 Productions), about a bizarre stage manager pushing the lengths five actresses will go to become stars; and the double-feature Fringe Shorts, including James Huber's "Kissing Hank's Ass" (Found Door) about a couple trying to coax a room-rental candidate into joining their religion, and "Maranatha" (Chaos Theatre), about a reporter trying to prove a man who thinks he's Jesus is anything but.

In the end, four of the theater companies battle it out during The Final Four by Deanne Grace to establish who wins Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best in Fringe and Most Fringy. No play is longer than 90 minutes, so there's no excuse for not experiencing at least half of your represented local theater troupes in action.

Las Vegas Little Theatre, 3920 Schiff Dr., 362-7996.www.lvlt.org/fringe2012home.htm for tickets and show times.