Samantha Perera
Staff writer
Dustin Curry, a student at SE, will be performing at the Kansas City Fringe Festival in Missouri from July 21-31.
Curry, an acting/directing and theatre management major will be performing his new show, “Mister Gremory’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” at the festival.
According to Curry, a fringe festival is an arts festival geared toward presenting new art and is “specifically, but not limited to, performing arts.” Fringe festivals take place all over the world, said Curry, “the most famous being in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the first fringe festival was held.”
This will be the seventh annual Kansas City Fringe Festival (www.kcfringe.org), which is geared to providing “uncensored artistic expression, accessibility and community development,” he said.
The Kansas City Fringe Festival is the closest festival, said Curry, and is one of the most inexpensive for producers. Festivals such as the New York, Minnesota, or Chicago Fringe festivals, though very prestigious and international, have production costs that are higher, he said. “In this economy, getting myself and my crew to any of those places would be a heavy burden,” Curry said.
“Mister Gremory’s Cabinet of Curiosities” is “a dark comedy spook show based on the spook shows of the early 20th century, as well as the séances of the 1800s,” Curry said.
Gremory is a museum curator “who has all of these weird objects in a cabinet that he presents to the audience,” said Curry. Gremory does not have any powers or do any tricks; he’s just a tour guide “presenting these freaky objects,” which include voodoo dolls and Ouija boards, he added.
“The name, ‘Cabinet of Curiosities,’ comes from a practice that began in the Renaissance, when nobles would collect objects whose categorical boundaries had yet to be defined, in a cabinet or closet of curiosities,” said Curry. “It’s a place for them to put all of the exotic items they brought back from their explorations,” he said.
Curry will also perform a stunt as part of his comedy magic act called the “Human Blockhead.”
“It’s a century old sideshow stunt where I literally shove a 4-inch nail into my nostril,” Curry said. It’s not magic, but a real stunt, he added. Curry performs his stunt to show his audience “there are real oddities and curiosities out there” and “not just fakes,” he said.
Curry learned this stunt alone. “I was one of the stupid ones,” he said, “but I don’t suggest anyone try to learn any kind of sideshow stunt alone.” Curry took a lot of precautions and did hours of research before he even developed the guts to put a small nail anywhere near his face. It was just a matter of working up to bigger and bigger nails after that, Curry said.
Curry has been performing from a very young age, though it was only recently he developed the “guts” to put together a show specifically for a fringe festival, he said.
“I’ve been onstage doing comedy since elementary school talent shows,” Curry said, “but I’ve only been doing magic, clown and mime since around 2006.” It was in 2009 he began working professionally as a variety performer, he said.
“I do a lot of street magic,” said Curry, “and was looking for outdoor festivals when my internet search brought up fringe festivals.” As the one in Kansas City was the most accessible for him, he began to look into it. At first he was merely interested in performing in the streets around the festival. As there was no precedent for that at this particular festival, he decided to produce his own show, said Curry.
As a theatre major here at SE, Curry’s main goal is to “be a working performer,” he said. With three years left in college, Curry receives a lot of help from his professors in planning for his future. “I’m going to work to learn as much as I can about theatre and all the other weird performance techniques I can, and whatever serves me best in the end is what I’ll stick with,” said Curry.
In May, Curry said he performed a preview of “Mister Gremory’s Cabinet of Curiosities” on campus for some of the theatre majors to get feedback and to see how audiences would react. “The reactions were great,” he said, “people were literally scared of some of the stuff and had a lot of fun.”
According to Curry he is considering retooling the show after the KC Fringe Festival and might bring his show to the Durant area again. “As far as an on campus gig, that’s just up to the theatre administration,” said Curry.