Not satisfied with your choices in the presidential election? Dallas performance artist Abel Flores Jr. has created an alter ego to challenge the front-runners. The one-man show/stump speech AFJ: The Comeback premieres at the upcoming Fort Worth Fringe Festival, with Flores promising to poke fun at politicians and voters alike. The character is using the campaign as part of his healing from a mental health diagnosis.
“I portray myself at the beginning of the show,” Flores says, “then morph into AFJ to ridicule choosing one person to lead a whole country and the imaginary intimacy they convey to people of all backgrounds and beliefs.”
AFJ is directed by Hilly Holsonback, who along with Flores is a member of the UT Dallas-based Therefore Art, Sound and Performance Group, known for experimental multimedia pieces like The Alexa Dialogues and Poems for Broken Screens. This is an independent production.
Holsonback describes AFJ on her Instagram page as a “clown show” that will be by turns unpredictable, offensive and magical. “You’ll probably walk out not sure what you saw,” she says. “That means we did something right.”
AFJ is one of 15 shows at the fringe festival. Most of the acts are from Fort Worth and other parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the state. Others are coming from New York, New Mexico and Mississippi.
Details
AFJ: The Comeback at 8:30 p.m. Sept. 6 and at 3:10 and 6:50 p.m. Sept. 7 at Garber Hall in the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, 1300 Gendy St., Fort Worth. $13. Festival passes, $18.80-$65.45. Tickets at texastheatres.org/fringe.
