SHOW HISTORY

Ingrid Garner here, self-produced playwright/performer from Los Angeles. For nearly ten years I have toured the local and international Fringe theatre circuit with this stage adaptation of my grandmother’s award-winning memoir. Eleanor’s Story: An American Girl In Hitler’s Germany details her experience growing up as an enemy alien in WWII Berlin. Like all of my work, this show highlights tenacious women in fierce circumstances.

I discovered Fringe at a time during my University theatre education when I was growing concerned about the uncertain reality of the entertainment industry and wondering where I might find a place in it. I was about to be a Junior pursing an Acting BFA at California State University, Fullerton, but I realized I couldn’t see myself in driving to Hollywood everyday, pursuing endless auditions or leaving my eccentric, artsy hometown, Broadway-bound. But until I experienced a Fringe festival, I thought those were the only paths available to me. 

Fringes are these wild, alternative theatre festivals that occur all around the world, in which the boundaries of theatre are stretched and experimented with. My first experience was in 2013 at the Winnipeg Fringe in Canada, where I was running tech for a touring theatre group. There, I saw creative plays and solo shows but also circus, stand-up, puppetry, clown, burlesque, music, improv, and many combinations of all!

I had become disillusioned performing the same old monologues and scenes by the same old playwrights in class, but sitting in the audience of these unique and personal low-budget spectacles, I began to envision a new future for myself. This is what I wanted to do. So, I dropped out of the acting program and spent my last semesters creating “Eleanor’s Story” to tour the Fringe Circuit.

I knew my direct connection to my grandmother’s incredible story made a marketable hook for my premier work. I was determined that my show would not be standing and reciting historical events. It would feel cinematic, despite my financial limitations. It would be entertaining despite the difficult subject matter. Even with one performer, it would not be a monologue, but rather, an odyssey. I created a show that is portable for traveling alone, so my entire set fits into a steamer trunk made precisely to airline regulation size. A fold-up projection setup allows me to add cinematic scope to the production. Real images and videos deliver the scale of war, as well as delineate scenes without a set change. The trunk itself is the centerpiece of the performance, and along with two simple chairs, this trio can be manipulated to help tell an emotional story. The trunk becomes a crib, a shelter, a support beam. A chair becomes a sandbag, a weapon, a dying soldier. My lightning-fast ability to change characters through physicality alone makes my solo show feel like a fully-cast play.

Furthermore, playing my grandmother and her family transports an 80-year-old story to the present day for audiences. It is truly living history. This show has, unfortunately, grown more relevant in the years since its premier. Everyone is still connected to WWII through a parent or a grandparent, but the themes of social and political turmoil are all too familiar to today’s diasporas of refugees escaping war worldwide. I desire to provide an intimate view of the day-to-day experience of survivors living quietly among those of us unscathed by the conflict we only witness on screens. I am honored to be able to share this unique, yet universal coming-of-age tale with you.

All the best to you and yours,

Ingrid Garner