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Boston Globe
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
At Boston Fringe, ‘Jackie & Allison Into the Multiverse' elevates absurdity into art
'The world is so big, and you're so small,' she says. 'Every performance you do is a gift.' Skinner is one-half of Jackie and Allison, a sketch comedy team that specializes in 'clowning' — not the Ringling Bros. variety, but the Related : Advertisement model of the Edinburgh Fringe, which has presented a huge range of performing artists every year since 1947, organizers hope to establish the local version alongside the many other fringe festivals that take place in cities across North America and beyond. Boston is well-known for its thriving music and comedy scenes, Xiadani says, but it's less disposed to avant-garde forms like 'clown.' By establishing a new home for fringe theater in Boston, she hopes that 'this whole ecosystem can be elevated and become more generative,' she says. Advertisement The anything-goes atmosphere of fringe is underscored by the format's rules about how performers get accepted to partcipate. Some of Boston Fringe's presenting groups got their slots on a first-come, first-served basis; others entered a lottery. With several acts appearing each night and full days on Saturday and Sunday, programs include 'Facts & Figures' (a 'dance murder mystery'), an absurdist one-person play called 'Barroz' by Bryce Flint-Somerville, and Xiadani herself in an imaginary beauty pageant called 'Miss Route 1.' Related : Though this year's Boston Fringe takes place entirely at the Rockwell, Xianadi and Monteleone are already talking to business owners around Davis Square about using additional spaces next year. Xiadani, who grew up in Cambridge, thinks of all her curatorial work for the Rockwell as an 'incubator' for creative work. 'Fringe is a playground,' she says. Villaseñor and Skinner will perform their original comedy act on May 6, 9, and 11 as a part of the first-ever Boston Fringe. The premise behind 'Jackie & Allison Into the Multiverse,' which they will perform three times during Boston Fringe, grew out of the two performers' friendship. Skinner, who hails from Waltham, met Allison Villaseñor while they had been colleagues at a cloud storage company in San Francisco. 'Pretty exciting stuff,' Skinner says of their then-day jobs with a laugh. In Los Angeles, where she now lives, Skinner took a class with Chad Damiani, a leader in that city's thriving clowning scene. 'What I like about clown is the emphasis on the vulnerable,' Skinner says. 'So much of the New York sketch and comedy scene is 'Look at how clever I am, how well-written this joke is.' With clown, it's just, 'Let me be funny for the audience, and show them I'm listening to them.'' 'You want to invite [the audience] to your party,' adds Villaseñor. 'What do you feel like doing or saying? How do you feel? Show that. Have fun. Go back to your childlike emotions.' Advertisement The two friends share a pronounced sense of humor; Villaseñor's sister, Melissa, spent several years in the cast of 'Saturday Night Live.' Related : 'Jackie & Allison Into the Multiverse' envisions two office pals who lose themselves in surreal daydreams, one of which involves wearing chef's costumes while attempting to play basketball. Skinner says their collaboration is based on both of them being 'stupid idiots.' The rising popularity of clowning can be attributed to several factors, Villaseñor suggests, 'from our political climate to the whole overworked, burnt-out' frame of mind that seems to be a growing concern. With both women in their 30s, they say their act is a response to the idea that they're supposed to have their lives 'figured out' by now. 'A lot of our friends have kids, go to jobs,' Skinner says. 'Clown is the antithesis of all that. You go onstage without having it all figured out. That's scary. 'But I've found that clowning has helped me figure out that it's OK.' BOSTON FRINGE At the Rockwell, 255 Elm St., Somerville. Through Sunday. Tickets $15 per show. James Sullivan can be reached at .
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After shooting, Florida State students demand gun reform at Florida Capitol
A group of Florida State University students walked to the center of the Florida Capitol and said Florida lawmakers' support of policies that have normalized gun violence make them complicit in the Sunshine State's mass shootings. Among the four students standing in the rotunda April 22 between the House and Senate chambers were two who had huddled in a barricaded classroom while a gunman roamed the Florida State University campus April 17, killing two and wounding six. The quartet of 19- and 20-year-olds, accompanied by House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa, expressed disgust that leading lawmakers have remained silent about gun control since the shooting. 'All we got was Gov. DeSantis releasing a single Twitter video. Not even a written statement. This disconnect between what happened and the governing majority's blanket of silence is just disgusting,' said Simon Monteleone, a 19-year-old from Cape Coral. Monteleone, known for campus activism, and others called the ruling Republican supermajority's advancement of bills this year to make firearms more accessible deplorable and issued a general pleading for others to stand with them. More: After FSU shooting, outrage erupts over Florida Legislature's inaction on gun regulations The FSU shooting was the sixth mass shooting in Florida this year, and the fourth Florida school shooting since 2012, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Nineteen-year-old Madalyn Propst of Orlando was in the first grade then. She said she and a younger brother have experienced a school lockdown every year since. Propst said a mass shooting becomes a political issue when public policy fails to stop preventable deaths. 'Because of poor policy at the hands of legislators, there are two people who are dead who shouldn't be, six people in the hospital who shouldn't be, and thousands of students who no longer feel safe on campus,' Propst said. Senate President Ben Albritton visited the FSU campus Monday and has been in communication with school officials since the shooting, his spokesperson said. "Certainly the Senate is continuing to monitor any developments as the investigation continues," Deputy Chief of Staff Katherine Betta said. Requests for comment are pending with Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Daniel Perez. Propst is president of the FSU chapter of College Democrats. She was joined by Andres Perez, the FSU chapter president of gun control group Students Demand Action; Natanel Mizrahi, a senior from Sarasota, and Monteleone, a freshman. Their news conference at the Capitol was sponsored by House Democrats; Capitol rules require outside groups to have a government-affiliated sponsor for an event. Propst said Driskell reached out to students after the shooting, asked if they had the emotional bandwidth to suggest policy solutions, and met in private with the group. Driskell said Florida's 'priorities are just totally messed up' because they undermine safety and don't protect young people. 'If we're not looking at common sense gun reform like safe storage, red flag laws and universal background checks, then really what are we doing here?' Driskell said. Florida House Democrats have sponsored a half-dozen proposals this year to tighten gun regulations, but none have had a hearing. Their efforts to stymie GOP attempts to loosen restrictions have been unsuccessful. The GOP has more than a 2–1 advantage in the House. Students say they testified to maintain a minimum age of 21 for firearms purchases, or against a sales tax holiday for guns and ammunition, but have felt patronized and ignored by lawmakers. 'They ignore younger voices because we are not their constituents. We are not where their money comes from. We're not where the majority of their votes come from. It's very frustrating,' Monteleone said. Last month, Perez testified before the House Judiciary Committee against the repeal of a minimum age for the purchase of guns enacted after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre. The measure passed out of committee, cleared the House on a party line vote, and now awaits Senate action. 'I don't know how many tragedies it's going to take for people to wake up and realize this is a real problem. If they can hear me, I hope people will please, please (stand) with us,' Perez said. The students have a five-point plan to reduce gun violence and improve school safety. They want legislation to: Require lockable doors on all university classrooms. Mandate active shooter response training for professors and teaching assistants. Increase funding for mental health intervention. Mandate stricter safe storage laws of firearms in households with minors and individuals who cannot legally obtain firearms. Stop passage of legislation that weakens gun safety laws. 'The time for thoughts and prayers has passed. It is time for policy changes because while thoughts and prayers can put Band-Aids over a bullet wound, they will do nothing to stop the next bullet,' Propst said. James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@ and is on X as @CallTallahassee. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Students call out Florida GOP silence after FSU mass shooting
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A 'painfully American problem:' At SXSW, Chelsea Clinton, Bumble exec talk abortion access
When South By Southwest held its major abortion panel a year ago, the largest ballroom was filled with people wanting to hear from abortion advocates Amanda Zurawski and Samantha Casiano along with Nancy Northrup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, and Elizabeth Monteleone, chief legal officer for Austin-based online dating platform Bumble Inc. This year, Northrup and Monteleone returned along with Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation and producer of the documentary "Zuwarski v. Texas;" and Jamila K. Taylor, the president and CEO of the Institute for Women's Policy Research. This year, the focus was on what businesses could do to support abortion access. The convention center room was only one-third full, while a line outside the room snaked through several levels to see a keynote with actor Joe Manganiello next door. Clinton said access to abortion "is not just about patient health and well-being, it is a matter of society, economic and fiscal health." She meets people who will say to her: "It's terrible what's happening to women in Arkansas," where she grew up before her father became president; "It's terrible what's happening in Texas. It's terrible what's happening in Idaho." Then she turns it to, "Do you see what's happening in America in the year of our Lord 2025?" Abortion access is a "painfully American" problem, "one we think that everyone needs to bear witness to," Clinton said. Northup said Americans "have to have a rallying cry: 'Remember Dobbs,'" a play on the Texas slogan "Remember the Alamo" and a reference to the 2022 Supreme Court decision that undid the abortion access protections of 1973's Roe v. Wade decision. Taylor delivered the statistics of why this is a business problem with recent study from her Institute for Women's Policy Research: The U.S. economy loses $68 billion a year because of a lack of access to abortion, and Texas loses $16 billion a year. This is due to women not being able to participate in the labor force in the way that women with access to abortion can, she said. "Abortion restrictions continue to be hugely unpopular, and it is having a broad effect," Taylor said. The Dobbs decision and the Senate Bill 8 in Texas in 2021 caused Bumble to re-evaluate its health insurance and change its policies to include travel funds, women's reproductive health benefits through Maven Clinic, postpartum and other mental health support through Spring Health, and even change its health insurance company to offer more reproductive health. "It was a no-brainer,' she said. These laws "have real impact to our employees." Northrup encourages employees, both men and women, to visit with their benefits coordinator and ask for the coverage they need: that can include travel benefits to access care, in vitro fertilization and other fertility coverage, mental health care, and better parental health leave. Benefits like these are what employees want and seek when applying for jobs, Monteleone said, and they are using the coverage. At her company, 50% of employees have used the Maven and the Spring Health benefits. Clinton encouraged employees to also ask their companies to give paid-time off for voting. "When everyone participates in our democracy — even if you don't agree with me, I want you to vote —that is how we have a restored sense that our democracy is us." Clinton also took a stab at Texas politicians including the Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Texas Supreme Court justices and legislators. "They do not represent the will of the people in the state," she said. "We have to move from seeing this as a social issue into a business issue or an employee issue," Monteleone said. "... It is health care. That is something companies should be able to get behind because it is impacting your workforce." While many employers won't post on social media about reproductive care access or put up a billboard in Times Square like Bumble has, they can go to their state legislators and U.S. senators and representatives to lobby for access for their employees. They can remind lawmakers that "their employees don't want to work in the state of Texas or the other states where abortion is banned," Northup said. A recent Institute for Women's Policy Research survey of 10,000 people found that 1 in 5 were moving or knew someone who was moving out of a state because of abortion access. "It's not safe for anyone that is of reproductive age to be in a state that bans abortion access," Northup said. "... It's not a good business environment." Taylor backed it up with a statistic: hospitals in states without abortion access have a 62% higher maternal death rate than hospitals in states with access. Infant mortality rates also increase, she said. "Starting the conversation is so important,' Northrup said. For more information, businesses can email corporateinfo@ This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: SXSW speaker: Lack of abortion access costs Texas $16 billion per year
