Honoring accessibility and experimentation, Kindling casts a wide, effervescent net. This year’s festival was particularly satisfying in its small acts. Josh Inocalla — a local mainstay offering big heart to supporting roles — staged a reading of his first play. Whip-smart and funny, How to Clean a Wound dealt in big themes intimately. The play is about staying true to yourself as you search for community. Based on the audience — full of theater folk who tearfully gave the play a minutes-long standing ovation — I’d say Inocalla has nailed it. On the other side of town, a troupe of folks mounted a good old-fashioned menagerie of deep strangeness with The Cackleberry County Fair. Madeleine Hicks, Hayley Rose Maurer, Kara McLeland and Emma Supica turned OZ Arts into a hillbilly hoedown, complete with a mayor you could milk, a husband-dumping contest, some naughty face painting, the World’s Prettiest Pig (who many attendees bottle-fed) and much more. Innuendos abounded in the best ways.
Best Summer Ticket
Kindling Arts Festival
Limitless: A Dance Showcase was featured at Kindling Arts Festival 2023
