Today marks the beginning of the 2014 Seattle Fringe Festival: 22 productions over five days at four locations including Annex Theatre and the Northwest Film Forum. Promising-sounding bets this evening include nervy and hilarious local solo performer Keira McDonald teaming up with NYC performer James Judd in Breathe Normally; award-winning, LA-based fringe darlings Sound and Fury bring their Hamlet and Juliet; and a 10-playwright group, corralled by Stephanie Timm, exploring the idea of passing judgment on strangers in What You Think You Know. (Various times and locations across Capitol Hill, see seattlefringefestival.org for full details)

Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua....