It's time again for the annual Cincy Fringe Festival, a 12-day celebration of theater, art, music, film and more. The seventh annual Fringe, again organized by Know Theatre of Cincinnati, offers 30 productions in multiple venues through June 12.  

A year ago Karim Muasher was part of the group Giant Bird that came to the 2009 Cincy Fringe to tell the story of the 'Empire of Feathers,' a mythic world in which a quest was undertaken to find a rare bird. This time around, he's back in a solo piece to tell a "spoken-word, multi-media bedtime story" set in a more elemental, mythic world illustrated by crude Nintendo graphics and electronic audio effects.   

It's a bummer growing up. "We get to an age where we think we have to become adults and put the toys away," says Karim Muasher of Giant Bird, an internationally touring three-man troupe whose members ignored that impulse.