Fringe-alicious

The fringe festival is up and running in NY. It is amazing that they manage to pull off what they do up there (although not without some major things sacrificed I hear -- namely any level of organization and sanity for the participants).

It is even more amazing that they manage to review nearly all the pieces by the month's end.

NYtheatre.com has a start. The two shows that I have good friends involved with "The Banger's Flopera" and "The Salacious Uncle Baldrick" both got pretty good notices. The first is a rock-opera update of Threepenny Opera (or first - The Beggar's Opera) the second is a send-up of a Moliere comedy. NY-ers, if you are looking for something to do, check them out. I wish I could see them myself.

Washington will have its inaugural fringe festival next summer. The plans are in the works, and I think the theater community is pretty jazzed about it. I know I am. Now it is just a matter of reaching audiences that we don't typically reach. I know there are many young people in DC. I know they are always looking for something entertaining to do. So how do we get them to the fringe? Or to the theater, in general? That seems to be the million dollar question, also currently under debate over at Theaterboy.

Fringe festivals can be a blast. My best experience was attending the one in Philadelphia two years ago. I only had the chance to see two shows, but both were top notch. And Old Town Philly is pretty irresistible. Hundreds of patrons were milling around, looking for their respective theaters, talking with total strangers about what they had just seen -- almost surreal in its generation of creative energy. Go if you can.

And for those out on the Western frontier -- Boulder, Colorado is hosting its first fringe this year. It looks pretty well put together. I would try to make a trip out myself if I wasn't in the midst of rehearsals right now. The playwright I am working with is performing a one-man show at the festival, and got a great feature story in the Denver Post about it. He did not write this one, but seems pretty enamored by the material. It sounds timely, and worth seeing.