FringeNYC 2001 Overview
By Chad Fasca
Let's get ready to rumble. The annual rite of summer has come upon us as the New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) begins its fifth campaign this weekend. "Packed for freshness," as this year’s program cover proclaims (they must mean vacuum-packed given the size of this thing), FringeNYC will present more than 180 shows and 1,200 performances spread across 17 venues all in less than three full weeks.
Once again, the event gathers an eclectic array of abstract, adapted, allegorical, agitprop, ad-libbed, avant garde, and adults only works from throughout the nation and around the world. In all, 16 cities and 17 countries will be represented at this year’s Fringe and that does not include the origins of the estimated 2,500 performers who will bring all of these works to life.
Women make up a substantial number of the writers and directors exhibiting new works at this year’s Fringe, a good sign for gender balance in the theatrical world of the not-to-distant future. On the other end of the spectrum, only two percent of the festival’s performances employ improvisation, according to FringeNYC figures, which is pretty low considering how popular the form has become. As expected, theatrical productions have contributed the bulk of this year’s shows. On its program cover--which mimicks the FDA label required on most foods--FringeNYC estimates that 53 percent of the festival is comprised of theatre, followed by dance (27 percent), puppetry (11 percent), multimedia (8 percent), spoken word (4 percent), improvisation (2 percent) and all others (2 percent.) In another reference to freshness and substance over production values, the festival’s organizers, Present Company directors Elena Holy and John Clancy, expound upon the theme of the program cover in their introductory letter.
"What you see at FringeNYC is not overproduced. Our shows are lean. Some of them are raw. They are not brightly packaged, wrapped in plastic, marked up, and sold at a profit. In fact, they are all natural. They’re fat free! But be aware, they also contain no preservatives. They must be gulped and enjoyed before August 26th…while they’re guaranteed fresh."
This year offers a much larger harvest than previous years, because the organizers extended the festival in celebration of the event's 5th anniversary. Organizers tacked an extra week onto the schedule. The festival now runs from August 10-26, a meaty, 17 full days.
Since its inception in 1997, FringeNYC has steadily grown into a force in the New York theatre world. Last year’s festival received a huge spread in the Sunday edition of the New York Times. This year’s festival received a big boost from works premiered at previous incarnations of the fest. Several of these productions have made their way to off-Broadway houses with one, "Urinetown: The Musical," poised to make the final leap to Broadway. Other Off-Broadway hits first plucked from Fringe vines include "The Last Train To Nibroc" and "Never Swim Alone"; regional hits include "Brandon Teena" and "Monk ‘n Bud."
Coincidentally, "Urinetown" begins its run on Broadway at Henry Miller’s Theatre on Aug. 27, one day after this year’s Fringe ends.
New York audiences have responded as well over the years with crowds growing to 20,000 two years ago and to 35,000 last year. In their letter, Holy and Clancy thank the audience for biting into the fest.
"You did not say, 'Ooh...could you maybe cut that up? Put it in a container? Could you maybe just make it a little more presentable?'"
As New York Times writer Peter Marks noted in his preview of the festival, the industry seems to have taken notice of FringeNYC too. He pointed to the program’s back cover, which typically was the domain of cigarette marketers but this year features a bright and shiny ad for "Contact."
But the real mark of the Fringe festival is the exposure that it has given to more than 600 performing groups from around the globe. Only one in every 600 shows may be a "Urinetown," but, given the long-shot odds performers face everyday, those odds would make even the most avowed teetotaler twitch and consider taking a chance. In the end, that fact is validation enough.
"Four years ago in this very spot, we wrote to you about why New York needed FringeNYC," Holy and Clancy write. "But we created FringeNYC because individually, we are small, young, underfunded…likely to wither on the vine. Collectively, we create an event that cannot be ignored."
From the Fringe: Festival Stories and Anecdotes
For the next three weeks, we will be posting a series of Stories from the Fringe. These articles will be include interviews of Fringe presenters, member/Fringe participants written and other writings related to the Fringe. If you'd like to participate, drop us a line. These stories will appear in the feature news section of the site. Also, we will be publishing member anecdotes, dubbed Life on the Fringe, from the festival. They can be about shows that you are in, shows that you've seen, or other memorable moments you enjoyed at this year's festival. You can submit your anecdote via our home page. After we receive them, we will reply to you, and then post them with your name in our community news section starting mid next week.
Fringe Benefits: Our Guide to the Festival
To help you navigate this year’s Fringe Festival, we’ve sifted, skimmed, and studied every show’s press materials and have assembled a listing of shows grouped in categories of interest to help you find things you want to see. We’ve also entered all the shows into our calendar with date-specific entries designed to make it easier for you to search our calendar for shows being presented on days that you are free. Lastly, we’ve taken the liberty to compile a short list of shows that we think have compelling material. All of this comes with two caveats. One, the short list represents productions that we found interesting; however, you may or may not agree. Two, we’ve done our best to touch on every show in the categorized section of this article, but 180 plus makes it difficult to get to every one. If we missed your production, please tell us and we will include you.
The Short List
Festival Breakdown
