Fringe Update: Audiences Up, Artistic Dir. Out
The Fifth Annual New York International Fringe Festival, Aug. 10-26, was the most successful yet, with more than 40,000 tickets snapped up by fans of downtown theatre. That represents an increase of some 5,000 tickets, or nearly 15%, over last year's event.
Upon the completion of the Fringe, the organizers threw a party Sun., Aug. 26, where co-founders John Clancy and Elena K. Holy hosted compatriots and handed out awards for excellence. The most surprising announcement, however, was not the name of any award recipient, but the news that Clancy was leaving the festival.
Holy, who will assume the job of "producing artistic director," told Back Stage this week that she doesn't think she'll be too swamped with work, partly because the festival has now grown large enough to support additional staff. "We've gone from a two-person operation to a four-person operation in the last year, hiring an administrative director and a technical director," she said. "We're going to keep filling in by hiring additional staff--we're going to be hiring a bookkeeper--so it's not necessarily more work, but it is a very exciting opportunity."
Unlike Clancy, who is also a writer and director, Holy said she will be concentrating exclusively on producing. "I don't direct, and that is part of what we determined works for us," she said. "I'm one of those people who thinks administrating and producing is incredibly creative, and I get fulfillment that way, but it's hard for a writer or director to function as an artistic director when there is the schedule of a season to contemplate and there is the fundraising and publicity part of the job that keeps you away from your writing table."
Clancy does, in fact, have other writing and directing jobs he wants to concentrate on, and told Back Stage that now seemed to be the perfect time to leave. "I don't think it's good for people who had the original visionary idea to stay too long after creating something," he said.
Also, he said, "It felt so right to leave at this time, so that I'm not stepping away from a train wreck, I'm stepping away from a rocket that's been launched."
Just Wait 'Til Next Year
The rocket for the Sixth Annual Fringe has already been launched and is starting its climb now. Holy confirmed that she is already accepting applications for next year's event--"there were applications at the venues, and they'll be available on the website in a few days"--and both she and Clancy had advice for people who are thinking about participating.
"Most of the applications come from companies, from producers or artistic directors," Holy said. "They don't necessarily have a cast assembled, but they certainly already have a production team. The companies are expected to produce their own shows, so when we get an application from a writer, we look to make sure that he or she has a director, stage manager, a team with them, because a writer isn't necessarily a producer.
"If a writer found somebody," she continued, "or we hooked them up with somebody that we call a company representative, it's frankly a pretty good training ground, because we take you through Producing 101. Our participants' manual is 50-some pages and has everything from what you'll need to do technically, to promotions and marketing, to how to find housing for your artists. One of the things we've tried to accomplish is to teach young artists how to get their shows done."
Clancy said that whatever you do, "It has to be based upon your passion. Too many people downtown use downtown as an audition for something else, and spend their lives auditioning. You have to really want to be doing the work you're doing or you won't have the experience that you came to do. And that's nasty. It's what you've heard before: Don't do it if you don't have to do it--for me it was either theatre or a life of crime, and I probably wouldn't make a very good criminal."
Holy concurred, albeit without reference to any criminal abilities. "Figure out what you want to get out of it before you start," she urged. "Because of the commercial success of some of our past productions, some people may have a tendency to think, 'Well, if I don't want a commercial run, that's not really for me,' but that's not necessarily the case. More than half our artists have no interest in commercial theatre, and it's a great place for artists of all kinds and work of all kinds to come together and create a sense of community. That's rare these days, even in the theatre community, and that's what people comment on most when they talk to us after the festival.
"People have been dropping by the office all day and what hits home for them is it's a place to meet other artists, to show your art to them and vice-versa, and to have an exchange of ideas."
Those who want that experience next year can contact the fringe at (212) 420-8877, log on to www.fringenyc.org, or write to FringeNYC, 196-198 Stanton St., NYC 10002.
-- Mike Salinas
A complete list of Fringe Award winners follows:
Overall Production: "The Adding Machine"; "Fuck You, or Dead Pee Holes"; "Yi Sang Counts to 13"
Solo Show: "An Evening With Harburg Harrisbrandt"; "21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com"
Unique Theatrical Experience: "Break the Floor"; "Rites Ov Spring"; "Studio"
Direction: Willa Bepler, "Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights"; Paul Stancato - "Einstein's Dreams"
Performance: Nick Boraine, "Sic"; Tom Ford, "Biography's Top 10 People of the Millennium..."; Elaine Hudson, "Mary Stuart"; Paul Kerry, "Woyzeck"; Rob Maitner, "Poor Superman"; Susan O'Connor, "Take"; Matt Wagner, "Preview of Murder"
Choreography: Foureographers, "Movement Zoo"; 3rd Rail Dance, "Spun/Uktena"
Playwriting: Tina Mae Bishko, "Surface"; Michael Stock, "Hustle"
Ensemble Performance: "Leaf in the Mailbox"; "Surface"
Music Composition: John LaSala, "The Snow Queen"
Set Design: Christian Douglas, "Snap Happy"; Matthew Ronay, "Debbie Does Dallas"
Costume Design: Daphne Javitch, "Debbie Does Dallas" & "The Adding Machine"; Jo Lewis & Catherine Raven, "Mary Stuart"
Theatermania Audience Favorite: "Dead End"
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The 5th Annual New York International Fringe Festival
Here we go again: 198 shows, 1200 performances, 17 venues, three weeks give or take a few days, a bag full of press releases and postcards with nonsensical five line titles, a fistful of No-Doze and a press pass. This intrepid reporter is trekking from small theatre to smaller make-shift performance spaces for the unfolding of a third year of the Fringe Festival. You'd be a fool or a tourist to go to any Broadway or off-Broadway show these next three weeks when the lower half of the island is popping with theatrical breakthroughs or breakdowns.
Among this year's highlights are: Antonio Sacre's latest one-man-show: "If the People Want to Eat Meat, Let Them Eat Meat, The Remarkable Story of My Brother", a musical recreation of "The Elephant Man," A few fire-eating vaudeville extravaganzas, a Flamenco Dance Party, a Rave Reconstruction, a play about Columbine and another about Jim Carroll, and if you haven't already heard, the theatrical release (I couldn't help myself) of "Debbie Does Dallas."
This year also features lectures, as well as workshops (FringeU) on rhythm, the body and volunteer lawyers, a children's festival (FringeJr.), a few gallery showings (FringeArt) and various outdoor performances (FringeAlFresco).
General admission for shows is $12-but there's also neighborhood and age based discounts as well as bulk-rate passes.
Go to www.fringenyc.org for details or call 188-fringe-nyc/212-420-8887
And keep you PCU's tuned to BackStage.com for extensive coverage, updates and reviews!
A festival that spans the genres of performance, and further elasticizes the most flexible of performance art: The Fringes are coming! The Fringes are coming!
--Piper Weiss
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School for Salomes: a Science Project