Fringe Theatre Festival's edgy attitude has caught on – and it's spreading
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You see, once upon a time in Scotland, artists who were snubbed in the juried Edinburgh International Festival decided to perform their own event on the "fringe" of that city. Thus, "fringe theater" was born - sort of a revenge of the nerds. Accordingly, fringe theater is often exactly what you would expect it to be: eclectic, different, brilliant, and, yeah, sometimes just weird.
How fitting, then, that Seattle's version - started in 1990 - is set in one of this city's most eclectic neighborhoods: Capitol Hill.
The 11-year tradition continues next week when the 2001 Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival kicks off Thursday. During the following 10 days, a record 93 companies - up from about 80 last year - will converge on 10 venues on Capitol Hill to perform more than 500 shows. From Shakespeare to sexuality, the shows explore a wide range of subjects - some containing more mature content than others - and in a non-juried festival such as this one, anything goes.
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Erotic gymnastics. Dysfunctional family hand puppets. "Another Jack-Ass Tries a One-Man Show."
Will they regret it in the morning? Stay tuned.
Sporting the theme "2001: A Fringe Oddity" - a play on "2001: A Space Odyssey" - this year's festival will draw performers from as far away as Brazil and England. Attendance at the fest has "grown and plateaued and grown and plateaued" since its inception, Munson said. Last year was a growth year: about 20,000 people - up 5 percent from 1999 - visited the festival and bought $135,000 worth of tickets, which amounts to a sizable 14 percent increase in revenue. The festival operates under a $300,000 budget, an amount that hasn't changed much over the past several years, Munson said.
Returning favorites of the festival include the Fremont-based fire artists Cirque de Flambe; Young Fringe, a showcase for local youth; and B.Y.O.V. (Bring Your Own Venue) for shows that don't need four walls and a stage.
There are a few changes in store, however, for the oldest fringe festival in the United States.
The big one is that next year's festival will be held during the fall. While moving the theater fest to September will put it in more direct competition with larger theaters like ACT and Seattle Rep, it may also help the festival attract a wider range of performers. That's because Western Canada's popular fringe festivals happen around the same time, making it more feasible for international and East Coast acts to make the trip to Seattle.
"What we're hoping to do is really take (the festival) forward artistically," Munson said. "(The move) will give us the opportunity to infuse the maximum diversity of creative energy in this festival."
New this year are two venues on Capitol Hill and the Eastside Showcase, which will feature fringe favorites this summer. On the venue side, the Union Garage on 10th Avenue gets a double boost of fringe by adding a second stage, while the Northwest School stage has been replaced with the Seattle Public Theatre on Pine Street. On the Eastside, Bellevue's Meydenbauer Center and Redmond's SecondStory Repertory Theatre will host select encore performances from the 2001 festival June 12-17.
"We already have 12 percent of the audience who comes from the Eastside to see shows in Capitol Hill, so I think there's a real potential for growth there," Munson said.
As far as performances go, Munson says sketch comedy is on the rise, and that audiences seem to go for "anything that has spectacle in it" - circus-type performers who incorporate fire, dance and even trapezes in their acts.
Whatever you choose to see at the 2001 Seattle Fringe Theatre Festival, chances are it will be colorful.
Because, as Munson so aptly put it: "Why be normal when, really, we're all about being odd?"