12th Annual New York International Fringe Festival
(FringeNYC) runs August 8 – 24 featuring Shakespeare, Perez Hilton, Tim Gunn,
Britney Spears, Dorothy Parker, Nudists in Love, Jacqueline Susann, Shel
Silverstein, Anna Nicole Smith, James Brown, Joyce Carol Oates and much, much
more!
The festival will present works covering a wide range of
disciplines including theater, dance, performance art, children's theater,
spoken word, puppetry, comedy, improv and multimedia New York International
Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), the largest multi-arts festival in North America, will present the 12th annual festival from
August 8 - 24, 2008. This year, the festival will offer performances by 202 of
the world's best emerging theatre troupes and dance companies.
Highlights of FringeNYC 2008 include: Perez Hilton Saves the
Universe (or at least the greater Los Angeles area): The Musical; Lucasville:
The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising; Thoroughly Stupid Things, a sequel to
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest; Nudists in Love: A New Musical;
shows about Britney Spears, Anna Nicole Smith and Tim Gunn's Podcast (a reality
chamber opera), taken from an actual podcast; Woodhull: A Play About the First
Woman Who Ran for President; Down Around Brown Town, a celebration of the music
of James Brown; shows based on the works of Shakespeare, Chekhov and Euripides;
Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire; China: The Whole
Enchilada, the entire history of China in two hours (opening 08-08-08 along
with the Beijing Olympics); plus, shows by and/or about literary icons
including Dorothy Parker, Poe, Dostoyevsky, Ray Bradbury, Faulkner, Shel
Silverstein, Jacqueline Susann, Susan Sontag, Joyce Carol Oates; and much, much
more. A complete lineup of shows is available at www.FringeNYC.org.
This year, 20 of New
York City's most prominent downtown performance venues
will host productions from around the globe as part of FringeNYC 2008.
Participating venues, ranging in size from 50 to 700 seats, include Pace
University's Schimmel Center & Schaberle Studio, Soho Playhouse, Theatre
80, The Deluxe at Spiegelworld, Cherry Lane Theatre,Players Theater, The Connelly Theater, The
Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street, Barrow Street Theatre and The CSV Cultural and
Educational Center. FringeNYC is a production of The Present Company, under the
leadership of Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy.In November 2007, Michael Bloomberg presented
FringeNYC with the prestigious Mayor's Award for Arts and Culture.
In 1997, New York City became
the seventh US city to host
a fringe festival, joining Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Houston,
Orlando and San Francisco.In its first eleven years, FringeNYC has
presented over 2000 performing groups from the U.K., Canada, Poland, Ireland,
Japan, Singapore, Germany, the Czech Republic and across the U.S., prompting
Switzerland's national daily, The New Zurich Zeitung, to declare,
"FringeNYC has become the premiere meeting ground for alternative artists."
The festival has also been the launching pad for numerous Off-Broadway and
Broadway transfers, long-running downtown hits, and regional theater
productions including Urinetown, Never Swim Alone, Debbie Does Dallas, Dog Sees
God, 21 Dog Years, Joys of Sex, Dixie's Tupperware Party, Matt & Ben,
Walmartopia,Bash'd and Tom Crean:
Antarctic Explorer.
Tickets go on sale July 18th and are $15 each, available at
www.fringenyc.org or866-468-7619.
Discount passes for multiple shows are also available. Tickets and additional
information on the Festival are available in-person at FringeCENTRAL beginning
July 25th. FringeCENTRAL is located at Openhouse (201 Mulberry Street between Spring and
Kenmare Streets) and is open from noon - 8pm daily. For more information visit
www.FringeNYC.org.
