14th Annual FringeNYC Runs August 13-29

 

The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), the largest multi-arts festival in North America, will present the 14th Annual Festival from August 13th - 29th, 2010. FringeNYC shows run 2pm - midnight weekdays and noon - midnight on weekends. Tickets are $15 in advance beginning July 23 at www.FringeNYC.org or 866-468-7619; $18 at the door, subject to availability.

This year, the festival will present programming by 197 of the world's best emerging theatre troupes and dance companies in 20 venues in Lower Manhattan. Attendance at last year's festival topped 75,000 people, making it New York's fifth largest cultural event (just behind New York International Auto Show, Tribeca Film Festival, New York City Marathon, and New York Comic Con).

A complete list of productions for 2010 is now available at www.FringeNYC.org. Among the nearly 200 productions being presented are 183 representing 18 US states including New Jersey, California, Chicago, Alabama, Connecticut, Minnesota, Texas and Louisiana, as well as 14 international productions representing 12 countries including Singapore, Italy, France, Ireland, Norway, India and Australia. A list of venues and performance times will be available in mid July.

Some of the more unusual FringeNYC 2010 titles include Jurassic Parq:The Broadway Musical, Vinnie Vidicici, T-O-T-A-L-L-Y!, Pope! An Epic Musical, Heterosexuals, Good Good Trouble on Bad Bad Island, The Battle of Spanktown, Eternity in an Hour, AK-47 Sing-Along, and Love in the Time of Swine Flu.

One noteworthy "trend" among the 197 productions could be labeled as "Muslim tales." From India, the festival offers A Personal War: Stories of the Mumbai Terror Attacks, a documentary drama based on interviews of people who experienced this monumental event. Norway's controversial Muslim comedienne Shabana Rehman (best described as a combination of Margaret Cho and Karen Finley) premieres her tale of immigration For Kingdom and Fatherland. Other titles include Headscarf
and The Angry Bitch, Driving the Saudis, Abraham's Daughters, Flesh-Light Stories, and Shaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto.

Shakespeare also makes a strong showing with numerous productions of and inspired by the Bard. These include MacChin: The Lamentable Tragedie of Jay Leno (the Scottish play with a late-nite TV twist), Hamlet Shut Up (a silent re-telling), Getting Even with Shakespeare (five of the Bard's tragic heroes meet in a bar), Orson Welles' Julius Caesar: The Death of a Dictator, Hamlettes Richard 3 (set in a punk post-nuclear wasteland), and As You Like It.

In addition to the previously mentioned appearance of Jay Leno, several other noteworthy public personalities also show up on the stages of FringeNYC 2010 -- in spirit only, of course. These include Sarah Palin (Picking Palin), Morrissey (William and the Tradesmen), Harvey Milk (Dear Harvey), Joe DiMaggio (Marilyn Monroe: Wouldn't It Be Fascinating) and Katherine Hepburn (Just in Time - The Judy Holliday Story.)

And, in a year ripe with LGBT theater on and off Broadway, FringeNYC adds over two dozen more entries. Direct from Singapore, Ah Kua Show tells the personal story of author and activist Leona Lo, that country's most prominent transsexual. Confessions of a Mormon Boy star Steven Fales returns with his latest exploration of gay Mormons, Missionary Position. The Five Lesbian Brothers' hit Off-Broadway The Secretaries, a comedy about a cabal of murderous office workers, gets a revival by TOSOS. And in both Veritas and The Twentieth-Century Way, little-known episodes of homophobia in American history are explored. Other titles include Friends of Dorothy: An Oz Cabaret, Jen and Liz in Love, Open Heart, and Miss Magnolia Beaumont Goes to Provincetown.

Additional highlights of the festival include:
- Shine: A Burlesque Musical, a musical about an infamous downtown
burlesque theatre and the misfits who try to save it from
demolition... or worse, respectability.
- Stripes: The Mystery Circus, a comedy about an audition that goes
comically awry.
- Cookie and A Matter Of Choice, full productions of 2 new plays by
hot up-and-coming indie playwright Chad Beckim.
- Platinum, a revival of a 1978 Broadway musical by Bruce Vilanch,
Will Holt & Gary William Friedman.
- Ruby Wilder, a hit Chicago drama that tells the story of a murder
from 3 different pints of view including that of the victim and the
murderer..
- Trick Boxing, in this international hit from Minnesota, a 1930's
apple seller is fooled into becoming a prize fighter.
- South Pathetic, Jim David's solo comedy about a ramshackle community theater.
- In Loco Parentis, a drama about the relationship that blossoms
between a teacher and a student grieving the death of her mother.
- Evan O'Television in Double Negatives, an absurdist
video-ventriloquism comedy.
- The Swearing Jar, a comedy about lies between married people.

In November 2007, FringeNYC was honored by Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the Mayor's Award for Arts & Culture "for its phenomenal leadership in showcasing the best and boldest theater and performance by both established and emerging artists. The New York International Fringe Festival is renowned for presenting work that reflects the excitement and energy of the contemporary theater world - locally, nationally and abroad." Previous recipients of the award include Woody Allen, Celia Cruz, Stephen Sondheim, Wynton Marsalis, The Tribeca Film Festival, Mark Morris, The Public Theater, Chita Rivera, and Edward Albee.

In 2010, many of New York City's most prominent downtown performance venues will host productions from around the globe as part of FringeNYC. Past participant venues, ranging in size from 50 to 700 seats, include Lucille Lortel Theater, SoHo Playhouse, Players Theater, Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, Cherry Lane Theatre, Actors Playhouse, Barrow Street Theater, Minetta Lane Theater, P.S. 122, and The Village Theater. FringeNYC is a production of The Present Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy.

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 13 years FringeNYC has presented over 2100 performing groups from the U.K., Canada, Poland, Ireland, Japan, China, Singapore, Germany, the Czech Republic and across the U.S., prompting Switzerland's national daily, The New Zurich Zeitung, to declare FringeNYC as "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, Krapp 39, Dixie's Tupperware Party, Silence! The Musical, Matt & Ben, The Irish Curse, 666 and the upcoming Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party and as well as movies (WTC View) and even a TV show (‘da Kink in My Hair).

FringeNYC shows run 2pm - midnight weekdays and noon - midnight on weekends. Tickets are $15 in advance beginning July 23 at www.FringeNYC.org or 866-468-7619; $18 at the door, subject to
availability. Discount passes for multiple shows ($70 for a Fiver Pass, $120 for a Flex Pass good for 10 shows, and $500 for an all-you-can-see Lunatic Pass) are also available. For more information
visit www.FringeNYC.org.