Reading Theater Project Will Host 5-Minute Fringe Festival

 The ​Reading Theater Project has announced the tenth annual​ 5-Minute Fringe Festival: Inspired by True Events. This live theater production will feature new work by 14 playwrights and performers from around the region.  Performances begin Thursday, February 27th, and continue through Sunday, March 2nd, at the Yocum Institute for Arts Education’s black box Schumo Theater, 3000 Penn Ave., West Lawn, Pennsylvania, 19609.  All tickets are Pay What You Will, including $0, with a recommended price of $20.  For more information and to purchase tickets, visit: readingtheaterproject.org.

Reading Theater Project’s 5-Minute Fringe Festival is a platform for performing artists to create something new, to challenge expectations, to experiment and explore new ideas, and to connect with an artistic community. Each year the festival features new and exciting work; this year audiences can look forward to short plays, monologues, dance, and music, as well as pieces that intermix performance genres. 

“Our goal with Fringe is to give local performing artists a platform to develop new work. Creating new theater or performance is a unique challenge. With a goal of 5 minutes, new work becomes accessible to more people, empowering more people in our community to tell their own stories,” explained Artistic Director Vicki Haller Graff.  

Each night of the performance will be followed by a talkback so audience members can share observations and ask questions of the performers and writers. 

Playwrights and performing artists selected for the production include Jewell A. Brown, Crux, Jeanette Fotis, Matt Fotis, Andrea Kennedy Hart, Joel Lesher, Tara Mitchell, Andrew Pochan, Nadia Pochan, Adam Richter, Misha R’Kingsley, Frith Rooney, Mike Shott, Elaine Soltis, Jessica C. Warchal-King and JCWK Dance Lab with Marty Bonk, Eric Williams. Pianist Andy Roberts will play throughout to link one piece to the next. The production will be directed by Vicki Haller Graff, stage managed by Sean Sassaman with assistance from Jewell A. Brown. Jody Reppert is the lighting designer.