The FRINGE-y 5: DIEGO GOMEZ On Being Led to The Fringe

It's the most wonderful time of the year for Nashville's theater community: 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival opened last Thursday night with #ThrowbackThursdayLive! and a weekend jam-packed with offering for the most adventurous of theater-goers and as the action gears back up for another full calendar of events week, we pick back up with more FRINGE-y 5 interviews.

Today, our spotlight focuses on Diego Gomez, an actor/writer/musician who is an integral part of 2017 Sidewhow Fringe Festival as writer of The Backpack, an original script performed last weekend, and as an actor in this week's Marian, Or (The True Story of Robin Hood).

Today gives you the opportunity to read about Gomez's own FRINGE-y experiences in today's installment of The FRINGE-y 5, and reserve your tickets to catch him in action this weekend.

What was your first Fringe experience and how did it inspire you as an artist? I was first introduced to Fringe Festival by Actor's Bridge Ensemble about 4 years ago. I worked with them all on a beautiful and really fun play called She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen. Now, at the time it had been a terribly eventful year of my life. The year before I had become a victim of check fraud and my bank told me I owed them a lot of money. This forced me to return home the summer right before my senior year and it had been a been a promising next year. I had just received a scholarship for my directing project and I was all set to go to Ireland to study abroad. Needless to say, life had other plans. It led me to Fringe. It led me to Actor's Bridge. To a connection of mutual understanding, love, and respect as both artists and human beings. I say that because the connections I made left an impression on me. I am happy to say that I succeeded in getting back to Chicago for college and finish my last semester. Even though I left and explored I believe this artistic atmosphere and community brought me back.

What makes Sideshow Fringe so special? Sideshow Fringe is a place where love and honesty go to play. A place where new things are discovered every day and you see the most unique approaches to performance art. It is a safe space for those who enjoy creation and expression. As an audience member, you get to see many local community artist while witnessing their original honest works of art. It's such a fun once in a lifetime experience. That's the beauty of it. You will never see another show like this again. Each one is unique and special in their own way. Ultimately it is the empowering sense of community that is at the heart of this festival and it makes a difference.

How would members of the theatre-going public know you? What are some of your biggest/best/brightest and most infamous credits? My moments on stage in Nashville are few and far between. Most would know me from my most recent performance as John Fail in Actor's Bridge Ensemble's production of Failure: A Love Story. Four years before that I played the role of Orcus in ABE's production of She Kills Monsters. the year before I left for college in Chicago. I was fortunate enough to be a part of Nashville Shakespeare Festival's Apprentice Company two years in a row in 2008 and 2009. I performed in Coriolanus, directed by Mark Cabus, and Taming of the Shrew the following year, directed by Denice Hicks. Besides that, you might see me around town playing open mic nights or at Cafe Coco working on my computer.

Besides your own project, what Fringe offering most excites you this year? I am really looking forward to seeing Nine Exits and the collaboration of Sailors and Maidens along with, local playwright Nate Eppler. Nate, Cassie, and Mallory have been friends of mine for some time now and I really respect their work and how they approach things. I can't wait to see how each of them really bring their perspective to the table and what that creates. Cassie and Mallory have such unique voices and a gift for using puppetry as method for storytelling along with a brilliant stage presence. This combined with Nate's sharp wit and honest dialogue I believe that this show is one that should not be missed.

Why should people come see your 2017 Sideshow Fringe project? Well this year I'm fortunate enough to be working on two projects for the festival. The first being my play The Backpack, a story about a simple backpack search and the intricacies of fear that escalate moments of violence and oppression. Not only is this play new and relevant to society today but you will be helping to inform the shape it takes next. What's more exciting than that?

Second, I am the fight director for Marian, or the True Story of Robin Hood, as well as playing the role of Friar Tuck. This show is not only a patriarchy-smashing gender bending fun time but it's a hilarious roller coaster of action and comedy.

About 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival Seventh Annual Sideshow Fringe Festival - billed as Nashville's Progressive Performing Arts Event, presented by Sideshow @ Actors Bridge - gathers hundreds of local artists for what promises to be its largest endeavor in its seven-year history. Sideshow Fringe runs July 27 through August 6 at various Nashville locales.

Named as one of CNN's Most Intriguing Festivals in its "Best of the US" compendium of events, Sideshow Fringe Festival gathers some of "the most exciting performing arts Music City has to offer" for two full weekends of "electrifying, gravity-defying performances."

The 2017 edition of Sideshow will include a wide variety of performance styles including circus, comedy, dance, theatre, performance art, storytelling, puppetry, aerial arts, improv and clowning.

"Nashville is growing by leaps and bounds all around and the Fringe Festival is, too!" says Jessika Malone, program director for Sideshow Fringe. "We are excited to expand to two weeks in our seventh summer of celebration to meet the demand for the most adventurous performing art our city has to offer. The fringe is my favorite time of the year because it's all about expressing yourself courageously, embracing eccentricity, and celebrating authenticity in all its forms."

Individual tickets for paid performances are $15 each. Sideshow also has a Triple Play package for viewers to pick any three shows for just $35. Audience members can also explore all of this year's eclectic performances with an All-Access Pass, which covers everything the festival has to offer for $150. Free pop-up performances and other programming will be available in various locations throughout the Festival, including Richland Park.

The Sideshow Fringe Festival is a program of the Actors Bridge Ensemble led by co-founders Jessika Malone and technical director, Mitch Massaro. Daniel Jones joins the team this year as creative producer.

Tickets: Tickets are $15 and 50% of all box office proceeds go to participating artists. Tickets are available at www.sideshowfringe.com and at all festival venues. All Events will be held in one of the festival's four main venues: The Black Box Theatre at Belmont university, The Darkhorse Theatre, The Actors Bridge Studio in Darkhorse Chapel and Richland Park.

Highlights of the 2017 Sideshow Fringe Festival include:

High-Flying Aerial Thrills This summer features five aerial offerings in the Black Box at Belmont including: FALL's special encore presentation of A Bending Of Its Own Kind, which debuted to a standing-room-only crowd at Oz Arts Nashville in June 2017 and features an all-new invented aerial apparatus based on the x-rays of artistic director Rebekah Hampton Barger's spine; New Altitude, featuring mother/daughter pair Thérèse Keegan and Lizard Walker, returns with Lines Interrupted - an all-new family-friendly aerial spectacular; Suspended Gravity spotlights the legendary women who have made music history in an original circus celebration Women Who Rock; and Chimerical Circus will make their fringe debut with an exploration of the identity of the performer and their many masks.

New Local Plays Nashville playwright Nate Eppler (Osborn Award Winner, Nashville Rep's Playwright-in-Residence) pairs with fringe favorite puppet troupe Sailors & Maidens for an Nine Exits; Britt Byrd, winner of Nashville Scene's Best Actress Award, makes her directorial debut with the patriarchy-smashing and gender-bending Marian Or, (The True Tale of Robin Hood); and Diego Gomez presents a world premiere workshop of The Backpack, an experimental performance format integrating traditional and forum theatre practices.

Returning Fan Favorites #ThrowbackThursday kicks off the 2017 Sideshow Fringe with the hottest, sexiest, most awkward tradition of them all - an interactive open mic where brave audience members can dust off their teenage diaries and reveal the inner thoughts of their younger selves hosted by Cassie Hamilton and Mallory Kimbrell of Sailors & Maidens / Meryl & Joyce.

Fringey Fun Sideshow fan favorites Conway Preston and Kara McLeland are back with an interactive comedy fantasy adventure, The Lost Medallion of Gondalor: A Choose Your Own Adventure, and filmmaker and puppeteer Madeleine Hicks will pop up her Sixty Second Cinema at select and secret locations throughout the festival and present your favorite films in a new format that gets in all the goods in under a minute!

Spinning Yarns abrasiveMedia presents an interactive live podcast Mixer Live: For the Love of Loving; Josh Campbell of Spillit Memphis returns to the Fringe to host both a free storytelling workshop and a new format story slam, The Nerve Slam; and F. Lynne Bachleda shares her tales of learning about life while driving for Lyft in Stories From The Backseat.

History of Fringe Fringe theatre is a term used to describe theatre and related performing arts that are not of the traditional two- or three-act play format. The term has been adopted by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and by alterNative Theatre festivals internationally.

About Actors Bridge Actors Bridge Ensemble is a professional theatre company and actor-training program now in its third decade serving Nashville. Our mission is to tell the stories that impact our community by producing provocative and socially relevant theatre, creating new theatrical works, showcasing emotionally authentic ensemble acting and fostering a nurturing environment where theatre artists at any stage in their development may train and assist in the production of professional theatre.

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