The 2006 San Francisco Fringe Festival has picked the productions for
its 15th annual season, according to festival Artistic Director
Christina Augello. The
12-day San Francisco Fringe Festival is an open, non-juried, uncensored
international theatre festival that draws theatre companies and
individual performers from the Bay Area, around the U.S., and across
the world. This year's festival season runs September 6 through 17.
Last night, 30 productions from a
field of 95 applicants were chosen in a lottery held before a packed
house at the EXIT Café in downtown San Francisco. The
lottery is the Fringe's traditional method for choosing the shows for
the San Francisco Festival's three "standard venue" performance spaces,
Augello said.
"The artists and theatre companies send in their applications, and how they are chosen is the luck of the draw. That's what makes our festival so lively and surprising," she explained.
In addition to San Francisco Bay Area
theatre companies, the 2006 Festival will include companies from New
York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and from as far away as Barcelona and
Hyderabad, India.
Theatre companies and individual artists chosen for the 2006 San Francisco Fringe Festival include the following:
Bay Area theatre companies' shows include Waiting for Bordeaux by Rib Turtle Productions from San Francisco, Control by Shtickle Prods/David Rouda from San Francisco, Get It? Got It. Good by Cassandra's Call Productions from Oakland, Yorick & Company by Rising Phoenix Theatre Co from Lodi, Fuse by The Alloy Project from San Francisco, The Yellow Fever Express by Steven Lowe w. Folk This! from San Francisco, Visiting Bertha by J. B. Enterprises from San Francisco, Who Needs Al Pacino? by Lucky Dog from San Francisco, Where the Sun Don't Shine by Dr. Emile's Theatre Tremendo from Oakland, Divas and Divas by SF Orca from San Francisco, The Thrilling Adventures of Elvis in Space--2 by Pullover Productions from San Francisco, Thanatics--A Rock Opera by K.S. Haddock from San Francisco, Tilting at Transformations by Brookside Rep. Theatre from Berkeley, The Readiness is All from Emprise/AFG Prods from San Francisco, Living the Dream & Damning the Man from Revolving Madness from San Fransisco.
Shows from other US theatre companies include Woof, Daddy by Transversal Theatre Co. from Irvine, CA, The Secret Ruths of Island House by The Nebunele Theatre Co from Seattle, Self Help: Polish Mantras for The Emotionally Dislexic by Abby Schachner from Los Angeles, Get Laughs or Die Tryin' by OPM from L.A., The Sewers by Banana, Bag & Bodice from New York, Don't Spit the Water! from Blewt! Productions from Chicago, The Neon Man & Me by Slash Coleman from Richmond, VA, I'm Sorry and I'm Sorry by The Candidatos from Missoula, MT, Eating Skeletons by JRP Prods/Teen Pony Prods from L.A., Before The End by Karen Fox from Albequerque, NM.
Shows by international theatre companies include Another Ugly Duckling Tale by Jacqueline Keyse from London, Curriculum Vitae by The Roodie Pancake Experiment from Toronto, Exiles by Rogues' Yarn from Ashford, Kent, UK, Flamenco con Fusion by Ricardo Garcia's Flamenco Flow from Barcelona and Kama Sutra by Expressions, the theatre group from Hyderabad, India.
The 12-day festival, which ultimately
will feature over 40 different shows, takes place in three of the EXIT
Theatre performance spaces in the Downtown San Francisco Theatre
District - the EXIT Theatre & EXIT Stage Left (156 Eddy Street) and EXIT on Taylor (277 Taylor Street). These three theatres constitute the "Standard Venues" for the festival.
In addition, and soon to be determined, are the shows designed for a specific site or a "Non-Traditional Fringe Venue" (NTFV). Companies have until March 31 to apply to stage their work at a non-traditional venue of their own choosing.
"We're always open to fostering new
and innovative ways of presenting theatre, so this year, in addition to
providing the standard EXIT Theatre spaces, we're encouraging
performance companies to come up with non-traditional or site-specific
places in which to perform," Augello says.
Over the years, the San Francisco
Fringe has hosted shows presented in moving buses, in local parks, at
the Planetarium, and on a bench on Market Street.
"These Non-Traditional Fringe Venues
present an opportunity for shows that don't fit the standard Fringe
format," Augello explains. "We're eager to see what kind of creative ideas crop up. Maybe someone will want to do a show in the left field bleachers during a Giants game."
The application deadline for Non-Traditional Fringe Venue shows is midnight, March 31, 2006 PST. Applications are available at the Fringe web site at www.sffringe.org. ALL
APPLICATIONS MUST BE SUBMITTED ONLINE. Non-Traditional participants
will be announced shortly after the March 31 application deadline.
EXIT
Theatre presents over 500
performances each year by more that 100 companies and is one of San
Francisco's most successful and enduring centers of alternative
performance. Now in its third decade, EXIT continues to commission,
develop and produce new work and present independent artists. It
produces the annual San Francisco Fringe Festival - the largest grass
roots theatre festival in the Bay Area - and the annual DIVAfest,
dedicated to developing new plays by women writers. Visit the EXIT
Theatre web site at www.sffringe.org.