Fringe Festival
With a full week off from shows during which you could recover from Voodoo Fest, there’s no excuse to miss any of the daring, experimental acts taking the (often homemade) stage in the Marigny next week. The second annual Fringe Festival of New Orleans delighted and horrified audiences in 2008, with a wide variety of acts easily fitting the festival’s tagline: “fearless performers, fearless audience.”
Taking place Nov. 11 - 15, the event hearkens back to a tradition started more than 50 years ago in Scotland, when avant-garde performers were shut out of a mainstream arts festival. Since then, Fringe Festivals have sprouted up across the world, catering to those with eclectic taste.
The week features a variety of media and forms of artistic output including dance, cabaret, spoken word, puppetry, improvisational theater and circus. Audiences will be delighted by artists from across the country incorporating elements as diverse as Hip Hop dance to opera into their live performances.
Performers will take the stages at a number of venues in the Marigny. Several shows each will be shown at each of the Hi-Ho Lounge, La Nuit Theatre, Marigny Theatre, Sidearm Gallery, St. Ferdinand Church and Peter’s Piano Place. More adventurous entertainers have taken it upon themselves to create their own stage — the Fringe Festival encourages performance groups to set up camp throughout the Marigny and produce their own show.
One highlight of the festival is “He/She & Me: A Love Story”’s one-woman performance. Running Nov. 13 - 15 at the Sidearm Gallery, Sharon Mathis’ performance will tell the story of a woman in her 50s who discovers that her soulmate of 35 years wishes to become a woman. Mathis, a psychologist, interviewed countless couples and transgendered people to better ground her tale in reality. It is certainly not a show to miss during Fringe week.
With more than 45 different groups and more than 100 shows, the Fringe Festival performances are certain to pique your interest. Tickets are $7 per performance with general admission seating, or you can purchase a five-show pass for $30. If you don’t have a chance to check out a performance, the entire city is welcome to join in the Fringe Parade 3 p.m. Nov. 14 as it marches down St. Claude.