Fringe
Festival: August 2 - 12
More accessible than ever!
The Minnesota Fringe Festival,
the largest non-juried performing arts festival in the United States,
celebrates its 14th year August 2 to 12, 2007. With over 850 performances
from 162 companies, the Fringe continues as one of the top summer
events in the Twin Cities.
Theater companies and individual artists from across Minnesota, the
United States, Canada, Ireland, France and Kuwait perform in 22 venues
throughout the Downtown, Lyn-Lake, Northeast, North Loop, Powderhorn,
Seward, West Bank and Whittier neighborhoods of Minneapolis. The Fringe
is an eleven-day performing arts festival that features drama, comedy,
dance, musical theater, Kids Fringe, Teen Fringe, solo performance,
sketch comedy, puppets and more.
New executive director
Robin C. Gillette is continuing the Fringe’s
commitment to being accessible to all audiences. All performance
venues, including the site-specific Bring-Your-Own-Venues, are both
nonsmoking and accessible to audiences with wheelchairs or mobility
impairments.
The Playwrights’ Center is our designated Scent-Free venue this
year. This accommodates artists and audiences who wish to reduce their
exposure to scents. Shows at the Playwrights’ Center won’t
use smoke, perfume or incense, and the Fringe will ask audience members
to refrain from wearing scented products.
We offer selected performances
with ASL interpretation, audio description and captions to make
shows more accessible to patrons with visual or hearing impairments.
Last year, we offered 20 shows with audio description, eight shows
with ASL interpretation, and two shows with captions. This year’s
schedule is still being confirmed—check
www.fringefestival.org/access.cfm or
www.vsaartsmn.org for updates.
We waive the advance reservation charge for patrons using access
services - please contact Robin Gillette at robin@fringefestival.org for more information.
New this year, we are taking greater strides to encourage artists
with disabilities to participate in the festival. Five slots were reserved
in the festival for artists with disabilities. Artists in this category
are quite diverse: Brian Balcom, a director who uses a wheelchair (Killer
Smile); Nancy Donoval, a storyteller with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity
(Monster Movies with My Undead Dad), Kathryn Bakke, a performer with
hearing loss (The Funny Side - Muddles Make Memories); Tony Wentersdorf,
a playwright with mental illness (Cathect Adult! Full Circle Empty);
and Raymond Luczak, a Deaf playwright, writing for a Deaf-Blind actor
(I Never Slept With Helen Keller). Interact Center for the Visual and
Performing Arts will also be presenting The Broken Brain Syndrome,
a show about brain injuries and mental illness.
“I think it’s important for the people on stage to reflect
the diversity of ability, just like I want the people in the audience
to reflect the same,” said Gillette. “Artists with disabilities
don’t always get a fair shot at performance opportunities, and
I’d like the Fringe Festival to be influential in changing
that.”
