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Those in and around the Spiegelgarden during the 2024 Rochester Fringe Festival — or any year previous — will likely come across parked cars and a variety of characters: competing opera singers, Gremlins, Elton John, Princess Diana’s ghost, Justin Bieber and his nanny.
This motley crew is a part of the “Decade of Dashboard” lineup, a celebration of the best hits of “Dashboard Dramas,” the car-based theatrical plays that have been playing at Fringe since 2014.
“Decade of Dashboard” will highlight how the intimate theater experience has evolved over the 10 years of performances. Along with “Dashboard Dramas X,” the primary show that will feature four new plays, the “Decade of Dashboard” will bring back four older plays that have been performed at Fringe before. The basic idea each year is four 10-minute plays set in cars, while an audience of two people per car rotates through each play.
Director Patricia Lewis Browne said the performances in each play are predicated on the audience members in each car. The difference in audience members has led to the clearest evolution since Browne started working with the two longtime writers and founders, Abby Park and Kerry Young.
“I've seen kind of a development in the 10 years in that, when we started out, the plays were more (like) plays,” said Browne. “The audience was more observers than participants, for the most part. And then, as Abby and Kerry developed their way of doing this, I saw things develop so that the audience members are more challenged.”
A “Gremlins”-inspired play will have the actors interact up-close with audience members in the car, acting like the mischievous creatures from the 1984 film.
Park and Young have always experimented with audience interaction, and found that this experimentation bled over into their scripts. Park added that many regular audience members understand the drill when it comes to these plays, so they have to prepare in order to surprise them.
“We're like, ‘How can we keep this new and fresh?’” said Park. “We have our actors, and we're like, ‘We need someone to say this here, but it doesn't really fit with our characters. So let's make the audience member a character.’”
For actors like Chris Woodworth, a theater professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges who has performed with “Dashboard Dramas” for four years, the plays written by Park and Young have gained their own sense of style. Woodworth now has a strategy that helps her dissect characters while preparing for a role.
“What’s the wildness in this character?” she said. “Because there's always something kind of wild about each of the roles that they've written; something that's surprising about them or very distinct.”
Browne describes the plays as gems, with little enjoyable details to parse out — largely due to the scripts Park and Young have written.
Even with a decade of “Dashboard Dramas” under their belts, the founding duo remains surprised by how the shows sell out immediately, and the ideas they have shown to unsuspecting actors and audience members.
“When Kerry and I get ready for the next year, I look back at the scripts,” Park said. “We’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I can't believe we made a person do that — that's crazy.’”
“Decade of Dashboard” | One Fringe Place (Corner of Main & Gibbs) | September 10, 13-15, 17, 19, 21 | 18+ | SOLD OUT
“Dashboard Dramas X” | One Fringe Place (Corner of Main & Gibbs) | September 11-12, 14-16, 18, 20-21 | 18+ | SOLD OUT
Henry O'Brien is a Goldring Arts, Style & Culture Journalism graduate student at the Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. The cohort previewed Fringe as part of a summer class.
This motley crew is a part of the “Decade of Dashboard” lineup, a celebration of the best hits of “Dashboard Dramas,” the car-based theatrical plays that have been playing at Fringe since 2014.
“Decade of Dashboard” will highlight how the intimate theater experience has evolved over the 10 years of performances. Along with “Dashboard Dramas X,” the primary show that will feature four new plays, the “Decade of Dashboard” will bring back four older plays that have been performed at Fringe before. The basic idea each year is four 10-minute plays set in cars, while an audience of two people per car rotates through each play.
Director Patricia Lewis Browne said the performances in each play are predicated on the audience members in each car. The difference in audience members has led to the clearest evolution since Browne started working with the two longtime writers and founders, Abby Park and Kerry Young.
“I've seen kind of a development in the 10 years in that, when we started out, the plays were more (like) plays,” said Browne. “The audience was more observers than participants, for the most part. And then, as Abby and Kerry developed their way of doing this, I saw things develop so that the audience members are more challenged.”
A “Gremlins”-inspired play will have the actors interact up-close with audience members in the car, acting like the mischievous creatures from the 1984 film.
Park and Young have always experimented with audience interaction, and found that this experimentation bled over into their scripts. Park added that many regular audience members understand the drill when it comes to these plays, so they have to prepare in order to surprise them.
“We're like, ‘How can we keep this new and fresh?’” said Park. “We have our actors, and we're like, ‘We need someone to say this here, but it doesn't really fit with our characters. So let's make the audience member a character.’”
For actors like Chris Woodworth, a theater professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges who has performed with “Dashboard Dramas” for four years, the plays written by Park and Young have gained their own sense of style. Woodworth now has a strategy that helps her dissect characters while preparing for a role.
“What’s the wildness in this character?” she said. “Because there's always something kind of wild about each of the roles that they've written; something that's surprising about them or very distinct.”
Browne describes the plays as gems, with little enjoyable details to parse out — largely due to the scripts Park and Young have written.
Even with a decade of “Dashboard Dramas” under their belts, the founding duo remains surprised by how the shows sell out immediately, and the ideas they have shown to unsuspecting actors and audience members.
“When Kerry and I get ready for the next year, I look back at the scripts,” Park said. “We’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I can't believe we made a person do that — that's crazy.’”
“Decade of Dashboard” | One Fringe Place (Corner of Main & Gibbs) | September 10, 13-15, 17, 19, 21 | 18+ | SOLD OUT
“Dashboard Dramas X” | One Fringe Place (Corner of Main & Gibbs) | September 11-12, 14-16, 18, 20-21 | 18+ | SOLD OUT
Henry O'Brien is a Goldring Arts, Style & Culture Journalism graduate student at the Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. The cohort previewed Fringe as part of a summer class.
