The first World Fringe Day seems an appropriate time for
the Rochester Fringe Festival to announce its full 2017 lineup. During its Big Reveal
press conference at The Little Tuesday morning, the Fringe released this year’s
schedule, including more than 500 shows in venues in and around downtown
Rochester. The sixth annual Rochester Fringe Festival (the first with KeyBank
as a title sponsor) will take place Thursday, September 14, through Saturday,
September 23.
World Fringe
Day celebrates the more than 200 fringe festivals around the world and the
legacy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which started in 1947. Attracting more
than 68,000 attendees in 2016, the Rochester Fringe has become a prominent US fringe
festival and one of the largest multi-arts festivals in New York State.
The Fringe previously announced two of this year’s
headliners: comedian John
Mulaney will headline Kodak Hall at Eastman
Theatre on September 22, and French street theater company Plasticiens Volants will
perform during Fringe’s annual, free Friday and Saturday on the Fringe program
on September 15 and September 16 at Parcel 5.
More than 100 shows during this year’s Fringe will be
free, including a second weekend of festival-curated events on Gibbs Street on
September 22 and September 23. The free Gospel Sunday program is also back on
September 17 at Kilbourn Hall.
The Crystal
Palace Spiegeltent and surrounding Spiegelgarden will again be set up at the corner of Gibbs
and East Main, and previous Fringe performers Matt
and Heidi Morgan will premiere a new show, “Eclectic Attraction,” with
Cirque Du Fringe. This year’s Spiegeltent late-night
show will be “The Bicycle Men,” a musical comedy about an American’s absurd bike
trip through France. (“The Bicycle Men” was part of the first Rochester Fringe
in 2012.) Silent Disco is back at 11 p.m. on both Fridays and Saturdays, along
with Disco Kids on September 23, 11 a.m., and the Fringe Street Beat, an
all-styles dance battle with a $1,500 cash prize.
The Pedestrian Drive-in will return to the Spiegelgarden, and the area will be the site of a 40-foot,
glowing, inflatable igloo housing an “ambient,
electronic soundscape.” Site-specific works are a cornerstone for the Fringe,
and several popular shows are back this year, including “Dashboard
Dramas” and “Bushwhacked (Crystal Magic Wonder Cabinet Palace Tent).”
Fringe organizers announced they are partnering with
regional farmers for a new program, Farm to Fringe, with a beer, wine, and
spirits tasting on September 16; pumpkin carving during the second weekend’s
free events; and afternoon tea in the Spiegeltent on
September 17.
This year’s Fringe venues are Bernunzio
Uptown Music, Blackfriars Theatre, the Central
Library, Eastman School of Music, Gallery r, Garth Fagan Dance Studio, George
Eastman Museum, Geva Theatre Center, Java’s Café, The
Little Theatre, Lyric Theatre, Makers Gallery & Studio, MuCCC,
Rochester Contemporary Art Center, Rochester Music and Science Center, the
School of the Arts (with four stages), the TheatreROCS
Stage at Abilene, and Writers & Books.
While the above events were selected by the Fringe
itself, the majority of the festival’s 500 performances are organized by the
venues themselves. Following the Edinburgh Fringe model, artists and producers
submit their shows to individual venues during an open call earlier in the
year, and the venues choose which shows will appear on their stages.
The full schedule of events and tickets are now online at
rochesterfringe.com. Tickets can also
be purchased by phone at 957-9837.
CITY will have a more detailed look at this year’s
Rochester Fringe Festival in our Fringe Preview Guide, on stands and online
Wednesday, September 6.
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2017.
