Take a local theater for a test drive

One of the many great things about the Fringe is that it allows you to sample the work of a theater company with which you're not already familiar.

Theater's expensive. During the course of a theater's regular season, you're lucky if you can find a ticket for $15, more likely it's $18, $20 or $25. If you don't know a company's work, I can understand the reluctance to blow that kind of money and a whole evening of your life on that.

Here at the Fringe, you can sample them for just an hour or 90 minutes of your time, and $10, tops. If you get a Fringe Ultrapass and see more than ten shows (which I highly recommend as an unrepentant Fringe junkie myself), the cost of shows just keeps going down.

Ballet of the Dolls is doing their own unique take on the legend of "Beauty and the Beast."

Fifteen Head is doing "Oil on Canvas," an exploration of the wild life and times of the artist Modigliani in Paris before World War I.

Theater Gallery is remounting a production hailed as one of the top ten of 2001, "Zap! Kunst! or Presto! It's Art!" They've been getting consistently good reviews for all their productions but they've only been in town a couple of years, so you might have missed them.

Theater Unbound is a new company just kicking into gear that does quality work.

Gremlin Theater, Ministry of Culutural Warfare, there are so many more that I know I'm overlooking. This is just off the top of my head.

Check the websites of the local shows. If they're an ongoing theater company throughout the year, this is a great opportunity to introduce yourself to a theater company that could become your own personal addiction, and a source of entertainment till the next Fringe comes around.

Now's your chance to try any or all of them for a fraction of their normal cost. Under these conditions, I'd suggest "all."