Fringe 2008 - Chapter Ends, Chapter Begins

Yesterday was a little weird.

I arose and posted something on the primary Fringe blog, and then cross-posted it here, there and, you know, around, like usual lately, in anticipation for what was to come.

About halfway through the morning, the website for the Minnesota Fringe Festival posted its new design.

I like it.

But I also knew something wouldn't be there any more.

The blogs. Mine included.

The blogs are now freelance, and open to more than just a bunch of Fringe-happy folks selected by the Fringe staff.

It's good, I think. Though the blogs on the Fringe site started out as something pretty laid back, more and more it seemed like - though the Fringe bent over backwards to reinforce that the blogs were not any kind of official opinions of the Fringe itself - there were these blogs that were saying, "This show's great!" "This one, not so much." And they were housed on the Fringe website.

So a huge non-juried festival seemed to be passing judgment, which is not what the Fringe is about at all.

There were, of course, audience reviews aplenty to be had, and as far as I know there still will be, but the blogs were kind of becoming the 900 pound gorilla in the room.

So now, they're going to treat bloggers, any and all bloggers about things Fringe, like the rest of the press online.

There'll be some kind of page (still under construction at the moment) which has links to all of us independent blogs out there that cover the Fringe, and people can look at them or not as they choose, and they're not housed on the Fringe site. They exist elsewhere, and the Fringe is just helping people find press coverage on the web like they always do. But they're not housing it. They're not showcasing it. At most, they're pointing.

I don't think all that much is going to change for me. We'll see. I'm still going to cover the Fringe like I always do. This year's just going to be an experiment all the way around, I guess.

The Fringe first introduced me to blogging. And I like writing about Fringe, and theater in general. It helps sharpen my own inner critic so I can be better about improving my own scripts. I learn a lot from seeing and evaluating other people's work - what works for me as an audience member, what doesn't, and more importanly why I think that.

It's still just my opinion like it's always been.

Thanks for reading. More Fringe coverage, as always, in the coming days and weeks. Wherever you're reading this, it shall continue.

And don't forget to go to the Fringe website - www.fringefestival.org. I'll be linking to it, of course, but it'll be a font of information like it always is. All the things I know about the Fringe are pretty much stashed in there. I just dig a little deeper than the casual viewer.

Like the good obsessive-compulsive that I am.

Exciting times ahead.

Cross posted to www.myspace.com/matthewaeverett and archived on my site www.matthewaeverett.com