Sunday, July 11, 2010

Fringe 2010 - Fringe Preview Season Is Upon Us

The marathon of Minnesota Fringe Festival previews is about to hit with a vengeance.

You can see the full list of acts ready to dazzle you with excerpts on the Fringe's showcase page.

Monday, July 12th kicks off the two-part Fringe-For-All preview explosion, with 30 acts taking the History Theater stage in St. Paul at 7:30pm

Part 2 will be next Monday, July 19th at 7:30pm at the Ritz in NE Minneapolis, another 30 Fringe groups to get a peek at.

In between, there will be three smaller preview events...

Wednesday, July 14
Kids' and family-friendly showcase at
R.H. Stafford Library
8595 Central Park Pl, Woodbury

(there's some overlap in acts, but two we won't have had a chance to see yet - Benny The Illusion, and The Little Prince)

Thursday, July 15
General showcase at Lyric at
Carleton Place
765 Hampden Av S, St. Paul

(again, more overlap, but some acts not part of the Fringe-For-All lineup - Indifferent, Mismatched, and Pop Goes The Cherry)

Saturday, July 17
General showcase at
Minneapolis Central Library
300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

(some more overlap, and yet still another handful of acts not previewed elsewhere - Condoleeza's Rites, Mixed Reality, SlapDash)

All in all, nearly 70 of the Fringe shows vying for your attendance as an audience member will be getting their act out there for you to sample. Still not quite half the offerings of the entire festival, and yet a mighty impressive chunk. Could be enormously illuminating, and help you make some of the tough choices of the weeks ahead.

All this will of course culminate in the Out of Towner showcase at Bedlam the night before the Fringe begins, Wednesday, August 4th, where the visiting acts get a chance to say hello. And that should put us close to, if not over, the halfway mark in terms of sampling. Phew.

Sadly, I won't get to the three mini-previews (getting in those hours at the day jobs, in advance of my theatergoing vacation with Mom). But I'll be there for the Fringe-For-Alls (FFA), and the Out of Towner (OOT) Showcase, dashing off little bloglets to toss my opinion in the mix.

Oh, for the Fringe-For-All, admission is the act of buying your $4 Fringe button - which is then good for the whole festival, and for Fringey discounts year-round. Can't wait to finally get mine (and a spare, to keep in the car, since I'm reliably forgetful).

Have fun everybody!

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