Fringe festival promises performance blitz for your senses
July 20, 2005
It is not often a person can see 17 different shows in one weekend.
What: Iowa Fringe Festival
Where: Court Avenue district, downtown Des Moines
When: Thursday-Sunday
Cost: $5 for button, $9 in advance, $10 at door
But the first-ever Iowa Fringe Festival scheduled for this weekend in the downtown Des Moines Court Avenue district, will give comedy, dance and theatre lovers a chance to do just that.
“The first thing to do is to download the schedule,” says Ron Ziegler, executive director of StageWest Theater Company and the founder of the event.
Ziegler says with planning, stamina and a fringe festival button, audience members can have a full fringe experience.
“It1s a whirlwind,” he says. “It1s show after show after show after show. Very exciting, but very tiring.”
4 Days
Thursday-Sunday
5 Venues
* Stoner Studio Theater, Civic Center, 221 Walnut St., Des Moines
* Vaudeville Mews, 212 Fourth St., Des Moines
* Java Joes Coffeehouse (Main), 214 Fourth St., Des Moines
* Java Joes Coffeehouse (Game Room), 214 Fourth St., Des Moines
* The Trattoria (Banquet Room), 207 Fourth St., Des Moines
20 Performance Groups, 21 Different Shows
* Aggravated Assault ensemble – “Medicine Show”
* Ankeny Community Theatre – “Karaoke Killer” by Joh Mann
* Ankeny High School Drama Department – “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”
* Robert Baca – “Voices from Heaven”
* The Brink Comedy Troupe – “Artisans in Canned Meat”
* Central Iowa Repertory Theatre – “George Bernard Shaw1s OverRuled” and “Charles E. Polly1s Twyla1s Boy”
* Comedy Experiment – “Summer Improvin”
* The Corky St. Clair Players – “Art”
* The Drama Workshop – “Passionate Compassion”
* FLB Productions and D‚sir‚e Dixon – “NO EXIT”
* Hurley and Dancers – “Eat Drink Marry”
* I-You Theatre Company – “Scooter Thomas Makes it to the Top of the World”
* Iowa State University Theatre – “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare < Abridged”
* Mercati/Milligan Productions – “The Totally True Completely Fictional Story of the Mother of Jesse James”
* The Patsies – “The Fringe of The Fringe”
* RAINBOW Center – “Voices”
* Tallgrass Theatre Company – “A Banter New Year” by Shadley Grei
* Theater…for a change – “Dirty Laundry”
* Tramp Theatre Troupe – “Cup of Communication”
* zero-zero films – a block of short films (“Crystal,” “On Account of Amber,” “Spring Cleaning”)
83 chances to see show
For a complete schedule with times and locations, visit www.iowafringe.com.
The first fringe festival originated in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1947 as an effort to reunite post-war Europe.
Ziegler says he developed the idea for an Iowa festival after moving back to Des Moines from Orlando, Fla.
“Orlando has a large fringe festival,” Ziegler says. “It was such an exciting event, when I moved back here, the first thing I did was suggest we do a fringe festival.”
The festival has only been in the planning stages for less than a year, and Ziegler says he has enlisted the help of Thatcher Williams and Frank Burnett, in addition to 80 volunteers.
Although fringe festivals have been known for their focus on the edgy and off-beat, Ziegler says the performances can be just about anything.
“I hate to single any of them out because I think there1s going to be a lot of really good shows,” he says.
The performances, that are mostly adult-oriented, include everything from “Artisans in Canned Meat” by The Brink Comedy Troupe to “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by the Ankeny High School drama department, among many others.
Ziegler says the acts, all local and regional, were not juried to be in the festival, but the process was first come, first serve.
Kathleen Hurley, artistic director and president of Hurley and Dancers, will be performing in “Eat Drink Marry.” Hurley says the performance will contain two parts, the first being about same-sex unions, the second showing the behind-the-scenes craziness of bridesmaids at a wedding.
Hurley says her modern dance group tries to address more controversial topics, like same-sex unions, without focusing on the controversy. She says modern dance does not necessarily have to be pretty and often uses the abstract to get a message across.
“It actually fits very well because the fringe festival is geared to real experimental works,” she says. “It1s theatrical because we’re speaking while dancing.”
