Being on the fringe means being on the edge.  One definition we found even goes so far as to identify the fringe as a social group holding marginal or extreme views.  Well, we’re not going to go all compound-in-Minnesota-drinking-the-Kool-aid on you.  We’re artists.  We’re talking about fringe festivals.  You know…theater.

 

Let’s wiki-wiki-wiki it.  (Go ahead, say it like you’re beat-boxing it, you know you want to).  Fringe Theater is used to describe alternative theater, or entertainment not of the mainstream.  

 

Rake Theater has been selected to produce the play “Fluency” written by founding member Kimberly Patterson at the Orlando Fringe Festival. 

 

According to the website, The Orlando Fringe is the oldest annual un-juried theatre festival in the United States providing a venue for theatrical performing artists.  We love them for that.  The Fringe began in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1947. Denied participation in the Edinburgh International Festival, artists took up creative arms and revolutionized independent theater as we know it.  Producing their work, quite literally, “on the fringe”  of the official festival, they crowded audiences into empty stores and church basements. The concept was an immediate success and the Fringe soon became as – if not more – popular as the “official” Edinburgh Festival.

 

The Orlando Fringe Festival starts on May 12^th, which means we are deep into casting and are just about to start rehersals for “Fluency.”  The play is a post-modern romance in which Jack and Olivia find themselves struggling to communicate about love and relationships.