Looking Forward to IndyFringe 2008!

Last night I attended a fundraiser for the upcoming IndyFringe festival at the American Cabaret Theater. What a fabulous evening! Pauline Moffat, the Executive Director for IndyFringe, certainly knows how to throw a party. The admission price of $25 included a yummy sampling of tapas from Barcelona as well as a terrific show.

For those of you unfamiliar with IndyFringe, it’s a10 day celebration of alternative theater, performance arts – and so much more. This will be the 4th year for this event and it seems to get better every year. This year’s Fringe fest will run from August 22-31 and feature 53 different performers/troupes on six stages for a total of 270 shows. Once again Massachusetts Avenue will host play host to the event. In addition to the stage shows, there will be musicians, dancers, poets, and more performing along Massachusetts Avenue to create a festival like atmosphere. As if that weren’t enough, there’s FringeFilm in association with the Indianapolis International Film Festival and VisualFringe, a non-juried art exhibition at local galleries.

This year IndyFringe teamed up with Nuvo to sponsor a new play competition. Last night the winners were announced and we were treated to a short snippet from the winning play (which will be performed at IndyFringe), as well as a short performance of another work by one of the other winners. While each performance was less than 15 minutes, the talent of the writers and performers shone through and left me wanting more!

The headline performer for the evening was TJ Dawe, a veteran of over 70 Fringe Festival throughout North America. His one-man 90 minute performance left us in awe! He seamlessly wove together three different storylines all centered around his more memorable (awful) day jobs. He’s an engaging and entertaining storyteller, and had us all mesmerized. We laughed till our sides ached and were moved by the more poignant points in the stories. Most of all it was his energy and ability to hold us rapt for 90 minutes (with one intermission) that wowed me.

I can’t wait till IndyFringe kicks of on August 22. Fortunately, I’ll have FringeFridays to tide me over till then. These events feature performances from past and current IndyFringe artists and take place on the last Friday of the month. The next one is scheduled for June 27th. I hope I’ll see many of my new Smoosier friends at upcoming Fringe events.