Theatre--Festival

This is from the Theater Guy Blog. In the process of discussing the difficulty of setting up a "cooperative" of NO area theatres, David Cuthbert included this about a New Orleans Fringe Festival:

A major speaker at the Theatre Alliance meeting was Dennis Monn, talking up The New Orleans Fringe Festival, which is accepting submissions for "fearless performances for fearless audiences" through July 15. Monn, the fest's artistic director, said he is looking for "wild, weird, fresh original theater." "We don't want any productions of Oliver! unless Oliver is a crackhead," he said.

There really are no borders other than "original work," Monn said. The Fringe Festival flier lists "comedy, dance, spoken word, street theater, multimedia, musical theater, performance art, puppetry, improvisational, magic, storytelling, cabaret, burlesque, variety, sideshow and other creative madness." For applications, visit www.nofringe.org.

"We're courting out-of-towners, too," Monn said. "Everyone will be paid, including the tech people. We're thinking of a performance as lasting 40 minutes, so if you have a 20-minute piece, we could pair it up with another 20-minute piece." (emphasis added)

The festival will happen over four days, Nov. 13-26, involve at least 20 groups at multiple Bywater venues, including the Marigny Theatre, the Hi-Ho Lounge, the Backyard Ballroom, the Side Arm Gallery, "a kids' stage behind the St. Roch Market and whatever other dives we can get," Monn said. R.J. Tsarov, the playwright-DramaRama organizer, is acting in an advisory capacity for the fest.