A Real Fringe Story — Solas Nua’s quest for water.
⊆ July 24th, 2006 by courtney | ˜Reported by Ronnie
There are few companies involved in this year’s Capital Fringe Festival that have a story to tell that is as fringy as Solas Nua. Not only was their show to be outdoors in a fountain but thanks to the US Park Service their show had its permit pulled right before the Festival’s start. It seems it is too dangerous to have actors wading in a public fountain so what did one of the hardest working companies in DC do? They found a new venue of course! In the true spirit of the fringe Solas Nua overcame obsticals and found a new venue for La Corbière by Anne Le Marquand Hartigan. I spoke with Dan Brick, Managing Director of the company and he let me know in no uncertain terms that ”Theatres with seats and ceilings are for the regular season.” and furthermore he said: ”We have changed venues one week before our show opens on July 27th. Solas will perform outdoors & in the water!”
“Maybe it’s because our Artistic Director is European with years of experience in Edinburgh, Dublin and Cork, but Solas Nua believes that “fringe” should be more than a banner under which to perform. So, Solas Nua’s fringe piece takes art out of the box, out onto the streets and into the water.”
“This play started life as a poem written in response to the true story of the fate of French prostitutes who were shipwrecked at La Corbière Lighthouse during WW2. Anne Le Marquand Hartigan, the writer, then reworked the poem as a one act play for a cast of six which premiered at the Dublin Theatre Festival. As this is an American premiere, Hartigan is actually flying over for the production and will be in attendance on Thursday evening. She is also willing to do a reading (she is primarily a poet) and we are hoping to arrange that as well.”
Dan explains: “Solas Nua shows (Disco Pigs, Howie The Rookie, The Mai, Misterman & Bedbound) have all originated (or participated in festivals) as fringe shows in Europe and so we felt it necessary to push ourselves a little further out on the fringe for our festival piece. And with our Artistic Director being from Dublin and having been involved with festivals throughout Europe where site-specific work is very prevalent it seemed like it would be a good opportunity to do something beyond the traditional theatre space, especially as we plan to do a full-run show next year at a site-specific location.”
“So, back in April we turned in our permit to the National Park Service for Meridian Hill Park. The park has an amazing cascading fountain with a statue of Joan of Arc on top that was perfect. As things got closer to the event we spoke to the NPS and all seemed fine until two weeks before the show opened (or hopefully opens) when they came to understand that we did not intend to use the small stage area in the park but instead the area around and in the fountain. They essentially said that we had no chance at the permit then. Their reasoning was that we would impede public walkways in the park (the only people in that park at 9pm are sleeping there!) and that “then other people would want to do it” (which I hadn’t heard since grade school). As a back-up (in case we didn’t get another venue) I then asked about getting a permit for the stage area and was informed that we couldn’t sell tickets in the park and if people were even giving donations that there would need to be a park ranger or police on site and that there rate was $55 an hour with a minimum five hour shift (the play is only 50 mins.) which would have pretty much negated the point in collecting any money as the security would be cost prohibitive.”
“We called around the city inquiring into just about any water you could imagine including the National Geographic fountain, The Navy Memorial (very nice people who wanted us there but it to was controlled by the NPS), The Canadian Embassy’s fountain, The Building Museum, Upper Senate Park (permit still being processed for that one), The Sculpture Garden ice rink, and numerous others until finally Neil Rogers, the Deputy Director of the DC Department of Parks and Recreation, came to the rescue and secured the swimming pool in Georgetown for us.”
“We are producing a site-specific performance of a linguistically challenging play in the swimming pool in Georgetown. It’s a mammoth undertaking and there’s a possibility that we may fall flat on our faces - but isn’t that the essence of fringe? The risk factor? And if we survive to tell the tale, we may just have the most exciting show in Washington’s inaugural fringe festival. How can you resist? There’s a deck chair with your name on it”.
I chatted with Dan again yesterday and he gave me all the details on this theatre pool party. It is my opinion that this could be the fringe experience many of you are looking for. So without further ado:
SOLAS NUA presents:
La Corbière by Anne Le Marquand Hartigan
Directed by Linda Murray & Michael Dove
Featuring: Maggie Glauber, Stephanie Roswell, Karen Novack, Ellie Nicole,
Denman C. Anderson and Michael McDonnell.
27- 30 July, 2006.
Thursday through Sunday at 9pm.
at the Georgetown Swimming Pool
3400 Volta Pl. NW (34th St. & Volta Place)
Washington DC 20007
Reservations:
www.solasnua.org or 1.800.494.TIXS
General Admission: $15
July 26th, 2006 at 7:39 am
Interesting story, but who wrote it? Couldn’t find attribution anywhere. Definitely looking forward to this show. Terrific company with great track record and intriguing concept.