Comments on: Joel’s Fringe Thoughts

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 22:19:29 +0000

I was lucky enough to see 26 shows at the Fringe, only two of which I thought were of "poor quality". The majority of the productions were interesting, well-performed, quirky or non-mainstream, and very original. I would hate to see this become a competitive event, at it would if the entrants were juried. But if that does need to happen, I’d hope that the panel of adjudicators would be large and covering a wide range of theatre interests. Applause all around to the organizers and implementors of this first festival.

By: cheryl

cheryl — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 20:20:37 +0000

You may have a point Ronnie… I wonder though what the history of other Fringe Festivals are and what their experiences have been respective to juried shows. Do they have juried shows, did they always have juried shows, if they didn’t always have juried shows and now do have juried shows - at what point did they start jurying the shows.

By: ronnie

ronnie — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:13:33 +0000

Not sure I like the idea of a jury… at least until Capital Fringe has a track record. The artists had to jump through enough hoops as it was and I am not sure you can jury the shows when you are still trying to build the number of shows.

By: cheryl

cheryl — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 19:03:24 +0000

While I know that there were many shows of good quality however, a large number of people also complain about the very poor quality of other shows. I would suggest that in the future shows be juried in order to participate in the Fringe.

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 14:36:55 +0000

Here here! I was so sad to see people turned away from shows only to then see empty seats! Fill ‘er up!

By: Edward Daniels

Edward Daniels — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 06:30:26 +0000

Joel! We all appreciate you taking the time to cover so many of our shows. It was an adventure for us and, I’m sure, even more so for you. As regards to the ’sold out’ shows and such…I was told by a festival organizer that it was wrong and even unlawful to re-sell seats that were already purchased, even when the ticket holder didn’t show up by curtain of a show that didn’t allow late seating. As the show I was producing proved to be popular and in demand I, logically, allowed as many of my ‘wait-listers’ crowding the streets with cash in hand to enter, in order to ensure that our ’sold out’ show was indeed SOLD OUT. Nonetheless, Fringe was exactly what the DC arts community needed and I hope that the scene here can only grow and prosper from this grassroots inaugural event.