30 years of Orlando Fringe Festival memories
Back in 2016, I celebrated the 25th Orlando Fringe Festival in a series of articles detailing each year of the theater fest leading up to the milestone. This year, to honor the 30th festival, we’ll continue that series with an installment each month leading to the big 3-0 in May.
The 2017 Fringe season started earlier than usual
— in fact it started right after the new year with the debut of the Orlando Fringe Winter Mini-Fest. The new four-day festival offered the Fringe experience on a smaller scale, allowing newcomers an easy-to-manage way to see what the fuss was about.
The first Mini-Fest featured 21 shows in just three theaters, all located within the Lowndes Shakespeare Center.
In contrast to the May festival, in which anyone can present a show, the winter version was carefully curated. All the productions were award winners of some sort — which provided a rare opportunity to revisit or catch up with the best of the 2016 festival.
“It’s a great chance for people to see shows they didn’t get to see or go to things they want to see again,” said executive director George Wallace. “You can revisit old shows or find something new.”
In the fest’s stellar lineup: Critics’ Choice best-show winner “Edgar Allan,” Gromalot Theatre Factory’s silent romance “Stump” and raucous political comedy “The Foreplay: An Exploration of the Birth
of our Nation.”
In a memorable new show, Eric Pinder — thwarted by the Fringe lottery for years — was finally able to present his “My Mislabeled Youth,” in which the local actor provided a slyly comical look at his childhood.
The fest also featured the final installment of the Fringe’s successful “Movies Out Loud” series, in which comedians Jeff Jones and Doug Ba’aser provided running commentary during a screening of a notoriously bad film — in this case, the Spice Girls’ “Spice World.”
Although Fringe officials had originally said it was a trial run, by the Mini-Fest’s end, they were already planning a comeback for the following year.
More than 700 patrons helped artists earn $16,320 and the Fringe take in about $12,000, including merchandise sales.
“It was successful,” Wallace said. “It will be a good supplement to our year-round activities.” And the Winter Mini-Fest celebrated its fifth appearance just last month.
The 2016 Mini-Fest was bittersweet for Wallace, who had announced two months earlier he was leaving Orlando for a new role at the IndyFringe in Indianapolis.
Wallace, who led Fringe through a period of unprecedented growth, had spent more than a decade with the organization — beginning as a volunteer serving beer and picking up trash.
Festival producer Michael Marinaccio paid tribute to his leadership: “George put us in a position where we’re going to thrive thanks to the foundation he laid.”
Wallace, who later would return to Orlando to run The Center, said at the Mini-Fest: “I’m glad I get to go out on such a high note.”
By the time of the May festival, Alauna Friskics was in the top job, which she still holds. Formerly executive director of the Garden Theatre, Friskics was no stranger to Fringe: She volunteered in 1998, became volunteer coordinator in 1999 and had presented several Fringe shows. In 2002, she coproduced the festival and was credited with shoring up the organization by cutting expenses by 30 percent.
“The Fringe is my original Orlando theater love,” said Friskics at the time. “It’s my passion.”
Festival attendance dipped slightly to about 70,400 — expected after the hoopla of the previous year’s 25th celebration, organizers said. The Fringe also faced bad weather and competition from the opening of both Universal Studios’ Volcano Bay water park and the “Avatar”-inspired land of Pandora at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Still, artists earned more money than ever before as the top ticket price increased from $11 to $12.
Kids’ Fringe moved to a new location behind Loch Haven Park’s Fire Museum, and Breakthrough Theatre of Winter Park joined the festival’s satellite locations, known as “bring your own venues.”
The top Critics’ Choice Award went to “There Ain’t No More: Death of a Folksinger,” performed by Arkansan Willi Carlisle. Other top winners included the lighthearted romance of “Petunia and Chicken” by New York’s Animal Engine; Canadian Adam Francis Proulx’s “Baker’s Dozen: 12 Angry Puppets,” a comic critique of the jury system; and “ThanksKilling,” a raunchy, musical blood-spewing spoof of teen horror flicks produced by Johnnie Maier of Winter Garden.
Alas, there was nothing as bizarre as the previous year’s “La Zuppa,” a production so puzzling that its play-by-play Orlando Sentinel review would be read like metaphysical poetry at future events.
But there was plenty to be serious about.
Beth Marshall presented “Commencement,” about the aftermath of a school shooting. Leesa Castaneda poignantly explored the toll of dementia in “Mi Reina Yolanda.”
And with the Pulse nightclub massacre of the summer of 2016 still at the forefront of Central Floridians’ minds, David Lee wrote and directed
“O-town: Voices from Orlando,” using news accounts and interviews to reflect on the tragedy.
In the true community spirit of the Fringe, proceeds from the show were donated to a scholarship benefiting local LGBT students.
To find links to the original 24 columns in this series on a single webpage, search “Orlando Sentinel Fringe Memories” on Google. The more recent columns are available at OrlandoSentinel.com/arts. Find me on Twitter @matt_on_arts or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com.