My first encounter with a Fringe Festival was back in 2005 when a friend and I took a train from London to Edinburgh to spend a weekend in the Scottish capital. Little did we know then that their Fringe Festival was going on (this was around August). Fringe what?
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest international art festival, extending a warm annual welcome to artists and performers from across the globe and showcasing Scotland’s rich culture, heritage and distinct identity on the world stage. Imagine more than 2,500 performances happening in almost 300 venues! It was, in one word, dizzying.
Two years later, I moved to New York from Los Angeles, and much to my pleasant surprise, the Big Apple had its own version of the festival, aptly called FringeNYC.
The New York International Fringe Festival – slated from August 10 to 26 has become one of the most awaited events in NYC. It is now the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues. It is an event every emerging playwright or performer aspires to be a part of.
Writer and performance artist Marisa Marquez has always dreamt of becoming a part of FringeNYC that she applied year after year. While she got rejected thrice, this year was different and the fourth time’s a charm. She got in.
When FringeNYC opened last week, among the new shows that made its world premiere was Yellow Brick Wall: Angry White Men Played by Two Happy Asian Girls, written and performed by Marquez and Siho Ellsmore, founding members of Leviathan Lab’s Asian American Women Writers Group.
The two met in the writers’ workshop almost two years ago where members would read each other’s works. Since they were all women, Marisa and Siho were asked to read the men’s parts, which they did for about four hours.
“After the readings, I came up to her – we didn’t know each other before – and I said, ‘Hey, I’m Marisa. Wouldn’t it be funny if we wrote a show together where we just played dudes?,” Marisa recalled. They laughed.
A week later, Marisa’s play Gated was accepted to the Midtown International Theater Festival. Realizing that she also applied for FringeNYC that year, Marisa worried that she can’t use Gated at Fringe and she had to write a new play within a week.
She emailed colleagues to ask for Siho’s contact details and she told her of the dilemma. Marisa asked her if they can co-write something in five days. Siho said yes.
In less than a week, they had a script.
Marisa didn’t end up getting into Fringe that year but they had a play that was waiting. Their colleagues at Leviathan Lab led by Ariel told them to have the play workshopped, which they have been doing for the past year or so. She decided to apply at Fringe again this year with this new play – her Plan B previously, and this time, lady luck smiled.
Born and raised in Sacramento, California, Marisa moved to Fairfield, Connecticut to study at Fairfield University where she graduated with a double major in Theater and Politics. She visited New York nine years ago, fell in love with the city and decided to move a year later.
Her parents – originally from Pangasinan in the Philippines – moved to America when they were young, her dad was 13 and her mom was 25. Marisa has an oldest brother named Mark, whom she calls her biggest fan.
“He flew our parents in to Alaska last April when I did Flipzoids in Juneau,” Marisa said. “Flipzoids,” written by Ralph B. Peña, is the story of three Filipino immigrants trying to understand their lives and identities in the United States. Marisa played the role of Vangie, a nurse in her 30s, who worked hard to come to the United States, where she finds that people don’t accept her, and tries to overcome prejudices by assimilating as fully as possible.
FringeNYC
FringeNYC offers 187 plays, musicals and performances from the world’s best emerging theatre troupes and dance companies in 20 venues in Lower Manhattan. With attendance topping 75,000 people, FringeNYC is New York City’s fifth largest cultural event (just behind New York International Auto Show, Tribeca Film Festival, New York City Marathon, and New York Comic Con).
Now on its 16th year, the now influential and important multi-arts festival will run for 17 days (from Aug. 10 to 26).
“Take advantage of the opportunity to see some of the world’s best and brightest indie theatre artists and hear what these extraordinary playwrights, composers, choreographers, directors and performers have to say,” FringeNYC says in its program guide.
In addition to the scheduled plays, the festival features free outdoor performances as part of the city’s Summer Streets program on a stretch of East Fourth Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue that will be closed to traffic.
“There will be a lot of laughs, it is going to be a crazy show. I have always wanted to be a part of Fringe and I am just so happy to be a part of it,” shared Siho Ellsmore, the other half of the prolific tandem. Born in Australia and raised in both Japan and Australia, Siho moved to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
“We play about 24 characters in the show. People will be surprised when they watch it,” Marisa added.
This is the first time that both Marisa and Siho are joining the FringeNYC festivities.
Both ladies play men’s roles in their show, taking on Rush Limbaugh, Jim Kramer and Al Pacino, among others.
“Our show is irreverent, wonderfully irreverent,” Marisa said laughing.
With everyone still talking about the La Jolla casting fiasco, Marisa believes that them getting into this year’s Fringe is a small step towards giving more roles to, and a louder voice for Asian American actors.
“If people decide what diversity is for us, we’ll never make it,” she said. “If people weren’t going to give me a role, if writers weren’t going to write me a role, and if producers thought it would be risky to cast me in roles, it was time I write for myself.”
In November 2007, FringeNYC was honored by Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the Mayor’s Award for Arts & Culture “for its phenomenal leadership in showcasing the best and boldest theater and performance by both established and emerging artists. The New York International Fringe Festival is renowned for presenting work that reflects the excitement and energy of the contemporary theater world – locally, nationally and abroad.”
This year, many of New York City’s most prominent downtown performance venues will host productions from around the globe as part of FringeNYC. Participating venues, ranging in size from 50 to 199 seats, include SoHo Playhouse, Players Theater, Cherry Lane Theatre, La MaMa, New Ohio Theatre, Theatre 80, HERE, The Living Theatre, Connelly Theater, and Gene Frankel Theatre.
In 1997, New York City became the seventh US city to host a fringe festival, joining Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Houston, Orlando and San Francisco. In its first 15 years, FringeNYC has presented nearly 3,000 performing groups from the U.K., Canada, Poland, Ireland, Japan, China, Singapore, Germany, the Czech Republic and across the U.S., prompting Switzerland’s national daily, The New Zurich Zeitung, to declare FringeNYC as “the premiere meeting ground for alternative artists.”
The festival has also been the launching pad for numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway transfers, long-running downtown hits, and regional theater productions including Urinetown, Never Swim Alone, Debbie Does Dallas, Dog Sees God, 21 Dog Years, Krapp 39, Dixie’s Tupperware Party, Silence! The Musical, Matt & Ben and Bash’d, as well as movies (WTC View, Armless) and even a TV show (‘da Kink in My Hair).
(FringeNYC shows run 2pm – midnight weekdays and noon – midnight on weekends. Tickets are $15 in advance ($18 at the door) available beginning July 20 at www.FringeNYC.org or 866-468.7619. Discount passes for multiple shows are also available. For more information, visit www.FringeNYC.org.)
(Photos by Flordelino Lagundiono)
(balikbayanmag.com)
(NYNJ Mag August 17, 2012 pg.2)