Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
Seekers of the challenging, intense, and weird would do well to visit the inaugural St. Lou Fringe (June 21 through 25, 314-643-7853, stloufringe.tumblr.com), a festival showcasing dozens of uncensored, unpredictable short performance pieces.
Fringe festivals have long existed in cities like New York, Ontario, and Edinburgh, Scotland, the site of the first one. Em Piro, executive director of St. Louis’ inaugural version, says her inspiration came from a children’s show at the Seattle Fringe Festival. “The whole fringe phenomenon really shook up what I had taken to be the status quo,” she says. “It’s an outlet for groups that are veterans, as well as those that are brand-new.”
Among the lineup of 30 shows (which, in fringe spirit, are unjuried) are a team of “time-traveling Victorian social anthropologists” who conduct studies on “willingly gathered test subjects” (i.e., members of the audience); a monologue called “Stuck in Third Grade”; two actors playing 30 characters “in an examination of the lives of African-American soldiers that were sent to fight for France in WWI”; the return of hometowner Clownvis Presley; and tributes to Bob Marley and Miles Davis.
The blitz of boundary-pushing even includes additional performances by guerrilla groups that failed to make the submission deadline, on the sidewalks outside of the fest’s four midtown venues—or what Piro terms the “Fringe d’ Fringe.”
