Fort Worth Fringe Fest 2024 (September 6-8)
—Jan Farrington
On a crowded theater weekend, I couldn’t spend as much time at the 8th annual Fort Worth Fringe Fest as I wanted to—always a lively and casual scrum of artists and enthusiastic theater followers. But I managed to catch enough of the action on Days 1 and 2 of the three-day event to get the flavor, and once again was impressed by the variety pulled together by the Theatre Network of Texas with support from Arts Fort Worth.
The 2024 Fest encompasses some 15 different works, including solo shows, big-cast productions, dance and more. (For the full list of works and participants, go to fwfringe.com —and there’s still time to catch most of them this Sunday.) Some thoughts on some of what I saw and experienced:
Actor Kris Lee is The Librarian in Glen Berger’s funny, twisty, and ultimately haunting Under the Lintel, a shaggy-pants story that starts small—but gains gravitas and staying power as it rolls along. Lee, a playwright (in “his own write,” as John Lennon would say), catches us up in the humor of Berger’s twinkly, distracted character, whose scattered thoughts about life come together as he chases “clues” (a travel guide 113 years overdue, the ticket for a jacket left at a Chinese hand laundry in the early 1900s, a plant called Sabrina) that might have been left just for him…or maybe not. En route we find ourselves following this wandering human around the globe and into some of history’s (his and ours) tender and tragic moments. Well directed by Paula Mabry for Starkville Community Theatre in northeast Mississippi, the play (with Lee giving a wonderful performance) taps into “something deep, something ancient”—a Glen Berger MO, it seems, from my hasty research into his work. A real find for the Fest, this one.
A transplant from the Indian coastal city of Chennai to the Mid-Cities between D and FW, dancer Supraja Sundareson stunned and enchanted her audience with [Shakti] - The Power of the Feminine, mixing Indian dance traditions with what we might want to call modern ideas about women’s “power, patience, tenacity, and cosmic energy”—only to discover them as a central part of dance artistry that dates back centuries. Sundareson’s vivid facial expressions, precise (and meaningful) hand and arm movements, and the strength expressed in her percussive footwork—it all comes together in a compelling and beautiful portrait of what “feminine” can mean.
Scene Shop’s Trio (like the song says) suddenly became a Duo when one of the three actors fell ill. Not to worry (and wishing the absent actor well!), each part of the show is a storytelling monologue, and the two remaining performers did the company proud. In the evocative Magic? by Rob Bosquez, actress Jozy Camp is funny and compelling remembering her rocky adventures with magic—first as a wide-eyed child with a birthday-party magician in the parking lot of a Fort Worth McDonald’s, then as a carny-following young woman with an “Era of Bad Magicians” (chicken-fried, dagger-throwing, et al.). How she falls in love with magic again, and finds power in her own abracadabra, is the charm of this evocative story, made even more engaging by Camp’s notable gift for movement—infusing the words with extra lift and life….Rob Bosquez (yes, the playwright of the other monologue) takes on Steven Alan McGaw’s Just For One Day, a story/memory many of us can relate to about “that” teacher who forever changed our lives. Bosquez has a fine way with McGaw’s wry humor, his head tending to droop introspectively as he remembers a long relationship with English teacher Mrs. Hawthorne. Alex, the boy of the piece, is the only student who speaks up in class about Macbeth (“Hawthorne” is a sub for the day)—and it turns into an after-school conversation that feels “like a cool, long drink of water” to this kid with a tough home life. The story weaves through the years, the talks continue, and Mrs. H tells Alex—to comfort him, but it’s a funny, self-defining phrase he clings to—that he might just be “an acquired taste.” Each of the show’s monologues is tied to a song, this one to Pink Floyd’s “Time” and Magic? to the Olivia Newton-John hit—and as time goes on, Alex finds a way to be a hero for his teacher…just for one day.
WHEN: September 6-8, 2024
WHERE: Fort Worth Community Arts Center, 1300 Gendy St., Fort Worth
WEB: fwfringe.com
