On The Town at Tampa Fringe in Ybor City

YBOR CITY, Fla. — Folklore and fairy tale have found their way to the Tampa International Fringe Fest courtesy of Rya DeMulder.

The fest runs through June 21.

As the narrator, Rya DeMulder is a mix between jester and woodland nymph.

Behind the scenes at the Commodore in Tampa, DeMulder is going into final rehearsals for “Beneath the Juniper Tree: A Very Grimm musical,” a retelling of the darker Grimm brother’s fairy tales.

The St. Pete resident writes, performs and creates all of the “jester/wood nymph” looks.

And like the Grimm Brother’s fairy tales, she digs on the dark whimsey, and Fringe is a place where DeMulder can develop just that.

Think half a dozen crows at the collar of a long, black cape, along with a crow crown.

Fringe has reached a decade as an affordable platform for artists.

“I think the Fringe has become an institution here in Tampa, you know not just a flash in the pan kind of thing,” said Trish Parry, the force behind Fringe. “A lot of it might not find a place elsewhere, because it’s kind of unique and edgy. Or sometimes it’s kind of an incubator for works that are in progress that end up sometimes making it to TV or Broadway.”

And it means the folk stories collected more than two centuries ago live on in her show.

The story continues at Tampa Fringe.