The launch of the first-ever Pelham Fringe Festival earlier this month marks a new chapter in the town\u2019s embrace of theatrical productions.\u00a0 The festival attracted a combined audience of more than 500 who turned out to watch the town\u2019s newest drama troupe put on a series of short plays and skits on Friday, October 2, and Sunday, October 4, at the Picture House.<\/p>\n
The weekend of shows also featured musical performances and a cabaret-style atmosphere, replete with food and drink, and provided strong evidence that there\u2019s a market for grown-up theater in Pelham.<\/p>\n
The festival is the brainchild of Kate McDaniel, founder of Pelham Fringe, who reached out to like-minded creative types on social media. McDaniel is a professional actor who worked in Los Angeles and New York\u2013snagging roles in TV series including \u201cModern Family\u201d and \u201cCriminal Minds\u201d\u2013before putting her career on hold to start a family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found myself craving a creative outlet and figured there might be other people nearby like me, so I put out a message asking if anybody wanted to come read a play with me,\u201d she said in an interview. Lots of people responded to her invitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gathered around a very big table, and in this room of strangers with a shared passion, and something magical happened,\u201d McDaniel recalled. \u201cThere was an electricity in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no sign-up,\u201d said Karen Pursel, a member of Pelham Fringe. \u201cAll were welcome to just show up and be a part of it!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe writers are veteran writers and some brand-new writers,\u201d said Pursel. \u201cThe plays were all inspired by the readings of two New York playwrights\u2019 work in our creative lab nights.\u201d The event also featured performances by local vocalists who sing professionally.<\/p>\n
When asked where Pelham Fringe is headed in the future, McDaniel lit up with excitement. \u201cA few months ago [the plays] didn\u2019t exist, but together we built them. We\u2019ve called it inaugural because we believe it will be the first of a yearly tradition to share the fruits of the labor of love that happens when you get collaborative, generous artists together in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDaniel said she has other ideas for the new group, including readings, incubator programs, and possibly a film festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sky is the limit!\u201d she declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The launch of the first-ever Pelham Fringe Festival earlier this month marks a new chapter in the town\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-378015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}