The 12th Scranton Fringe Festival returns in October with a record number of venues for shows that range from classic children’s stories to edgier works.
The performers are a mix of amateurs and professionals, about half of them from the region and the rest from all over the country.
“We’re very excited,” said Conor Kelly O’Brien, the co-founder and executive director.
The Festival runs from Oct. 1-10. About 45 productions, most performed multiple times, will add up to approximately 200 chances to see live theater.
Fringe aims to make the arts affordable to the audience and the artists. Most shows are $15, some are free and an all-access pass is around $100. Performers get venues and technical assistance at below-average cost.
It begins with a 3D projection art installation and free kickoff party at the Scranton Iron Furnaces historic site Thursday, Oct. 1. The projections go up around 7:45 p.m. and 8:30 and will be repeated Oct. 2. Local artists and vendors can apply for a limited number of spots at the Iron Furnaces at forms.gle/XtuY8yWJnmtmembh6.
The shows with local roots include an Oct. 7-10 encore of the Fringe Festival’s production of “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams at the Sanctuary Theater in North Scranton.
“She Speaks,” an avant-garde multimedia play that includes aerial dance, a treadmill and limited speech is written by local writer, performer and yoga teacher Jessica Cadden Wentlent. The performers are Scranton native Noah Leety and Scranton resident Ivy Castelgrande. It will be produced Oct. 3-4 at the Sanctuary Theater.
Alicia Lynn Grega, a regional playwright, poet and teacher, is producing “The Ferment,” a new audio drama. It is set after a pandemic in a United States fractured into regional Free States. She will be recording the production and audience members will join a full cast as extras. It will be at the Electric City Trolley Museum on Oct. 8-10.
Other shows include a family-friendly interpretation of the classic children’s book “The Wind in the Willows,” a solo show about an Iranian asylum seeker, and multiple elaborations on William Shakespeare.
In “Rue,” a modern Ophelia awakens in purgatory. “Shakespeare’s Midsummer: A Gaye Olde Tyme (Almost A Musical!)” is an audience-interactive improv comedy show for people who hated Shakespeare in school.
“Glamour Puss” is an interactive comedy that includes live animals.
An adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” takes place in an airport and follows women from Vietnam, India and Peru.
Other venues include the Lackawanna County Children’s Library, the Black Scranton Project, Strange Birds, Black & Brass, AFA Gallery, the Scranton Cultural Center, Electric City Improv and the Doherty Pocket Park.
Shows are being announced on social media and the full schedule will soon be posted at scrantonfringe.org.