The 12th Scranton Fringe Festival begins Thursday with something for everyone — and some things that are decidedly not.
“It’s about artists being in the driver’s seat,” said Conor Kelly O’Brien, co-founder and artistic director. “And you’ll see work that is squeaky-clean, family-friendly at the Children’s Library, which we love. You’ll see work that is more pushing the envelope and risky and experimental even, and we love that. You’ll see very polished, high professional level works. You’ll see amateur and more raw and just-getting-its-feet-wet works.”
The festival accepts roughly one in 10 artists who apply. About half are from outside the region.
The festival runs through Oct. 10. Nearly 50 events pop up around the city, and most shows are performed more than once. Some are free. No ticket is above $15 and an all-access pass is $100.
The Scranton Fringe Festival begins with a 3D projection installation at the Scranton Iron Furnaces. (COURTESY OF THE SCRANTON FRINGE FESTIVAL)
Camille van Putten in “Anti-Gone,” a production at the Scranton Fringe Festival. (COURTESY OF SIVAN RAZ)
The Baltimore-area duo Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s Roadside Revue will perform at the Scranton Fringe Festival with a satirical folk-rock variety show based on the lives of Catholic saints. (COURTESY OF DIZZY MISS LIZZIE’S ROADSIDE REVUE)
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The Scranton Fringe Festival begins with a 3D projection installation at the Scranton Iron Furnaces. (COURTESY OF THE SCRANTON FRINGE FESTIVAL)
Pittsburgh clown Sara Kantner will bring her one-woman comedy about a fictional British queen to Scranton. Performers like Kantner do everything from pass out flyers on the street to help set up their performance space.
“The appeal of a fringe festival is that you are seeing really fresh, new work from creators who, I would say, have a lot of passion, because it’s all self-produced work,” she said.
A new style of clowning is enjoying an uptick in popularity, according to a May article in The New Yorker magazine. Kantner’s queen is a time traveler who needs a job. She’s been working on the character since she was 16, but the queen comes out a little different each time.
She has previously performed at the Montreal Clown Festival and at fringe festivals in Hollywood, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Her performances are Saturday and Sunday at the Workshop, a newly formed media and small performance space on Adams Avenue.
One of the festival’s other events is the first to take place while riding bikes. The Anthracite Bicycle Coalition Storyslam Ride-O-Brunch is Sunday.
Scranton Fringe doesn’t set a theme for the festival, but trends sometimes emerge. A few shows are spins on William Shakespeare, including “Shakespeare’s Midsummer: A Gaye Olde Tyme (Almost A Musical),” while “Rue” and “Sweet Prince” have their roots in “Hamlet.”
By category
Events are not all theater. They include a 3D projection at the Scranton Iron Furnaces on Thursday and Friday, open mic nights, a silent disco, improv and a gay and drag dance party.
Events with local ties include “The Ferment,” “Mock Turtle Soup,” “She Speaks,” “LIVE … From This Room!,” “Finding Matt Damon,” “Sandglass,” “Glass Menagerie,” a Banned Book Brunch and “Down to Fifty-Four.”
Shows for kids include “The Curious Chemistry Live Science Show,” “The Wind in the Willows” and “Recycled Puppets.”
Shows that deal with race as a theme include “Stand•Up/ish: Never Tell a Black Girl How to Black Girl,” and “The Trouble with My Hair: Coloring, Cutting, and Coming into Who I Am.”
Open mic nights and children’s shows have free admission. Other free events include Friday’s opening event at the Scranton Iron Furnaces, the Banned Book Brunch at the Black Scranton Project Cultural Center and an evening of ghost stories at the Lost and Found Bookstore.
Venues
Some of the other venues include Strange Birds, Groove Brewing, the Electric City Trolley Museum, Electric City Improv, Black & Brass, AFA Gallery, the Scranton Cultural Center and Friendly Alien Bookstore.
Tickets
Tickets, the schedule, descriptions, age recommendations and content warnings are available at scrantonfringe.org.