Since 2012, the Atlanta Fringe Festival has brought the weird and the wonderful, the experimental, the heartbreaking, the fun and the downright bizarre to Atlanta stages each June. With nearly a week of events spread across multiple venues in and around Little Five Points this year, including a new free outdoor stage in Springvale Park, organizers say they're hoping 2019 will be the biggest Atlanta Fringe yet.
“A self-producing culture is really important to an arts scene,” says Atlanta Fringe Executive Director Diana Brown. “If the only way an artist can get original work made is to go to an established theater, that’s a very tiny bottleneck we’re all in. If you open up all these venues and create different ways that we can help each other do it ourselves, there’s suddenly a bunch of new pathways to success you didn’t have before.”
At just seven years old, Atlanta Fringe is actually a little late to the game. The first Fringe took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1947. The festival of mostly bare-boned, independent and DIY theater productions grew rapidly (in 2018, Edinburgh Fringe spanned 25 days and 317 venues), and the concept spread to other cities, many of which have hosted Fringe festivals for decades. Brown says that when she first attended a national Fringe conference to discuss the possibility of an Atlanta festival, the reaction from other organizers was: Where have you been? This year, a small contingent of artists and organizers from Haiti are slated to attend Atlanta’s festival to learn how to start a Fringe, which would be the first in the Caribbean.
From a pool of 130 submissions, 23 shows were selected for 2019 through a random lottery, a Fringe tradition. Many of the artists are Atlanta-based, but acts come from all over, including a sprinkling of international visitors. Atlanta Fringe always offers a little something for everyone, and at low-risk prices, with many free events. Here are some events we’re eagerly anticipating.
Five/5ths of The Princess Bride. Fringe begins with a Monday fundraiser at 7 Stages. In a "Five/5ths" show, five local comedy troupes each take 20 minutes of a film and riff on them, thereby telling the movie's entire story. Ralph Macchio, in town for the filming of "Cobra Kai," attended last year's production of "Five/5ths of The Karate Kid." This year, the film is "Princess Bride," and organizers are crossing their fingers that Wesley, aka Cary Elwes, now of "Stranger Things," has the date marked down on his calendar. (8 p.m. Monday, June 3. $20. 7 Stages Theatre Mainstage, 1105 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta)
Free Festival Preview. There's no better way to get to know what Fringe is all about than to visit the festival's free opening night preview party. Viewers are treated to three-minute previews of each show from the participating acts in the festival in a raucous kick-off event. (8 p.m., Wednesday, June 5. Free. 7 Stages Theatre Mainstage)
'The Legend of the Pink Elephant.' A kid-friendly "circus musical hybrid show" from Miami Beach features actors, aerialists and puppeteers telling the story of a misfit pink elephant searching through the world to find a place where he belongs. (11 p.m. Thursday, June 6; 8 p.m. Friday, June 7; 2 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8. $10. 7 Stages Theatre Mainstage)
'Shakespeare's Terminator the Second.' Hardly Working Productions of Miami presents its 17th century version of the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic "Terminator II," constructed entirely of lines from the plays of William Shakespeare (9:30 p.m. Thursday, June 6; 5 and 11 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. 7 Stages Theatre Mainstage)
'We're Losing Everything.' A dance performance from San Francisco's 3 Eyes company reflects on the many forms of climate change: terrestrial, political, internal and familial. (9:30 p.m. Thursday, June 6; 8 p.m. Friday, June 7; 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. 7 Stages Theatre Backstage)
'The Internet is Trying to Kill You.' Atlanta-based artists Jared van Aalten and August Pollak present a new comic performance about the dark side of the web and how the internet creates new ways for people to be jerks to each other. (11 p.m. Thursday, June 6; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 5 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. 7 Stages Theatre Backstage)
'To Free a Mockingbird.' Grace Aki presents a one-woman show about her experiences growing up in a small Southern town as a sexually abused Japanese-American child of an alcoholic. (9:30 p.m. Friday, June 7; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. The Wrecking Bar 292 Moreland Ave. NE, Atlanta)
'The Waffle House Daze.' What's it like to work in a Waffle House? Probably crazier than you think. Trish Parry of Tampa, Florida, reminisces on her experiences in this dark, one-woman comedy for adults. (11 p.m. Thursday, June 6; 8 p.m. Friday, June 7; 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 5 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. The Wrecking Bar 292 Moreland Ave. NE, Atlanta)
'Imprint.' Atlanta Dance Collective presents a dance performance inspired by women's stories, reflecting on the behavioral impact of change throughout life. (8 p.m. Thursday, June 6; 11 p.m. Friday, June 7; 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 5 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. 7 Stages Theatre Backstage)
'Mi Casa Su Casa, or How to Get 175 Roommates (An Airbnb Host Tells All).' Attic Studios of Los Angeles presents James Carey in a one-man autobiographical show about the trials and travails of being an Airbnb host. (9:30 p.m. Thursday, June 6; 11 p.m. Friday, June 7; 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 2 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. International Montessori Academy 1240 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta)
'Through a Tale Darkly.' Atlanta's new Phantasmagoria theater company presents a compendium of spooky Victorian. Edgar Allen Poe-style tales of horror and suspense. (9:30 p.m. Friday, June 7; 3:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 2 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. 7 Stages Theatre Mainstage)
'Cyberpunk is Not Dead.' Phil Mann, one of the minds behind the BBC comedy podcast "BattleActs!" presents a futuristic, comedy mystery about an ordinary worker in the future who is suddenly pulled into a world of murder and espionage. (8 p.m. Thursday, June 6; 5 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. The Highland Ballroom 644 North Highland Ave. NE, Atlanta)
'The Vicious Hillbilly or Dating in the Deep South.' Dawn Larsen of Florence, South Carolina, performs mountain songs inspired by her childhood in the Ozarks and recounts how they relate to her current dating woes. (9:30 p.m. Thursday, June 6; 11 p.m. Friday, June 7; 3:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8. $10. The Wrecking Bar)
'Cruise Control: Destination Wedding.' The Darnell Players, an acting troupe comprised of Atlanta seniors, presents a new show about a lively group of older people who disrupt a destination wedding. (11 p.m. Friday, June 7; 5 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 8; 2 p.m. Sunday, June 9. $10. 7 Stages Theatre Backstage)
FESTIVAL PREVIEW
The Atlanta Fringe Festival.June 3-9. $3 festival button plus $10 per show. $43 for six-show pass and button. $63 for 10-show pass and button. Multiple venues, including 7 Stages Theatre, 1105 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta; The Wrecking Bar 292 Moreland Ave. NE, Atlanta. www.atlantafringe.org
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