Tampa’s Fringe Festival to run the theatrical gamut

Fringe theater, as made manifest by the 100 or so Fringe Festivals taking place across America and all over the globe, is exactly what the name describes: Theater on the edge. On the fringe.

This can mean anything from straight, scripted plays to burlesque to standup comedy to … well, something indefinable.

Ally Thomas in “Karen & Cass.”

Trish Parry co-founded the Tampa International Fringe Festival six years ago, and is its executive director. “I’ve had a lot of time to figure out why I’m so obsessed with it,” she says. “To me, Fringe is the advancement of the performing arts. It is the way, in my opinion, to keep the performing arts modern, as a popular art.”

The 2022 edition, July 28-Aug. 7 in Ybor City includes 22 shows, all wit multiple performances. They run the gamut, from Oh, Gasparella, a musical parody of Disney princess stories by St. Petersburg’s Tom Sivak, to comic Bennet Caffee’s one-man show My First Miracle – Adventures in Bipolar Disorder.

Vulva Va-Voom

Parry is looking forward to the return appearance of burlesque comedian Vulva Va-Voom (Hollywood Psychic of the Golden Age) and the bay area debut of Brazilian clown/magician Ewerton Martins, who goes by the stage name El Diablo of the Cards.

“Usually,” Parry says, “the further away the thing is, the more interesting it can be, depending Because of the way theater and art have diverged the work that’s done in different places can be cool.”

Fringe, therefore, is continually evolving, “gradually moving away from standard theater. It’s slowly changing as people realize how much they can dabble in what they decide to do on a stage.”

Approximately half of the 2022 participants are local. Tampa Fringe solicits submissions via numerous theater and social media platforms, and uses a lottery system to pick who’ll get to show up and play.

Performers are not required to provide videos. “There’s a part on the form where they can describe their show,” explains Parry. “Hypothetically, they can apply just with a title, And we have no control.”

“Tithonia: A Lesbian Space Opera”

There are rules, of course, to keep things within legal and safety boundaries. Otherwise, the “anything can happen” maxim applies. “Usually someone that’s touring from so far away, though, has their stuff together,” Parry says, “because it’s a lot of money for them to risk to come all the way over here.”

And besides, the audience will quickly weed out performances that might be just plain bad.

“Fringe is uncensored, but usually it’s like natural selection. If somebody totally blows the first time out, their audience will diminish, so they won’t end up going further. Whereas people that are successful generally continue.”

Bay area audiences who missed Into the Night, the play by Sarasota’s Rosalind Cramer and Linda MacCluggage that was onstage in St. Pete for just three performances in May, will have several chances too see it at Fringe.

The moving family drama, a collaboration with Pinellas County’s Theatre eXceptional group, includes two young actors with Down’s syndrome. Playwright MacCluggage is the director.

RELATED STORY: ‘Into the Night’ is a unique theatrical collaboration

The Tampa International Fringe Festival, Parry enthuses, is not your ordinary theatrical experience. “Let’s be honest, a lot of people in America hear the word theater and they cringe,” she says.

“But the kind of stuff that happens at the Fringe … it’s the sort of thing that your next-door neighbor might have written. It’s not like ‘Here’s the Pulitzer Prize-winning show by …’

“That’s one of the things I love about it: ‘Here’s a piece of art that came out of someone’s brain, and you get to meet them right afterwards.’”

For the full schedule, tickets and additional info, visit the Fringe website here.

With Ryan Prince (left) as Benny, and Matthew Frankel as Bear, “Into the Night” is onstage during the 2022 Tampa International Fringe Festival. Photo provided.

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