{Photograph} courtesy of the Atlanta Fringe Competition
One in every of Ty Autry’s first encounters with fringe theater was as a performer on the worldwide stage. He traveled to the 2019 Worldwide Dublin Homosexual Theater Competition to debut a one-man present based mostly on his life, A Southern Fairy Story: The Story of a Homosexual Christian Rising Up within the Deep South. The efficiency, restricted to at least one hour, took the Dublin viewers on a magical journey via Georgia, the place Autry’s hero thwarted a wizard who wields the facility of transformation remedy and a dragon who breathes hearth of concern. “I used to be so nervous to step in entrance of that viewers, however they had been so giving and wanting my story,” mentioned Autry, a Thomasville resident.
Fringe theater is carried out with out productions or weeks of rehearsals and is generally a solo competition run. The idea started in 1947 with the Edinburgh Competition Fringe, which was created in its place showcase for non-traditional acts by town’s main theater festivals. The one-off nature creates a theatrical stress cooker, with audiences there for natural, whimsical and fantastical performances that normally final solely an hour.
After 5 years in Dublin, Autry debuted as director of a brand new Fringe competition in Atlanta. Lavender Fest will function 9 performances by queer artists from June 19 to 23 on the Out Entrance Theater, the place Autry is a member of the Inventive Advisory Council. “I needed an area that might assist queer acts and likewise educate Southern audiences,” he says. “The Fringe format is ideal as a result of they are not full productions, which convey tales you have by no means heard earlier than and doubtless by no means will once more.”
Lavender Fest joins a busy June schedule for Fringe in Atlanta. The Atlanta Fringe Competition will run from June third to ninth with 20 completely different reveals in 7 venues. Quite than compete, fringe festivals promote one another throughout June Atlanta’s fringe season. “It is like we’re getting a greatest good friend,” says Diana Brown, co-founder of the Atlanta Fringe Competition, which started in 2012. go.”
Brown began the Atlanta Fringe Competition with out ever having seen a Fringe Competition himself. He heard concerning the thought from mates, and so they had been capable of arrange performances in small theaters round Atlanta. The primary Fringe present he noticed was on its opening evening. A bunch known as the Efficiency Gallery scatted the poem to indicate how syllables got here collectively to create language. present, title fricativeInformation the viewers via otherworldly settings, corresponding to assembly aliens to decipher phrases desk. “It was so bizarre that I truly cried in my seat,” Brown mentioned. “The present was simply bizarre [stuff] I needed — there was nothing prefer it wherever else in Atlanta.”
Every year, Brown pulls candidates from a hat to fill out the lineup. The result’s a wide range of reveals, from clowns and puppets to tragic comedy and dramatic storytelling. This 12 months, the competition will make the most of theaters like 7 Stage and Limelight, along with distinctive venues like Wrecking Bar Brewpub and East Atlanta Youngsters Membership.
For Lavender Fest, Out Entrance will host 4 reveals over 4 nights. The Autry has chosen performances to symbolize each aspect of the queer neighborhood, together with comedy, musicals, drag and extra. “There is a piece of the rainbow for everybody,” Autry says. “I do know Lavender will probably be a deeply private area as a result of that is what the Fringe is all about – the artist trusting the viewers with their story and the viewers trusting the artist to inform a narrative that spans the breadth of human expertise.”
This text appeared in our June 2024 situation.
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