THEATER-SUMMER FESTIVALS IN NEW YORK (FRINGE FESTIVAL and NEW YORK MUSICAL THEATER FESTIVAL)
Some of the newest, daring, most original, experimental theater is seen during the summer months in New York City. Many festivals take place, especially in the summer and fall, with The Fringe Festival being the largest and one of the oldest. It occurs during the latter part of the summer, usually starting in August. It takes place in many venues in the downtown area of New York City, generally below Fourteenth Street. Performances run all day long and into the evening, sometimes even later in the evening than one would normally expect. The Fringe Festival offers the widest variety of every imaginable type of theater, plays, musicals, dance, one person performances, multi-media and puppetry are among the selections. The venues are not very large and the "hot" shows get sold out quickly. The ticket prices are reasonable and the attendance consists of mostly downtown types with a large contingency of press and producers looking for the next hit show. Applications increase in size every year and the quality of the productions have greatly improved. Applicants are instructed to apply early so as not to be shut out. There have been many productions that started at the summer festivals and been picked up by producers. The shows were then produced in other venues and moved up the theaterical ladder. This years offerings are the best I've ever seen at the Fringe Festival.
The New York Musical Theater Festival takes place each fall for three weeks. The dates are usually the latter part of September, into October, after the Fringe Festival concludes its performances. The venues are off broadway and off-off broadway houses. Only musical productions are featured and they range in size from one man to large casts of 30 and more. The organization provides technical support and a marketing setup and much of this support is donated. They also have readings, workshops, seminars, master classes and other support events, some taking place throughout the year. Musicals come in from all over the world and range from hip-hop through country, opera and everything in between. Ticket prices are also reasonable and productions such as Altar Boyz, Title of Show, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Nerds and the Tony Award winning musical, Next to Normal, is their biggest success story. I was fortunate enough to see several of their current offerings. Academy, The Last Smoker in America and R.R.R.E.D. were suggested to me by friends who had seen them and they all showed tremendous promise. I predict that they will each be picked up by producers and continue their runs.
