Fringe (theater)
Fringe (English: Rand, Franse) is an alternative form of theater that emerged in the 1950s and reached its peak in the 1960s. The name comes from the time when independent theater groups organized their own performances on the fringes of the official Scottish Edinburgh Festival .
General
The performances are usually not technically complex. It is often played in venues that have been converted and are actually not classic theatrical locations. The theater groups are usually smaller than the ensembles of conventional theaters, because the groups travel often, and because of the small size of the venues, it is not possible to perform with more actors and the costs have to be kept low because of the difficult financing. This is why one-person plays are quite common in fringe theater. Sometimes the artists come to live with residents of the city where they are currently presenting their pieces. Often new plays are performed that differ from mainstream theater by their obscure and unusual plot . While conventional plays usually last two to three hours, fringe plays usually last less than an hour. The short performances and the lower admission prices enable viewers to see several pieces in one evening. Fringe is characterized by the fact that the manner in which it is performed can vary greatly. Artistic elements from various artistic sub-areas are combined, which leads to a high degree of variety and a great potential for possible forms of representation.
history
1950s to 1980s
As early as 1947, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the first festival where - in addition to the established theater - experimental pieces were performed. Fringe continued to develop in the 1950s and peaked in the mid-1960s. In 1963 Edinburgh's first fringe theater opened , the Travers Theater Club . Others followed in London , among others .
During the 1970s and 1980s, and as the independent theater scene in Britain grew , the lines between fringe and commercial and institutional theater became increasingly fluid. In 1977 both the National Theater with the Cottesloe Theater (now the Dorfman Theater ) and the Royal Shakespeare Company with The Warehouse opened an in-house Friday venue.
As a result, Fringe was taken over to the commercial West End and thus presented to a wider audience.
Fringe today
In recent times, theater groups and directors from the independent scene have increasingly been given the opportunity to perform or stage in large British theaters. The Fringe Theater has thus at least partially developed from a resistance movement into a stepping stone for advancement into the established theater business.
Well-known representatives of the Fringe Theater
The best-known representatives include Simon McBurney and his Théâtre de Complicité , Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch from the Improbable Theater with their production Theater of Blood at the National Theater in London ( 2005 ).
List of Fringe Festivals
- Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theater
- Adelaide Fringe Festival
- Anywhere Theater Festival (Brisbane)
- Atlantic Fringe Festival
- Austin FronteraFest Fringe Festival
- Bath Fringe Festival
- Brighton Festival Fringe
- Buxton Festival Fringe
- Calgary Fringe Festival
- Capital Fringe Festival
- Couch Soup | Couch Soup Fringe Festival
- Dublin Fringe Festival
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe
- Edmonton International Fringe Festival
- FRIGID New York
- FRiNGE Festival of the Ruhr Festival Recklinghausen
- Indianapolis Theater Fringe Festival
- London Festival Fringe
- London Fringe Theater Festival (Ontario)
- Malvern Fringe Festival
- Melbourne Fringe Festival
- Minnesota Fringe Festival
- New York International Fringe Festival
- Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival
- Ottawa Fringe Festival
- Perth Fringe Fetival | Fringe World
- Prague Fringe Festival | Prague Fringe
- Saskatoon Fringe Theater Festival
- St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival
- Time-Based Art Festival
- The Sydney Fringe | Sydney Fringe
- Toronto Fringe Festival
- Vancouver Fringe Festival
- Winnipeg Fringe Theater Festival