PHOTO/ Fringe has commissioned local artists to design its artwork this year. Sean Callahan created the season program cover.
Fringe announces season of ‘fantastic writing’
Fringe Theater of Key West has announced its lineup for its 2014-15 season and, according to Monnie King, producing artistic director, “The fantastic writing in this season’s selections will connect powerfully with our audience.”
The season will kick off in December with Alice’s Parlor: Four Plays by Alice Gerstenberg. Four short plays tell the funny, charming, and thought-provoking tales of human foibles—jealousy, gossip, false pride, regret—each making a delightful statement about the human condition. Written as an “immersion” production, the plays will, appropriately, take place in the parlor of the Historic Rectory at St Paul’s Church. Seating is limited.
Later in December, and continuing into early January, Fringe offers The Price by Arthur Miller, one of the playwright’s most engrossing and entertaining plays. It features estranged brothers, old scores and an ancient furniture appraiser who turns haggling into a commentary on life and consumerism, the conflict between fighting for one’s own success and retrenching to the old values of the family. The play takes an unflinching look at family relationships, the price of one’s decisions—and the price of furniture. The play is set in an attic and will be performed in an attic, the Garret at the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum.
Following in February is Private Lives, the iconic classic comedy by Noel Coward. This joyously irresponsible defense of the bohemian lifestyle follows the adventures of a divorced couple who find themselves in adjacent French Riviera honeymoon suites—each with a new spouse! As they bicker, flirt, and canoodle, it becomes clear they cannot resist each other—but what can they do? The revitalized Eaton Street Theater is the venue for this comedy.
In March-April is Orson’s Shadow, by Austin Pendleton. This fact-based backstage comedy about thin skins and rampaging egos turns into a battle of wills and wits when Lawrence Olivier and Kenneth Tynan court Orson Welles to direct at the National Theater in London. The play takes place on a new stage in a new theater, and it will be performed on the new stage of the new TSKW theater.
The season closes with the third production of CONCH REPUBLIC (The Musical!) by Monnie King and Gayla Morgan. It will be performed again at San Carlos.
Fringe Theater of Key West is a non-profit that creates, educates, and entertains with classic, innovative, intimate theater through programs such as Shakespeare in School, Fringe Benefits: Classic Short Plays, and main stage productions. Supporters include the Florida Keys Council of the Arts, the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, the Dogwood Foundation, Keys Energy, and private donors. For more information, go to www.fringetheaterkeywest.org.
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How delightful to read of KW Fringe’s upcoming season! It has become a full-edged theater company and a huge gift to the city, its theater-goers and its high school students county-wide. Congratulations!