On the Edge
Boulder Fringe Festival frays the boundaries of performance art
by Gene Ira Katz (buzz@boulderweekly.com)

Bringing together some 70 performance artists from around the country, as well as the UK, Poland and elsewhere across the globe, the 2007 Boulder International Fringe Festival offers plenty of opportunities to see unique and innovative presentations of the highest quality. Featuring stage productions, music, dance, magic, poetry, live radio shows and all manners of the original and the unusual, those who are already familiar with this annual extravaganza know to plan their time well throughout the 12 days of Fringe, because there is so much offered by the 14 separate venues included in the festival.

While some may mistakenly believe that the term "fringe" refers to oddball or offbeat performances (aka the "fringe element"), the truth is that the concept for the Fringe Festival originated in the late 1940s as an offshoot of the yearly Edinburgh International Arts Festival (EIAF) in Scotland, billed as the largest such event in the world. When it began, the EIAF was intended to help reunite Europe following the devastation of WWII, but after the invitations went out, far more artists wanted to participate than they had room for. The extreme interest and international attention inspired several avant-garde theater groups from England and Scotland to show up anyway and present their performances on the fringes of the official Edinburgh gathering.

Thus began a six-decade-long tradition of Fringe Festivals that have since flourished all over the planet, including here in the U.S. where such artistic events occur annually in dozens of locations, such as Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Kansas, Iowa, California, Indiana, Colorado and many more.

Boulder Fringe offers numerous opportunities to catch talented performers that may otherwise never grace our little enclave. Spread out over the city in different theaters, schools, museums, coffee shops and other interesting venues, Boulder Fringe provides a wide spectrum of offerings with something to please just about everyone. One performance features masks and shadow play, another presents stories told through puppetry, another utilizes unusual sound-scapes, and a number of shows involve improvisational techniques and audience participation.

A recurring motif in the 2007 Boulder Fringe is the one-person show, wherein a single performer portrays a multitude of characters — up to 30 in at least one case. Some of these solo performances lean heavily on the poetic, some on music, and a few are more comedic. One such acclaimed production is Neon Man, a humorous one-man production by Virginia-based playwright and musician Slash Coleman, which is billed as a hilarious comedy about a globe-trotting Jew who returns home to deal with the death of his best friend, who happens to be Pentecostal.

"It's a 60-minute, all-ages show exploring eight stories about friendship, along with four songs," explains Coleman. The show ran off-Broadway last year and is scheduled to be filmed for PBS next spring.

Neon Man was originally created as a fundraiser for the wife and child left behind after Coleman's good friend, a neon sign-maker, was accidentally electrocuted. Yet Neon Man turned out to be very funny.

"The majority of the show is a comedy," the performer notes. "Most people are surprised. They say, 'Oh it's a show about death. That's not something I want to go see.' But when I thought about our friendship, I thought about the laughter of friendship, the lighter side of friendship, the magic of meeting someone and really getting close... that's what I wanted to put into the show."

Coleman, who identifies himself as a Jewish artist, has written and produced several other one-man shows, but Neon Man has touched a special nerve in audiences.

"I think people are drawn to it not just because of the universal themes of friendship, but because, I mean, friendship isn't really promoted in our culture. Romantic love is, and Mother's Day is, but friendship — especially between two guys — is overshadowed by a lot of other things. I think people are drawn by the power of friendship between men."

If you want to see the laughter and love of friendship illuminated, Neon Man promises not to disappoint.

Another must-see among the many interesting Fringe programs this year is a sequel of sorts to one of the festival's jewels from the past. The riveting Power to Pleasing: The Sex Lives of Teenage Girls, performed in the ladies' room at the Dairy Theater, was voted as audience favorite in 2005 and 2006. Now the creators, Give Us Voice Productions, have collaborated with several men to create Pressure to Prove: The Sex Lives of Teenage Boys. With a script based on actual interviews with males from ages 11 to 30 years old, co-producer Bethany Urban describes this as a companion piece to Power to Pleasing, an edgy exploration of boys' experiences on topics that are often unspoken. She says this show came out of the talk-back sessions, which sometimes ran up to two hours, following the girls' play.

"One of the things that came up consistently was: Wouldn't it interesting to see a boys' version of this piece?" Like the previous show, says Urban, "This is a real honest, authentic look at real teenagers... guys aren't always given the space to talk about these kinds of things."

Similarly to the original play, this new production also points out the amount of pressure teenagers face when it comes to sex, "... and the lengths that young people will go to in order to answer to that pressure."

These are just two of the amazing productions at this year's Boulder International Fringe Festival that promise to push the boundaries of art and performance. After all, there's no reason to float along in the mainstream if you can live on the fringe.

On the Bill

Neon Man will play Aug. 17-25 at the Dairy Center for the Arts (Carsen Theater), 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826, and Pressure to Prove: The Sex Lives of Teenage Boys will also play at the Dairy (East Theater), Aug. 17-22. Boulder International Fringe Festival runs Aug. 16–27 at various locations around town. For more information and a complete schedule of events, call 720-563-9950 or go to www.boulderfringe.com.

Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com