Now in its seventh year, the Providence Fringe Festival (FringePVD) presents edgy, strange, and hard to classify work that crosses stylistic boundaries and ranges from drama to music, comedy, dance, and more. Founded by The Wilbury Theatre Group and co-presented with WaterFire Providence, it's one of my favorite events in Providence. With this year's pivot to digital programming, it's easier than ever to dive in and see something unexpected. You can also take more risks than ever since this year's programming is spread across two weeks. And it's all happening online.
Well, mostly.
You can also bid on the chance for a performance to happen in your own yard. There are two opportunities for you to invite your (socially distanced) friends onto your lawn for a Front Porch Performance, a really unique and fringe-y event happening at 7pm on July 24 and July 31. (The performers will also show up with dinner and drinks for two from Troop!)
Here's my own (tentative) nightly itinerary, but check the full streaming schedule because there are 21 shows going on and a bunch of them are happening more than once.
You can watch the performances live on the festival's Facebook and Youtube pages or you can purchase a Digital Fringe Access Pass for just $20 and watch the performances whenever you want. (Those folks get to see some additional content, too.)
One Possible Journey
Monday 7/20 You’ve Got Mail 2: You’ve Got 2 Males (A Gritty Unauthorized Sequel, Political/Erotic Thriller, and Unflinching Look at Late Capitalism, The Effects of the Internet on Self-Perception, and The Dark Heart of the American Family, Protected by Fair Use Rest in Peace Nora Ephron)
The Please Don't Sue Us Warner Brothers Players (Providence)
The show with the very long title is a sequel to the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan rom-com about competing bookstores at the dawn of the digital age. (7:30pm)
Tuesday 7/21 Edith VS. Quarantine: 89 & One Tough Cookie
Amanda Erin Miller (Brooklyn) Edith Shlivovitz, a ferociously spirited octogenarian, hasn’t left her apartment since Covid-19 descended upon NYC. Through belting showtunes to her taxidermied cat, pretending to be a snake, and Zooming with her long-dead husband, she shares her journey during these solitary months. (7:30pm)
Wednesday 7/22 PVD Boundaries Project
WalkPVD (Providence)
An event taking place in actual outdoor space—sorry, you can't stream this one. It's a roughly two mile guided walk along the city's western edge, part of a larger project to traverse the whole perimeter of Providence. Space is limited for pandemic/social distancing reasons, so register soon. (7pm)
Thursday 7/23 Letters from the Affair
The Afro-Semitic Experience (Hamden, CT) Letters from the Affair is a multi-media work that crosses the boundaries between jazz, opera and musical theater. The work is based upon a series of letters written by the Impressionist painters Camille Pissarro and Edgar Degas, impressionist painters whose friendship deteriorated because of their differing views regarding the Dreyfus affair, a massive scandal in which is Jewish army captain was wrongfully convicted of espionage. (7:30pm)
Friday 7/24 Get Thee Behind Me, Santa: An Inexcusably Filthy Children's Time-Travel Farce for Adults Only Maximum Verbosity (Boston)
It’s December 21st, 2012, and something’s gone terribly wrong with the timeline. Now it’s up to Saint Nicholas, a soft-boiled detective, and an unknown carpenter’s son named Jesus of Nazareth to set things right in this giddily blasphemous collection of literary parodies by internationally touring storyteller phillip andrew bennett low. (9pm)
Saturday 7/25 Family Fringe Day
Providence Community Library
A streaming selection of storytelling, performances, games, and more for audiences of all ages, presented by familiar children's librarians and specialists from Providence Community LIbrary. (3–6pm)
Sunday 7/26 Cuento con Magnolia y amigos
Magnolia (Providence)
Spanish-language storytelling and music from a local artist who was born in the Dominican Republic. (3:30pm)
Monday 7/27 A Love Letter to My Phantom Father or The Myth, The Man, The Legend Written by Claudia Traub, directed by Kate Caffret, performed by Jeanine Kane, Jim O'Brien and Julia Langham (Providence)
A young woman/ child/ mother navigates the missing father in her life as he picks the universe over his child and she searches for him in the spaces in between. Kate Bush, They Might Be Giants and Pi (the movie) become part of her dance and her journey. (7:30pm)
Tuesday 7/28 #txtshow (on the internet)
Brian Feldman Projects (Washington, DC)
The best show you’ll write all year, #txtshow (on the internet) is a completely immersive multiscreen performance featuring a mysterious character named txt (pronounced “text”) who recites a script written anonymously in real-time by a live audience (on the internet).Advance registration is required for this one. (7:30pm)
Wednesday 7/29 Big Gay Debutante Ball
Meg Anderson (Bloomington, IN)
An epic solo musical about a midwestern preacher’s daughter who braves her way out of hiding into a re-created world where gay women are celebrated with a fabulous coming-out ball. (7:30pm)
Thursday 7/30 The Citizen Revolution with Krish Mohan
Krish Mohan (Pittsburgh)
An interactive, dynamic virtual Stand Up Comedy show exploring the process to become a citizen in America, labor movements, critiques on Capitalism and the current state of things! (6pm)
Friday 7/31 Jenny Must Die
Theater Z (Belmont, MA) A mash-up of musical comedy, Greek tragedy, Real Housewives, and fast food, Jenny Must Die is a travesty of a mockery of a parody of a play by Euripides. Lucky, your charming host and proprietor of a five-star Gyro shop, will lead you through this thrilling and tuneful tale of an arrogant king, his badass daughter, a noble warrior (not the brightest of bulbs), and an elegant, curse-casting goddess who cuts the men of Argos down to size. (7:30pm)
Saturday 8/1 FringePVD Awards
Matthew Lawrence (me) and DJ Unkle Thirsty will once again team up for this year's Fringe Awards, with categories decided by the audience (you). (9pm)
Like I mentioned, this is just one possible schedule of events. Visit FringePVD.org to see the full lineup.
