Fringe|Famous

HOW FRINGE RUINED MY LIFE…AND WHY I’M BACK FOR MORE

The quick and dirty version is simply that I am a masochist. Suffering makes me feel alive. The intensity of heartache is unmatched, except perhaps by the intensity of live performance, that buzzing energy that passes back and forth between a performer and her audience. That energy can get addictive.

The longer version of why I’m back for another year of Fringe madness goes like this: last year, I saw a lot of Fringe shows. This means not only attending performances, but also running into friends, exes, people I haven’t seen in ages, and imbibing a heroic amount of Summit with them.

At about the midway point of last year’s festival, my dear friend, let’s call him R., told me about a huge knock-down drag-out fight he’d had with his boyfriend. There were some existing tensions within the relationship, but the added pressures of R’s sleep-deprived, never-at-home, glued-to-his-blackberry Fringe schedule is what tipped the relationship over the edge. They managed to hold it together until the end of the Festival, which is when they really sat down, hashed it out, and decided it wasn’t going to work.

My other friend, an actress, was attempting to do a Fringe show, rehearse for another show at a prominent Twin Cities theater, and keep her desk job. Her marriage survived, but she said it took a lot of patience, some cell phone screaming matches, and a few lazy Sunday mornings in bed for the relationship to find balance again.

This year I’ve got a man who should probably quit drinking, a day job that somehow changed from that-thing-I-do-to-make-money into that-place-that-explodes-when-I’m-out-sick, and more Fringe shows on my list than I can ever possibly see. I’m sleep deprived, I eat snacks out of my purse instead of meals off a plate, and I’m pretty sure my relationship is about to get complicated. So what the hell am I doing?

I’m Fringing, motherfuckers. Fringe only happens once a year, and everyone involved really steps it up. Producers and writers have been working on these shows sometimes for years before they make it into the festival; actors have been rehearsing for little or no money; designers and directors and stage managers have been working overtime to produce a professional-looking show for a fraction of a professional budget and resources; and the Fringe staff has been working since the end of last year’s Fringe Festival to make sure that this year will be amazing. And it is! It’s awesome! So tune up your bike, put together a custom show schedule on fringefestival.org, and tell your sweetheart they can buy an UltraPass or see you in eleven days – their choice.

Single White Female (SWF)