Josh Short: “The Fringe Festival is an unjuried, uncensored festival that’s all about giving artists an opportunity to share their work with the public that might otherwise not see them, and give the public an opportunity to witness this amazing art that’s being created by independent artists around the country.”
“Due to COVID, last year we moved the entire festival online, and we expanded it to two weeks this year is we were watching how things are progressing with COVID, we decided that we would keep the festival two weeks in order to spread it out as much as possible, would keep the online component because that was such a successful piece. And we would keep the performances outdoors. Because that’s the safest place to be with everything that’s going on.”
“We’ve got eight outdoor venues around the valley neighborhood all over the Waterfire Arts Center, you know, some in the parking lot here, some of them in the courtyard of the ALCO building. And then over at the Steelyard outdoors and Nicholson File out in their little artists’ courtyard. So it’s a festival of outdoor theater, that piece of it for sure.”
“Some of the stuff that’s coming up: there’s a two woman version of the musical Chicago that’s being done here at the Waterfire Arts Center this week, there’s another show called reptiles of the mind, which is a walking audio play by a local artist Davis Alianiello. There’s a clown piece called come home soon that is being performed over at farm fresh Rhode Island. And there’s another show called “Capture the Block” that we’ve actually developed in collaboration with Ana Gonzalez of Mosaic on The Public’s Radio.”
“All the shows are affordable. Many of them are pay what you will or by donation. And none of them are more than $15. 100% of the door goes to the artists who participate, we don’t take any thing out of that. So it’s a great way to support performing artists in a time when they need it most.”
The Providence Fringe Festival is on now through Saturday. Mosaic’s “Capture The Block” event is on Friday and Saturday at 7PM at the Waterfire Arts Center. Admission is free. There’s a free wrap-up party with a live Salsa band on Saturday. You can find the full schedule at FringePVD.org
