On February 9 and 10, Choate’s annual Fringe Festival was performed in the Gelb Theater. The Fringe Festival is mostly a collection of short plays, but it also includes comedy acts and music. It is almost an entirely student written, directed, and performed show. This year it was, once again, full of hilarious and powerful performances that left the audience on the edge of their seats.
The creative process starts with students writing short plays, poetry, comedy, or whatever they want to be performed. Lily Kops ’18 wrote a play for Fringe called Princess Club, about women who work at the Magic Kingdom in Disneyland as princesses. During their breaks they hang out in tunnels under the Magic Kingdom, smoke marijuana, and discuss sexual assault.
Kops talked about what inspired this play, “I read an article by a girl who worked at the Magic Kingdom, and she talked about how stressful it was, how you had to put up with creepy dads and uncles touching you, and not react to it.” The topics in this play are very fitting for all of the recent news about sexual harassment. Kops said, “I went back and added a bit more about sexual assault, because of the #Metoo movement and all of that news lately.” Once Kops had her play selected to be a part of Fringe, she discussed it with the assigned student director. However, since she was not involved in the production, she was just as curious to see the performance as the rest of the student body.
Another key contributor to Fringe was Austen Rogers ’18, the student director for a short play called The Last Burrito, written by Ben Wendel ’17. As the director, Rogers’ role is take what the playwright gave her and make it into a show. Before the winter term, the directors get the scripts, discuss the scripts with the writers, and start to make a plan. Then, at the beginning of the winter term, the directors cast the show and start rehearsing.
While this is a great opportunity for young writers and directors, it does come with challenges. Kops said, “Because it is such a difficult topic and I have a lot of opinions, I had a hard time getting started, and then as soon as I did, I couldn’t stop.”
Rogers said, “The hardest part about directing has been the time constraint. I feel like there are always small details I want to add, because each time I watch the actors, I think of something new I want to see them try. But, unfortunately, we don’t have unlimited time.”
Though this is a very hard process, it is also a engaging and rewarding one. “We got going on character development,” Rogers said. “That was probably my favorite part of the process, since the characters in the play are so fun and unique.” This is a culmination of a lot of hard work for many Choate students. Rogers added, “I am very excited to see the performances. There is nothing more fun than getting to sit in the audience and not only watch my work, but also the actors’ work, come alive.”
Graysen Airth ’18 was in the audience on Friday night and had great reviews of the show. When asked about what could be improved upon, Airth said, “I just wish there was more!”
Airth added that this year was even better than the past, “They worked in even more student work in this year. I really loved Amy Hagan-Brown’s stand up act.”
The acts themselves left people laughing and crying, but by far the most powerful part of the evening was something more than that. Airth said, “For me, the most powerful part of Fringe was not one show, but the fact the students and students that have graduated wrote the plays and have such power and say in what happens here.”
