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On the fringe
The New York International Fringe Festival scores, plus the Boston Music Awards give back to the kids


Matthew Humphreys in You Haven't Done Anything Unforgivable



Jake Brennan


Out on the Fringe

There were young zombies in love, singing ducks, harmonizing heads of state, and sock-puppet pole dancers in New York. (And all this before any Republicans made their highly staged entrance to face the platoons of protestors and police units.) For 17 days, from August 13 to August 29, more than 200 shows were produced in 20 venues throughout lower Manhattan as part of the New York International Fringe Festival. Three of those shows were crafted by writers with creative roots in Boston: Training Wisteria by Molly Smith Metzler, Jasper Lake by Fringe vet John Kuntz, and You Haven’t Done Anything Unforgivable, Brendan Hughes’s adaptation of three short stories by New Yorker contributor George Saunders. Jonathan Mirin’s semi-autobiographical one-man play, Riding the Wave.com, was also featured in the festival, fresh from a reading at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre earlier that month.

Considering how New York (and national) media were splashed with headlines about the city’s beefed-up security and plans to keep protesters in check, it’s no surprise that plays like 9/11: The Book of Job generated some of the loudest buzz at the festival. In fact, works addressing political issues were as unavoidable as Playboy-bunny types at the Olympics. But even with FringeNYC’s subtitle, "Defying Convention," and a surplus of Bush satires, the event’s line-up still resembled those of years past: you easily could do a two-week spree of campy comedies and sugary musicals written by artists hoping for a fairy-tale success like that of Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis, the wunderkinds behind one of the best-known rocket-from-fringe-to-fame hits, Urinetown.

But the four shows representing Boston, which were among 210 chosen from more than 800 submissions, were simply well-crafted, self-consciously dramatic works built around classic themes of self-discovery and coping with a deteriorating family fabric. It’s interesting to note that the authors of the three original works (as opposed to the adaptation) all received their masters in playwriting from Boston University’s playwriting program, where their works took shape.

Mirin’s work appeared more daily-news-inspired than the others. The writer/performer reconciles the fortune he made on the American stock market with his quest for enlightenment and urge to travel the world. Of course, the front pages never go too long without the appearance of a dysfunctional family, and Metzler’s Wisteria, which swept awards at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in 2003 and is part of a new-play development program this season at Boston’s Lyric Stage, is a kitchen-sink drama for the new millennium. It comes complete with hostile divorced parents and three children who bear the scars (and piercings, antisocial behavior, and personal insecurities) resulting from their parents’ acrimony.

Taking a less naturalistic approach to problem children was local funnyman John Kuntz, whose more serious side was on display in Jasper Lake, his first multi-character play, which was featured in this year’s Breaking Ground Festival at the Huntington Theatre. It’s also his first work in which he plays an offstage role, handing over his creepy-yet-screwball tale of privilege, adultery, social impropriety, and mischievous intentions to a cast of actors. It will be at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre in October.

Speaking of creepy, Hughes, who founded Somerville’s Theatre Cooperative and directed works there and around Boston for nine years, made his New York debut at the Fringe directing Matthew Humphreys as the lone character in three George Saunders nuggets. Most haunting was the able-bodied actor’s portrayal of a 400-pound man with a heart as huge as his girth and an even bigger grudge about being the focus of eternal ridicule.

Whether or not the Fringe will be the launch pad to Off Broadway and beyond, participants were thrilled just to test their work with a New York audience. Hope, as they say, springs eternal, but for many it’s rooted in rationality.

"The Fringe is a well-oiled machine," Metzler told me. "They get so many shows in and out of so many spaces all over New York . . . every 15 minutes, up and down, every set in all the theaters all day long. You can see why some works take off here. It’s really about the crafted work, about the words. It makes perfect sense why plays that come out of fringe have come out of Fringe. When you’re not dealing with set elements and costuming, it forces the audience to really hear the play for the words, for the craft. So if you look at some plays out of Fringe, they’re well-written plays, not about [big-budget] pomp and circumstance."

— Liza Weisstuch

Boston Music Awards

And the winner is ... Boston-area music students! That’s thanks to the new charitable mission behind this year’s 17th Annual Boston Music Awards, which will be held on September 29 at the Avalon Ballroom. It may be for a good cause, but with nominees including local luminaries the Dresden Dolls, who led the pack with five nominations, and Aerosmith, Dropkick Murphys, and Mission of Burma, who all received four, the show still promises to be one of the Boston music community’s red-carpet moments.

"I think it’s a big glitzy party, but I think people are going to feel a lot better about going to this big glitzy party and participating," said Chip Rives, chief executive director of the Boston Music Awards and NEMO Music Conference. "Musicians are going to feel better about playing it. Sponsors are going to feel better about giving money to it. It should just be a good night."

The BMA show will be the first fundraiser held to benefit the newly formed nonprofit NEMO Foundation, a volunteer-run organization that benefits youth music-education programs in New England. Beneficiaries of the night include the Berklee College City Music Program and the Wang Center’s Young at Arts Fund. The foundation aims to support programs that bridge the gap in music education caused by the eradication of school music programs due to budget cuts. "The schools just don’t have the resources anymore, and the focus isn’t on arts in the schools," Rives said. "So where are the kids going to learn?"

The night’s revamped raison d’tre is not the only aspect of the event to have changed this year. The first annual Hall of Fame Award, recognizing life-time achievement, will induct winners into the New England Music Hall of Fame, which is being developed by the Boston Rock ’n’ Roll Museum and the BMAs. And the ceremony is being moved from the Orpheum Theatre, where it was held in past years, to the more informal Avalon Ballroom. "Everybody comes to this thing and it ought to be a chance for everyone to mingle and have fun," Rives said. "So it should be more of a party atmosphere than sit down in a theatre and then mingle in the lobby afterwards."

Another first is the overhauled nomination process, which involved newly formed panels of 10 to 15 experts in each genre represented across the awards’ 29 categories. These panel members — drawn from writers, publicists, musicians and others affiliated with the local music industry — drew on comprehensive knowledge of their particular genres to ensure that nominees in specific areas — from rock to jazz to hip-hop — really represent the best talent in Boston, and not just the big names. In addition to a public vote (which is being held online at www.nemoboston.com through September 24), ballots will also be sent to approximately 400 members of the local music community, also voting in the areas in which they have expertise.

Even with the diversification of those who choose the winners, rock still ruled the big categories, with the bands who received three nods including soul rockers Jake Brennan and the Confidence Men, edgy hard rockers Read Yellow, and fiery roots rockers the Gentleman. The Act of the Year and Major Label Album of the Year categories include Aerosmith, Fountains of Wayne, Godsmack, and Guster, with one indie-rock wild card in each category — the Pixies up for best act, and Mission of Burma up for best album.

Indie rock in all its many deviations also ruled the Local Debut Album of the Year list, with riff rockers Runner and the Thermodynamics and groove rockers Apollo Sunshine up against art punks the Lot Six and cabaret punks the Dresden Dolls. But the Indie Album of the Year category showed range, including hip-hop heavyweight Mr. Lif, charming folkie Josh Ritter, and stalwart indie popster Juliana Hatfield. The bulging blues category showed the genre alive and well in the city, with the nine nominees including guitar firebrand Susan Tedeschi and harmonica-hoisting showman James Montgomery, making it one of the year’s biggest categories.

By adding a charitable arm to NEMO, which also organizes Boston’s annual music conference (being held this year October 1 through 3), the organization hopes it’s launching a self-serving mission of the best possible kind: helping to groom the next generation of musicians, who may some day step up to the stage at the BMA ceremony to accept an award of their own. "If those programs don’t exist, it’s not like there’s a music class kids can take in school anymore," Rives said. "They don’t exist. It’s up to the private sector to step up and help make that happen." A small number of tickets for the live performance following the Boston Music Awards ceremony at Avalon will be given out through various local radio stations. For more info, go to www.nemoboston.com

— Sarah Tomlinson


Issue Date: September 3 - 9, 2004
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