The Orlando International Fringe Festival is celebrating 35 years of being weird. In April, before the Festival got fired up, there was a local teaser show so people could get a taste of what to see at the upcoming Fringe. Each show only had 3 minutes to pique the interest of the audience. This lightning-round format allowed dozens of performers and artists to give the audience a rapid-fire, bite-sized preview of their full-length shows before the festival began.
If a performer ran over 3 minutes, the lights would flash red and Brandon Roberts, dressed as a Revolutionary soldier would come out and chase the performer off stage. I found myself hoping each performer would run overtime to see how Brandon would chase them off stage. These were some of the funniest moments of the night.
At Fringe, some shows can be absolutely amazing by breaking boundaries and making you think, while others could very well be duds. A seasoned Fringe fanatic will use this teaser show as a way to separate the wheat from the chafe. With only 3 minutes for each teaser, I was hard pressed to decide which show to feature in my sketch. I decided to focus on an announcer and one burlesque dancer.
The Peach venue in Orlando Family Theater had an aquatic themed backdrop which was from the children’s play, Finding Nemo. I rather liked seeing all the acts as if performed underwater. As a creative, I sometimes need to remind myself to just keep swimming.
I went on to see and sketch many of these shows that lured me in with their 3-minute elevator pitches. The National/International Teaser Show typically takes place on the Tuesday evening of the festival’s opening week. If you attend both teaser shows then you will have a solid idea of what shows absolutely need to be seen. The teaser program comes with a score card so you can rank the shows as you see each teaser. I didn’t fill in my score card because I was so busy scribbling.
To see which shows I sketched and adored, just keep checking here.