Fringe Wilmington Festival

Thank you to everyone who helped make the 2012 Fringe Wilmington Festival a HUGE success, including Cityfest, our zygote sponsor Spark, our creative partners Mobius New Media, the Delaware Division of the Arts, Downtown Visions, all of our venue sponsors, and, of course, our fabulous audiences! Thanks also to Delaware Independent Filmmakers for partnering with us for the Extreme Filmmaking Competition--congratulations to the winning teams! It was a truly amazing festival, and we look forward to returning for year FIVE in 2013!

Fringe is not finished yet...Sunday's performances include five performances (Dr. Science's Science Time Science-va-ganza!; Muralista; Yet Another Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein; The Magic and Comedy of Larry Denburg; and As We Like It--see website for times/venues). Plus, the Fringe Festival closes with the traditional Top 10 Screening of the films created during this year's Extreme Filmmaking Competition (5:30 p.m., Theatre N at Nemours). Come see who wins the nearly $4,000 in cash prizes! Keep Fringing!!!

This trio of extraordinary dancers gives an energetic, physical and emotional performance. Along the way they explain what their moves mean, which ones are who's favorites, and personal details ("she only ever wears cotton"). It's like they are creating a language based on movements, however they will explain a movement and then we won't see it for a while, or sometimes they will say the next section is filled with smiles and nobody smiles, but it's fascinating and very physical. At times they're wrestling or falling all over each other or frantically embracing.

If you like your ballet dark -- very dark -- BalletFleming's The Myth and Madness of Edgar Allen Poe is just the ticket. Subject matter self-explanatory. Thoroughly enjoyed this one. One show left, tonight at 10!

Tom Newby's Missing Temple installation is an exploration of the female form, with dozens of nude figure drawings fluttering as they make the walls of a hallway that leads to a room that changes the context of all you've seens. It looks good, it sounds good, it even smells good. Like charcoal drawing and neon.

I've somehow managed to miss Nonsense in the Sense of Innocence at the last two Fringe Fests, but that losing streak ends here. What an amazing, mesmerizing piece, nicely contrasted with the whimsical Walpurgis Night. Stunning!

City Theater Company puts on some pretty fearless plays, but for the Fringe, they've they're going totally unscripted. On-the-fly bits like Freeze Tag, the Three Headed Professor and Quirky Party Guests rely on audience participation, and the resuls are hilarious. This show will never be the same twice -- and it will never be boring.

This is a monologue, or a series of them, performed by the very attractive Leanne Linsky in a little black dress. She begins by telling us about her attraction to really, really bad boys and a few failed marriages. She then veers off into what at first seem like unrelated vignettes. As the show goes on, they all start to come together as the peripherals of her life.

Tom Newby's exhibit is a nearly overwhelming display of his life's work, which is sketching the female figure. Over 300 large sketches are the building blocks of the temple leading to a room lit by a neon sign proclaiming Girls! Girls!Girls! Newby told me that room was what he originally submitted for fringe consideration. The figures there continue from one sheet to another, allowing for slightly larger than life figures. He said that when they told him he would be a featured artist at the space at the corner of 5th and Market, he decided to go big and build the temple.

Fringe Wilmington is well known for its dance offerings, which always attract a healthy audience. Tandem Biking...was no exception. Very well attended--particulary on a Thursday night. The dance was very unique and highly entertaining. I was utterly amazed at the dancers' stamina--this was some seriously intense physical movement! Joyful, fun, and witty--and above all, extremely creative. I enjoyed very much.