FRINGENYC

Festival gives North Jersey theater artists a shot at the big time
Friday, August 10, 2007

By EVELYN SHIH
STAFF WRITER

New York's Fringe Festival proves, as W.B. Yeats wrote, "the center cannot hold." It's the edges that are most magnetic.

Starting today and playing until Aug. 26, the Fringe is a platform for emerging theater artists, including North Jersey's finest. The fest, which this year features more than 200 productions, is sometimes dark, sometimes funny and always daring.

"You could go to Broadway from there," said Jim Tuohy of Lyndhurst. Tuohy (stage name Tooey) wrote and stars in "Two-mur Humor," about how he survived cancer. " 'Urinetown' came out of [the Fringe]. It's a great place to get people to see you. ... It's the Tribeca Film Festival of theater."

In a town where hundreds of new plays sink sight unseen while hoping to be the one breakout hit of the season, the Fringe is a shot at the big leagues. Rivervale playwright and director George L. Chieffet remembers the painful lesson of an earlier run for his Fringe play, "Notes to the Motherland."

"We had a little run in New York in 2003, but the problem was ... it was during the Jewish holidays, so the whole city practically closed down and no one came to see us!" he said ruefully.

Beyond the exposure, the Fringe Festival also gives theater companies help with logistics. "It is nice that you don't have to book the venues," said Tara Dairman, a playwright and first-time producer from Weehawken. "Producing for the Fringe is not as expensive, because you don't have to rent the venue -- one of the biggest costs, I've heard."

The down side is that participants are on a need-to-know basis for their venue information. Dairman did not know where her play, "PB&J," would be staged until June 15, and she didn't find out performance dates until June 29 -- barely a month before her show opens. The actual performances are also frenetic events, with only about 45 minutes budgeted for the cleanup of the previous play and the setup of the next.

But most participants are simply giddy to have a high-profile gig. "This is the first Fringe show for us, so everything is new and exciting," said Laurie Sales, who co-created "As Far as We Know" with Kelly Van Zile. The two met doing theater at Ridgewood High School. "Last night we went to a podcast recording for nytheatre.com, and it was the first event where we met other people with Fringe shows."

The feeling of community is a great perk for young and budding play-makers. "There's a real spirit of everyone within one show pulling together and making it happen, but also there are people from different shows working together for the greater good and just being excited about being in a festival that's so well-known," said Dairman. "I really like that atmosphere."

E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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Shows with local connections

* PRODUCTION: "Notes to the Motherland."
* WHERE: The Soho Playhouse.
* SYNOPSIS: A one-man play featuring Paul Rajeckas, an American of Lithuanian descent. It was inspired by Rajeckas' real-life pilgrimage to the land where his parents were born. During the trip, he discovers the family's dark secrets -- as well as its redeeming acts -- that were buried with the memories of World War II.
* NORTH JERSEY ARTIST: Director and co-writer George L. Chieffet of Rivervale.
* QUOTE: Chieffet on the first rehearsal: "We didn't really have a rehearsal space at the time, so we did the entire play in my garage in Rivervale. Well, the next-door neighbor was cutting the lawn, and she was wondering what the heck we were doing!"
* WEB SITE: www.paulrajeckas.com

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* PRODUCTION: "As Far as We Know."
* WHERE: CSV Cultural and Educational Center -- Flamboyan.
* SYNOPSIS: Inspired by Sgt. Matt Maupin, who was abducted during an Iraqi ambush April 9, 2004. Creators followed his story through the news media. They visited Maupin's home in Ohio at the three-year anniversary this April to conduct research for the play.
* NORTH JERSEY ARTIST: Director Laurie Sales and producer Kelly Van Zile of Ridgewood.
* QUOTE: On visiting Ohio: "It made the issue a lot more complex for us. Coming from liberal-minded New York City, and knowing how we felt about the war, we walked into a community that touts itself as the yellow-ribbon capital of the world. ... It really changed our view. This is more about a missing child than the military in some ways."
* WEB SITE: uncommoncausetheatre.com.

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* PRODUCTION: "Better This Way."
* WHERE: Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street -- Lafayette Street Theatre.
* SYNOPSIS: A take on the myth of Persephone, the Greek goddess of spring who was captured by Hades, the god of the underworld. Persephone doesn't know whether to stay -- so torn that she is portrayed by two actresses. With projected video of images from post-industrial wastelands.
* NORTH JERSEY ARTIST: Film director Gregory Polin, Englewood native.
* QUOTE: On finding Hades imagery: "Perhaps the coolest place is this place called Centralia, Pa. There was a town there and a coal mine. About 40 years ago, the mine went on fire, and the town became a ghost town. And the mines are still burning today. Steam pours out of the fissures. That was our entrance to hell, basically."
* WEB SITE: deliberatemotion.com/sites/deliberatemotion/btw/

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* PRODUCTION: "Two-mur Humor: He's Malignant; She's Benign."
* WHERE: Center for Architecture.
* SYNOPSIS: This two-person comedic drama is based on the co-writers' real-life experiences with cancer.
* NORTH JERSEY ARTIST: Writer and actor Jim Tooey of Lyndhurst.
* QUOTE: "I was told that I had a brain tumor on April Fool's Day. ... I thought that someone was playing a joke on me," said Tooey. "You have to laugh. And when you can do that, you realize when you're in that place that you really don't have it that bad compared to other people."
* WEB SITE: tumorhumor.org.

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* PRODUCTION: "PB&J."
* WHERE: The Players Theatre.
* SYNOPSIS: Lillie and Millie make the best peanut butter and jelly in Vermont, but their secret ingredient would make men tremble. It's up to radio host Dick Longfellow to discover the truth before he becomes their next victim.
* NORTH JERSEY ARTIST: Writer and producer Tara Dairman of Weehawken.
* QUOTE: On the atmosphere at the Fringe: "There's a real atmosphere of doing risky material. You might not see a play on Broadway every day that's about people putting [body parts] in jelly, but I feel like it barely sticks out in the Fringe."
* WEB SITE: pbandjtheplay.com.

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* PRODUCTION: "7 Stories High."
* WHERE: The New School for Drama Theater.
* SYNOPSIS: Maggie, Oscar, Cora and The Little Girl struggle to determine why their apartment building burned down and what will happen to them next.
* NORTH JERSEY ARTIST: Playwright and producer Hilary Leichter of Demarest.
* QUOTE: "It's a little bit of a whodunit but an absurd, whimsical whodunit about coming to grips with reality."
* WEB SITE: 7storieshigh.com.

For information about times, venues and pricing, call 212-279-4488 or see fringenyc.org.

Copyright © 2007 North Jersey Media Group Inc.