Fringe Festival Returns

Experience exploratory entertainment and then some when the award-winning Capital Fringe Festival kicks off in DC and Downtown on Thursday, July 12, and runs through Sunday, July 29. Here’s what is new at this annual arts fest billed as a “celebration of the performing arts live and uncensored”: you’ll be able to go online and sort shows into four main genres—comedy; dance and physical theater; drama; and musical theater and opera. And if you want to know more about the creative talent—such as directors and choreographer—they’re now listed for each production, some of which have such zany names as Children in the Mist: A Horror Opera, Domino’s Pizza Saved My Life, and Cupcake Cabaret: A Brief History of Bad Women. Intrigued or excited? Tickets range from $17 (single purchase) to $300 (all-access pass).  

Also, don’t miss a special preview of 30 of this year’s productions at The Baldacchino Gypsy Tent at Fort Fringe (607 New York Avenue), the combination box office and multiple-theater site, on Friday, July 6 at 8:00 pm. It’s free, but if you want to get a seat, doors open at 7:00 pm. Lionell Thomas, executive director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, will emcee the event.

Several BID-based venues will host some of this year’s performances. They are: Mount Vernon United Methodist Church (900 Massachusetts Avenue); First Congregational United Church of Christ (945 G Street); Caos on F (923 F Street), Mead Theatre Lab-Flashpoint (916 G Street), Goethe Institut (812 7th Street), and Woolly Mammoth Theatre (641 D Street).