After the IRNEs the Theater Mirror received a anonymous heartfelt plea for more attention to small productions from the Fringe of Boston theatre scene. A straw poll of various theatre folk elicited a common response, "what fringe?".Fringe theatre operations have commonly fallen into two categories, groups who do their own thing a few times a year, be it verse drama, plays by their membership or what have you or startup operations involving young people trying to get their own particular hold in the broader theatre scene, often through avant-garde presentations. Boston actually has developed a few of the latter in the past few seasons. Several have produced work well worth noticing over at the Charlestown Working Theatre, notably Molasses Tank, which has the longest track record, Whistler in the Dark, which is currently across town using the Downstage Black Box at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, Imaginary Beasts which works out of the Lynn Center for the Arts but will produce this summer in Watertown.
There's also Mill 6 which produced over at the Theater Coop but is now seen at the Devanaughn space in the Piano Factory. And Devanaughn itself has pushed the envelope a few times. The oldest Fringe theatre, of course, in world-touring Pilgrim, which is the only such group to appear at the BCA recently. Theatre Offensive, with its specialized aims should also be noted. There have also been some fringe productions over at Boston Playwrights', generally done by artists who've done more conventional work there. The refurbished Durrell Hall at the Cambridge YMCA has yet to attract any truly avant-garde theatre, unless you count several visits by Peter Schuman's unique Bread and Puppet shows, which this season opted to try using the BCA's cyclorama. Brian Tuttle's 11:11 group brought some under-rehearsed Shakespeare to Durrell but has generally done his original rather realistic youth-angst pieces down and then up four flights at the Actors' Workshop on Summer Street. It's also seen two of ASP's wandering Shakespearean productions. And over in Chelsea, TheatreZone has soldiered on, generally producing established scripts in their converted OldFellows Hall, which now has its elevator. They are generally only a Fringe operation geographically, but are now really worth making the trip to Chelsea Sq.--it's a triangle--street parking is adequate even if public transportation at night can take a while.
The lack of a truly low-budget space at the revamped BCA is a disappointment. The rehearsal halls on the second floor of the Calderwood are not in themselves that expensive to rent, but participation in the Boston Theatre Scene box office has a cost which groups have found prohibitive. That's one reason why Rough & Tumble hasn't been seen there this season. The church halls downtown which were the seedbed of Boston theatre for years aren't generally available. Whistler in the Dark did manage to tour a show based on Dario Fo/Franca Raime monologues around to a series of nightspots with varying success. Other groups might well consider such a route. And of course Ryan Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans have been established at the Machine for quite a while.
The IRNE's problem with dealing with much of this activity is time, compounded by lack of information. Most of us do review the listings, but these frequently come too late. Surfing the Web from site to site provides more information, but gets time-consuming especially when information about a current production isn't somewhere obvious on the opening page. Groups need to make more use of advanced notice opportunities like the NETheatre 411 website, and to send out press notices and timely followups well in advance. Our interests vary and the increased number of productions in Boston Theatre often makes it unlikely that any one reviewer can get to see half of what's on in a timely fashion. Perhaps groups such as those noted above need to create a common "webpage", where their press releases can be posted. It would be easy enough to set up a free group blog on Blogger. Since this service is part of Google that would also have the advantage of being part of any active search. Might be something to try out for the second Fever Fest coming up this August over at the Cambridge MultiCultural Art Center 23-25 which will combine the efforts of several producing theatres mentioned above.