The Opening Gala of the first ever Tucson Fringe Theater Festival will be held tonight at 8:00 at Old Town Artisans, 201 N. Court.  The line-up includes many familiar faces from Tucson’s thriving performance artist community, Heather Woodrich, Paco Velez, Denise Uyehara, Natalie Nguyen, Serena Tang, Sarah K. Smith, Jodi Netzer, Laura Milkins, Michele Ceballos Michot, Sean Madrid, Jamie J, Luc Goodhart and Megan Amber Cox, plus Parasol Project, Puppets Amoungus and DJ Carl Hanni spinning fresh tunes.

And what, may you ask, is Fringe?  According to their website:

Fringe doesn’t curate.  Fringe is different.  Fringe loves new work.  Fringe restores the artist’s creative influence.  Fringe doesn’t charge you an arm and a leg.  Fringe doesn’t tell you to eat your vegetables.  Fringe gives all the money back to the artist.  Fringe is a laboratory for ideas.  Fringe is the future of performance.  Fringe is community.  Fringe is awesome.

Shows will continue for the rest of the weekend at 3 different venues: Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. 6th Ave, The Screening Room, 127 Congress and Urban Tribe Collective, 657 W. St. Mary’s Rd, Unity C-12.  Shows include the comedy, A Passion For Christ, Lesley Abrams’ Where There’s Smoke, the rock opera, Halloween in America, Kevin J. Thornton’s I Love You (We’re F*#ked) , the spoken and danced BLOWHOLE and Maythinee Washington’s White Girl. Check the Venues page of their website for times and places.

Thanks to Parasol Project for producing the event. It’s about time we’re catching up; Phoenix has been producing phx:fringe since 2008. You can find out more about the history and ideals of Fringe at the US Association of Fringe Festivals.