By Jeffrey Kagan-McCann
October 20 through 30, Pearwater Productions will be presenting the 3rd Annual Hartford Fringe Festival. The 2022 fringe festival is a 10-day theatrical event featuring over 20 shows with nearly 40 performances at the Carriage House Theater located at 360 Farmington Ave (directly across from The Mark Twain House & Museum). Jeffrey Kagan-McCann who not only serves as the artistic director and founder of Pearwater Productions, also serves as the producer and creator of the Fringe. Northend Agent’s asked Jeffrey to share what is a fringe festival and why he wanted to bring the concept to life in Hartford.
Kagan-McCann: Ever since I was introduced to the concept of a fringe event in Seattle, I knew I had to bring this type of festival to my home in Hartford. Seattle’s festival was much larger than ours with ten different performance venues within walking distance. Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the oldest and the largest in the world. We’re doing dozens of shows in one space over the course of one week.
So why did I want to bring this concept to my hometown? Hartford has a rich theater history that stretches from Vaudeville to our current nationally-known theaters and innovative small theater organizations. I wanted to present and promote our many homegrown creatives while also bringing talented and wonderful artists from around the country.
One of the great things about a fringe festival is the rich variety of productions on offer. Theatre is only one element audiences can experience. Other options include dance, stand-up comedy, improve, music, circus arts, performance art, and storytelling.
It’s tough to produce a show independently without a support network. It’s difficult for most artists to find affordable rehearsal/theater space in the area, and our mission is to help to ease some of that worry for the artists. The Fringe Festival provides a performance space, marketing, box office and technical support. Some of these things are prohibitive for individual artists and small companies, but with the Festival we charge a small production fee, take the production worries off their hands, and we have a profit-sharing model. This leaves the artists to focus on creating their show.
Although the festival includes shows from Maine, New York, North Carolina, New Jersey and from around the state, this year’s offerings highlight the most Hartford participants. Some of the productions include:
Poetic Meanderings by Frances McAlpine Sharp is a dramatic reading of original poetry, short stories, and social commentary by this beloved teacher, actor, writer and director. The performance explores love, life, faith, history and the freedom to just be! This is Ms. Sharpe’s second Hartford Fringe Festival appearance.
Buried Secrets, by Ruby’s Realm Productions, centers around two sisters who recently have relocated looking to start new lives not knowing they packed their old lives with them.
Quarantined by Joel “El Nino” Roman is a one-man show that follows Pastor Pass The Plate as he travels the streets of Bridgeport looking to save people from their minds as he passes the plate around to keep the lights on.
Rooted by HartBeat Ensemble Youth Play Insitute goes back to the roots of their youths’ families and community to create a dialogue between the past, present and future.
Fatherhood Manologues is written by The Men of the Manhood Tree group in a co-production by HartBeat Ensemble & My People Clinical Services. It’s an exhilarating collection of short stories about fatherhood with each story providing a unique point of view on being a father or being fathered.
Millennial Spigger is written by Rob Santos. When Rob’s daughter starts to understand her own identity while going to a predominately white school, she seeks answers from Rob to help lead her though her time of confusion.
MOWFS finds Nate Gagnon and Josue Rosario bringing their freestyle hip-hop, improv and beat box show to the Hartford Fringe Festival for a second year!
Tickets prices have been kept very affordable at $13.00 for General Admission and $10.00 for Students and Senior Citizens. In keeping with the Fringe Festival concept, each day of the festival offers the opportunity to enjoy a single or several performances. Festival performances begin start at 6pm and run through 9pm on Weekdays. On the weekends shows start as early as 11:30am and run through 9pm.
Throughout the festival, the box office will hand out Hartford Fringe Festival wooden coins allowing audience members to place their token in a jar to vote for their favorite show. The top three shows with most votes will receive another chance to perform again on the closing night of the festival, October 30 at 6pm, when the Best of Fringe awards will be distributed. For a complete schedule, show descriptions, and to reserve tickets, please visit hartfordfringefestival.org. Tickets will be sold at the door, subject to availability.
