The Best 21st Birthday You’ll Ever Attend
The 21st Annual Fringe Festival is almost here, can you believe it? I can’t, but time doesn’t need me to believe in it to do what it does. Time isn’t Candyman, but it is about as terrifying, if not more so.
Regardless, this year’s Festival may be the largest yet with some 170+ performances shaking up our city from September 7-24 and it’s hard to know where to start. So, I’ll make it easy for you: start at the beginning.
On September 7th FringeArts will be hosting its annual Opening Night celebration here at our waterfront headquarters. The festivities kick off with a special preview performance of 17c by the world renowned Big Dance Theater, a company with a habit of dragging the past into the present. With 17c they’ve done just that, drawing from perhaps the most dedicated diarist of the 17th century, Samuel Pepys, modernizing his language, and examining the depravity of his actions through a contemporary feminist lens.
After the performance comes the party. Join us at La Peg (you don’t even have to leave the building!) for a reception created collaboratively by FringeArts’ President and Producing Director Nick Stuccio, La Peg Executive Chef Peter Woolsey, and Annie-B Parson.
Enjoy delicious hors d’oeuvres provided by La Peg, including duck prosciutto with berry mustado, stuffed mushrooms with goat cheese and tomato coulis, mini crab cakes with lemon sabayon, a crudité station, a cheese board, dessert, and plenty more. Then grab a drink or two (or more, no judgments here) from the open bar to celebrate the fact that FringeArts is finally of legal drinking age. We’ll have two specialty cocktails for the evening—the Harvest Mule (vodka, lemon juice, apple cider, ginger ale, cinnamon dust) and the John Collins (bourbon, lemon, sugar, club soda)—as well as a surprise 21st birthday shot.
The creators and performers of 17c and the team behind upcoming Festival highlight Ghost Rings (Sept. 8-9) will be in attendance so you’ll also have a chance to meet and maybe even dance with them, as lucky attendees had the chance to with the cast of last year’s Festival opener CITIZEN.
So come out on September 7th to raise a glass with us and usher in another spectacular Festival of boundary-breaking performance.
—Hugh Wilikofsky
