The historic Ybor City Kress Building looks different every time I see it. On Fringe Preview night, May 10, the 2nd-floor common space looked performance ready. Tampa Fringe Festival Producer Trish Parry and Festival Director William Glenn scrambled to coordinate volunteers, performers, Tampa Bay Chamber and City of Tampa representatives in the final pre-show moments.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor took the stage first.
“It is so exciting to be able to be a part of the opening of this theater,” Castor said to the crowd of performers and theatergoers filling the seats before her. “I want to say thanks to Neil Gobioff and Darryl Shaw for the part that they played.”
“We focused our first four years in the administration on the issues that a lot of people find boring but are critically important to our community—transportation, affordable housing, workforce development, sustainability, resiliency,” Castor continued. “And we've made great progress in those areas. I'd like to say we've solved all the problems, but we're continuing. We're on a good path with all of those, and so this next four years, we will have focused, very focused, attention on the quality of life in our city and looking at arts and culture.”
“I can't say how important arts and culture are to society,” Castor concluded to thunderous applause. “Many of you have heard me say that throughout history if a country invades another country, what's the first thing they try to destroy? Their art, so they can go at the very heart of that society. And so we have to make sure that we preserve not only our history but that we grow into the future with arts in every. Single. Format.”
From there, Tampa Fringe took us on a guided tour of every single format of the performing arts. During two hours of previews, I saw two-minute snippets of comedy, storytelling, puppetry, trans-masculine cabaret and Shakespeare. I learned about Australia’s fly-warding cork hat (Jon Bennett’s “AmeriCan’t”). I heard about New York comedian Joey Rinaldi’s broken penis (“The Broken Penis Story”). I saw a grown man play with action figures (Steve McLean’s “Action Figure Archive”). And I watched the fictitious Dr. Winkworth-Pérez give a deadpan lecture on pantomime masturbation (“Stroke of Genius”).
For the first time ever, preview night concluded with the opening of five shows—one in each of this year’s Fringe venues.
I opted to catch the world premiere of “I Love Liz” in HCC Ybor’s Rehearsal Hall. The actors covered themselves in makeup to create black-and-white images of themselves for this 1950s sitcom-inspired show.
In other Ybor City spaces, Tim Mooney performed a one-man version of Romeo and Juliet; Single Wide Savior preached his trailer park gospel in the new Fringe Theatre; stand-up comedian Jeff Klein performed “Beige Glitter” to sold-out crowds in The Cage; and Paco Erhard joked about being the worst German ever.
There are 32 shows in this year’s Tampa Fringe, and they’re all happening within a five-day period. There’s so many, it’s literally not possible to see them all. Even I am unsure where to start, as there are several exciting options this year.
Orlando playwright-performer Bruce Ryan Costella created a post-apocalyptic central Florida starring a deranged Mickey Mouse for “Rat Man Happy Place.” Erika MacDonald’s solo show, “The Barn Identity,” won the Heartstring Award at Orlando Fringe’s Winter Mini-Fest this January. And thanks to a Hollywood writers strike, Clark Brooks’ Tampa News Force is the only late-night talk show you can see right now. I’m intrigued by Steve McLean’s idea to use children’s toys as the theme for his comedy show, “Action Figure Archive.” And there are two Aussie comic storytelling shows on my list this year: Jon Bennett’s “AmeriCan’t” and Marcus Ryan’s “Eat, Pray, Walk.”
I have no idea what this year’s best shows will be, but I can tell you that Fringe organizers are selecting about five or six of the most popular shows to return next weekend for an encore performance.
Head to TampaFringe.org for the full list of this year’s Tampa Fringe shows and to buy tickets.
