Celebrating Strange Art at Washington's Fringe Festival

Celebrating Strange Art at Washington's Fringe¹ Festival

Every summer artists perform at Fringe Festivals around the world.

Fringe Festivals are a celebration of strange art. They have all kinds of performers -- from dancers, musicians and actors to everything in between.

The shows give artists, sometimes described as outside the norm², a chance to create unusual art. For festival goers, each show is a time to experience something different.

The first Fringe Festival was held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1947. That was also the year of the first Edinburgh International Festival.

Artists from around the world traveled to Scotland for the Edinburgh International Festival. They performed at arts centers throughout the city. Eight local theater companies did not receive an invitation, however. In response, they performed at smaller spaces around Edinburgh. These artists performed wherever they could, including churches and even on the street. They started their own cultural event and named it the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

What started as an alternative to the mainstream³ has now become the world’s largest arts festival.

Today, there are hundreds of Fringe Festivals taking place around the world.

The one in Washington, D.C., called the Capitol Fringe Festival, is in its tenth year. It was held in the month of July.

Julianne Brienza founded the Capital Fringe Festival. She went to a school for the performing arts, but now sees herself mainly as an organizer of the festival.

Brienza believes that fringe performance art is special and can have a powerful effect.

"We live here in D.C, the nation’s capital where there are a lot of large federally funded institutions," she says. "So to have a festival about people outside of that system is pretty awesome⁴…it’s a good message to local people being important."

The Capital Fringe Festival takes place in different locations throughout the D.C. area. Some performances happen in traditional theaters. Others happen in unusual settings like old, empty buildings or stores after business hours are over.

?Brienza says the purpose of Fringe festivals is to explore the limits of art in unique environments.

Since 2006, the event has made more than $1.7 million. It is the second largest unjuried Fringe Festival in the U.S. and its popularity⁵ has grown every year.

Rachel Turner is the founder⁶ of the Errant Movement dance group. Its show, called "Connectivity/Complexity," used dance and music to ask questions about human relationships in the age of social media. Turner believes that attending one Capital Fringe show motivates audience members to see other performances at the festival.

"I think it really brings people together. For people who don’t necessarily see a lot of performances all the time…it motivates them to see artwork," she says. "I think it’s good for the artists but it’s really good for people in the city to get out and see more work."

Leah Harris was a Fringe participant for the first time this year. She performed her one-woman show, called "Aliens, Nazis⁷ & Angels." In it, she tells the story of her life, her mother and other members of her family in a series of funny and sometimes sad anecdotes⁸.

Harris believes that the festival can help many artists take a risk.

"The impact it has personally is that seeing some of these other one person shows, makes me think that, hey I can do that…I can do this in my own little way and there’s a space for me," she says.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe continues throughout the month of August.

Words in This Story

norm – n. standards of proper or acceptable⁹ behavior

response – n. something that is done as a reaction to something else

alternative – n. something that can be chosen instead of something else

mainstream – n. the thoughts, beliefs, and choices that are accepted by the largest number of people

awesome – adj. extremely good

setting(s) – n. the place and conditions in which something happens or exists

unique – adj. very special or unusual

unjuried – adj. art exhibition or festival is one where all submissions¹⁰ are accepted

motivate(s) – v. to give someone a reason for doing something

participant – n. a person who is involved in an activity or event

anecdote(s) – n. a short story about an interesting or funny event or occurrence

1 fringe   

n.边缘；（窗帘）缘饰，额前垂发；vt.饰...的边

参考例句：

• The girl wears her hair in a fringe.那女孩留着刘海。
• This is an enormous field of which l can touch only the fringe.这是一个很广阔的领域，我在这里只能谈个大概。

2 norm   

n.标准，规范，平均数

参考例句：

• Of his age,the child is above the norm in arithmetic.在他那个年龄，这个孩子的算术能力是超过标准的。
• These events were aberrations from the norm.这些事件不合常规。

3 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

4 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

5 popularity   

n.普及，流行，名望，受欢迎

参考例句：

• The story had an extensive popularity among American readers.这本小说在美国读者中赢得广泛的声望。
• Our product enjoys popularity throughout the world.我们的产品饮誉全球。

6 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

7 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 anecdotes   

n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• amusing anecdotes about his brief career as an actor 关于他短暂演员生涯的趣闻逸事
• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman. 他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 acceptable   

adj.可接受的，合意的，受欢迎的

参考例句：

• The terms of the contract are acceptable to us.我们认为这个合同的条件可以接受。
• Air pollution in the city had reached four times the acceptable levels.这座城市的空气污染程度曾高达可接受标准的四倍。

10 submissions   

n.提交( submission的名词复数 )；屈从；归顺；向法官或陪审团提出的意见或论据

参考例句：

• The deadline for submissions to the competition will be Easter 1994. 递交参赛申请的截止时间为1994年的复活节。 来自辞典例句
• Section 556(d) allows the agency to substitute written submissions for oral direct testimony in rulemaking. 第五百五十六条第（四）款准允行政机关在规则制定中用书面提交材料替代口头的直接证言。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法