2022 Valdez Theatre Fringe Information

When: At the end of the day, right after the other Conference events, Saturday – Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. Check your Guidebook for exact times.

Where: Magpie’s on the Fly Coffee Shop, 350 Galena Dr.

It’s time for more show, you’re on a theatre binge.

The sun won’t go down, the Valdez Theatre Fringe.

You’re in Valdez, I’m in Valdez.

She’s in Valdez, he’s in Valdez.

They’re in Valdez, whatever pronoun they please.

What happens in Valdez…stays in Valdez.

The Valdez Theatre Fringe.

Hello from Rob and Schatzie, your VTC Fringe Co-Producers and Co-Hosts.

Following the success of last year’s experimental Fringe (with five teams of playwrights writing in a story relay) and given the feedback in the post-Conference survey, this year’s Fringe will be a combination of “traditional” Fringe and “story relay” Fringe.

Here’s all your preliminary information on how to get involved in the Fringe and what to expect from this year’s nightly capper to each day’s Conference events.

What is the Fringe:

The Fringe portion of the Conference takes place in the evening as a fun and sometimes irreverent conclusion to the day. It’s an additional opportunity for writers and actors.

This Year’s Format:

• Super Short Plays: Three to four short plays per night (from 1/4 a page up to 7 pages max), submitted prior to the conference.
• Story Relay Teams (two teams total): Five writers per team, each writing one nightly episode (5 pages max) for their team’s continuous tale. Team members finalized by April 1.
• Also accepting proposals for other short performances (up to 5 minutes) of any sort (puppetry, mime, music, dance, standup, or non-traditional theatre), submitted prior to the conference.

Writers, how to submit:

To submit, you must be a playwright accepted into and attending the 2022 Valdez Theatre Conference. You should have received information about submitting to the Fringe in an email from the Conference Coordinator. If not, please reach out to Dawson and he will send the information.

Actors, how to express interest in acting in the Fringe:

If you’re attending the 2022 Valdez Theatre Conference, you should have received information on how to join our Fringe Actor Pool. If not, please reach out to the Conference Coordinator. If you are unable to let us know before the Conference, please let us know as soon as possible once we’re all in Valdez!

A brief (incomplete, and perhaps from some points of view, slightly inaccurate*) history of the Fringe….

*Please submit any corrections to our Fringe email address (which is in one of your welcome messages from the Conference Coordinator).

1998 – Play Lab founder, Circle Rep’s Michael Warren Powell, wanted to hear a play that hadn’t gotten into the Lab. The gathering of people that night in the student commons at the college was the seed from which the Fringe grew. For the first few years, it was very informal.

2001-2011 – Erick Hayden and Barry Levine took over coordination of the event in 2001, resulting in more regular scheduling and more support from the Conference.

2012-2014 – Bostin Christopher and Janna Shaw coordinated the event, with Bostin as host.

2015-2018 – Janna Shaw and Rob Lecrone coordinated the event, with Rob as host. In 2017, Rob wrote the Fringe theme song, which rhymes Valdez several times with itself, and invited Schatzie Schaefers to sing it with him at the beginning of each night, a tradition that continued into 2018.

2019 – Schatzie Schaefers joined Rob Lecrone in co-coordinating and co-hosting the event.

2020 – In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no Conference (except the online version of the Monologue Workshop), so no Fringe.

2021 – The Fringe shook up its format, experimenting with a Story Relay event, five teams of five writers passing the baton throughout the week. This was our first year at Magpie’s on the Fly Coffeeshop.

2022 – This year’s Fringe will be a combination of Story Relay (two teams of five) and regular Fringe.

Over the years, the Fringe has taken place in many spaces, including the Prince William Sound College, Totem Inn, Ernesto’s Taqueria, the Hotel Glacier, the Fat Mermaid, and the Best Western. Regardless of location, there is rarely an empty seat at this popular event. This year, the Fringe returns again to Magpie’s on the Fly Coffeeshop at 350 Galen Dr.