Fringe Supports Courageous Creativity
More than 80 Westmont students will take part in 33 different pieces of theater, dance, film and performance art at the Westmont Fringe Festival on April 14-17; Thursday, Friday and Sunday starting at 7 p.m., Saturday starting at 3 p.m., all beginning at Porter Theatre. Festival passes ($15 general admission, $10 students/seniors) or daily tickets ($10 general admission, $7 student/seniors) are available online at www.westmont.edu/boxoffice. For more information, please call (805) 565-7140.
Mitchell Thomas, festival curator and director, says more than 30 students are designing, directing and serving as choreographers and technicians.
“The sheer size of the festival is astonishing for a small college program,” Thomas says. “Last year, the Fringe featured 23 pieces, so the year-over-year growth is amazing. Clearly, the Fringe is tapping into something that is critical for our students: to have their voices heard, to express themselves creatively, and to engage in community making through the performing arts.”
Senior theater majors Lindsey Twigg, Danielle Draper, Connor Bush, Christine Nathanson, Brent Starrh and Bethany Baca have brought an incredible amount of energy to the annual show during their Westmont careers. “This year will highlight their final work as student theater-makers here,” Thomas says. “In addition to Twigg and Draper, sophomores Elena White and Anna Telfer serve as student producing directors of the festival.
Thomas says the festival will be even more balanced this year, featuring something for everyone, including film, dance, theater and the uncategorizable. “There will be family-friendly fare and pieces that are asking really hard and unsettling questions,” he says.
Inter-disciplinary connections are a hallmark of the Fringe spirit. “We’ve continued our collaboration with the art department, which includes handmade posters from the printmaking class and a theater foyer art installation from the advanced painting course.
The theater department continues its annual new play development process, the Hive, and will be presenting 10 world-premiere short plays written by MFA playwriting students from UC San Diego, University of Texas at Austin, Brown University and New York University.
“One unusual mixed-media piece this year explores generational mental health issues,” Thomas says. “It is choreographed and performed by chemistry instructor Carrie Hill. Carrie danced at Westmont as an undergrad and is making a comeback some years later on the Fringe stage.”
The purpose of the Fringe at Westmont is to create a platform for the creation of experimental theatre, dance, film, performance art, and other allied arts within the Christian liberal arts setting. The festival supports the theater arts department’s goal of developing students’ creativity, imagination, technical proficiencies and courageous self-discipline in the generation of original work. Based on the model of fringe festivals around the world, the Fringe offers a unique opportunity for faculty and students to challenge themselves to experience life and live art in fresh, new ways, and encourages a free-wheeling and daring approach to theatre making.