This fall, a brand-new regional event, The Livingston Fringe Festival will debut September 22nd, and will continue through September 28th.  The Festival brings 12 plays, written by 14 local playwrights and featuring 40 actors, to nine Livingston venues throughout the week.

Tessa Welsch and Kate Britton, well-known in the  local theatre circle, founded the Livingston Fringe Festival to provide opportunities for artists to freely create and perform their own works. Britton says, “Between Bozeman and Livingston, we are lucky to live in an area rich with theater artists. There’s a lot of talent packed into this area, and even with all the theaters and performing arts companies here, there still isn’t a lot of opportunity to showcase new work in this region.”

The playwrights whose work appears in this festival are from the Livingston and Bozeman area, making this a truly local festival in that all the actors and playwrights are from southwest Montana. Playwrights include Aaron Murtagh, Jenna Ciralli, Rebecca Schankula, Jack Wickum, Isabel Shaida, Naomi Shafer, Jennifer Jane, Sarah Kelly, Carolyn Peavy, John Henry Haseltine, Bex Fruct, Annie & Levin O’Connor, Emma Rathe, and  Dora Roseberry, a twelve year-old who wrote Ducks in a Row.

These plays run the gamut of theatre, from comedy to serious drama, from one-person shows to a cast of ten actors in one show.  Some shows are 20-minutes long, others run up to 90-minutes. Most will be performed more than once but, regardless, theater-goers have a full week to catch all this great talent.

The plays are original works from local artists, except for Kafka’s Monkey, adapted from Franz Kafka’s story, “A Report to an Academy.” Isabel Shaida and Naomi Shafer are presenting their own adaptation of Kafka’s Monkey. This fascinating work is told using movement and words to illustrate illusions and perceptions of reality.

Renowned visual artist John Henry Haseltine has prepared a one-person show called The Daredevil, inspired by stunt performer Evel Knievel. The Daredevil uses theatrical props and a set handmade by Haseltine for a decidedly unique experience. John Henry recently had a show at the Yellowstone Art Museum, and was featured in The New York Times. This is Haseltine’s second foray into one-person show creation, and by writing, directing, art designing, and acting, he shows himself to be one of the most talented theatrical artists in Montana today.

Kafka’s Monkey and The Daredevil offer a sense of the broad variety of shows to be presented during the fringe festival week.

Performance venues for the Livingston Fringe Festival include Sacagawea Park, The Blue Slipper Theatre, Elk River Books, Wheatgrass Books, The Old Lumberyard, The Shane Center, and The Empire Movie Theatre. A complete schedule with showtimes and venues will be available when purchasing tickets.

So, what is a fringe festival and how is it different from a regular play festival? Produced outside of main theatre institutions, Fringe theatre is often small-scale and nontraditional in style and/or subject matter, and tends to have smaller casts and venues.

While most mainstream theatre shows are two or three acts, lasting one-and-a-half to three hours with intermissions, fringe performances tend to range from fifteen minutes to one-hour long, and are often one-act productions. One and two person shows are quite common at fringe festivals, although larger cast productions are not uncommon. Fringe festival shows often present new scripts, especially plays that feature more obscure, edgy, or unusual material.

Both Welsch and Britton are well qualified to lead the creation of The Livingston Fringe Festival. Welsch has directed numerous plays in many different venues and formats in New York City, in addition to experience in working at fringe festivals with actors and playwrights. Here in Montana, she has directed plays in Bozeman and Livingston, and has often worked with new playwrights in these communities, helping them develop their scripts.

Britton has directing and acting experience in New York City, Los Angeles, and Montana. She has also worked with other fringe festivals, including the New York City Fringe Festival. In addition, Britton is a founding member of the Montana/New York Collaborative, which also gave her experience in producing new works.

Britton emphasized why Livingston seems a natural place to launch a new play festival: “Holding the festival in Livingston seemed like a no brainer; it is already “on the fringe” with a long history of supporting art and artists. Once called, “The Broadway of the West,” Livingston has a history deeply rooted in theatre, including a 900-seat Opera House, where John Barrymore performed.

In no particular order, here is a list of the plays and their playwrights at this year’s Livingston Fringe Festival: Swing, by Aaron Murtagh; Ducks in a Row, by Dora Roseberry; Levi is in Limbo, by Jenna Ciralli; The Kids, by Rebecca Schankul; Ghost Stories, by Jack Wickum; Kafka’s Monkey, presented by Isabel Shaida and Naomi Shafer; Happy Tea by Jennifer Jane; The Daredevil, by John Henry Haseltine; Best of TMI with Bex Frucht; Now, with Annie & Levin O’Connor;  Fishhooked, by Emma Rathe, and a devised piece by Sarah Kelly and Carolyn Peavy.

Welsch encourages everyone to come experience the Livingston Fringe Festival: “Turns out there are many secret playwrights in Livingston and Bozeman. It has been an honor to provide a platform for these artists, and just hear what they have to say. I’m eager to see audiences engage with artists.”

Tickets will be available at www.livingstonfringefestival.com/, and at the door. Tickets can be purchased for an individual play, for the entire week, or for a packet of multiple plays. For more information, contact Tessa Welsch (tmwelsch98@gmail.com) or Kate Britton (katembritton@gmail.com), or direct message them on their Fringe Instagram account (@livingstonfringe).