FronteraFest to Return in 2023

FronteraFest, Austin's longest-running and most beloved performance festival will return in 2023 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A unique collaboration between Hyde Park Theatre and ScriptWorks, FronteraFest is celebrating its 28th year, attracting actors, artists, poets, dancers, and performers of all types throughout Texas and beyond.

The 2023 FronteraFest will include two different components. The Short Fringe (pieces 25 minutes or less) will run the entirety of the festival, January 17 - February 18, taking place five nights per week at Hyde Park Theatre, 511 West 43rd Street. Bring Your Own Venue (B.Y.O.V.) runs January 29 through February 4, at various locations throughout Austin. (Note - there will not be a Long Fringe, nor Mi Casa es Su Teatro component this year.)

FronteraFest has attracted worldwide recognition and the participation of thousands during its nearly three-decade history. The festival is a synergistic collaboration between two local arts organizations; Hyde Park Theatre, an award-winning professional theatre in Central Austin, and ScriptWorks, a playwright development and service organization with members in Austin, the state and around the country.

Over the past quarter-century, performers have traveled from as far as Chang Ung University in Seoul, South Korea to perform a fascinating adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, in both Korean and English. Other U.S. cities represented in this year's FronteraFest include New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Wichita among others.

Thanks to its emphasis on nurturing creative freedom, FronteraFest is widely regarded as an incubator for new work. Many performances that germinated at FronteraFest have catapulted to become full-length, professional, award-winning productions. Austin notables Steven Tomlinson, Ron Berry, Hans Frank, Cyndi Williams, and many others have been widely recognized for their work.

Many familiar faces to the Austin performance scene will return in 2023, including Erik Ott, 'Big Poppa E' who made a name for himself on HBO's former television series 'Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam, as well as veteran performers Lowell Bartholomee, Hank Schwemmerr, Jomo and the Possum Posse, Joy Cunningham, Adam Sultan, Christine Hoang, Matt Hislope, Maggie Gallant and Bernadette Nason.

While the spirit of the festival is collaborative rather than competitive, there are weekly three-person voting panels as well as audience voting in the Short Fringe component. The highest ranked performances each week get to return to the stage Saturday of the Short Fringe for a 'Best of Week' showcase. The final week of the Short Fringe is reserved for 'Best of Fest', which are pieces selected from each 'Best of Week', in addition to a 'Wild Card' night which are pieces selected by FronteraFest staff and crew.

Christina J. Moore, the Executive Artistic Director of ScriptWorks welcomes participants back to the stage. "We are thrilled to be bringing FronteraFest back in 2023! We need this experience now more than ever after going through the isolation of the pandemic. We are looking forward to a full slate of performances of all kinds: short plays, monologues, improv, dance, cabaret, performance art, and all kinds of experimentation. The unexpected is what FronteraFest is all about. It's why we love it." 

Hyde Park Theatre Artistic Director, Ken Webster, who has been involved in every FronteraFest since the first Fest in 1993 agrees, "I'm very excited that FronteraFest is back after the two-year hiatus. Historically it has always been an exciting blend of well-established local artists getting the opportunity to try out new material, and newcomer artists getting their work seen by Austin audiences for the very first time."

FronteraFest is sponsored by Texas Folklore Society, New World Deli, The Parlor, Worley Printing, and Travis Heights Wine and Spirits. Full details, show/performer line-ups and ticket information can be found at www.hydeparktheatre.org.

About Hyde Park Theatre:

Hyde Park Theatre develops writers, designers, directors, and actors from within the Austin community, while producing works by exciting new and established voices of the alternative theatre scene. The theatre utilizes a broad and diverse base of local artists to produce theater that confronts, challenges, and entertains. We have a strong commitment to paying local writers, actors, and designers a decent wage for their work, and to expanding the base of working artists in Austin. We hope to diversify and expand the audience for theater in Austin, making theater accessible and essential across lines of income, class, race, gender, and sexual identity. www.hydeparktheatre.org 

About ScriptWorks:

ScriptWorks is a playwright driven organization that seeks to promote the craft of dramatic writing and to protect the playwright's integrity by encouraging playwright initiative and harnessing collective potential. www.scriptworks.org.

FronteraFest 2023 - Bring Your Own Venue Schedule

How To Be an Ethical Slut written and performed by Brooke McCarthy

Experience the ride of your life as an unethical slut penetrates lies, STDs, triads, orgies, and love in her musical journey to becoming an Ethical Slut. Follow Blake Valentini's struggles between dating the socially acceptable way -- monogamy -- or daring to open her mind to unusual relationship pleasures and tribulations through this original one-woman show. This bold, sexy, and vulnerable story touches upon topics that are often unseen onstage like sexual health and nonconventional relationship styles like polyamory and swinging. Everyone, including Blake, may even learn a thing or two about honesty and sexuality throughout this wild ride. (Run time: 55 mins)

For mature audiences (Adult language, Adult content & simulations)

The Vortex
2307 Manor Rd., Austin 78722

Tickets: January 29 & 30 - $15, $27, $37; February 4 - $15 for seats by the stage, & $10 for standing/find your own seat at https://vortexrep.secure.force.com/ticket#/

January 29 and 30 at 8:00 pm (indoors, Eloise Stage); February 4 at 6:00 pm (outdoors, Garden Stage)

Flood of Spirits by Rebecca Maag

Flood of Spirits is an immersive theatre experience, written, produced, and directed by Rebecca Maag. This immersive event features a séance occurring in Austin in the year 1900, following a deadly flood. Upon arrival, guests will be assigned a short family history featuring a deceased loved one and will then be invited to participate in the séance alongside the small cast of Robyn Beckham, Justin Beckham, Greg Buis, and Rebecca Maag. To foster an intimate experience, admission to this 70-minute event is limited to 18 guests per showtime. After its debut at Hillside Farmacy as part of FronteraFest's Bring Your Own Venue component, Flood of Spirits will return in the fall of 2023. www.floodofspirits.com

Recommended for ages 16 and up; themes of death may be disturbing for younger audiences.

Hillside Farmacy
1209 E. 11th St., Austin 78702

Tickets: $22 at www.hydeparktheatre.org

January 31 at 6:00 pm and 8:45 pm

February 1 at 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm; February 2 at 6:30 pm and 8:30 pm.

Capacity is 18 seats per performance.