18th Year of FringeNYC Begins with Press Preview Today

THE NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FRINGE FESTIVAL (FringeNYC), the largest theater & dance festival in North America, will kick off its 18th year today, August 5th with a special press preview featuring live performances of short excerpts from some of its most exciting shows. Camera crews and still photographers welcomed.

Performance lineup will include:

- Bedroom Secrets, a drama starring Stephen Wallem (TV's Nurse Jackie) and Ashlie Atkinson (Fat Pig).
- I'll Say She Is, a revival of the long-lost Marx Brothers 1924 Broadway debut musical comedy.
- Gary Busey's One Man Hamlet (starring David Carl), the title says it all.
- The Imbible, about the history of alcohol.
- Fatty, Fatty No Friends, a darkly comic Tim Burton-esque musical about bullying.
- Urban Momfare, a new musical comedy about modern motherhood.

The preview will run from 2:00pm - 3:00pm with one-on-one interviews of key participants to follow at The Sheen Center (18 Elizabeth Street at Bleecker in NoHo).

New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) runs August 8-24, 2014. This year, the festival will offer over 1200 performances by 205 of the world's best emerging theatre troupes and dance companies from 13 countries and 17 U.S. states, performed in 18 venues in downtown Manhattan. Attendance at last year's festival topped 75,000 people, making it New York's fifth largest event (just behind New York International Auto Show, Tribeca Film Festival, New York City Marathon, and New York Comic Con). The festival presents works covering a wide range of disciplines including drama, comedy, dance, performance art, children's theater, spoken word, puppetry, and multimedia. It has served as the launching pad for numerous shows including Tony winner Urinetown, Matt & Ben, Dog Sees God, Debbie Does Dallas, The Irish Curse, and Silence! The Musical It has also been a springboard for talent including Bradley Cooper, Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me, CNN's Inside Man), Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project), Brooke Elliott (Drop Dead Diva), Melissa Rauch (Big Bang Theory), Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Pippin), W. Kamau Bell (Totally Biased), and Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), among countless other successful alumni.

FringeNYC shows run 2pm - midnight weekdays and noon - midnight on weekends. Tickets are: $18 at www.FringeNYC.org. Discount passes for multiple shows ($85 for a Fiver Pass, $150 for a Flex Pass good for 10 shows, and $500 for an all-you-can-see Lunatic Pass) are also available. For more info visit www.FringeNYC.org.

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