Despite his surroundings of peaceful, bucolic Boulder, David Ortolano has a lot working against him.
“It can be difficult to wake up in a sleepy town,” says Ortolano on a rainy day at the Boulder Book Store.
He looks around, discreetly, pointing to the glowing white Macs on the nearby tables. The faint clacking of keys is the only sound beneath the hiss and murmur of an espresso machine.
“I’ve lived here for 13 years. Boulder is very comfortable. People come because it’s protected and it’s a bubble. People come to relax.
“But, the arts do something different, they wake people up, get them out of their routine.”
It’s 3 p.m. on a Thursday, and the Boulder International Fringe Festival is less than two weeks away. Ortolano, the festival’s founder and executive producer, is calm, despite having just picked up thousands of slightly flawed programs from the printer. But, hey, it’s art, and imperfection comes with the territory.
From Wednesday through Aug. 23, 350 artistic events will take place in the streets and venues of Boulder. See adventuresome offerings like “Pizza Man,” a three-person play concerning two women and a delivery man in a one-bedroom apartment on a “long, hot summery night.” Or the jazzy, bluesy comedy of Ira Liss’ “Piano, Poetry and Passion.” Or the dance program “Small Moment of Sky,” which concerns, of all things, the nature of being human.
Ortolano leads a core team of 10 workers who have spent the entire year planning the event. It’s a full-time job — make that a second job — for most of the staff.
Ortolano works another 40-plus hours a week running the performing arts center at nearby Naropa University.
“The Fringe is my family, Naropa is my job,” he said.
“If I had a family I couldn’t do it. But like I said, the Fringe is my family.”
What makes “the Fringe” a family? As the ninth child in a line of 10, Ortolano claims he bases the organizing process of the annual festival on his own familial model, where a group dynamic ruled most situations.
“This is our space. And this is everybody using it,” he said.
There are more than 100 fringe festivals around the world, the largest of which takes place annually in Edinburgh, Scotland.
A Fringe festival differs from a normal community art festival based on four main factors.
First, 100 percent of all ticket sales go to the artists who created the work. Second, artists are invited to participate based on unjuried selections. “We don’t decide how valuable you are,” Ortolano said, adding that all artists are chosen by lottery.
Third, every piece of artwork and performance is uncensored. This stipulation became an issue at the first Boulder festival in 2005 when a circus burlesque act performed in the nearby high school gymnasium. One of the performers had a day job as an exotic dancer, though no stripping occurred during the performance. No events have taken place in the gym since.
Lastly, in accordance with the Canadian model on which Boulder Fringe is based, the festival must always be affordable to audiences and artists alike. Theater, dance and music shows vary between free and $15 per show, with multi-event passes starting at $50.
The 2009 festival will be slightly more scaled down than last year’s, Ortolano said.
“It’s hard to guarantee a certain number of audience members and sponsors when you have so many performances. So the focus is on having a great audience at every show, not saturating the festival.”
Other Fringe festivals, such as Edinburgh’s, draw so many artists and attendees from around the world that often many performances and exhibitions are overlooked or underattended.
“We want artists to be self-producing,” Orotolano said. “We want the artists to be educating themselves. But the audience is also interactive — our website has a space for people to rate the performances they saw.”
While each of the 12 Fringe days is unique, one thing that will remain constant is “The Daily C.R.A.B.,” a late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Hogg and the Crabaret at Scotch Corner Pub that will feature live performances and interviews with different Fringe artists nightly.
This annual period in August, less than two weeks altogether, is symbolic of the Boulder ideals of free expression and intellectual debate morphing into real-life practices.
The international artists, this year coming from as far away as Japan, tell stories that are relevant to all communities, Ortolano said. “It’s a community event with an international flavor.”
“Well-known artists can’t make it here,” he said. “It’s not a working community of art. But I believe in what Boulder is. I’m left to myself, to my own devices. I get to sit here and decide what I want to make for myself.”
The fifth annual Boulder International Fringe Festival runs Wednesday through Aug. 23 from various afternoon hours until late among 15 venues in Boulder. Ticket prices and packages range from free to $240. Call 720-563-9950 or for more info.
John Hendrickson: 303-954-1211 or jhendrickson@denverpost.com
FIVE FRINGE ACTS NOT TO MISS:
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“All You Can Artist Buffet”
Kind of like: Speed Dating with Boulder Fringe Artists
When: Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Where: Naropa University Performing Arts Center, Boulder
Cost: $2-$12 depending on a roll of the dice. Free for 2009 Fringe Artists with pass.
Info:
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Gunstwork Puppet Mask Theatre’s “Four Wishes”
Kind of like: “Being John Malkovich” meets “The Iliad”
When: Aug. 19-20 at 6:30 p.m.; Aug. 21 at 8 p.m.; Aug. 22 at 4:30 p.m.
Where: CU Museum of Natural History, Henderson Building, CU Boulder campus.
Cost: $12 general admission, $8 for students and seniors, two-for-one opening night. Tickets are available at the door or in advance at
Info:
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Square Product Theatre’s “Good Girls Don’t, But I Do”
Kind of like: A musical version of “The Vagina Monologues” with some “Desperate Housewives” thrown in
When: Aug. 17 at 10 p.m.; Aug. 18 at 8:30 p.m.; Aug. 19 at 7 p.m.; Aug. 22 at 10 p.m.
Where: The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th St., Boulder.
Cost: $12 general admission, $10 students and seniors. 2-for-1 opening night. Tickets are available at the door or in advance at
Info:
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BB BlackDog Live
Kind of like: Bass, drums and another bass — no guitar
When: Aug. 17-18 at 10 p.m.
Where: Naropa Performing Arts Center
Cost: $10 general admission, $6 students and seniors. Tickets are available at the door or in advance at
Info:
Video:
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The Daily C.R.A.B. with Jimmy Hogg
Kind of like: Conan O’Brien hosting a cast party
When: 10 p.m. nightly through Aug. 23.
Where: Scotch Corner Pub, Boulder.
Cost: Free
Info:
Compiled by John Hendrickson
This weekend’s Best Bet
“Healing Through Love” Every summer for a decade, members of the Shadow Theatre Company Youth Ensemble, ages 12-18, have spent their summers as paid apprentices, under the tutelage of a professional director and playwright. Those who complete the program earn a $500 stipend. They will present their resulting original play in collaboration with the Aurora Symphony Orchestra. This year’s theme is “Healing Through Love,” exploring positive newspaper headlines. The goal is to celebrate “fabulous and true stories from our world, instead of the darkness that seems to be engulfing people in this country,” the company says. Performances through Aug. 16 at 1468 Dayton St., Aurora, 720-857-8000 or . John Moore
This week’s other theater openings
“Bare: The Musical” The new Gravity Defied Theatre, a project of Rocky Mountain Arts Association, is Colorado’s first all-musicals theater company that gives a portion of proceeds from each production to another Colorado nonprofit — the first beneficiary being the handicapped theater company PHAMALy. “Bare,” in the pop-opera style of “Rent” and “Spring Awakening,” is the coming-of-age story of a group of high-school seniors at a Catholic boarding school, at the center of which are two male students in love yet uncertain of how to respond. Through Aug. 22. Presented by Gravity Defied Theatre at the Aurora Fox, 9900 E. Colfax Ave., 303-325-3959 or
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Shakespeare’s most beguiling comedy centers on four young lovers who find themselves lost in a world where the moon is full, love is in the air — and just around the bend, a man has been transformed into an ass. Through Aug. 30. Presented by TheatreWorks at the Bon Vivant Theater, 3955 Cragwood Drive, Colorado Springs, 719- 255-3232 or
Compiled by John Moore
Complete theater listings
Go to our complete list of in Colorado, including summaries, run dates, addresses, phones and links to every company’s home page. Or check out our listings or
The Running Lines blog
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