By Walt Belcher
Several storytelling festivals throughout the United States, including our Florida Storytelling Festival, offer “fringe” performances. This is a chance for extended storytelling at the” fringe” or “edge” of a traditional festival.
For the Florida festival, we draw three names at random during the fall from the tellers who have applied. Those selected can share a story or collection of stories for about 45 minutes, usually late night on a Friday. These “fringe” sessions run simultaneously so listeners can only pick one to attend.
But there are also fringe festivals worldwide where storytelling is among many genres including music, theater, cabaret and variety, improv, comedy, puppetry, dance, circus, magic, opera, spoken word and more. The Granddaddy of these type festivals is the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival held in Scotland every August. More than 1,200 different shows will be presented there throughout the month. Storytelling is an important art form at this festival which dates to the 1940s.
And one of the largest in America is the 34th Annual Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival which is scheduled for May 13 to 26. It is the longest running fringe festival in the United States, having launched in 1992. Smaller fringe festivals were held in Tampa and Sarasota last year.
This year there are more than 120 acts at the Orlando event, including former Florida Storytelling Festival teller Paul Strickland. He was one of the featured tellers in Mount Dora earlier this year. Also at the Orlando Fringe will be Bobby Wesley, of the Orlando Story Club, who has served as an emcee at some of our festival events.
Strickland, who was a fringe festival performer before joining the Storytelling Festival circuit, is planning to share some spectacular ghost stories in Orlando this year. He will present his show seven times from May 15 to May 25.
His stories are described as a one-man Twilight Zone—told mostly in the dark. Paul is an 18-time Best-of-Fest winner and was featured as a teller at the 2023 National Storytelling Festival. He also has performed his ghost stories Off-Broadway.
Bobby Wesley says that storytelling at a fringe festival tends to be a bit more theatrical and experimental than telling at a traditional storytelling festival. It also can be more avant-garde and more adult (for mature audiences only) with no restrictions on language and content. But fringe festivals also offer children’s programs.
Bobby’s material is often amusing. And there are several performances during the run of a fringe festival. He has toured the country attending fringe festivals in other states.
In 2023, Bobby’s debut one-man storytelling show, “Liquid Courage,” at the Orlando Fringe was successful. For about 60 minutes, he shared his hazy memories of growing up in the South, a misspent youth, family legends that now feel like tall tales, and the role cocktails played in his life. It was poignant but laced with humor.
This new show, “(a)political,” features Bobby’s stories about his adventures in politics with humorous recollections of the time when he helped a college friend run for state office in Florida and how they campaigned in The Villages. He says you can look back and see parallels to the current political scene in Florida.
He and his buddy were political neophytes armed only with a wide-eyed enthusiasm and a soapbox. He tells of how they take on a developer-backed candidate in a Bush-era battle for Florida’s future. He debuts this storytelling show on May 17 at the Pink Venue (the 100-seat Mandell Studio Theater) in Orlando. He plans to take it on the road this summer at other fringe festivals in America and Canada.
Also during the Orlando Fringe, members of the Orlando Story Club will offer a free storytelling session at 7 pm on May 17 in the Visual Fringe Gallery on 812 E. Rollins Street (www.orlandofringe.org/visual-fringe) They will tell stories inspired by pieces of art in the gallery. Visitors can also share their stories.
Numerous other shows during the festival will feature storytelling in various forms. Some combine storytelling with music, comedy, drama and more.
Another example would be “One Small Lie” in which New York-based storyteller Martin Dockery weaves a tale of suspense, humor. deception and horror involving a robbery and an series of lies. And there’s “Bangs, Bobs & Banter: Confessions of a Hairstylist” featuring Canadian storyteller Joanna Rannelli who takes on the persona of Nikki, a charismatic hairstylist with a flair for storytelling. Inspired by true stories, Nikki invites audiences in to hear some scandalous hair-raising secrets.
For more information on the Orlando Fringe see www.orlandofringe.org
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