Fifth Circle Theatre at Boulder Fringe 2009
The International Festival Adds Young Theatre Company to the Roster
Apr 13, 2009
The Boulder International Fringe Festival has been dubbed by CBS as one of the country's "most unusual festivals." It features performances and attendees from around the globe in a twelve day un-juried arts event packed with live theater, dance, circus art, media art, cinema, visual art, spoken word, puppetry, workshops and storytelling. Fifth Circle Theatre Company, a nucleus of dedicated local artists, will be premiering a project two years in the making at 2009's Fringe Festival. Suite101 caught up with director and founding Company member, Alexis Cooley, to talk about the Festival and what Fifth Circle will bring to keep Fringe's "unusual" reputation alive.
"We were registered with the Fringe Festival seven minutes after their website went live," says Alexis, "I was over Tobias [Mullen's] shoulder yelling, 'type!' type!'" Mullen is also a founding member of Fifth Circle and the brain-trust behind the show that they will bring to the Fringe Festival. The production has been affectionately titled The Return of the Mystery of the Journey Through Time to the Secret Lost City of the Evil, Robotic Abominable Snowman King of Nabooti (Zombie Space Ninja Pirates!!!: A Musical Adventure.
The Skinny On The Play
If the title seems confusing that's intentional. The play that Fifth Circle Theatre will bring to The Boulder Fringe Festival 2009, will be entirely audience created. That's right, pick your own path. "The show can run anywhere from twelve minutes to sixty minutes with actors playing anywhere from six to eight roles each." The excitement is apparent in Alexis Cooley's voice as she explains the project that takes up the majority of her time these days. "We've been working on this for two years. It's slowly consumed more and more."
Fifth Circle is a tight knit group of passionate minds from across the country. Cooley and Mullen are New Orleans transplants who saw many of their friend's homes destroyed during hurricane Katrina. Jinger Roy (lighting, stage design, ninja star thrower) was lured from a prestigious theater program in Pittsburgh. They all moved to Boulder with the idea of promoting community integrated original works of theater. The Return... is the company's second full-length production; As Interpreted By The Reynolds (also written by Mullen) hit stage in 2005.
Things To Look For
Mullen has also written lyrics for a live band that will accompany the production with music written by Aaron Cooley. It is a musical adventure, after all. "We like the illusion of running around with your head torn off but in a controlled manner, " laughs Alexis, "We even have the band making the sound effects for the fight scenes that may happen as the play is going on."
Audience members can expect a talking narrator shark puppet, Roman standards, epic space battles, and a different show each outing. "We have a character with a 69% chance of never showing up on stage. We thought we'd put a sandwich board on him that says 'you haven't seen me yet, pick the Space Balls game.'" More questions? Great, Fifth Circle will be happy to answer them August 12th-23rd during Boulder's International Fringe Festival.
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