The Jury and the Fringe--Was it worth it?

By Diana Howie, bookwriter

A friend called recently who was considering taking his new musical to an out-of-state festival. He asked what we got out of taking our musical, The Jury (www.thejurymusical.com), to Minneapolis.

That strikes us as a funny question now because what we hoped to achieve in finding an interested producer
did not occur. But overall, we felt it was a worthwhile (although not a perfect) experience.

Producing in a festival was not a new experience for me. I had taken a show to the Edinburgh (Scotland) Fringe Festival in 1990 and attended that same festival in the late '70's. I remembered the excitement in the air in the seventies and the thrill of having choices among all the performances. It was a festive occasion: chatty crowds, a constant theatrical buzz on the streets, a feeling that you were lucky to be a part of such fun times. The Minnesota Fringe in Minneapolis, now claiming to be the largest in the United States, promised some of the same qualities although it was smaller, 168 shows compared to Edinburgh’s more than a 1000 shows.

Every festival differs and may have rules that might not enhance your show. In Minneapolis, two rules worked against our show: the Fringe assigned venues (i.e., there was no possibility of choosing the most ideal stage configuration for your show) and the shows could not run over 90 minutes. Since we were not familiar with the Minneapolis festival, it did not occur to us that we would be somewhat unique with a full-length show. There were only nine shows out of 168 that ran over 50 minutes.

With the time restrictions, we had to cut four songs from the show's 24 songs. Since The Jury is not a musical revue, it was difficult to cut and shorten songs. Comments from our viewers indicated they were missed. Although the final 90-minute show seemed short to us, some viewers expected a 50-minute show based on the other shows they had seen in the festival. And we couldn’t even take the normal break at 50 minutes, since we needed all our stage time.

Our space in the Bryant-Lake Bowl had low ceilings and a tiny stage. While a perfect cabaret spot, it did not even hint at the grandeur of a courtroom setting. Some choreography with the nine characters had to be eliminated since there simply wasn’t enough room. Even lines were deleted because there was no room to place an actor on stage. Comments from viewers indicated those dialogue cuts were missed.

But, yes, it was worth it for one particular reason: we got to try out the story of these jurors in a totally different part of the country. While we found many Houston and Minneapolis audience members loved the show for the same reasons, the criticisms were remarkably different in these two cities. The comments from both places were what we needed for the musical's development. We’ve considered each and every comment in our post-Fringe revisions.

As there is no way to gage audience interest in a new piece other than to put it up, taking our show out of Houston to "virgin territory” was a good step forward. The Minnesota Fringe served us well as we continually work for a more perfect product. And yes, after the Minnesota Fringe got underway, it was fun to be there. The momentum of all those shows going on at the same time creates an infectious enthusiasm, especially among the audience. You want to see it all! You feel you are where the action is!