A positive outcome of this economic recession has been a slow, but growing understanding of the art of saving money. One example of this is the increasingly popular staycation: a vacation from your normal routine all while staying in the comfort of your home without spending a fortune on a plane to ticket or a hotel room. Luckily, you’re living in a vacation capital filled with out-of-the-box entertainment options for you to enjoy on your guilt free holiday. And out-of-the-box is the perfect term to describe two of the city’s most popular annual theatre events.
The first is the NYC Fringe Festival, which is celebrating its 14th year and runs from August 13th-29th. It’s the largest multi-arts festival in North America with more than 200 companies from around the world and 1200 performances all in just two weeks. Tickets are $15 in advance, $18 at the door, and free for certain performances. What’s more is that because this is a “fringe” festival most of the shows cover a wide variety of topics that you won’t find on Broadway and use some exciting new ways to present the material on stage. Check out the NYC Fringe website for a listing of all the shows and their synopses for you to peruse.
The second event is the Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF), which closes August 1st. The MITF is in its 11th year and unlike the NYC Fringe festival is a bit smaller and focuses more on the local Off-Off Broadway scene. However, like the NYC Fringe festival, you can expect to see something slightly off the beaten path and unconventional. Student tickets are $15, general admission is $18, and all staged readings are free of charge. I’ll be in a staged reading this Thursday of a new children’s musical called Safari’s Song and all are invited to check it out 🙂
So enjoy your break from work, live on the fringe, and let the staycation begin!
-Roni Tessler
