FringeNYC

The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) begins tomorrow, August 8, and runs through August 24. During those 16 days, more than 200 theater companies from around the world will be performing on more than 20 stages around the city. Take a look at the FringeNYC Propaganda Preview, available in PDF format, for a complete listing of what's playing where.

I want to call your attention to a particular production, The Alice Complex, which was written by a graduate of our doctoral program, Peter Barr Nickowitz. Peter graduated in 1999, and a book based on his thesis was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2006 with the title Rhetoric and Sexuality: The Poetry of Hart Crane, Elizabeth Bishop, and James Merrill. He currently teaches at USC.

Here's a blurb about the play: "Sally Keating, a professor of Women's Studies, is preparing for a dinner party when one of her students, Rebecca, arrives carrying a white box. Rebecca tells Sally that she has been raped and hands her the box, which, she insinuates, contains her attacker's penis. Horrified, Sally tries to call the police, but Rebecca intercedes and ties her up. Rebecca idealizes Sally for having written The Alice Complex, a seminal book of 1970s feminism, but Sally no longer believes in her former revolutionary ideas. Feeling betrayed, Rebecca interrogates Sally to find out why she's turned her back on her beliefs. What's really inside the white box, and what's the real reason Sally doesn't teach The Alice Complex?"

More information is available at www.thealicecomplex.com. The play will be performed on at the Cherry Lane Theater (38 Commerce Street, just off 7th Avenue, 1 block south of Bleecker) on Friday, August 8 at 4:45 pm; Tuesday, August 12 at 7 pm; Friday, August 15 at 4:45 pm; Saturday, August 16 at 9:30; and Thursday, August 21 at 9:30 pm. The show runs about 1 hour 15 minutes.

Tickets for all FringeNYC productions are $15, general admission and are available online; or by phone (212-279-4488) until 24 hours before each performance; after that, they can be purchased at the box office (cash only).