The annual Boston University Fringe Festival, now in its 28th season, is a collaboration between the College of Fine Arts School of Music: Opera Institute and School of Theatre. Fringe’s mission is to produce new or rarely performed significant works in the opera and theatre repertoire, bringing performances and audiences together in unique theatrical settings. For over two decades, Fringe Festival at BU has celebrated and amplified new work, shown in spare and minimal productions.
You’re invited to experience the innovation and artistry at this year’s performances!
Dark Sisters
Presented by BU Opera Institute & School of Theatre
October 11 – 13, 2024
Studio ONE
Music by Nico Muhly
Libretto by Stephen Karam
Arranged by Nate Thatcher
Allison Voth, music director
Rose Freeman, stage director
Dark Sisters, written by BUTI alum Nico Muhly (BUTI’96,’97), follows one woman’s dangerous attempt to escape her life as a member of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) church, a sect that split from mainstream Mormonism in the early 20th Century largely because of the LDS Church’s renunciation of polygamy. The male founders of the Mormon faith (Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, chief among them) loom large in American history; Dark Sisters puts the women front and center.
“Dark Sisters” (Chamber Version) is presented under license from G. Schirmer, Inc. o/b/o Chester Music Ltd./ St. Rose Music Publishing Co., copyright owners.
Siren Song
Presented by BU Opera Institute & School of Theatre
October 19 – 20, 2024
Studio ONE
“Siren Song” (Opera in 1 Act) Composed by Jonathan Dove
Libretto by Gordon Honeycombe and Nick Dear
William Lumpkin, Conductor
Matthew Larson, Coach & Music Preparation • Claire Choquette, stage director
Siren Song is a bizarre, true story. A young sailor on HMS Ark Royal exchanges letters with a beautiful and successful model.
Over time a romantic and passionate relationship develops, but a meeting proves increasingly difficult to arrange…
Presented under license by Peters Edition Limited, copyright owners.
Entry (or, you think you know me)
Presented by BU School of Theatre
October 4-6, 2024
Studio ONE
By S. Thomasin Barsotti
Directed by Taylor Stark (CFA’26)
Some time after a personal tragedy, Coye and Whit retreat to a lakeside cottage to rest and recover. There, what begins as a benign vacation morphs into a nightmare as they begin to obsess over strange entries in the cottage’s guestbook–entries that describe their emotional experiences; entries that detail their actual grief; and even entries that appear to have been written by them. As they begin to lose themselves in the narratives of the book and confuse their own stories with those they are reading, they are tossed into a whirlpool of the uncanny in which identities shatter, memories change, and the darkness of the past threatens to swallow the future. Before they can leave this place, they must confront how well they really know each other, and whether they will ever find each other again.
Tickets for Entry (or, you think you know me) are sold out. There will be a walk-in waitlist on the day of each show. Patrons may arrive an hour prior to the show to get on the in-person waitlist for any tickets that become available the night of the show.
Fringe in the News
Innovation Takes the Stage at 28th Annual CFA Fringe Festival
A BU Today article outlines the horror, heartbreak, and daring escape plans featured in this fall’s Fringe repertoire.
All the World’s a Stage at 27th Annual CFA Fringe Festival
A BU Today article features the 2023 Fringe Festival performance lineup, which included an expanded series of opera, theatre, and visual arts events celebrating new and unconventional works
Curtains Open on 2022 CFA Fringe Festival
Annual showcase of opera and theater pieces includes works-in-progress by BU students. Read more in BU Today!
25th Fringe Festival
A BU Today article features the 25th Fringe Festival performance lineup, which included two operas, Proving Up (music by Missy Mazzoli (BUTI’98, CFA’02), libretto by Royce Vavrek) and The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace (music by Kamala Sankaram, libretto by Rob Handel).
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