@TheLostTheatre @raisinplay @DanishDuck @BAMATheatreCo @Bainbridge2010 @baristasplay @BurninginChina @francaverce @BSTARREVOLUTION @ifeedthemonster @shabanarehman @GEwShakespeare @ProjGirlTheatre @hamletshutup @insimplicities

In 1983, I was living in a third floor walkup on Mott Street in New York’s little Italy with two struggling actors. A few years earlier, I had moved to New York in hopes of being a writer, but the only money I was making came from writing computer programs.

As my contract at Bell Laboratories came up for renewal, I decided instead, to spend time traveling around the States and Europe. These travels landed me in Edinburgh during their annual festival. I had a great time attending many Fringe plays and for the next several years returned every August. I spoke with my roommates about how great it would be if New York had a similar fringe festival.

Eventually that came about, and now, over twenty five years after my travels, I am finally making it to the New York Fringe Festival.

Yesterday, I started reviewing the list of plays. I counted 197. However, I’ll be on Cape Cod the second week of the festival, so that rules out 14 plays that are only showing on the second week. When I used to go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I would sometimes take in as many as five plays a day. Looking at the schedule, I’m not sure I could hit more than four plays a day, so the most I could make is probably 28. Realistically, I’ll probably not make it to more than a dozen plays.

So, I’m scanning through the list, highlighting the ones that are most interesting, noting the webpages, as well as Facebook Fan pages and Twitter accounts of various plays. All of this leads to this week’s Follow Friday blog post.

@fringeNYC is the Twitter account for the New York Fringe Festival. @TheLostTheatre @raisinplay @DanishDuck @BAMATheatreCo @Bainbridge2010 @baristasplay @BurninginChina @francaverce @BSTARREVOLUTION @ifeedthemonster @shabanarehman @GEwShakespeare @ProjGirlTheatre @hamletshutup and @insimplicities are some of the Twitter accounts for the plays or the companies following them. They are all worth looking into.

If you have details about any of the plays in this year’s New York Fringe Festival that you think I should see, leave a comment or drop me a note. I’m still trying to decide which ones to attend