Music, art and more continues at Fringe Festival

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A. Sue Weisler

Several musical groups from RIT will perform this Friday and Saturday at the end of the 10-day KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival in downtown Rochester. Eight Beat Measure performed last weekend at the festival.

More than 1,600 people attended events by Rochester Institute of Technology students, faculty, staff and Osher members during the first weekend of the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival in downtown Rochester. More than 500 eclectic performances and displays are part of the 10-day festival throughout Rochester.

RIT also is a major educational sponsor of the community collaborative event, now in its sixth year. The festival is a celebration of the performing and visual arts in downtown Rochester, featuring world-renowned performers as well as up-and-comers.

More than a third of the festival events are free, including all of the RIT-related events, which will be held at Gallery r, 100 College Ave.; Little Theatre and the Little Café, 240 East Ave.

RIT will provide free hourly shuttlebus service to and from campus during the festival weekends. The festival is also part of Into the ROC, a program by RIT’s Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement that encourages students to visit and volunteer off campus.

RIT-related events scheduled this Friday and Saturday include:

Friday, Sept. 22

• Al Biles and GenJam, jazz performed by human and computer.
• Cuppa Tea Traditional Irish Duo, a duo performing traditional Irish music, featuring Bill Henrie on the fiddle and guitar and Adrienne Maher on guitar and vocals.
• MDC/Dangerous Signs, The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allan Poe, performed in American Sign Language, spoken word, music, mime and dance.
• Resonant Freqs: Surveying the Spectrum, an interactive rock & roll band.

Saturday, Sept. 23

• Poems you should know: Collaborative Performance in Video Games, using Netprov, a collaborative improvisation fiction for social media.
• Signatures Magazine Presents, RIT’s undergraduate art and literary magazine offers poetry and prose readings by RIT students, faculty, staff and alumni.
• RIT Vocal Accent, all-female a cappella group performs empowering and emotionally charged music.
• RIT Surround Sound, an a cappella group with a variety of songs including barbershop.
• Proof of Purchase, student a cappella group performing in their signature upbeat style.
• Bill Dresnack Acoustic Originals, acoustic rock, pop, country and bluesy original songs.
• Norm & the Outliers, a jazz group of four faculty/staff members from RIT and the University of Rochester seek to bring audiences inspiration, excitement, emotional depth, humor and a feeling of how great it is to be alive.
• RIT Ukulele Club, performs both classic and contemporary songs
• Diversity Theater: Building Community Through Storytelling, audience stories are enacted on stage by Playback Theatre actors.
• Out of Sync: Abstractions, a live experience that brings abstract art and avant-garde film into the realm of live performance, beginning with film loops painted by hand.
• RIT Improv, student improv comedy entertainment with three troupes: BrainWreck Improv, The Improvessionals and Work in Progress.

Also, exhibits are up throughout the festival, including Nancy Bernardo and Mitch Goldstein, professors from RIT’s School of Design, at Gallery r; and RIT Art House Showcase, Photo House Visual Anticipation, and Osher Lifelong Learning Art Exhibit in the Little Café Lobby.

Sneak peeks continue at Global Village on Wednesday, Sept. 20, when Acoustic Originals performs from noon to 12:30 p.m.; RIT Improv performs from 12:30 to 1 p.m.; and WADAIKO performs from 1 to 1:15 p.m.

For a complete schedule of RIT Fringe events (and notations on interpreted performances) as well as the shuttle schedule to and from RIT, go to the Rochester Fringe Festival website or contact RIT Assistant Vice President of Special Events Lynn Rowoth at 585-475-7408.