The FrINgeSIDER 08/15/2010 12:38pm

First the regret. We're down to the final hours of the Fringe Festival and there are still so many shows I haven't seen. Friends' shows. Highly-recommended shows. Shows that intrigue me. I'll catch a couple more, but there are so, so many that will disappear forever. I know it's the nature of theater in general and the Fringe Festival in particular, but I can't help feeling sorry for myself for all the stuff I'm missing. Now the awe. Everyone involved in a Fringe show knows this, but it doesn't hurt to point out that there are no shortcuts. Whether it's a broadway spectacular, one of Shakespeare's tragedies at the Guthrie, or a first-timer's Fringe show, you still need a script, performers, time and space to rehearse, music, sound, costumes, props, a set, marketing, etc. And unlike the first two examples, Fringe artists don't have full-time support staffs to make it all happen. They're doing all of it with no money and in between the spaces filled by work, family and some pretty serious drinking habits. It's impressive anyone gets anything up on stage. Yet 169 producers did it. And the Fringe staff got them in and out of their venues, tickets sold, audiences managed - in the heat, in the rain. I just don't see how that's possible.