August 4, 2005

At the Fringe

Twenty members of MBA's theater program are in the midst of a performance run at the prestigious Fringe Festival in Edinburgh , Scotland . The thespians are performing Dr. Cal Fuller's adaptation of the William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying at the festival.

The theater program was recognized by American High School Theater Festival as one of the best theater programs in the nation. As a result of this achievement, MBA is one of 50 high schools in the United States (and one of two from Tennessee ) that were invited to perform at the Fringe Festival.

Each August, Edinburgh becomes the most exciting international performing arts center when thespians from all over the world arrive to take part in the festival. The whole city becomes a stage and visitors can view performances everywhere from playgrounds to conference rooms, from city parks to churches. The Fringe Festival includes over 18,000 different performances of music, theater, dance and comedy during the month. Recognized as an incubator for world-class theater, the festival catapulted such fledging companies as Lookingglass Theater (which features Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman and longtime Friends star David Schwimmer) to international status when they first came to the festival and sealed their bonds as an innovative troupe. It is a tremendous honor and opportunity for our MBA students to be included in this international exchange of ideas and culture through performance.