31 Jan 07 Are You Living On The Fringe Yet? By The CrashOut! Team The M1 Singapore Fringe Festival (or SFF) is back! For the unenlightened, this annual festival of theatre, music and visual art presented by local and international artists is in its third year. With the wide variety of performances and events on the menu, including live and installation art presentations, video screenings exhibitions and talks, the festival ensures something for everyone! This year’s theme, Art and Disability, allows for the exploration of not just conventional notions of disability, eg. physical or intellectual impairment, but also other forms of incapacitation that may be less tangible. Questions like: How do we define ‘Disability’? Have we been too parochial about it? Have we inadvertently created social outcasts by enervating those whom we feel are handicapped, without examining our own disabilities? Featuring a host of works from more than 20 artists and collectives from 13 countries, the festival will be a platform for these questions to be explored from different viewpoints. With so much going on, perhaps catching venue-centered events might be the way to go. This way, you can get more for less effort. Spend an evening at the Esplanade and you could catch short films at the Concourse, view a visual art exhibition at Jendela and watch a performance in the theatre studio. Contemporaneous events are also happening at the Singapore Art Museum and the National Museum. Or, you could take advantage of the ‘Virgin’ or ‘Veteran’ rating system the festival organisers have implemented as a gauge of the accessibility of each event. The ’Virgins’ have much to choose from, but if they muster enough courage to attend a ‘Veteran’ event, perhaps drag a ‘Veteran’ along for company! By all means experiment! Enjoy all the exciting works the festival has to offer! CrashOut! is proud to support the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival. The festival is sponsored mainly by M1 and curated, organised and managed by The Necessary Stage. To find out more about the festival, visit www.singaporefringe.com and www.necessary.org. Hop over to Fringe Picks for - Our recommendations! - To view vodcasts featuring artists, actors and directors! - To catch festival attendees all dressed up – or NOT! Hear what they have to say for themselves! - To win FREE TICKETS to SFF shows! Have YOUR say about the SFF or what you read on CrashOut! Meet others who are also attending the SFF!