East End Fringe Festival Offers Unique Opportunity To Catch New Theatrical Works

New and emerging plays, original short comedies and dramas, and poetry will be performed in and around the historic Vail-Leavitt Music Hall in Riverhead during this summer’s inaugural East End Fringe Festival, beginning on Wednesday, July 26.

Producers Debbie Slevin and Cindy Clifford refer to the Vail-Leavitt as a jewel box. While producing the sellout event, “The Apron Strings Project,” together two years ago in the space, the pair became infatuated with the venue. “We decided to bring theater to the Vail,” Ms. Slevin said. “The Vail theater wants to have theater in it.”

Ms. Clifford said downtown Riverhead, which is centrally located between the North and South Forks, is “such a great spot to condition theater, and culture and art projects.”

These women are no strangers to the theatrical world. They have worked as writers, producers and directors, and have been the masterminds behind productions like Ms. Slevin’s “The Last Five Years” at Guild Hall in East Hampton and Ms. Clifford’s “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play” for several theaters on Long Island. Both producers envision the two-week-long festival as a place where visitors will have the chance to see how the East End functions as a first stop, top-notch location for new theater and as an incubator for new works. The feature productions, as well as the shorts and poems, were chosen from more than 100 entries, screened by a judging panel and curated by Ms. Slevin and Ms. Clifford. “We made a very full effort to reach out to as many writing sites as we could,” Ms. Slevin said of their call for submissions for original works, which began in November of last year. During their process, the women decided to drop the application fee for writers, so submissions could truly be available to anyone.

“This is a unique opportunity for Hamptons vacationers and residents to see developing shows from their inception,” Ms. Slevin said in a statement.

“Leaving Evelyn,” a play written by Kathy Kafer, is headed for a New York City run next year, and is featured in the festival. Attendees will have the opportunity to view the show before it makes its way west.

“One of the plays is written by a college student and is aimed at millennials,” Ms. Slevin said. “One of the plays, on the other end of the spectrum, is about Alzheimer’s and a family dealing with a relative at the end of their life.”

The first night will feature a performance of the show “Fifty Flat,” a Twilight Zone-esque world where the future is dictated by a single test. The show is set to be followed by an opening night reception hosted by Riverhead’s Moustache Brewing Co.

The festival continues the following day during Riverhead’s Alive on 25. TheaterExpress will stage free original short comedies and dramas on East End Arts’ Main Street grounds starting at 5 p.m.

On subsequent nights, the festival will incorporate different combinations of two or three shows, changing every night, that run anywhere from 40 to 90 minutes.

The East End Fringe Festival runs from Wednesday, July 26, to Sunday, August 6. For a full schedule of shows, and to purchase tickets, visit eastendfringefest.com.