Capital Fringe 2011, the Year of the Woman

Capital Fringe successfully wrapped up the sixth annual dramatic arts festival earlier this evening with a closing party and awards ceremony that was well-attended despite the stultifying heat. Among the highlights of this year’s festival were the sale of 130 t-shirts, 1,509 multi-ticket packages, 12,635 buttons and more than 27,000 tickets. This year’s festival included 124 productions and 637 performances, including 65 sold out shows. Critical to the success of the festival were the 154 volunteers who worked 718 shifts during this year’s run.

The Capital Fringe Festival established a reputation as a woman-friendly environment during its previous five-year run, and the organization’s long-term cultivation of female-oriented and female-led productions paid remarkable dividends as those organizations dominated this year’s awards cermony. Of the six Pick of the Fringe Awards presented by TheaterMania, four of the awards went to female-led productions. Nu Sass Productions Priscilla Dreams the Answer took home the comedy award, while Pinky Swear Productions‘ Cabaret XXX: Les Femmes Fatales secured the honor for best musical. The award for best solo show went to Angry Alice‘s On the Rag to Riches, while the recognition for best dance performance was shared by Verena Lucia and DC Aerial Collective for SHE and UPheaval, respectively. The Capital Fringe Director’s Award, chosen by Festival Directors Julieanne Brienza and Scot McKenzie, went to Izumi Ashizawa for her production of iKilL.