FRINGE FEST CANCELLATIONS REPORTED

Car accidents, cast dropouts and other production difficulties have caused a number of Fringe Festival participants to cancel or postpone their performances, but these problems apparently haven’t created major headaches for the public or the monthlong festival itself.

An informal survey of Fringe participants reveals that five theater companies have canceled plays scheduled for the multimedia festival, whose 459 events are running concurrently with the Los Angeles Festival.

Another theater group in the Fringe, which officially began on Sept. 4 and is slated to end Oct. 4, has had to postpone its opening: Lee Strasberg Creative Center’s “Recent Developments in Southern Connecticut” will debut Monday. And the Sarah Elgart and Company dancers have canceled two shows, now performing at the Wallenboyd Theater on Sept. 25 and 26 only.

However, four of the five Fringe theater troupes (of roughly 200 companies) who canceled their performances--Beverly Hills Theater 40, Aresis Ensemble, Nosotros and Marla Gibbs Crossroads Arts Academy & Theater--report that they had not sold any tickets to these events. The fifth troupe, Pipeline Inc., which canceled its run after two performances, had not sold tickets to any future shows and no tickets had been sold for the canceled Sarah Elgart engagements. Another play, “Mrs. Stanton and Susan,” drew an audience of only two newspaper critics.

However, no one has called Fringe headquarters to complain about finding a darkened theater, said Aaron Paley, festival executive director, on Thursday.

There is no central ticketing mechanism for the Fringe Festival and tickets can only be bought by calling each participating troupe, whose phone numbers are listed in the official Fringe catalogue, available from the Fringe headquarters, (213) 931-1255.

All cancellations or schedule changes are “completely beyond our (Fringe management) control,” Paley said, adding that “we have tried to get participants to tell us so we can act as a clearing house for daily changes.” Paley said he has also asked groups with changes to notify the news media.

Reasons for scheduling changes are varied. The Marla Gibbs Crossroads Arts Academy & Theater, scheduled to perform “Cotton Candy” from Aug. 7 to Sept. 13, canceled its presentation “because two of our main characters were in car accidents and one, Frankie Albright, got another job on a TV show,” said Norma Rhymes, the group’s co-producer, who said she couldn’t remember the injured actors’ names.

Similarly, the Pipeline Inc. production of “Testimonies of a Rape and Killing” (slated to run through Sept. 19) was canceled after two performances because its leading actress, Virginia Lantry, suffered whiplash in an auto accident, said Alex Wright, Pipeline managing producer.

Two groups canceled their performances because they couldn’t obtain the rights to their plays, company organizers said: The Beverly Hills’ Theatre 40’s “X” series won’t be presented (though Theatre 40’s “Pack of Lies” will run through Oct. 4), and the Nosotros theater group’s “Royal Hunt of the Sun” is off the roster.

Dancer/choreographer Elgart “needed another week to prepare” for her performance, said Alex Wright, who is co-producing the event. And a lack of preparation also caused the Aresis Ensemble theater group’s cancellation, said its producing director Jean-Michel Michenaud.

“People should call the place they are going before they go there,” said Paley, especially since many events in the Fringe catalogue are listed with locations “TBA” (to be arranged.) “If they need more help they can call us.”