On this episode, a popular Lansing event has been reborn and The Renegade Fringe Festival is making an exciting return, bringing together local theater artists and strengthening community connections. Host Paige Tufford is joined by festival Co-Founders Sally Hecksel and Shannon Bowen, to share how the festival has grown and what’s new in the REO Town location. They highlight the festival’s commitment to inclusivity, inviting artists from all backgrounds and mediums to take part, and build the creative community.

Mentioned This Episode

Website: Renegade Fringe Festival

Website: Festival Performance Application

Website: Volunteer for the Festival

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Website: LCC Performing Arts

Welcome to Exit Stage Left: LCC Performing Arts. Your all access pass to creativity, talent and stories shaping the stage at Lansing Community College and beyond. Places, everyone. Energy up. Okay? Let's make some magic. And now, here's your host, LCC Performing Arts Coordinator and Theatre Faculty, Paige Tufford.

Hello, everyone. We have two very special guests today for the show. Sally Hecksel, who is an alum of the program, and also Shannon Bowen.

Yay.

Hi, Shannon. I don't know if you went to LCC or not.

Unfortunately, I didn't because I grew up in New Mexico, so I missed out. But this is my chosen home. So now everyone and everything in my life will be associated with lcc. So just know the kids will come here soon.

Okay, great, great. Well, we have Sally and Shannon here today to talk about. Drumroll. The Renegade Fringe Festival. That is so exciting.

It's coming back.

What happened? Where did this come from?

You know, the organizers and you deserve a great deal of credit for this too. But whether folks realize this or not, Renegade has a very fervent, passionate following within the theater community within Lansing.

It's a gathering point for folks in the community and had been for some time. It was like the one way in which you could interact with each other and support each other in a variety of ways, and everyone's been missing it.

And I know that that's been a conversation that Sallyly and I'd had many a time over the last several years. So, yeah, it's something that had been missed and been desired.

And there were several of us that got together and really, we have to give credit to Sallyly, but also to our collaborator, Ben Cassidy, who shook the bull by the horns and said, let's get this back up. Let's put this back out there.

Yeah, he was amazing about it. Renegade was an access point for me. So this was like my gateway to get into community theater.

And it felt important that that continue to be an access point for people. So Ben and I had a discussion. I was talking about how much it meant to me and how much I wanted it to be back.

And he was like, great, let me help you figure out how to do that. It was amazing. I was so grateful that he just kind of jumped into this with me because he has a better brain for plans and logistics. Than I do.

He's very strategically minded, so eternally grateful.

To him for helping me bring this, and I'm so grateful for Shannon as well, but.

Yeah, that's wonderful.

Well, the Renegade theater festival really focused around bringing in local theater artists, community theaters, professional theaters, performers, I mean, you name it, and bringing those people together in a central location, which was Old Town at the time. So how is the Fringe festival gonna be different? Is it gonna be the same setup, People just doing theater, or.

No, it's changing, so it's evolving. So we really think of this as kind of a renaissance and a little bit of a rebirth.

What we're trying to do is, to Sallyly's point, it's an access point for artists, but a variety of mediums or media.

So what we're trying to do is reestablish the festival itself and capture some of the spirit that you see from other fringe festivals that exist in other. And so we want to be able to be inclusive of different types of artistic expression.

So we certainly want to see friends from the theater communities coming out.

But we would also love to invite folks from spoken word art or, you know, various different types of media that we can allow them to have a space and an audience to really appreciate the art that they're trying to bring forth. We're also moving to a new neighborhood.

Where you going? Old towns out.

We're headed to Rio Town.

Yep.

Heading into Rio Town?

Yep.

Rio Town is really just booming. You know, it's growing so much, and I love that you're going there.

Yeah, we really felt like our mission aligned with what Reo Town represents as a whole. Unfortunately for us, Old Town is also booming, so there was not space anymore.

But we are genuinely so thrilled for our friends over there that it's such a thriving community.

But we were able to meet with folks at the Robin Theater at the Wheelhouse, and they felt like Renegade lined up with what they want to see in Rio Town, so they invited us there. There are a ton of spaces that we're exploring and navigating, and it's a.

Great jumping off point for us too, as we're bringing the festival back to kind of feel out.

Because I think for the folks that are putting this together, we all have kind of a minimum viable, like, what's going to be successful for this first time back. But we also have long term, big dreams of where this can go and how we can involve even more members of the community at large.

So not just limiting to what we can do from a performance perspective or an artistic perspective. But how do we involve maybe even local artisans or.

Or businesses in a meaningful way so that this becomes a way to champion what Lansing is and the people that it represents?

Yeah, that's wonderful.

So you said you've been talking about this for several years and I know it was a gateway, like you said, Sallyly, to so many young people who wanted to perform or direct or get involved. And so what are the plans? I mean, what's the kickoff?

So it's going to be a two day festival. It's going to be in August, which I feel like was pretty standard for Renegade. It's going to be a Friday and Saturday.

So August 7 and 8, we're going to have an evening of performances on Friday and then a full day on Saturday. It kind of depends on who we get in these different slots, but that's our hope.

Yes. Yeah. And so the submission window has opened as of April 1st. And really we're eager and excited to see what the submission pool looks like for us.

This is a. It's a new world and certainly we're anticipating that.

There are a lot of theater individuals or folks that have been familiar with what Renegade Festival was in the past that we might see submitting different materials. But we're also really curious about the community at large and what types of art submissions we might see too.

And the fact that we're going to be in this neighborhood that we all really love and cherish so much, but also that we get to show off a little bit and it's walkable. That was one of the biggest things that we talked about for the festival is making something that's accessible for folks that they could.

And that really, for me, as an attendee or a participant, I really loved the ability to go, hey, I might have a 7 o' clock time slot where I'm performing, but then I'll be done in time to walk over to any of the nine o' clock spots and pop in and see different pieces. And the opportunity to see unpublished works or new works being produced or, you know, I think about for this is true for Sallyly and I both.

We both had opportunities to direct through Renegade Festival where maybe before that time we hadn't had that opportunity.

And it was truly a gateway for us to kind of open doors where we then had access or folks had an opportunity to see our work and then go, hey, you should come over to our theater and do more work. And so we're hoping for the same type of opportunities for folks across the community too.

So the submission Process is. I mean, what do people do? They just put in their idea, hey, I want to perform this spoken word piece that I wrote.

And do you have, like, certain spaces where certain types of performances will be.

Yep. So spaces are going to be unconventional. I think people should not anticipate necessarily performing indoors.

We're going to utilize any space that we can that could be like dead end streets, back alleys, the storefronts, like, just right in front of the stores. But there are other people who have donated spaces as well, very generously. So there's gonna be a mix, and we're going to assign based on need.

Okay.

Yeah.

And want to be really intentional with folks, too, to understand that, you know, some of the technical asks that might exist will have to be really sort of stripped down, very minimalistic. Because the space we want to be respectful of. Of the spaces that we are able to utilize, because these are, you know, for their businesses.

And so we're our, you know, partners here in Rio town are being very generous to open their doors where they're able to. We want to make sure that we can honor the space itself, but also give that opportunity for that artistic expression.

So it's going to be a nice balance, but how people can tell those stories. And I think we've reflected a lot in our planning sessions on.

On some of the instances we've seen in town, whether through renegade or other means, where folks have been able to do those types of artistic endeavors.

And so that's really what we're trying and hoping for through the submission process is that we're going to see folks that are submitting that go, I don't fit that. Maybe traditional. I need a proscenium kind of a situation. It's like, I can put this up in a backyard.

Yeah.

Well, how exciting. We have. We have that opportunity to show you off here.

We have a backyard for your apartment.

Yes. We have a sidewalk. Come over. Let's show everybody what you can do.

Yeah.

I think a lot of artists are drawn to that, though. You know, they want to just be able to show their work and they're willing to do it, you know, guerrilla theater style. Right?

Yes. So I think another thing that kind of spurred bringing Renegade back was Ben and Mai's friend Dinah dewald did the Bacchae in her backyard.

It was incredible. It was so good, and it was so renegade. And that was another thing that kind of pushed like, oh, we need to bring this back.

People want to do theater like this.

Yeah.

And it was so effective. It was so Effective. And it was so much fun. It was like a TV plugged into a giant extension cord sitting in the middle of, like, a dirt patch.

It was so much fun. And Ben and I both felt very enthusiastic about that performance. So that was another kind of push.

Mm. Just stripping it down to its barest form, Right?

Absolutely. Which is so fun. And, I mean, it harkens back to sort of the beginnings of theater. But you think about.

You know, you go to major cities and you see buskers, and, you know, that's things that we've talked about too. Like, could there be musicians that want to come and, you know, hang out on the street and play their music?

Sure.

What an incredible opportunity. Or does somebody want to paint or draw? You know, while there's an audience present?

What a cool opportunity to offer for them to showcase what they're expressing and to celebrate that in town.

That's wonderful. So are you. Are you kind of limiting the number of performers that you're bringing in on those two days or.

We're trying to, I think, cultivate. But also we're open, because this is the first time that we're open. We're bringing it back. And so there's a little bit of a.

What do we think we're gonna get, right? Will we be sort of flooded with submissions? Will it be a situation where we're trying to tap shoulders?

I don't think it will be so much the latter, because there has been a lot of. We've been teasing some things on socials for a minute.

I saw that.

And so people keep reaching out to us, either directly or publicly, going, what is this? What are you doing? Is this coming back?

Because it really has been something that I think, for the organizers, I hope, you know, and that includes you. Like, I hope you all know how beloved this festival had been. And so there's.

When it comes to Sallyly, Ben and I, we've always sort of talked about it with a great deal of reverence and respect of, let's pay homage to the folks that paved the way and involved them in the ways that they feel most appropriate. But let's take this into the new generation and give opportunities for folks. And I get really excited, too.

Cause I have little ones, and they love to go to the theater. And so to think of an opportunity where, you know, they could actually attend. My son.

I was pregnant with my son when I directed a renegade show, so technically, he's been to one.

But I want an opportunity for them to see how vast the community can be and how there's expression for folks in so many different ways that are not limited to what they might see on a screen or what we might walk into in a traditional theater.

Right, right. I was gonna say that. I think that you'll be surprised by the number of submissions you get.

I mean, it's like throwing a party and wondering if anyone's gonna show up, right?

Yeah, very much.

I wonder if anybody will come. And when we. When I started the Renegade, now the new original works, I felt the same way, like, no one's gonna submit any new plays, you know?

And that became a really huge part of the festival. And I think by the last year, we had, like, 400 submissions from around the world.

It's incredible.

I know. I was like, I cannot read all of these.

Help.

There's not enough hours in the day.

I know.

And you know what? That's a good point. Something that we really, really need in order for Renegade to continue to work as volunteers.

Yes.

Yeah, I think that's something that you guys ran into initially. There were just a few people who were kind of pushing this festival to happen. So we need. We do need volunteers. And beyond.

A submission form to perform. There's a submission form for volunteering?

Yes.

That's great.

Yeah. And I think to Sallyly's point, too, that's a lot of times folks will go, I want to help, but I don't know how.

Right.

And we don't want it to be a situation where folks feel that sentiment and don't reach out. There's plenty of us that are happy to help and mentor folks. And I mean, for several of us, this is. We're jumping into this, too.

And so it's walk alongside us and we'll learn together. But there are certainly needs for us to not just be, you know, three to five of us doing it all. We want those hands on deck.

And so there can be opportunities for folks to kind of do both, too, if they wanted to submit, but also want to volunteer their time to help make sure that the festival is successful and supported by the community, they can do that, too. And so we've had a couple folks that have indicated.

Because, you know, we each have inner circles that we've been like, hey, I can't say anything, but. And they've been like, what do you need help with? I'm like, I don't know yet, but it's coming, so just be ready.

And they're like, okay, so, yeah, this is our general ask, too, to say if you want to help and you're not sure. How you can. It's okay. Just reach out. We can talk you through it. We're nice, we're friendly.

Definitely. And it's not. It's nothing major. No, I think it's mostly like watching spaces help, helping set up and tear down, directing traffic a little bit.

Right. Are you having like. Like a special day or something where volunteers come together before the festival or.

Yeah. One of the things that we just talked about was once the submission window closes, we wanted to do kind of an open office hours, if you will, at.

So we've been meeting regularly at a local business at Strange Matter Coffee over on Michigan Avenue. So if you happen in there on a random Thursday, you might find us. But I'm telling all of our secrets.

But we want to be able to offer an opportunity for folks that have submitted to come in and, you know, kind of a Q and A or an faq, come and talk to us, ask us any questions. We can talk to you about your work.

But also, I think, I would imagine that we're going to do something similar and coordinate some meetings with our volunteer base to be able to make sure everybody's on the same page. What are we doing? How are we doing it? All of those things, too. So a lot of logistical planning.

Again, a shout out to Ben Cassidy because he is our administrative everything.

Okay.

A spreadsheet legend.

Yes, yes. But also shout out to Sallyly because she created our application for submissions too. And that is no small feat. So you need kudos, too.

Where do they find this application?

So I think right now, if you're going through Renegade's Facebook page, we have the most current link. I think it should be something like renegadefringe.com okay. But don't quote me on that. Go through the site that's attached to their Facebook profile.

Yep. Renegade Fringe is what people are going to want to look for because that is rebranded. We've rebranded because this is a rebirth.

So there's new logos that include this information, too. And we've got our updated website. It has FAQs that are included as well. So, yeah, folks can access that. Renegadefringe.org is our website.

Okay.

So folks can pull that up. And there's links within there, too. There's also, if folks are, you know, they come to the page there I am pregnant on the page.

You'll be able to see it. It's good times. I like to point it out. But if folks access the pages and they're, you know, curious, they're like, there's something missing.

We want that feedback we want to know, like, are we overlooking any information that we could provide back to the community? They're welcome to reach out to us directly with any questions.

We're all pretty accessible as far as talking about the festival and wanting to promote it to folks. So to slow down and chat them through. We're happy to do that.

This is a community festival, and we do need to rely on Community. Community for help with this in terms of continuing to develop what it looks like to best suit the community.

Yep, absolutely.

Yeah. So what are your dreams? You know, your wildest dreams? Right. What do you want this to be in three years, five years?

Okay, so we've talked about a lot of stuff. Don't let me talk the whole time.

No, no, no, no. You're fine.

So big dreams include. We've talked about. Could there be a way to include artisans who maybe are selling their crafts, their creations at the festival?

Being able to involve youth in the programs as well, that was a really meaningful thing to many of us in its original iteration, and certainly one that we want to be able to provide those access points, because this is where my soapbox comes out.

But I want to make sure that young people have that access point to theater, because to Sallyly's point, this can be a reference point for folks to get involved in theater. They may not have opportunities or channels with which they can access it.

And so if there's a means with which we can do that for young people, that's really exciting to me. My children are fortunate. They're growing up in a theater family. That's what we do. But that might not be the case for kids.

And so I want to make sure that there's a chance for. For folks to not only be patrons and learn what it is to be a patron of the arts, but also how can I be involved in the arts?

And that can mean a variety of things. It can be patronage, but it can also be performing, and it can also be backstage. There's so many creative endeavors.

Even the administrative parts that we keep referencing, like, that's not in a vacuum. Not everybody can be the dreamer going, we should do a play. There has to be other things that happen too. And.

And so I think for the young people, that's a big piece. We've also talked about it would be wonderful to include food trucks at some point.

Like, if those neighborhoods could do something equivalent to, like a block party, could we have food trucks there that between the acts, folks can go and grab a bite or have a coffee or whatever. It Might be. And then certainly how do we promote the businesses that are opening the. Their doors to us too?

That's a big piece that we want to make sure is happening as well.

Yeah, it's all of those amazing things. The thing that I'm so excited about for it is Renegade is the place to go when you don't have anywhere else to go.

So if I have a one act that doesn't fit at any of the theaters in the community, because every theater has a very specific brand and mission and things just don't fit in their season sometimes. And. And that's okay, but that's the space for it.

So I want people who have those, like, dream shows that they don't have a space for to be able to come here. Like Shannon said, food trucks. I think expanding into something closer to Krampusknacht would be great.

Okay.

Yeah. So they have all of those incredible vendors. All of the stores are open through the festival, so people can shop late into the night.

There are performances there. So that would be my. The closest thing that I could approximate it to. It would be lovely if we could get close to that.

Yeah, that sounds fantastic. So how long have you been working on this? You said several years, but come on, tell me the truth.

We both got real squishy then. We were like, it's been discussion for years, you know, so we. I think we all started poking around at each other for years.

And really Sallyly and Ben were having the most kind of meaningful conversations. Cause we'd been batting it around for some time individually or in small groups.

But then these two were the ones to go, if we're gonna do it, let's do this. Let's make this happen and let's be serious about it. Yeah. How do we actually get this going? Let's stop dreaming and put pen to paper.

Yeah, I think maybe a year or two.

Okay.

Yep.

Okay. I know you talked with or met with Chad and Melissa, who were like, you know, the original founders of the Renegade Theatre Festival.

And, you know, what was their reception of your ideas?

I think initially it was, what are you pulling us into? You know, like, what are you asking us to do? We put this to bed. And rightfully so. They were cautious, but also cautiously optimistic.

Like, you could tell when we. We did our first meeting together, it was okay, what do you guys wanna do? With a little twinge of curiosity and excitement?

And then they're very much. I would call them the Godfather godmother of this, because they're still involved.

That's great.

But we don't want all of this to be on their shoulders because so much of what you all had done together, it was really a small group that was carrying it through. And so we recognize that the work that went into that and want to say, we want your involvement, but we don't want you to carry the weight.

Right.

And so you can see with each of the subsequent meetings how exciting. I was messaging with Melissa last night, even, and she was like, I'm just so excited. And so it's just.

You can tell that it's reinvigorated some of the things that they really held dear about the festival itself.

Yeah, I mean, everybody who was involved in the founding of Renegade, I think, would be considered pillars of the theater community in one capacity or another. So, yeah, I'm so grateful to have their support. I think we really wanted to make sure that we weren't stepping on any toes.

We wanted to make sure that they were okay with us adopting the banner of Renegade Festival. And they've been so incredibly supportive. They've been so helpful.

We have so many questions that would have been much more difficult to answer if we hadn't had Chad and Melissa there to work with with us. So their involvement is also what's making this possible. Yeah, yeah, I. I'm.

I'm really, really grateful that they're willing to give their time to this still, even after they were. I'm done with this. Like you said, we are putting this to bed. They had a really incredible run, but there's a need for it.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

Agree. Well, what is. I know that you guys are both, like, co founder organizers. Do you have specific titles that you hold or. No, I don't think we do.

I was actually talking a little bit about that with Melissa last night, and it's sort of like an all hands on deck between us. Okay. So I think we've sort of naturally flexed into some of the skills that we each have. Where we've gone, we have this need, ooh, I can do that.

You know, there's been sort of that collaboration happening and no shortage of, you know, folks willing to go, oh, I can do that part. I can do this part. You know, and so it makes for. We're not having to necessarily just stay in one lane.

Right.

And we can just pitch in and everything. I'm obviously always gonna be very maternal about stuff. As we had our last meeting, I'm like, wait a minute. Sallyly and Ben are getting.

Are working on a new show now? And I said, hold on a Second, is this too much because you're getting ready to do your own show?

You know, what kind of things can we make sure that we're balancing out so you're not overwhelmed as you're going into this too?

Right. So the main way that people can reach out is through the Facebook page.

Yes.

Right.

That's going to be one of the primary ways because it will trigger notifications to all of us. Oh, yeah. And then we have press releases that have been sent out. We've got city pulses aware, but we also have our webpage too.

And there's the submission forms on our website that folks can go to as well. But yeah, any question that folks have, there's nothing that's silly or redundant or anything at all.

We want to know what people are curious about so we can answer it. And if it's valuable to include on our webpage, we're gonna do that too. So we just wanna make sure we can get the word out and involve people.

Well, congratulations for pulling this off. That is fantastic. I am super excited and I'm so glad it's in Rio town. I think it'll really just explode. So congratulations.

Thanks to both of you for coming today. I appreciate your time.

Thank you, Paige.

Thank you, Paige.

That's a wrap for this episode of Exit Stage Left: LCC Performing Arts. We're so glad you could join us. And we hope you've enjoyed the show. To see what's taking center stage next at Lansing Community College, visit lcc.edu/showinfo. Exit Stage Left is a part of the LCC Connect Podcast Network. You can listen to this episode and others at lccconnect.com. Until next time, keep the lights bright, the cues tight, take your bow, and exit stage left.