X marks the spot

The Renegade Theatre Festival is back for its 10th season. The annual festival, which takes over the storefronts and streets of Old Town for the weekend, has become like an family reunion for Lansing’s theater community. Over the course of three nights, patrons can sample over 30 productions ranging from children’s shows and short speeches to full-length productions. Co-founder and organizer Chad Badgero compares Renegade to a Meijer Superstore version of theater, with “a million options in a single spot.”

“Every theater company in the area is a part of (Renegade Theatre Festival), so you can go to the ones you like and try out ones you’ve never been to and get a feel,” said Badgero.

And it’s completely free. “If you’re a beginning theater person, maybe you don’t know what you think of theater. This is a great in-road,” said Badgero. “You can leave if you want. You’re not out anything. And if you think a production is terrible, you have another opportunity in a few more minutes to see something else that might be amazing.”

Local theater companies and universities staging readings or productions include Williamston Theatre, Riverwalk Theatre, Peppermint Creek Theater Co., Lansing Community College and Michigan State University.

The festival also includes several independent productions from regional actors, writers and directors. Lisa Biggs, local performing artist and MSU professor, occupies all three roles in her solo biographical production of early abolitionist/suffragette Abby Kelley, “Where Spirit Rides.” Set in the mid-1800s, this production focuses on Kelley, a white Quaker from rural Massachusetts who, in this theatrical interpretation, is possessed by the ghost of a former slave.

Biggs says theater allows her to explore the subject in a more collective and visceral way than a book or other medium might allow.

“I want people to live in the room with the ghost,” Biggs said. “(Kelley) spoke in the public sphere. So the piece is a restaging of those moments, to understand what the stakes were and what the experience was like. Usually you read alone, you read silently to yourself, and that’s fabulous. But I wanted to create a collective experience of coming to the show.”

Speaking of restaging public moments, Tom Helma, City Pulse theater critic, is returning with a second year of the street side “Soap Box Speeches.” This year’s offerings include politically themed speeches from Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Silverman delivered by costumed actors. Standing on a soap box, of course.

Helma said that Andy Callis, LCC lead theater faculty member, once told him that “theater is everywhere.”

“It’s not just on stage, but it’s in sports events, it’s in public speeches and it’s in every aspect of human life,” Helma said. “All the actors that I’ve asked to do this expressed delight and said it would be an honor to do so, which was more than what I was expecting.”

Badgero credits that sense of family and community as part of the reason he stays involved every year.

“There are only two opportunities that we really have as a theater community to all come together, the (City Pulse) Pulsar Awards and the Renegade Theater Festival,” Badgero said. “I love that experience of being down with all of these other theaters in our community — that we are all really working together to create a sense of place in Lansing.”

As for the festival’s longevity, Badgero credits the ability of the artists and audiences to accept logistical limitations.

“(The festival) was really drafted on the generosity of the venues owners,” Badgero said. “I promised (theaters and artists) what I could, which was a space and chairs. And that’s what’s beautiful about the way that the festival is today. The businesses around it have changed, but the original concept still remains the same.”

Badgero expects the festival to continue growing, and the goal is to accommodate everyone.

“Whatever is brought to us by the deadline, we’ll find a space,” Badgero said. “If there were 40 shows, we would find space for 40 shows. We would obviously have to reevaluate our locale or structure, which we do every year. And the last three or four years that’s been a conversation, because we have to find spaces for what we have.”

Badgero said that the festival leadership has even discussed a multi-site version of the festival. He cited Lansing’s Capital City Film Festival as a good example of a multi-venue festival that hosts events at several sites throughout the city.

Even in its current state, geographically restricted to Old Town, audiences literally cannot see everything, given overlapping show times and the sheer volume of theatrical and musical offerings. For those frustrated by the fact that they have to choose between multiple one-night-only productions, co-founder Melissa Kaplan empathizes.

“It’s a big challenge,” Kaplan said. “It’s like we’ve provided this amazing feast, and then we’ve told you that you can only go back for one second helping.”

Renegade Theatre Festival

Aug. 13-15 (see pages 14 and 15 for full schedule and map of performance venues) FREE Old Town, Lansing renegadetheatrefestival.org