Northern Michigan University’s Forest Roberts Theatre is presenting its second annual Fringe Festival Jan. 26–Feb. 4 in the Panowski Black Box Theatre. Four different theatrical pieces performed, produced and directed by the students in the theater and entertainment arts program will alternate every evening. The Fringe Festival will feature Proof, Painted Rain, The Myths and Bricks Project and In a Mason Jar.

Proof by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Auburn is a story about fathers and daughters, mental stability and mathematical genius.

Janet Allard’s Painted Rain explores the relationship between two boys in an orphanage who are on the verge of separation due to adoption.

The Myths and Bricks Project by Dustin Robert Blakeman features a man who sits in a room, where his only companion is a brick that refuses to speak.

NMU student Coop Bicknell’s In a Mason Jar will premiere in the Fringe Festival. In a Mason Jar is a narrative in which a young bartender shares stories about his father and the bar that he owned for more than 40 years.

The Myths and Bricks Project, Painted Rain and In a Mason Jar are one-act pieces that will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27 and Feb. 1, 2 and 4, with a 1 p.m. matinee performance on Jan. 28. The full production of Proof will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26 and 28 and Feb. 3, with a 1 p.m. performance on Feb. 4.

Tickets for each performance are $15 for the public, $10 for students and $5 for NMU students. They can be purchased at any NMU EZ ticket outlet. The Fringe Festival contains some adult language and themes.

The concept of a Fringe Festival can be traced back to Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1947, when eight theatre groups were shunned from the Edinburgh International Festival because they were not part of the official program. The eight snubbed actors decided to stage their productions anyway, right on the ‘fringe’ of the official festival. The Fringe Festival at Forest Roberts Theatre follows this idea and was put together to allow graduating seniors to showcase their capstone projects.