Tonight, community theater authority New Orleans Fringe hosts their second run of “Fringe Pillow Talk and a Shot”, an intimate, interesting, and free discussion series at Lost Love Lounge.

Ratty Scurvics. Photo by Melissa Stryker.

The evening’s topic, “Hip-Hop, Rock and Soul: Music As Theater”, will revolve around how theater artists and musicians blur the line, combining the two forms of expression to create deeper performances. The dialogue will delve much farther than traditional musical theater, so Disney Broadway will likely not make an appearance.

N.O. Fringe produces the annual Fringe Festival, a smorgasbord of theater, burlesque, puppetry, and any other type of performance art out there. But beyond that, Fringe is involved in the community year-round, including with Pillow Talk and a Shot. Every third Tuesday of the month from 7 to 9 p.m., selected artists turn the Lost Love Lounge into an open conversation about hot topics in the theater community. Discussions in the coming months include “Amplifying the Voice: Social Justice in Performance”, “Installation as Performance”, and “The Glory of Grassroots”.

Tonight’s Pillow Talk will be moderated by Alison Fensterstock, with guest speakers DaVida Chanel, Pamela Davis-Noland and Ratty Scurvics talking candidly about their own experiences as artists in both music and drama. Chanel debuted at this past Fringe Festival with Hip-Hop Is Alive, which featured actual rappers, including Lyrikill and A.Levy, as actors. Davis-Noland produced Badu-izms, turning classic Erykah Badu songs into stories, infusing a chorus of women, comedians and a trumpeter into one cohesive work. Ratty Scurvics, who has performed at the Fringe Festival as well, offers a different point of view, and will discuss how drama adds to his music, instead of the other way around.

Additionally, New Orleans Fringe announced the opening today of submissions for the fifth-annual Fringe Festival, which will take place November 14-18. Applications are due by July 2 to perform in a Fringe-sponsored venue in the Bywater and Marigny. Shows must be between 30 to 60 minutes long. There is a $25 fee to apply, and ticket sales will be split between the applicant and New Orleans Fringe. On May 15, applications will be made available for those who wish to organize their own venue for a performance. More info about performing at the New Orleans Fringe Festival is available at nofringe.org.