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This is the FringeNYC awards, and also the shows that will get a little more viewing time via the new FringeNYC Encores series.

A little bit of trivia: the first year of the festival, the awards were called BIFFs – Best In Fringe Festival. Overall Excellence sounds a little bit like something from a ‘Simpsons’ episode (specifically this one), but at least it isn’t named after a guy you didn’t want to talk to in high school.

FringeNYC 2006 Overall Excellence Award Winners

Outstanding Play:
I Was Tom Cruise
Modern Missionary
Lulu

Outstanding Musical:
The Fartiste
58! A Comedy About Bike Messengering
Fallen Angel

Outstanding Playwrighting:
Matt Hoverman – In Transit
Moby Pomerance – Broken Hands
Geoffrey Decas – The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos

Outstanding Music & Lyrics:
Danny Ashkenasi – The Tell-Tale Heart

Outstanding Solo Show:
Flying on the Wing
Mike’s Incredible Indian Adventure
Democrats Abroad

Outstanding Direction:
Mark Steven Robinson – Don’t Ask
Jonathan Silverstein – Red Herring
Joel Froomkin – The Infliction of Cruelty

Outstanding Costume Design:
Robin L. McGee – Rainy Days & Mondays
Renee Mariotti & Bernard Grenier – Trouble in Shameland

Outstanding Set Design:
Shane LeClair – A Small Hole
Robin Vest – Hermanas

Outstanding Actor:
Anna Jayne Marquardt – Walmartopia
Helen Stratford – Suicide – The Musical
Steve Hayes – The Pengiun Tango
Cory Grant – Broken Hands
Margaret Daly – T.L.C.

Outstanding Ensemble:
Open House
Vice Girl Confidential
The Onion Lovers
Diving Normal

Outstanding Choreography
Paula Kroening – Band Geeks

Audiences will get a chance to see many of these award winners (and several audience favorites) as part of the inaugural “FringeNYC Encores” series. This new annual series will present over a dozen works in rotating repertory at two downtown venues. The roster for FringeNYC Encores will include: Billy the Mime, Danny Boy, Diving Normal, I Was Tom Cruise, In Transit, Mike’s Incredible Indian Adventure, Never Swim Alone, Open House, The Penguin Tango, Perfect Harmony, Rainy Days & Mondays, and Walmartopia. Venue information and performance times will be announced on Wednesday, August 30. (NOTE: FringeNYC Encores is is produced by an independent team of producers. It is NOT a production of The Present Company, producers of FringeNYC.) FringeNYC Encores runs September 5 – 24.Tickets are $18 and go on sale Friday September 1, 2006 at www.theatermania.com or 212-352-3101. For more information visit www.fringenyc-encores.com.