Dramatic Twist

Theatre J'Nerique holds casting call for massive Rogue Festival

Marcel Nunis puffed away on a cigarette as he talked about running a marathon.

A reporter's question. A puff. A long answer. A new cigarette. A new question.

"Everybody here is always complaining that nothing is ever happening in this town," Nunis said with smoke circling his head. "Well, we're trying to make something happen with this."

Nunis is a founding member of Theatre J'Nerique. The acting company is organizing the Rogue Performance Festival -- a marathon of theater with 10 groups performing more than 50 performances the first 10 days in March.

That's the plan anyway. Nunis and his company are hoping 10 groups step forward to participate. The deadline for applications is Oct. 19.

"It's hit and run. ... Yeah, like guerrilla theater," he said. "The idea here is low-cost, high-profile for local groups."

But Nunis and Theatre J'Nerique are looking beyond Fresno to fill the show. Organizers have sent applications from Modesto to Bakersfield. And they are looking into the future: They see this as an annual event.

"This is the ground floor," Nunis said. "Just the beginning."

Nunis, who came to California State University, Fresno, in 1990 from Malaysia to study theater, formed Theatre J'Nerique with a group of friends in 1995.

"It was a big joke. A few of us had been hanging out together, doing performances in our back yards," Nunis said. The group also performed in bits and pieces at the defunct Laundromat theater space in the Tower District.

When it came to a name, the group of theater friends kicked around the idea of calling themselves Theatre Unique. But there were other groups that had that name.

"We came up with Theatre J'Nerique," Nunis said. "We thought it sounded pretty pretentious. French. So that's good."

The word "J'Nerique" (JEN'-er-eek), a play on "generic," has no French meaning.

The company's Web site (http://www.theatrejnerique.com/) describes the group as "entertaining theatre for an adventurous audience."

"Theatre J'Nerique. Just a cut different," it reads.

Since 1999, the company has performed many of its shows in the 200-seat Sanctuary Stage Theater at Calaveras and N streets, where Nunis is a drama teacher for at-risk students from the Fresno Unified School District.

The company performs everything from classic Christmas plays to modern works penned by Nunis, who considers himself a playwright first.

Nunis' first real exposure to the sort of event the Rogue Festival is modeled after was a play he wrote for the Fringe Festival in San Francisco.

"I was intrigued with it," he said of the Fringe's design. "We had been batting the idea around for years. And finally we figured, why not?"

The origin of Fringe festivals is usually credited to acting groups in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 1940s. The format has been copied around the world. "Acting groups could perform something original. It could be something that's tried and true. I've seen puppet plays, storytelling ... music. I've seen a lot of one-person shows," Nunis said of Fringe performers. "I think it's for anyone who has a sense of adventure. And anyone who wants to write, or direct ... this is the venue to see it performed."

Groups interested in the Rogue Festival pay a $210 fee but collect all box-office proceeds during three scheduled performances throughout the 10 days of the event. Tickets cost $5 for each day.

Performances can't be longer than 60 minutes and groups have just 15 minutes to set up and break down sets.

"The idea is that we get groups to perform whatever they want to perform. They are basically self-producing," he said.

Jodi Ballard is promotions director for the Rogue Festival. She has been with the group since the idea of the festival began.

"I guess I'm kind of Marcel's right-hand man now, on this," she said. "What happened was that one night we went out for a beer and he told me about this festival and he said that he would like to fulfill his dream of putting it together.

"I thought it was a really cool idea. They have it for the movie industry, Cannes Film Festival. It should work with this too."

Ballard said she has high hopes for the festival and said Fresno has more than enough talent to support it.

"I hope this opens up a lot more venues for theater in the area," she said. "It's kind of mind-boggling that this hasn't happened already."

If all goes well this year, Nunis has a long-term goal of expanding the event to other fields of performing arts in other festivals.

"I think there is a lot of talent in the area," he said. "Now we just have to have them come."

Nancy Miller, promotions coordinator for Good Company Players, a stalwart theater group, said she too thinks the Rogue Festival can blossom.

"I think this is a great idea," she said. "For what it is, we really want to see it succeed. If they can create an appetite for theater, that's wonderful. And it's giving a chance at directing ... and writing for people who might not otherwise get one.

"It might not all be great theater. But it will be exciting."

Information on how to become a performer at the March 2002 Rogue Performance Festival can be obtained by calling 498-8543 ext. 201, by e-mailing darogue@msn.com or by going to Theatre J'Nerique's Web site (http://www.theatrejnerique.com/).