Everybody oughta have a Fringe. Los Angeles' celebration of the not-quite mainstream is the Edge of the World Theater Festival, subtitled for 2001: a Revolution in Theatre. The Edge of the World Theater Festival plays at various venues throughout the city Nov. 8-18.

Among the fancifully titled works offered around L.A. are Adam J. Nordquist's Bite the Water, Aliza Murrieta's Darwin's Li'l Bitches, Paula Mitchell Manning's Flirting With Morty, Peres Owino's Hamlet, Princess of Nubia, Elizabeth Dement's and Todd Hausen's Trashball: A Love Story, sketch comedy from Heroine Addicts and a new rock'n'roll horror musical, The Djinn.

The best shows in the Festival may not even be the announced ones. The Edge of the World Theatre Festival commissioned playwrights all across America to submit short plays concerning a woman's accident with an elephant. The 13 winning works, titled together 13 Ways of Looking at an Elephant, will separately open or follow other festival works.

Special events include a series of plays about the history of Los Angeles, being performed Nov. 10-11 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, a Press Roundtable at the Los Angeles Times Salon Room (Nov. 13), Designer Roundtable at the Evidence Room (Nov. 17) and a Theatre Community Roundtable at the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at Cal State (Nov. 18).

Tickets range from $20-$10 with a festival pass deal that reduces all prices to $5. For reservations, call (323) 860-7300. The Edge of the World Theatre Festival is on the web at http://www.edgeoftheworld.org. — By Christine Ehren x