Fairmont State University theatre professor Dr. Francene Kirk will perform her original “informance” 9 Before IX for the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC) in Knoxville, Tenn.

The SETC Fringe Festival is a performance festival that takes place each year during the annual SETC Convention. This year’s Fringe Festival, now in its 16th year, will feature five original works. Performances will be held on Friday, March 1, and are open to all convention attendees. 

In 9 Before IX, Kirk inhabits the women she interviewed for an oral history project, weaving together their stories, her own story, and information she has gleaned teaching gender studies. Kirk’s quest to understand her mother and herself is occasionally funny, touching and infuriating. Her goal is to leave the audience to ponder how far women have come and how far we have to go in the quest for gender equality.  

Kirk will give a preview performance at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center on the campus of Fairmont State University on Monday Feb. 25 at 7 p.m.  This performance is free and open to the public.  

The Southeastern Theatre Conference is a nonprofit and dynamic membership organization serving a diverse constituency and reaching out across 10 states in the southeast region of the United States and beyond. SETC has 4,307 active individual members and 469 organizational members (theatres, educational institutions and arts organizations). 

The 10 state region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.