Ron Berry has been having a mighty fine time of things lately. Last year's Fuse Box Festival was critically and commercially successful. Refraction Arts' production of The Assumption was so popular, they resurrected it in December to sold out houses. The company garnered a whopping 24 Critics Table Awards in '07. To top it all off, in its most ambitious year to date, Fuse Box '08 kicks off in less than two weeks. We recently chatted with Ron about Fuse Box to get the scoop on this year's fest.

Looking at the program guide—it's extensive this year! Give us a few teasers if you will—a few artists you're particularly excited about. Any new names you've been longing to work with, or perhaps some old names you're thrilled to see returning?

I'm really excited about so much of the lineup, but here are a few highlights....

Reggie Watts (pg 43) at the Long Center on May 1-3. He's amazing. He just won the Andy Kaufman Award for innovative comedy. He is also a classically trained pianist and vocalist, and is one of six Americans in possession of a full vocal range (10 octaves). He was in the Under The Radar Festival at the Public this year and brought down the house. Super funny and creative.

Etiquette by London's Rotozaza (pg 55) at Cafe Mundi. This is a 1/2 performance for two that runs the length of the festival. I saw this in Edinburgh and NYC this year and it's fantastic. The video piece the NY Times did on the show explains it well. Their other piece, Five in the Morning is also very good (page 7). These make good companion pieces. Very smart, heady, challenging work

HIJACK and Scott Heron performing Stacked Cow and other dances (pg. 9) at Salvage Vanguard Theater May 1-3. They were one of the hits from last year. Scott Heron has won a Bessie Award for his body of work in NYC and HIJACK has received rave reviews from the NY Times and various other publications. They are one of my favorite dance companies. Super fun, fresh, inventive.

Others to consider are the Debate Society (the other smash hit from last year), Graham Reynolds and Brannen Temple at the Long Center, and Andee Scott at the Long Center.

Fuse Box 2008 is in a variety of venues, including the Blue, SVT"s new space, and the Long Center. It seems like this year's fest is larger than ever. Are there challenges to spreading the net farther?

Yes indeedie, there are challenges a plenty with trying to grow a festival from one or two venues to 10 venues. But it's all very much in line with what the festival is about, which is fostering conversation and new avenues/channels of thought. So I think the growth is essential; it's just a lot more people power and coordination. We've got stuff happening at the Blanton, Arthouse, Women and Their Work, Okay Mountain, Gallery Lombardi, and Big Medium Gallery, in addition to the Long Center, the Blue, and SVT.

So, again, it's a lot of work coordinating all these different events and places, but it's also provided a great excuse to get to know some of these other artists/presenters and talk shop—in a very real way. That's exciting.

This year the early preview material mentioned "intensive training courses." Is this something new?

This was going to be something new, but it's probably a year away. We are working on lining up a series of week long intensive training courses from master instructors from around the world. Also working on creating/hosting an arts writing symposium with arts writers coming to Austin during Fuse Box to talk shop, take workshops and cover all the various events.

This year, it's primarily going to be 2-4 hour long workshops. Fun, informative and pretty casual.

What's the scoop on festival tickets and passes this year?

Festival passes are $50 through April 20th, at which point they jump up to $75. Most of the programming is around an hour in length, so you can go see more than one thing a night. Individual shows will range from free to $5 to $10-25, depending on the event. Passes can be bought online, and tickets can be purchased at the door or at the Blue Theater from Noon to 5pm beginning April 21st. You will be able to purchase individual tickets online in the next week or so. You can also call to make reservations over the phone (512) 927-1118.

And just a note: A pass does not guarantee you admission, you still have to make a reservation.

I'm looking forward to Fuse Box once again offering site-specific work. Streets, buildings, bridges, and sidewalks.... Can you tell a little more about that? Especially the bridges?

There will definitely be some site-specific work, but I can't tell you any more than that. It's still taking shape. I'm a man of mystery.

You personally—and Refraction Arts as a company—had a great 2007, with awards, press coverage, and well-deserved successes. Does that put pressure on you to make this year's Fuse Box that much better?

I'm grateful/happy about the success we've garnered over the past couple of years, it's gratifying for sure. But it's also really not about that. If anything, I'm more interested in this idea of failure. Or creating space for people to take risks. A space where failure is a real possibility. That's exciting to me.

I don't know if you're going to "like" everything you see at Fuse Box. And don't get me wrong, there is plenty to like, lots and lots to like, lots to absolutely fall madly in love with, but at the heart of the festival is this idea of conversation and innovation and taking risks. So sometimes in order to forward these things, forward discussion/innovation, you need to leave issues of success at the door. It's about something else. And maybe you need some success to feel that freedom, I don't know. But I think that's something that's really important and really special to me. This idea that Fuse Box is a place to play, and create and present pioneering new work that asks big questions and at the same time it's a place you can potentially fail miserably. That's awesome.

Having said that, the artists we're bringing in are amazing and really represent some of the freshest, smartest work being done today. So it's a fantastic opportunity to see some adventurous new work by some of our brightest artists. There's really nothing else like this in the state of Texas. The closest model would be the Time Based Art Festival in Portland, which is an amazing event in its own right.

For all the nitty-gritty on the Fuse Box Festival, check out the fantastic programming guide. Starts April 23 and runs for ten days in venues all around town.