By Leonard Jacobs

According to some guesstimates, there are more than 1,000 theater productions—including Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway—annually in New York City. So when you think about it, the 200-odd shows that run each August in the New York International Fringe Festival represents about 20% of all the theater in any single calendar year. When you consider that the Fringe has now reached the ripe old age of 10, the size of its accomplishment—something in the order of 2,000 plays, musicals, puppet plays, solo shows, spoken-word pieces, dance works and the wickedly characterization-defying—simply boggles the mind.

To underestimate the vital importance of the Fringe festival to the New York City arts scene is to embrace a kind of willful ignorance. In recent years, not only has it acted as a tryout for later runs on Broadway (Urinetown), Off-Broadway (Matt & Ben, Never Swim Alone) and beyond, but literally tens of thousands of artists—actors, writers, directors, designers—have added immeasurably to their careers through their participation. Yes, a fair number of the shows over the years have been pretty bizarre—while there’s never been Pick Your Nose: The Booger Musical or The Peloponnesian Wars: A Puppet Play, there could be. And that, actually, is the point. When you’ve got an annual festival that sports 200 shows, 800 volunteers, 1,300 performances, 4,500 artists and an audience of 70,000, anything goes. The Fringe isn’t just a Fringe. It’s a tradition.

Here, to make it a little easier to handle, are 10 shows from this year’s Fringe we think you should check out:

Rum & Coke

Carmen Pelaez’s play would be interesting even if it hadn’t already been optioned by Fox Theatricals or introduced as part of the Wellesley College curriculum. It’s a story about a group of seven Cuban women who face “the unimaginable with sardonic irreverence and genuine grit.” With Fidel Castro in the midst of convalescence and the rest of the world in turmoil, have a little Rum & Coke and watch this writer/actor do her thing.

I Was Tom Cruise

The former Thomas Mapother IV—aka the couch-jumping, birth pain-quieting minion of Scientology who once aspired to serious acting—as Mephistopheles? That’s the idea behind Alexander Poe’s play, which imagines the world of a couple, Frank and Paula, turned on its ear when Cruise begins filming in their building and makes Frank a Faustian bargain. (Yes, Brooke Shields was unaccountably unavailable to star in this show.)

Reservoir Bitches

While one could make the joke that a show called Reservoir Bitches must be about the entire cast of “Noah’s Arc” jogging around the lake in Central Park, to say that would just be bitchy. It’s actually an all-female satire-cum-parody of the Quentin Tarantino flick Reservoir Dogs. And for anyone who’s still wondering what that might mean on stage, here’s three words for you: Code name: Pink!

The Fartiste

It’s hard to describe what Joseph Pujol meant to audiences in fin de siecle Paris. He might have been akin to some of the burlesque and variety performers we have today, what with women setting breasts on fire and magicians sticking things inside orifices we’ve never even heard of. Pujol’s talent, which is thoroughly celebrated in this musical, was making music with his rectum. Is this musical a gas? You’ll have to judge for yourself.

Democrats Abroad

Poor Canada. Not only does it have to suffer its noisy, crass neighbor to the south, complete with their conservative politics out of Cracker Jack boxes and exceptionally boundless talent for international meddling and hypocrisy, but when things get really, really, really bad here in the U.S., what happens? The Democrats cut and run—to Canada! Ay! What’s going on here?

I Want to be Musashi: A Clown Samurai Fantasy

Christopher Lueck’s sensitive and swashbuckling play is about...himself. Well, if not quite himself, it’s at least about his growing fascination with Miyamoto Musashi, who was perhaps the greatest samurai warrior who ever lived. Lueck is a fierce practitioner of chanbara—samurai sword-fighting—and this play, with a sharp edge, tells you why.

Griot: He Who Speaks the Sweet Word

One of a handful of spoken-word performances in the Fringe, Al Letson’s “choreopoem” uses hip-hop, jazz, theatre, dance and an amalgam of styles termed “performance poetry” to trace the history of the West African Griot, a repository of oral history. Storytelling as an art isn’t lost—just listen and you’ll see why.

Girl Scouts of America

We’re not telling whether brownies are served before or after the show; that would be unfair and raise the potential for too many terrible jokes. But this four-character play—about two counselors and two girl scouts—has a lot more going for it than discussions of merit badges, girl talk and Thin Mints.

Puppet Government

One of only two puppet plays in this year’s Fringe, this piece poses a relevant question: If President George W. Bush were an appliance, what would he be? Enjoy a rollicking bevy of musical numbers, watch a few wars get started, check out some odd press conferences, and when all else fails, whip up something special on the Michael Brown Toasted Cheese Sandwich Maker. You’re making a heckuva sandwich, Brownie!

Walmartopia

Good evening, shoppers! A single mom in 2006, Vicki Latrell, has dared to rail against the working conditions at her local Wal-Mart. As punishment, she is shuttled 30 years ahead, to 2036—a time when the United States is not only “one nation under Wal-Mart” but even features the merry singing head of founder Sam Walton! This is certainly one musical even non-musical lovers will want to buy into.

August 11-27. Various locations, 212-279-4488, Tickets $15. www.FringeNYC.org.