New energy for FeverFest

Next week brings the fourth annual FeverFest summer theater festival, Thursday through Aug. 16 at the Factory Theatre. The festival was founded and run by the small Whistler in the Dark troupe, but now it’s being taken over (amicably) by a new organization called the Small Theatre Alliance of Boston - with the eye-catching acronym STAB.

“It always felt that [the festival] wasn’t meant to be in the control of one company,’’ says Whistler artistic director Meg Taintor. “We need to start fostering communication between small theaters in Boston . . . harnessing the energy we have to assist each other. . . . And I think the festival is going to be even stronger as a result.’’

This year’s festival, which has the theme of friction, brings a variety of shows. Among them, Whistler offers “Friction of Dust,’’ “exploring the memory and the residue of guilt and regret that builds over a life.’’ New Exhibition Room stages “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life,’’ “about Jesus, boxing, and Mama’s boys,’’ by local playwright and director John J. King. And Imaginary Beasts offers “Weasel,’’ an adaptation of a 16th-century play.

The first three years of the festival offered young local artists a chance to watch one another work, borrow props and actors, and just interact. It was a luxury for people who normally divide their time between day jobs and the hard work of putting up productions on minimal budgets.

“A number of us who were involved with that really liked some of the collaboration that had come out of it, . . . the cross-pollination of audiences and artists,’’ says King, a STAB organizer. “We wanted to find a way to keep that going and even have some infrastructure to it.’’

The infrastructure is still pretty loose. But the nine members listed on STAB’s website (www.SmallTheatreAllianceofBoston.org) have already started collaborating in small ways. Shows from member groups are promoted alongside FeverFest on the website, and their postcards are finding their way into programs for one another’s shows.

“There already was a kind of exchange happening,’’ says Imaginary Beasts artistic director Matthew Woods. “We felt that we might be able to organize it better and show a greater unity.’’

“For those of us who are beginning to organize STAB, it’s been just wonderful to see the support we’re all offering each other,’’ Woods adds. “That’s the kind of thing that keeps you going, makes you want to keep doing theater. Especially when you’re just starting out, that can be a pretty daunting task. And we’re all going through the same thing to some degree.’’ Tickets: 866-811-4111, www.theatermania.com