FringeAl-Fresco Outdoor Performance and art installations for the New York International Fringe Festival 1997-1999 

In 1997, Raphaele's long time collaborator in theater, Aaron Beall invited her to join him and a few others in the creation of  a Fringe Festival in New York City. At the time only Philadelphia and Seattle had a Fringe festival in the US. He also added to the invitation a challenge: "to wrap the Lower East Side" as Christo would a building. Raphaele accepted. How to do this with no budget and only 8 months lead time? The conclusion: the wrapping had to be metaphorical and punctuated as opposed to literal and continuous. For this she teamed up with Q Williams, in charge of out door performances and with the summer architecture program of Pratt University and a number of visual artists. They named the project FringeAlFresco.