The Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, nicknamed "IndyFringe," is a 10-day showcase of traditional and non-traditional theatre, dance, music, improvisation and a wide range of other performance and visual arts, performed and created by local, national and international artists. The festival features performances by 40 adult performance groups and 12 teen performance groups (the teen performances are dubbed "FringeNext").
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Based on the Fringe Festival that began in Edinburgh, Scotland, when rogue theater groups set up on the edges of the Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. IndyFringe's roots are found in Mayor Bart Peterson Cultural Tourism Initiative in 2001. A group of experts and citizens met for "Theatre City Indianapolis 2012" and came up with the idea for an Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival. Central Indiana Community foundation donated seed money and IndyFringe was born.
The first year for the festival was 2005. The festival drew 4,775 patrons in its inaugural year. In 2006, a substantial increase in publicity and media coverage resulted in attendance doubling, with 9,677 patrons.[1]
The festival is typically presented in late August and early September near the Labor Day holiday weekend. The 2007 festival is scheduled for August 24 to September 2, 2007. The 2008 festival is scheduled for August 22–31, 2008. The 2009 festival is scheduled for August 21–30, 2009.
Performance groups are invited to apply for a place in the festival on February 1 each year. Eighteen places are reserved for performance groups from Indiana. Twelve places are allotted to performance groups from across the United States. Six places are allotted to international performance groups, and the remaining four places are allotted at the discretion of the organizers.
Performances are presented at five Indianapolis area venues: the American Cabaret Theatre, the Phoenix Theatre, ComedySportz Theatre, Theatre on the Square, and the Murat Theatre. All are located in the Massachusetts Avenue Arts and Cultural District within easy walking distance of one another.
Board of Directors
Pauline Moffat, Executive Director
Jill Ditmire, President
Lori Kaplan, Vice President
Jeff Kelsey, Treasurer
Tom Battista, Chair, Technical Committee
Wendy Harrison, Finance Committee
Nora Campbell, Secretary & Co-Chair, Visual- Fringe Committee
Elizabeth Simon, Co-Chair, VisualFringe Committee
Gary Reiter, Finance and Building Committee
Sandra Bickel, Governance Committee