Mr. Fringey caught up with Beth Marshall, the Producing Artistic Director of the Orlando Fringe Festival and the host of this year’s STATE OF
Q: What’s the official name for your meeting?
A: The United States Fringe Festival Association Conference.
Q: How long have you been meeting?
A: 5 years.
Q: Is it in the same place every year?
A: No, it’s hosted by a different festival each year. Next years it’s in
Q: Who showed up this year?
A: MN, Indy, KC, Frigid, NYC,
Q: Wait! If I take the first letter of each of the words of your conference it stands for USAFF. Does that mean the USAFF is the same as the CAFF?
A: Hardly. The CAFF or Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals has a mandate that says what a fringe is.
Q: Yeah, when I visited the CAFF website (http://www.fringefestivals.com) I kind of got the idea that the Canadians had the whole fringe thing down. When I went to the USAFF website – http://www.fringefestivals.us. It seemed like what a fringe is in the
A: Exactly. There’s a real strong challenge here in the
Q: What does
A: 100% UNCENSORED
100% UNJURIED
100% ACCESSIBLE
100% of $ from ticket sales go directly to the ARTISTS involved!
Q: That’s what I always thought a fringe was, but the New York Fringe is juried, the Cincinnati Fringe only gives you 50% of the door, etc. It seems like every city has it’s own rules.
A: Which is why the USAFF is only an organization in theory. Until there’s an agreement in terms of what guides a
Q: We can barely agree on healthcare, I doubt a bunch of artists are going to agree on something like this. It seems pretty simple though.
A: Exactly. There is a reason that the festivals overall are doing well in
Q: So, what do you do at your secret fringe meeting?
A: It’s a producer’s conference.
Q: So, you have brainstorming sessions on what the fringe is?
Mr. Fringey's disclaimer: Beth doesn't really say "exactly" all the time, it's just that Mr. Fringey couldn't read his notes from the interview
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5 comments:
That was really cool of Beth to do an interview with you! The Orlando Fringe is the US Fringe that has run itself MOST similarly to Canadian Fringes for the longest amount of time (Indy now also runs itself like Canadian Fringes), and it therefore attracts more Canadian Fringers than any other US-based festival. I've noticed that a lot of Canadians kind of, um, laugh at the idea of doing US Fringes that don't give the artists 100% of the box office, or that are juried or partially juried, and I get that...if you can go to festivals where you don't have to divide your box office with anyone at all, why would you settle for 60%, or even 50% (Cincinnati)? I kinda wish the US Fringes that have eschewed the Canadian model would rethink this. It would be so nice to have "fringe uniformity" in the States...it would sure make it easier to explain what the heck a "fringe" is, and what "fringe" means. :)
I wish Orlando could teach some biz lessons to the rest of the US fringe world. The other fringes really are clueless when it comes to embracing the traditional fringe business model.
Long Island Fringe Festival is doing it's best to embrace the essence of fringe.
We are accepting 2010 applications NOW! We hope to see many of you there. Chosen by lottery.
We are learning as we go. We hope we do fringe proud.
....and I guess if anyone was looking for fringe festivals, they might search for one on Long Island.
The bucolic setting for this fringe is a breath of fresh air, held in Brookville, NY, off the beaten path. September 24-25-26-2010 -
Why don't you join us this year.
Fringe in style at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts. Applications are available online.
Just GOOGLE Long Island Fringe Festival.
The Boulder Fringe is also 100% unjuried, 100% uncensored, 100% accessible and 100% of the box office proceeds go to the artists.
We're accepting applications for the 2011 Fringe now through January 30th, online at www.boulderfringe.com
Huzzah for Fringe!
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