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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