Re: RAT Fringe festivals

[TimNGail@aol.com]

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This past summer, I was involved with two different productions that went to
four different Fringe festivals.  I worked with an ensemble member of
Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and took a show to Sudbury, Ontario,  Winnipeg,
Manitoba, and Minneapolis.  Then Funkopolis took our production of 3 STORIES
TO THE GROUND  to the NYC Fringe festival.  All very different, and worthwhile
experiences, although not all were worth repeating.

First off (cracking the pull tab on what I'm sure will be a bountiful can of
worms), of the four I listed, only two were true FRINGE festivals... Sudbury
and Winnipeg.  In both of these situations:
- you paid an application fee;
- they were un-juried festivals; 
- the festival coordinators promoted the festival itself, and it was up to the
artists to promote their own show (a FABULOUS experience in learning VERY
quickly the basics of guerilla marketing)
- after each performance, you were able to pick up 100% of the box office
receipts for that performance (within a few hours of administrative
processing)

Each person might have their own, individualized interpretation of what a true
Fringe festival is, but I think these two (and generally the others in Canada)
are the ones I'm aware of that embody the true spirit (again, for me) of what
a Fringe festival should ultimately be.  (I would LOVE to hear if anyone has
information on American or other festivals that follow the same guidelines as
above)

That being said, Sudbury was not incredibly well attended overall, and didn't
have a tremendous amount of community support - therefore, audiences were hard
to come by.  

Winnipeg ROCKED!!!  I would go back again, and again, and again.... the
administrative efforts were fabulous, very large audience base (I think
somewhere close to 100,000 individual tickets to over 100 shows were sold in a
10-day period), fabulous job done in marketing the festival overall, and the
media outlets in town covered the festival extensively (both major papers in
town ran pull-out inserts in each paper, with LOTS of reviews, as well as
schedules for each day's performances).  Winnipeg also did incredibly well in
that it had a centralized Fringe Central in the geographic middle of all
performance venues, with live entertainment on outdoor stages from noon 'til
midnight every day.  I could gush endlessly about Winnipeg.. can't say enough
good things about it.

In general, the Canadian Fringe circuit is set up to run east to west over the
course of the summer, and if I had it to do over again, I would start in the
East and work my way across over the summer, focusing on a few and skipping a
few others.  LOTS of contacts that I now have with artists from America,
Canada, and elsewhere in the world as a result, as lots of the same groups are
on the circuit, and relationships develop as you travel.  In addition, the
exchange rate in Canada is pretty fabulous right now, making it particularly
attractive to American artists.

The Minneapolis and NYC "fringe" festivals are a different creature, both in
their artistic make-up and their administrative efforts.  I don't want to bad
mouth them here, as I think they are worthwhile theatre festivals... simply
not what I would consider to be true Fringe festivals.  I can go into more
detail should somebody want it. I would say that I would not repeat the
Minneapolis fringe at this point, and would repeat NYC with reservations.

enough blathering... I'll let the worms get some air...

tim