MEGA SLICE-O-MATIC
2006 Resources
What is...
Who is...
How do...
FringeNYC?The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues. In addition to 1200 incredible performances, FringeNYC includes (click to learn more):
FringeU
FringeJR
FringeHIGH
FringeAL FRESCO
FringeART
FringeCLUB
FringeCENTRAL
FringeNYC Propaganda
FringeNYC? Although FringeNYC is a production of The Present Theatre Company, Inc., it takes:
75,000 audience members
5,000 artists
2,000 registered volunteers
1,200 performances
200 shows
20 venues
16 days
15 dollar advance tickets and
2 full-time employees
to make FringeNYC happen.
We do this? Good question! In 1997, our budget was $74,000. Today, it's more than a million dollars. We must seek and secure support from donors in order to "bridge the gap" between rising costs and our desire to keep ticket prices low. Your donation helps us grow to meet the challenges of the future!
Support of FringeNYC has a tremendous impact on indie theatre. We appreciate it!
2006 Quotes
FEST BALANCES OFFBEAT WITH COMMERCIAL - The New York International Fringe Festival is straddling the line between grassroots cheerleader for offbeat legit and seductive draw for commercial hopes. And as the fest continues to evolve, maintaining that commitment to artistic exploration will remain a priority…Artists extol this dedication to artistic over profit potential.
Variety
Tom Cruise, musical butts & more for a Fringe binge.
New York Post
The Fringe On The top FringeNYC, the largest multi-arts festival in North America, is back and kinkier than ever.
Newsday
Let the tourists fight for seats in a Times Square theater (do you really want to take yet another set of visiting relatives to see “Wicked” anyway?). The New York International Fringe Festival, the city’s premiere event recognizing emerging theater talent, kicks off its 10th year today, and already boasts a few sold-out performances of its own. To show appreciation to a decade of festival-goers, a number of special anniversary events are included in this year’s 16-day lineup. Festival alumni return this year for encore performances, a first in FringeNYC history. So Accessible – FringeNYC fans themselves can become a part of the storied festival’s identity by recording a DIY podcast for this year’s “I Am FringeNYC” campaign….Interaction, after all, is why the festival continues to thrive.
Metro
As the masses flee the Apple to ride out August’s dog days in cooler, seaside climes, the city’s underground agitators emerge, bringing all manner of freakish fun. The Fringe Festival dominates the theatre scene for most of the month.
Flavorpill NYC
FOLK OF THE FRINGE It’s that time again – when it seems that every theater downtown has a line outside of it, and one word is on everyone’s lips: Fringe. Since its inception, the NY International Fringe Festival has spawned more than a couple of hits (Urinetown, Debbie Does Dallas), but more important, it’s New York’s favorite way to discover great writers, directors and actors at bargain-basement prices.
METROSOURCE
TAKING THEATER TO THE LIMIT According to some guesstimates, there are more than 1,000 theater productions – including Broadway, off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway, - annually in New York City. So when you think about it, the 200-odd shows that run each August in the New York International Fringe Festival represents about 20% of all the theater in any single calendar year. When you consider that the Fringe has now reached the ripe old age of 10, the size of its accomplishment – something in the order of 2,000 plays, musicals, puppet plays, solo shows, spoken-word pieces, dance works and the wickedly characterization-defying – simply boggles the mind. To underestimate the vital importance of the Fringe Festival to the New York City arts scene is to embrace a kind of willful ignorance. In recent years, not only has it acted as a tryout for later runs on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and beyond, but literally tens of thousands of artists – actors, writers, directors, designers – have added immeasurably to their careers through their participation. . .The Fringe isn’t just a Fringe. It’s a tradition.
New York Press
Despite getting ever more popular, it’s still managed to maintain its downtown soul.
The L Magazine
It’s easy to forget how difficult it was for an artist such as (Antonio) Sacre to get noticed before the Fringe became an August staple of the theater season. The idea that a playwright-actor with no name recognition could do a show at a black-box theater on East 4th Street and draw an audience (let alone a slew of critics) in its first few performances was preposterous. Thanks to this festival, any actor with a dream …has a chance of making it in the big city. . .The Fringe celebrates its tenth go-round this summer, which in festival years makes it something of a senior citizen. Since it was born out of the depths of the Lower East Side in 1997, it’s become the most significant annual event in downtown theater.
Time Out New York
On Broadway, late summer is known as the off-season. But in the downtown theater world, life begins in August. Every year at this time, the kaleidoscopic burst of creativity known as the New York International Fringe Festival lights up Lower Manhattan. Now in its 10th year, North America’s largest multi-arts festival hosts hundreds of performances that range from traditional drama to experimental dance, from Dadaist puppetry to alternative standup. After launching downtown, some of the more successful shows invariably transfer to new venues and enjoy longer runs. With so many cultures and perspectives represented…reverberations from the fringe will continue to be felt.
The Jewish Forward
The New York international Fringe Festival, that dirty-faced, noisome, ragamuffin stepchild of the Gotham legitimate theatre, turns 10 years old Aug. 11, and , gee, we all couldn’t be more proud. Of course, a decade of life hasn’t mellowed the bratty little thing much. It’s still running us ragged with too many offerings and trying to get the attention of mommy and daddy…But who can blame them? You can’t expect growing artists to behave themselves once they realize a show called Urinetown can make it all the way to Broadway.
Playbill
Fringe grads find Off B’way homes – season sees commercial bows of two fest alumni plays The spirit that pervades the new York International Fringe Festival every August is largely about inclusion, experimentation and risk. But as proven by several upcoming productions, the tune changes for plays that rise from the festival’s ranks to find a home Off Broadway. Faced with the demands of commercial survival in Gotham, the Fringe graduates must translate that spirit of adventure into a magnet for a particular audience niche. And those graduates are multiplying. For some of these shows, the target niche is identical to that of the Fringe itself: hipsters.
Variety
If it’s August, it must be… Yep, August in the New York theater world is pretty much about one thing: Fringe. Not the kind hanging off the elbows of your favorite Western jacket. I’m talking about the New York International Fringe Festival, which is now about to launch its tenth incarnation as one of the most celebrated and acclaimed theatrical festivals in the world. And some of us, ahem, were there at the beginning…why, sonny, I remember in the early years when myself and other theatrical journalists worked overtime to hawk the Fringe in our columns and shill for it around town, just to get the word out and stir up recognition for what we knew (Inside Ink indeed) was a fab fest. Now, almost any Joe or Jane on the street with a modicum of theatrical knowledge can tell you something about the Fringe: they’ll at least know that Urinetown was spawned there, and they’ll certainly know that nearly all the productions are staged in hip downtown venues.
Show Business Weekly
2006