Cincy Fringe Festival offers audiences unfiltered live performances
If you’re looking for creative expression and a unique art form that you’re unlikely to get anywhere else, the Cincinnati Fringe Festival is the place for you. Running from May 31 to June 15, the Fringe Festival offers audiences 35, one-hour long theater productions that range from absurdist musical romps to pieces that survey love, grief and loss. With so many options to choose from, there is something for everyone.
Vanguard of Creative Expression
The Cincinnati Fringe Festival has been inspiring and entertaining audiences for 20 years. This upcoming season is no different. As the region’s largest and longest running annual performing arts festival, the Fringe Festival is a known staple in the city and beyond.
Katie Hartman, producer of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, says folks can expect “interdisciplinary and out of the box thinking.” The primary lineup, Hartman says, is half locals and half non-locals. The work audiences will see is raw and unfiltered, not going through the typical stages of development of a life performance.
“You can expect to see work from folks that have trained in their fields for a tremendous amount of time, and the work that most intrigued them is the work that they are creating. Folks can come to the Cincy Fringe Festival and literally see the beginning and the end of the artistic process—everything that you’re seeing on stage is coming from the people that you see on stage,” Hartman says. “In that respect, it’s an amazing way to see what’s in the zeitgeist, what is on the vanguard of creative expression.”
The festival itself is accessible and walkable, giving audiences the ability to walk between venues in Over-the-Rhine, exploring the city and enjoying live performances.
“It really creates an atmosphere where folks can go see work and be in the beautiful arts district of Cincinnati, and then come back and talk about what they’ve seen,” Hartman says. “The excitement is just incredibly palpable.”
If you’re not a typical fan of the performing arts, Hartman says the festival is “theater for people who don’t like theater.” Audiences can experience new, fresh, and exciting work from people who “look like them.”
“This is a great festival for folks that are open minded and curious. They don’t necessarily have to care about the performing arts. But if they care about experiencing something different … I just think that this is a really excellent opportunity to break up the routine that one gets into—kind of get shaken out of what can be the daily routine,” Hartman says.
Hartman noted that people who say they don’t like the performing arts maybe haven’t been exposed to the type of performances they enjoy. The Fringe Festival is the perfect way to “dip your toes” into an array of selections for an affordable price. The festival also hosts free after-hours parties, where audience members can meet and mingle with the artists and creatives of the performances.
“If you would like to be in a room with artists, and even as an audience member, to be able to express your own creativity, our after hours parties really give an opportunity to embrace that side of you,” Hartman says.
What Audiences Can Expect
This season of the Fringe Festival is packed with performances that will fill you with laughter, tears and emotions. Nautical comedy and horror show SeaMAN by Amica Hunter and Bruce Costella is a “dynamic, revenge-fueled sea-venture featuring the hijinks of a weird old captain with a weirder past.” The show incorporates play, dance and puppetry—giving audiences a memorable experience.
Waiting for Laura by two Cincinnati locals, Ben and Justin Present, is a comedy and fantasy about two friends anxiously waiting to interview Oscar winner Laura Dern. Songs Without Words by Jennifer Vosters is a solo performance “sibling dramedy with a classical twist.” The show tells the true, heartbreaking story of an artistic soul inhabiting two different artists.
Eleanor’s Story: An American Girl In Hitler’s Germany from Ingrid Garner is a solo performance, with Garner performing her grandmother’s World War II memoir, delivering an account of war that is relevant to this day. The performance prompts audiences to think about how a person maintains stability, hope and identity in a world of terror and contrasts.
Bringing People Together
Hartman says live performances are important because the audiences feel everything together in real time—breathing, laughing, crying.
“We all live in our individual homes, and we are less in touch with each other. The importance of live performance is that we can connect with one another and see a different perspective than the one that we are being sold on screens,” Hartman says. “The one thing that you can count on at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival is that you are going to be able to see life through the lens of someone who thinks completely differently than you and is not trying to sell you on something.”
At two weeks long, Hartman believes the Fringe Festival is the perfect length and size, giving audiences the ability to see the performances and meet the artists they want. In the future, Hartman would like to see increased audiences and bring more exposure to Cincinnati.
“When we have more folks, we’re able to do more. We’re able to offer more scholarships…we would just be able to offer our audiences more and remain a festival that really brings both audiences and artists to Cincinnati and shows off what an incredible city we have,” Hartman says.
