Fringe Theatre

Fringe Theatre refers to a series of unjuried theatre festivals often called Fringe Festivals. These festivals, held in Edinburgh, Edmonton and elsewhere permit artists to produce a wide variety of interesting works.

History of Fringe Theatre

The principal Fringe Theatre Festival is the Edinburgh Fringe. It was started in 1947, and now boasts over a million tickets sold annually. The genesis for the festival was the Edinburgh International Festival; at this event, a number of theatre groups who were not official participants staged shows at venues located at the "fringe" of the main festival.

The second most important Fringe Festival is the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival. Founded in 1982, it is the premiere stop on the Canadian fringe tour; a semi-official series of Fringe Theatre festivals that permit performers to travel east to west, from June to September.

Fringe festivals are becoming more common, with many major American and Australian cities, as well as in other countries.

Fringe Theatre Organization

The mechanics of a Fringe festival are fairly simple. The most important element in the administration that creates a Fringe festival as opposed to a "normal" arts festival is the unjuried nature of the performances.

All performers are welcome to apply, regardless of their professional or amateur status. No restrictions are made as to the nature, style or theme of the performance. (Some festivals have children's areas, with an appropriate content limitation.) Many festivals find too many applicants for the number of available spaces; in this case, applicants are chosen based on an unrelated criteria, such as order of application or a random draw. The one common limitation of a Fringe festival is a geographic one; applicants may be divided into groups to ensure a mix of local, national and international talent.

Fringe festivals typically have a common organizing group that handles ticketing, scheduling and some overall promotion (such as a program including all performers). Each production pays a set fee to this group, which usually includes their stage time as well as the organizational elements. Performers sometimes billet in the homes of local residents, further reducing their costs.

Elements of a Typical Fringe Theatre Production

Because of the unjuried nature, it is in some ways difficult to describe a "typical" Fringe performance or production. However, the limitations and opportunities that the Fringe festival format presents do tend to lead to some common features.

Shows are typically technically sparse; they are commonly presented in shared venues, often with shared technicians and limited technical time, so sets and other technical theatre elements are kept simple. Venues themselves are often adapted from other uses.

Casts tend to be smaller than professional theatre; since many of the performing groups are travelling, additional actors increase expenses. One-man shows are therefore quite common at Fringe festivals.

Fringe festival productions often showcase new scripts, especially ones on more obscure, edgy or unusual material. The lack of artistic vetting combined with relatively easy entry make risk-taking more feasible.

While most professional theatre shows are two or three acts long, taking two to three hours with intermissions, Fringe shows tend to be closer to one hour, single-act productions. The typically lowered ticket prices of a Fringe theatre show permit audiences to attend multiple shows in a single evening.

Noted Fringe Festivals

• Edinburgh Fringe