The 23rd Annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival comes back this month, May 29-June 13, presenting an outrageous assortment of one-hour, live performances by more than 35 independent local, national and international artists in pop-up venues around Over-the-Rhine.
This year’s primary lineup of 25 productions features new work from 13 local creators, 10 productions from across the U.S. and two international artists from Canada and Australia. More than 160 ticketed events will use theater, art, music, dance, puppetry, clowning and whatever might land in between.
Katie Hartman, producer for five years, calls Cincy Fringe really special.
“It’s a festival where artists and patrons mix and mingle in Know Theatre’s Underground Bar (1120 Jackson Street, OTR),” Hartman said. “There’s a party there every night after shows conclude.”
Ingrid Garner Back from Orange County, Calif., returns for her third appearance. In 2024 and 2025 in her solo show, “Eleanor’s Story,” she performed as her grandmother, who lived in Germany during World War II. Garner earned “Pick of the Fringe” recognition in 2025.
For 2026, she’s conceived something quite different: the world premiere of “A Hollywood Horror Story,” the wild and true story behind TV’s first horror host, Vampira, an overnight sensation in 1954.
“Before I did ‘Eleanor’s Story,’ I was doing stage adaptations of bad ‘B’ movies — ‘Night of the Living Dead’ and ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space,’” Garner said in a recent interview. “In the latter, she played Vampira, originated by actress Maija Nurmi.”
Vampira has been a passion of Garner’s since she was cast as the character in 2012.
“She was at a peak of fame for one year in 1954, just like the hottest thing on Earth,” Garner said. “A year later she ended up starring in what would become one of the worst films of all time, ‘Plan 9,’ by director Ed Wood.”
Why Cincy Fringe?
“Because a lot of folks premiere shows at the Cincy Fringe,” Garner said. “It’s always been talked about by artists in such a loving way. Everyone expresses how magical it is — a smaller festival that’s curated, and an audience that’s very dedicated and willing to try anything.”
Garner came to Cincinnati last October for an under-the-radar tryout during a “Weird Cabaret” event produced by another Fringe regular, Erika Kate MacDonald.
“No one really knew, even the other artists,” Garner said, “until I stepped out onstage and premiered the first 20 minutes of this show. Erika and the Cincy Fringe are why the show exists now.”
Nurmi was a onetime model, nightclub coat-check attendant and necktie painter. Her Vampira costume for a 1954 Halloween party was inspired by the wicked witch in “Sleeping Beauty” and Charles Addams’s “Morticia.” She had a waspish hourglass figure, creepy fingernails and long, sleek black hair. A Los Angeles TV executive cast her as the host of late-night horror films. Her brief eight-month run earned a five-page photo spread in Life magazine.
Garner thinks of Nurmi as the “grandmother of punk,” someone who inspired hippies, goths, punks and Sci-Fi nerds.
“I kind of view her as this alien sent down to Earth to save the earthlings from the fate of 1950s conformity,” Garner said. “Her life was about making fun of the ideals of ’50s femininity.”
“Hollywood Horror Story” is both a story about Nurmi’s life and the creation of Vampira.
“Literally anybody will see themselves in this show,” Garner said. “It’s delivered as an episode of the “Vampira” show. In fact, we’re sort of screening the narrative of Maila Nurmi’s life, the woman who played Vampira, sort of a real-life Cinderella-meets-Frankenstein story.
“In the first 20 minutes, I play Maila, going through her early life and the influences that would eventually inspire Vampira. I do the transformation onstage into the character until we have our lab scene. It’s really a story of creator and creation, itself such a B movie trope.”
In addition to portraying Nurmi as Vampira in “A Hollywood Horror Story,” Garner uses video and her own acting transformations to bring in others who influenced Nurmi — including horror stars Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. — who Garner called the actor’s “ghoul gang.”
“I think she was a lot braver than I ever was,” Garner said. “I always kind of considered myself a ‘plain-clothes’ goth. But I’ve always been kind of a morbid and macabre person with a very dark sense of humor. I didn’t always love horror films. I was a fearful person most of my life, but I remember thinking as a kid, if I could just be scarier than anything that could crawl through my window, I would feel safe.”
Garner loved how Nurmi adopted Snow White’s evil queen as a role model. She saw her as a confident, self-assured woman.
“For me, that’s Vampira, that’s Maila — she was definitely very Jekyll/Hyde and a lot more bold and really punk rock more than I am,” Garner said. “It’s really time for Vampira to come back into the zeitgeist. She has truly influenced so many aspects of our culture today. You recognize her in all the images that came before her, like the evil queen and Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard,” and you recognize her in the punks and goths you saw later. It’s time to see how this all came about and how she brought it all together. I hope I do it justice.”
A few more Cincy Fringe shows worth considering: Madeline Rowe’s “Papa” is a portrait of Frankenstein’s monster, not just a creation — but somebody’s son. Bruce Ryan Costella’s “Rat Man Happy Place” is a dystopian tour through the ruins of what was once Disney World. Australian Jon Bennett will present “This Will Only Ever Happen Once.” A Fringe favorite, Bennett recreates some of life’s unrepeatable moments. Two2Mango from Toronto will perform “Colonial Circus: History, Clown Style,” featuring a pair of Indian clowns who make fun of colonialism and the way white people characterize history.
Click here for tickets: www.CincyFringe.com
Also happening in Over-the-Rhine during the Fringe Festival, The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati will present “Doodle POP!” at the newly restored Emery Theater (1112 Walnut Street), June 4–7. This whimsical visual theater experience from South Korea combines live performance, stunning projection effects, imaginative storytelling and larger-than-life creativity in a nonverbal adventure that audiences of all ages can enjoy.
An international hit praised for its inventive visual style and playful energy, “Doodle POP!” invites audiences into a colorful world where drawings come to life in surprising and magical ways. It will extensively use TCT’s technologically advanced venue for a dazzling experience for kids 3-12. Performances on June 4, 5 and 6. Click here for tickets: www.TheChildrensTheatre.com.
Touring productions of “The Lion King” have played to sold-out venues across the United States and around the world for three decades. It returns to downtown Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center this month for its fourth visit (June 10 to July 5). The show has been a theatrical hit since its Broadway debut in 1997. Winner of six Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical and another for Best Direction of a Musical.
“The Lion King’s” imaginative musical stage version, designed and conceived by Tony winner Julie Taymor, is the real deal: actors in animal costumes as well as large puppets have charmed audiences for three decades. Previous Cincinnati presentations happened in 2003, 2015 and 2020, just before the COVID pandemic shut down theaters everywhere. It’s an awe-inspiring piece of stagecraft, well worth seeing. For tickets call 513-621-2787 or visit: https://www.cincinnatiarts.org/events/official-ticket-source.
Another recent Broadway hit, “Dear Evan Hansen,” will be produced by The Carnegie in Covington (June 19-28). Winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical, it’s about an angsty teen who uses social media to invent a role for himself after a classmate’s suicide.
He gets undeserved credit for something he didn’t do. Ultimately an uplifting story about connecting and belonging, this is a good show about the importance of empathy for families with teens. The Carnegie, which is located at 1028 Scott Blvd., has built a solid reputation for well staged musical productions and has assembled talented cast for this production. For tickets call 859-957-1940.
