This is a milestone year for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival — its 20th iteration. In a recent phone conversation with CityBeat, Katie Hartman, back for her second year as the Fringe producer, said that this year’s 40 performances were selected from 100 applicants. Presented from June 2-17, the 2023 Fringe Festival will utilize six venues across Over-the-Rhine: Know Theatre (1120 Jackson St., the Fringe headquarters), three lecture halls at the Art Academy of Cincinnati (1212 Jackson St.), Gabriel’s Corner (Sycamore at Liberty) and 1316 Main St.
“The 1316 space is especially meaningful,” Hartman says, “because it’s a return to what Cincinnati Fringe began as — a festival that activated vacant and unused spaces, reimagined and energized by artists and patrons.” She calls it a reminder “that all you need to make theater are three elements: an empty space, an actor and an audience.” The Main Street venue will also be the site for a pair of “All Ages” shows on weekend afternoons that are free/pay-what-you-can, family-friendly offerings: Trolls! Trolls! Trolls! by Autumn Kaleidoscope and Fantastical Tales by storyteller Paul Strickland.
The Cincinnati Fringe has established a reputation across the United States as a destination theater festival for performers who work a circuit of shows during the summer months. “Cincy Fringe is the largest of the small fringes in North America,” she points out. “Performers want to come because we’re know for our community as well as our art.” Local audiences are devoted. “People who started coming to the Cincy Fringe in its early days are bringing their kids now.”
The local community’s devotion is built and enhanced by nightly gatherings at Know Theatre’s Underground Bar, reopened this year after an extended pandemic closure. “Every night after performances are finished, we have after-hours parties with themed events," Hartman says. "The bar is where patrons and artists can relax and connect.” That personal interaction is a hallmark of Cincy Fringe.
Hartman, who first came to Cincinnati as a fringe performer, is convinced that this festival is a unique entity. “I see so much radical generosity and radical empathy happening at this festival that I really believe it changes people for the better.” That’s what convinced her to take on her administrative role.
For more information about the Cincinnati Fringe Festival lineup, visit cincyfringe.com.
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