North America's largest live performance festival returms for its 18th season of staged mayhem.
August 8-24 at 18 Lower Manhattan Venues
The 18th annual The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), the largest multi-arts festival in North America, runs August 8 - 24, 2014. The festival offers programming from 205 of the world's best emerging theatre troupes and dance companies in 18 venues in downtown Manhattan. With attendance topping 75,000 people, FringeNYC is New York City’s fifth largest event (just behind New York International Auto Show, Tribeca Film Festival, New York City Marathon, and New York Comic Con).
The 205 shows in FringeNYC 2014 represent 13 countries (including South Africa, Italy, Japan, China, Mexico, Israel, Korea and Australia) and 17 U.S. states (including New Jersey, California, Illinois, Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Colorado). Shows represent an array of genres including drama, comedy, classical theater, dance, performance art, puppetry, and children's theater. Titles include The Internet!: A Complete History (Abridged), Seven Seductions of Taylor Swift, The Death Monologues, Fatty Fatty No Friends, Destiny is Judd Nelson, Urban Momfare, and Gary Busey's One Man Hamlet (as performed by David Carl). A complete schedule of performances is available at www.FringeNYC.org. Performance schedules will be announced in mid July.
The 18 venues hosting FringeNYC productions in 2014 include Sheen Center, Players Theatre, The Clemente, 440 Studios, The C.O.W, Connelly Theater, Theatre 80, The Kraine, and 64E4.
FringeNYC is a production of The Present Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy. In 1997, New York became the seventh U.S. city to host a fringe festival, joining Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Orlando and San Francisco. FringeNYC has presented over 3000 performing groups representing every continent, prompting Switzerland's daily, New Zurich Zeitung, to declare FringeNYC as “the premiere meeting ground for alternative artists.” In 2007, FringeNYC was honored by Michael Bloomberg with the Mayor's Award for Arts & Culture for "showcasing the best and boldest theater and performance."
FringeNYC has also been the launching pad for numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway transfers, long-running downtown hits, and regional theater productions including Urinetown, Matt & Ben, Never Swim Alone, Debbie Does Dallas, Dog Sees God, Dixie’s Tupperware Party, 21 Dog Years, Human Fruit Bowl, The Irish Curse, Jurassic Parq, and Silence! The Musical; movies, including WTC View and Armless; and even a TV show (‘da Kink in My Hair). FringeNYC alumni include Bradley Cooper, Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me, CNN's Inside Man), Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project), Brooke Elliott (Drop Dead Diva), Melissa Rauch (Big Bang Theory), Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Pippin), Tony nominee Leigh Silverman (Violet); W. Kamau Bell (Totally Biased), and Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), among countless other success stories.
FringeNYC shows run 2pm - midnight weekdays and noon - midnight on weekends. Tickets are $18 each, available beginning July 18 at www.FringeNYC.org. Discount passes for multiple shows (including the Fiver and the all-you-can-see Lunatic Pass) are also available. For more information visit www.FringeNYC.org.
