Know Theatre Announces the 2012 Cincinnati Fringe Festival Line-up

Know Theatre of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Fringe Festival are set to welcome over 7,500 visitors to Downtown & Over-the-Rhine for the 9 th annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival, May 29 – June 9, 2012. The Festival will begin on May 29 with the exciting CityBeat Fringe Kick-off Party.

The festival will continue through June 9 with 30 Performance Fringe productions and three FringeNext productions. Festivities begin with the official CityBeat Fringe Kick-Off Party on May 29 at 6pm. Guests will enjoy the kick ass sounds of local band, The Dukes are Dead, the launch of the 2012 Channel Fringe Hard-Hitting Action News Update, food, and more. Mayberry, Skirtz & Johnston, and Washington Platform will provide food and there will also be Christian Moerlein drink specials all night long. It's a great way to meet the Fringe artists, staff, volunteers, and other audience members! A suggested donation of $5 will get you into the event.

This year's pool of applicants had great variety and 69% of all applications were brand new producers to Cincinnati. 52% of all applications were from out-of-town. Of accepted applications there are 15 local groups and 15 out-of-town groups. Breakdown of performances is twelve plays, nine solo shows, four dance pieces, and five multimedia/variety pieces. Of the accepted Performance Fringe and FringeNext groups, 15 are returning and 18 are brand new to the festival.

"I was thrilled to see so many applications from new artists this year," says Producing Artistic Director Eric Vosmeier. "A lot of past Fringe artists are recommending our Festival to other artists, which has helped recruit some new applicants. We have tried to make the Cincinnati Fringe as artist centric as possible by keeping fees low, providing housing at no cost, and offering workshops and development opportunities for the participating artists. This approach has helped make Cincinnati Fringe one of the more highly regarded festivals by artists. We're proud of that reputation and we're going to continue working to maintain and improve the atmosphere we've created among this community of artists." 2012 will be the second year of FringeNext. FringeNext will consist of three Fringe productions created by and performed by high school students. FringeNext performances will all take place at our community partner, The School for the Creative and Performing Arts. Students participating in this program will attend workshops led by Fringe artists and staff in April to learn about all the aspects of producing a show in the festival, and will also participate as a volunteer at other festival events. FringeNext is aimed at fostering high school performers and providing a training ground for aspiring theatre professionals by creating a festival featuring exclusively high school student projects. "FringeNext was a huge success last year and I was excited to see new schools apply this year," says Vosmeier. "FringeNext is a unique opportunity for these student artists to create something and learn how to make all of the various moving parts work together. We're grateful to SCPA for allowing us to use their facility. They are the perfect partner for this program and we look forward to a long partnership with them.

"The 2012 Festival will include the Visual Fringe and Film Fringe. These facets of the festival have changed considerably in the past few years as Know Theatre has worked to re-think how they work within the rest of the festival. The Visual Fringe this year will consist of a collaborative mural project, painted by Higher Level Art. Participating artists will be asked questions about what Fringe means to them and the mural will be designed and painted using all of their input. The Film Fringe, previously a series of submitted independent films, will instead become a documentary project where teams of filmmakers will examine several Fringe Festival performance groups and their process in creating a Fringe show. These films will then be shown during the festival.

All individual tickets to Fringe Festival shows will continue to be $12 this year. Full Frontal Fringe passes are $200 and gets you all access to every event in the festival. Flexible Voyeur six-show passes are on sale for $60 or the price equivalent of five tickets. One night stand passes are $35 and allow the user access to as many productions as they can see on one weeknight (which is up to three) and one drink at Know Theatre's Bar.

For more information about the performances or to purchase passes, check out www.cincyfringe.com or call 513.300.5669(KNOW). During the festival, tickets to all performances can be purchased online 24 hours a day, over the phone from 11am to 10pm, or in person at the headquarters box office at Know Theatre of Cincinnati, 1120 Jackson Street, or at individual venues thirty minutes prior to show times. Single tickets will go on sale mid-May.