The Cincinnati Fringe Festival Announces FringeNext

Know Theatre of Cincinnati and The Cincinnati Fringe Festival are excited to announce the launch of a new piece of the Fringe Festival - FringeNext. FringeNext will take place during the first week of the Festival, June 1-5 and will consist of 3-5 Fringe productions created by and performed by high school students.

Producing Artistic Director, Eric Vosmeier comments, "I've been playing with the idea of creating a young persons' component for the Festival. But I wanted it to be more than just family friendly productions and volunteer opportunities. FringeNext came out of the desire to engage high school students and the mission of the Jackson Street Market, to engage and provide more opportunity for the local community of theatre artists."

In order to participate in this program, students must be enrolled in high school for the 2010-2011 school year or are currently being home-schooled at the high school level. Each production will be produced by a student leader, with the assistance of a production advisor (over the age of 21) who can be a teacher, parent, or mentor in the theatre industry. High school students will fulfill all roles of these productions, actors, directors, designers, etc. and the adult acts a mentor to the process.

Vosmeier adds, "In order to help foster these young artists, we'll be asking other Fringe producers to create workshops for FringeNext participants on topics such as producing for a festival, work shopping scripts, managing small fringe budgets, etc. The hope is that not only will Nexters get to produce a show alongside professionals, but that they'll have the opportunity to benefit from their expertise as well."

Just like the Performance Fringe, FringeNext is not looking for a specific type of production, but the Fringe format still applies. All participants in a FringeNext production must be currently enrolled in high school. Nexters will also be required to give back to the Fringe Community by volunteering for the Festival.

The applications to FringeNext will be judged, just as the Cincinnati Fringe Festival is judged, by a jury of local theatre professionals and educators. Applications are due Wednesday January 12th and students will be notified of acceptance by the first week of February 2011. More information and applications can be found at cincyfringe.com.

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