IndyFringe steps back into the spotlight
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Indy's Seda Negra/Black Silk Dance Company is among the returning acts at IndyFringe 2024. Photo: Courtesy of IndyFringe
The annual IndyFringe Festival is expanding to two new venues and regaining its international flavor in 2024.
Why it matters: For nearly 20 years, the unpredictable theater fest that champions equity, experimentation and shared experiences in the arts has been a major contributor to the success of the Mass Ave Cultural Arts District.
- IndyFringe leaders hope that broadening the event's scope to include the Circle City Industrial Complex and the Fountain Fletcher neighborhood will lead to similarly sustained cultural explosions.
- "Now the question for us is, where else can we go? How can we share that part of our story with new spaces?" IndyFringe Director of Audience Engagement Max McCreary told Axios.
Driving the news: IndyFringe 2024 starts Thursday, bringing local theater lovers more than 70 unique acts and 250 performances across six stages.
- This is the first year since the pandemic that international acts are on the lineup.
- The more than 500 performers come from places like Berlin, Montreal, New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia and other locations.
- 21 different genres of performance are represented ranging from family-friendly to more risque fare.
The vibe: McCreary says the true highlight of the event is the unpredictability that unfolds once the house lights come up.
- Billed as the "silliest, funkiest, most whimsical and celebratory arts event," IndyFringe has built its reputation on allowing performers to create without restraint.
- "It's so much more about the environment than it is about any one particular show," he said. "There is a cultivation of creative energy that is really exciting in terms of envisioning what's next for American theater and international theater as a whole."
Zoom in: The four Mass Ave venues that have long been a part of IndyFringe are still here in 2024.
- New this summer are partner stages at Dance Kaleidoscope Studio and The White Rabbit Cabaret. The latter is 21 and up.
- IndyFringe also has a new director in the form of Indiana University alum Paul Daily.
Zoom out: 49% of the acts in this year's festival are from first-time IndyFringe producers, including local playwright Emily Worrell, who will premiere her play, "The Dog Seance," and German comedian Paco Erhard, who will perform "5-Step Guide to Being German."
Plus: The inaugural class of the Div(x)Fest fellowship — created to support the work of emerging women and nonbinary creators — will present the world premiere of their coming-of-age drama "The Sleepover."
Fun fact: Support from Everwise Credit Union allows IndyFringe to return 70% of all box office revenue directly to the creators.
- Since the first festival in 2005, IndyFringe has brought more than 206,000 guests to the district and returned more than $2.35 million to participating artists.
What they're saying: McCreary said the fringe theater movement has always centered on equity, noting the inaugural Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1947 focused on "creating a space where anyone who had a story to tell had a stage to tell that story without judgment."
- "It didn't need to be high art, because it was their art. And that's still really at the heart of what we do," he said. "The arts are like the last classroom we have to learn how to be ourselves, and to learn how to relate to other people, stories and experiences."
If you go: IndyFringe 2024 runs through Aug. 25.
- Tickets range from $12-$32. This year, artists had the option to set their ticket prices.
- 6 ticket flex passes that can be used for a single show or 6 different shows cost $99.