8th ANNUAL KC FRINGE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENT

Festival profile raises with new venues, programming

additions,and diverse artist line-up

Kansas City, MO -- (June 3, 2012) The 8th Annual KC Fringe Festival is an unjuried, uncensored sampling of Kansas City’s cultural arts and runs July 19-29th, 2012.  The 11-day festival is jam-packed with live theater, dance, burlesque, performance art, visual art, spoken word, puppetry, storytelling and fashion. 2012 artist submissions, new venue partnerships and programming improvements have expanded the festival’s offerings in music, film, dance, visual arts and YOUth Fringe. Twenty venues and over 360 live performances are slated for 2012 creating a slight increase over the seventeen venues and 358 live performances in 2011.

“The growth in the festival this year is in content,” says Cheryl Kimmi, Executive Director. “We are retaining our numbers and strength in theater but bumping up our participation in other components. YOUth Fringe submissions alone have almost tripled this year from 9 in 2011 to 25 in 2012. We’ve also developed strategic partnerships with many arts organizations throughout the city and our artistic peers recognize our value to the community. As we enter our eighth year I feel confident in saying that the KC Fringe is Kansas City’s premiere arts festival.”

Two new components added to the festival this year are the KC Fringe Experimental Music Showcase and Teen Fringe. The KC Fringe Experimental Music Showcase is a new music mini-festival produced in collaboration with the Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance (KCeMA) and Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project at La Esquina on July 26, 27 and 28. Fourteen composers and music groups will present original works in a format of 20-minute sets organized into 3-hour concerts. The showcase is designed to promote new and experimental music and sound art, at the fringes of standard practice. Submissions include music that incorporates new technologies, performance practices, aesthetics, interactivity, free improvisation, and other experimental features.

Teen Fringe is an expanded component of YOUth Fringe created as teen submissions to the festival have increased each year. Award-winning teen playwright, Zachary Weaver, will work with Jeff Church of the Coterie Theater to create a Young Playwrights Group that will be a teen mentoring program linking teen artists to established artists in the Kansas City community. Fashion on the Fringe will open with a Teen Fashion Show.

“We realized teens were an underserved population at the festival,” says Kimmi. “Two of the KC Fringe’s top goals are to provide opportunities for emerging artists and build bridges between communities. Our submissions this year in Teen Fringe range from the Hip Hop Academy to an adjudicted youth artist in the Arts in Prison program to several Olathe’s Got Talent youth participants. We plan to help urban and suburban youth understand and appreciate each other better through their art.”

As an established festival with a good reputation on the U.S. Fringe Circuit, the KC Fringe features local and regional artists from Missouri and Kansas along with national artists from an additional 11 states including New York, Tennessee, Illinois, Minneapolis, California, Virginia, South Carolina, Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and Alabama.  In 2011, Kansas City residents hosted approximately 60 out-of-state artists in their homes.

In 2012, the KC Fringe partners with new venues that help raise the festival’s profile to new audience members including the KC Ballet’s Todd Bolendar Center for Dance & Creativity, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Spencer Theatre in the UMKC Performing Arts Center.  Returning venues include City Stage at Union Station, Fishtank Performance Studio, Screenland Crown Center, the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library, Just Off Broadway, Metropolitan Ensemble Theater, Off-Center Theatre, Unicorn, La Esquina, Westport Coffee House, Your Classic Ride and Vulcan’s Forge with more to be announced soon.

KC Fringe is launching a new ticketing option this year at the request of our audience. In the past, some festival attendees have gone to as many as 28 shows so we will offer a $100 Festival Pass for $90 and an All Access Pass for $250. A $5 Fringe button is still required for entry to all performances to help pay for festival operating costs.  Shows run $5-$10 and proceeds are split 70/30 between artists and venues respectively.

Event Dates
7/6 | On The Fringe in the Crossroads, 5:30 p.m. 5 minute show “teasers” by local artists.
7/19 - 29 | KC Fringe Festival
7/19 | Opening Night at Spencer Theater, KC Rep. All artists required to attend. Each show will be a 5 minute show “teaser” with names drawn at random.
7/20, 21 | YOUth Fringe at Plaza Branch Library, 6:30 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Saturday
7/26, 27, 28 | KC Fringe Experimental Music Showcase at La Esquina
7/27, 28 | Fashion on the Fringe at Your Classic Ride
7/29 | Fringe Hangovers - bonus show for the top selling show at each venue.

About KC Fringe Festival
The 8th Annual KC Fringe Festival is an unjuried, uncensored sampling of Kansas City’s cultural arts and runs July 19-29th, 2012.  The 11-day festival is jam-packed with live theater, dance, performance art, visual art, spoken word, puppetry, storytelling, film and fashion. The KC Fringe Festival develops audiences, stimulates economic growth and supports the creative community at large.  By making the arts readily visible, available and affordable, the festival supports and inspires local organizations year-round. The KC Fringe Festival is a service to the community, building bridges between audiences, artists, businesses and civic organizations.