ENTERTAINMENT

The end of Fringe: A banner year

David Lyman
Enquirer contributor

“Welcome to the End of Fringe,” bellowed Chris Wesselman, Associate Producer of Cincy Fringe of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.

Aly Michaud celebrates the award her show, “Clara,” won as Audience Pick of the 2016 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Her dance-theater work, created with choreographer Carley Wilson, was a biographical piece about the hardships faced by her 94-year-old grandmother. All five of the show’s performances were sold out.
Erika Kate MacDonald, of Covington, celebrates her award as Critics’ Pick of the 2016 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. “Ice Candle,” her hour-long one-person show chronicled the nine months she spent in Indonesia as an exchange student in Indonesia. Know Theatre producing artistic director Andrew Hungerford, left, and Fringe associate producer Chris Wesselman look on.

It’s not the end to the Fringe. It will be back next year, said Wesselman. But late Saturday night, the 13th annual CincyFringe wound to a close with a boisterous and good-hearted awards ceremony at the Know Theatre, the Fringe’s parent organization.

The 12-day Fringe began May 31 and filled a dozen venues in and around Over-the-Rhine with 214 performances. As in past years, the shows covered a broad stylistic spectrum, from musicals to buffoonery, from heart-wrenching solo shows to dance-theater adventures.

By nearly any measure, this year’s Fringe was a huge success.

Wesselman rattled off a list of stats to the enormous crowd that filled the Know Underground, the theater’s lobby/bar/second stage space;

  •  Sales were up 19 percent compared to 2015.
  •  Attendance, which was 9719, was 14 percent higher than last year.
  •  There were 33 more performances, an increase of 18 percent.

That came on the heels of a 15 percent increase in the number of applications this year.

Like the shows themselves, the crowd that attends the Fringe – and this gathering – defy pigeonholing. They reflect the open-door spirit that defines the Fringe. They are black, white, Asian and every shade in between. Saturday night, audience members mixed with performers and stage technicians. Some were well into their retirement years, while others were part of a sizeable contingent of high schoolers, participants in the FringeNext, a festival component that encourages participation of younger artists.

At times, the underground crowd grew so large that many people chose to escape the cacophony inside and take refuge in the balmy weather – and the Eclectic Comfort Food truck – outside on Jackson Street.

A few minutes after 11 p.m., Wesselman kicked off the evening’s main event – the announcement of the Fringe awards. There are several of them. The Audience Pick is probably the most highly regarded. During the final days of the Fringe, audience members are invited to weigh in on their favorite shows. The audience also votes on a favorite FringeNext production.

Other awards include a Critics’ Pick, a Producer’s Pick, as well as a Full Frontal pick (named for the Fringe’s all-access Full Frontal pass) and one that is voted on by artists involved in the Fringe.

This year’s winner are:

  •  Audience Pick – “Clara,” created by Aly Michaud and Carley Wilson, Physical Productions (Cincinnati).
  •  Critics’ Pick – “Ice Candle,” written and performed by Erika Kate MacDonald, Pack of Others (Covington).
  • Dr. Robert J. Thierauf Producer's Pick – “Baby Mama: One Woman's Quest To Give Her Child to Gay People,” written and performed by Mariah MacCarthy, Caps Lock Theatre (Astoria, NY).
  • FringeNext Audience Pick – “Here's Hoping There's A Radioactive Spider in your Future,” created by student artists from Highlands High School, Digital Middleground Productions (Ft. Thomas).
  •  Artists’ Pick – “Post Traumatic Super Delightful,” written and performed by Antonia Lassar, Pair of Animals (Brooklyn, NY).
  • Linda Bowen Full Frontal Pick of the Fringe – “Fruit Flies Like A Banana,” created and performed by The Fourth Wall Ensemble (Hudson, Mass.).

The success of this year’s Fringe was especially sweet for the Know’s producing artistic director Andrew Hungerford and his small staff. For the most part, last year’s Fringe followed the format that had been established by former producing artistic director Eric Vosmeier, who left the theater in June 2014.

“This was the first time that it was completely a project of the new administration,” said Wesselman, shortly after the awards ceremony. “It was already a great festival. But this year, we felt we had a chance to experiment more and to try out some new ideas. Not all of them worked. But some did. And there are more we’ll try next year.”

What else would you expect? This is the Fringe, after all. It’s all about experimentation, about theater and dance – and theater management – that exists at the outer reaches of the mainstream.

“We’ll definitely be back,” said Wesselman. And we’ll definitely have a few surprises up our sleeves.