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Spotlight: "Unfettered artistic expression" at Orlando Fringe Festival

Performers take the stage at the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival's BYOV (Bring Your Own Venue) preview show in 2023 at the Abbey in downtown Orlando.
Nicole Darden Creston
/
WMFE
Performers take the stage at the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival's BYOV (Bring Your Own Venue) preview show in 2023 at the Abbey in downtown Orlando.

The 32nd annual Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival gets underway on May 16th. And for two weeks after that, Loch Haven Park becomes the epicenter for an eclectic arts smorgasbord: hundreds of unique and original theater performances from local, national, and international groups, a visual arts component, a “Kids’ Fringe” for the younger set, and live music along with a host of food trucks on the lawn next to Fringe’s home base, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre.

But you’ll also find Fringing in unexpected places. For the first time this year, the brand new Fringe ArtSpace in downtown Orlando will also host Fringe shows.

The Abbey had its Fringe preview show earlier this week. About a dozen different theater groups had 90 seconds each to give the audience a taste of their full Fringe shows. The place is packed.

I spoke to a show performer – Katie Thayer, a past show producer – Michael Wanzie, and a show patron – Glenn Pace – about what the Fringe means to them.

What follows is a transcript of the “audio postcard” that accompanies this story, made from their answers.

Katie Thayer:
They better know me as Bikini Katie around Fringe!

Michael Wanzie:
It's a gift to artists in that it makes affordable, several performances for the price of one.

Katie Thayer:
It is such a welcoming, diverse, creative, inspiring atmosphere.

Glenn Pace:
It's always inspiring. It's just to see what people come up with. And it’s a darn good time.

Katie Thayer:
You've got people from around the globe…everywhere, as far away as Japan and Australia, as close as down the road from the Fringe. And everyone's just there to make art. It's a beautiful, beautiful environment.

Michael Wanzie:
When I do a show at the Fringe Festival, I can get a top-flight 250-300 seat venue at Orlando Shakes [Orlando Shakespeare Theatre] or the Orlando Rep [Orlando Repertory Theatre, which also participates in the Fringe] and pay about less than $2,000, and get seven shows, which is less than the cost of one night's rental of that facility, if I were to rent that facility outside of Fringe.

Katie Thayer:
So, it's the concept of new works, right? We all know the big Broadway musicals, we all have the soundtracks memorized. But this is really a chance to do something new and exciting…and fringy!

The Abbey in downtown Orlando is an expansion venue - or BYOV (Bring Your Own Venue) - for the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. The festival is based in Loch Haven Park, but has several satellite theatres throughout Orlando.
Nicole Darden Creston
/
WMFE
The Abbey in downtown Orlando is an expansion venue - or BYOV (Bring Your Own Venue) - for the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. The festival is based in Loch Haven Park, but has several satellite theatres throughout Orlando.

Glenn Pace:
The whole world needs [Fringe] and that's why it's international. What it inspires, and people come out and keep coming back year after year, is truly amazing.

Katie Thayer:
You know, the Fringe started on the “fringe” of the city in Edinburgh [Scotland, home of the first of many ongoing international Fringe Festivals] because they were performing arts groups not invited to be part of a national festival. So that's kind of the spirit of it. If you've got something that's “weird,” if you've got something that's new, that's innovative, this is the place to find it!

Michael Wanzie:
It's completely uncensored, and especially now, it’s more important than ever to have an outlet for artists that is completely uncensored.

Katie Thayer:
I've seen some very inspiring works at the Fringe Festival. We have theme parks [in Orlando], we have entertainment. But when it comes to real new theater, this is our biggest opportunity. And if you didn't know we’re the oldest continually-running Fringe in the United States. People around the country know us. We are the beginning of the Fringe circuit.

Michael Wanzie:
When Fringe shows are chosen, they're chosen by lottery. Nobody knows what the content of that show is when it's chosen, and the artist is free to do anything they want to do.

Katie Thayer:
A lot of times, Orlando kind of gets swept into that “Disney” bubble. But Fringe is something that's so uniquely us, in the art scene.

Michael Wanzie:
It's just an absolute celebration of unfettered artistic expression.

Katie Thayer:
It's part of our identity.

Nicole came to Central Florida to attend Rollins College and started working for Orlando’s ABC News Radio affiliate shortly after graduation. She joined WMFE in 2010. As a field reporter, news anchor and radio show host in the City Beautiful, she has covered everything from local arts to national elections, from extraordinary hurricanes to historic space flights, from the people and procedures of Florida’s justice system to the changing face of the state’s economy.
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