2012 Design Contest!!

Yes, it's time once again for the annual

Chicago Fringe Festival Design Competition!

Enter yourself, or pass on the information below

to all your designer friends!

Chicago Fringe Festival

2012 Design Competition

50 shows booked. 1 design needed.

What Chicago Fringe Festival is: an artistic extravaganza taking place in the Pilsen neighbo

rhood August 30-September 9. 50 shows will be performed by theatricalizers of every stripe, from actors and dancers to performance artists, female impersonators, puppeteers and scientist-comedians.

What Chicago Fringe Festival needs from you: a single design that will be emblematic of Chicago Fringe 2012. We need a design that is so arresting, dynamic, searing, whimsical, mind-bending or otherwise amazing that it will radiate cartoon-like waves of energy. Some further crucial information to help you create the graphic gold we’re panning for:

· The design should reflect, suggest, embody, convey or otherwise relate, directly or obliquely, to an election year theme. An election is about choice, and so is Fringe: Audience members have 50 shows to choose from. But the 2012 Fringe will be better than the 2012 presidential election! At Fringe, there’s not a limited choice between two major tickets – the Fringe Festival is the You-Pick-It Ticket. It presents patrons with many shows, which are radically diverse. Festival goers can pick what to see according to their whims, mood and interests, and so create their own Festival experience.

· The design should capture (or at least not contradict) some of the other key characteristics of Chicago Fringe theatre. To learn more about what Chicago Fringe is, visit chicagofringe.org.

· Last year’s winning design and runners up can also be seen on the Chicago Fringe website, and for further inspiration, you might look at designs from other Fringe Festivals around the world, such as Adelaide Fringe.

· You can (but are not required to) include the words “Chicago Fringe Festival 2012” as part of your design, but no other text, please. Be bold: the design will appear in whole or in part on CTA ads, print ads and web ads, so it needs to grab people’s attention and hold their interest. In other words, the masks of comedy and tragedy could be part of the winning design – but probably won’t be.

Prizes
See your design on CTA ads and Fringe materials distributed all over Chicago! The winner’s design will be the design for the official 2012 Fringe Festival poster and will appear in part or in whole on a wide range of Fringe materials, including ads, tee-shirts, festival programs, pins, banners and more. The winner’s name will appear on the poster and all other materials on which it is practicable to include an artist credit. The winner will also receive a commemorative Fringe button granting entry to all days of the Festival and two complimentary tickets to one Fringe show of choice. And as far is it is practicable, the winner will receive copies of all Fringe paraphernalia and merchandise, including a tee-shirt, featuring the design. Three runners-up will have their designs published on chicagofringe.org.

Submitting Entries
All entries must be emailed to the address at the top of this posting. The design size of the file must not exceed 11”x17”. The design can be saved at a resolution that will enable us to zoom in to see details during judging, but the file size must not exceed 2MB. Designs may be in any medium. Multiple submissions are acceptable.

Submit PDF files only. Keep in mind that if your design is chosen, you will need to supply a version 12x18” at 300 dpi.

In the body of your email provide:
Your First and Last Name
Phone Number
Email Address

The Deadline
Your submission must be submitted by 8:00 p.m. on May 8, 2012. Submissions received after the deadline will not be considered for the competition.

Other Important Stuff
Winning Entrants agree to assign all rights in their work to the Chicago Fringe Festival. These include but are not limited to the rights to edit, reproduce and distribute on printed and digital materials (including the Chicago Fringe Festival website). All entries must be 100% original work by the artist. No use of a third party's copyrighted material is allowed in any way, even if it is allowable under Fair Use guidelines. Chicago Fringe Festival will notify winners by June 7, 2012 or after judging is complete.

If you have additional questions, e-mail us at info@chicagofringe.org

Be Heard! The Chicago Cultural Plan 2012

Now is the time to shape the future of the arts in Chicago.

The Chicago Cultural Plan, launched in 1986 by Mayor Harold Washington, will be updated, with a new plan to be released in September 2012.

In meetings across the city, people are coming together to share their ideas for how to make this international capital of culture an even more vibrant place to make and see theater and other art. The Chicago Fringe Festival encourages everyone to take part.

Click to RSVP for an upcoming meeting.

At a March 12 meeting at Harold Washington Library, representatives of the Fringe Festival joined with about 80 members of the city's theatre community to draft proposals for the cultural plan. The recommendations, as drafted by the League of Chicago Theatres, are copied below.

To show your support for the arts in Chicago, add your name to the Culture Counts campaign here.

Be heard! And pass it on! The LCT has set a goal of collecting 5,000 signatures by time the Cultural Plan is released.

Theatre Industry Meeting

Chicago Cultural Plan

March 12, 2012, 6:00 PM

Harold Washington Library

On March 12, approximately 80 members of the theatre community gathered to discuss our recommendations for the Cultural Plan. Small and large theatres, downtown and neighborhood theatres, comedy theatres, presenting theatres, educational institutions and other members of our community were represented.

Two main themes emerged as to how the City could best support our efforts.

Recognize the value of theatre in Chicago, as contributors to the fabric of what makes Chicago great, as employers, as economic generators, as attractors of tourism and corporations. Recognize the value through real investment in our businesses and in our artists.

Communicate the value of theatre in Chicago by connecting theatres with schools, corporations, citizens and tourists. Include and highlight theatre in tourism and other marketing campaigns.

The following are specific recommendations we would make to the plan:

I. Brand Chicago as a cultural hub and a theatre city. Arts should be valued as highly as sports and restaurants.

II. Increase investment in grant making.

III. There are currently abandoned, empty and under-utilized spaces city-wide. Spaces should be re-purposed for use as performance, rehearsal and office spaces. The City should act as a connector, working with landlords, developers and other city departments to identify spaces and with arts groups to identify needs.

IV. Acknowledge that arts education is vital to the continued community health and vibrancy of Chicago. Connect artists and theatres to schools. Make it easy for theatres to deliver valuable programming to Chicago Public Schools.

V. Modernize City processes and procedures. Provide information to arts groups in a transparent and consistent manner. Streamline processes and make it easy to do business in Chicago. Current city practices (licensing, grant-making, arts partners in the parks, banners, fee waivers, etc.) are byzantine, inconsistent and outdated.

VI. Make connections between arts groups and corporations, citizens and other City departments, particularly for small and mid-sized theatres. Provide access to corporations by introducing them to arts groups and offering incentives for businesses and corporations that work with arts groups. Developing new relationships with corporations, citizens and other City departments provides theatres with important benefits, including new audiences, sponsorships, potential board members, access to information and more.

VII. Introduce citizens and tourists to the arts through the sponsorship of hubs, not necessarily designating hubs but working with existing hubs. Work with CTA to recognize the arts throughout the CTA system. Provide transportation such as trolleys to cultural venues throughout the city and kiosks at stations highlighting arts organizations in the area.

VIII. Replicate the DCA Storefront theatre model throughout the City and create incubator spaces where companies can grow.

IX. Facilitate sharing and the exchange of information among arts organizations citywide.

X. Provide opportunities for artists including specific grants, teaching opportunities, free education and connect teaching artists to schools.

Read the compiled notes from Monday's meeting.

The Results Are In!

Here's a quick and dirty listing of the shows that were selected through our first come/first serve and lottery process to take part in the 2012 Chicago Fringe Festival. Color us intrigued!

LOCAL

The League of Miscreants	The Miscreants Kill An Hour And Go To Cuernavaca II
J L Rumberger	Persephone
Allen Green	Life After Death
Terra Mysterium	The Alembic
Kate Healy	Lie Light
Mary Redmon	The Granny Diaries
Kim Morris	Running to Light
eric bjorlin	Hi, I'm Awkward
Small Fish Radio Theatre and Thespinarium	The Adventures of Skater Girl
Trini/David	In My Own Defense
Hallow Tree	Sleeping Beauty
The Island	The War to End War
Rebecca Kling	You Say Transgender Like It's A Bad Thing
Jeri & Ed	No Stopping, No Warping, No dying
The Comic Thread	Catcher!
Amrita Dhaliwal / Dal Vivo	Lady Love
Cheater	Cheater
Lizanda	Lizanda Presents
Strangeloop Theatre	Shadows and Lust
White Elephant	Pink Milk
Stars of Art	This space intentionally left blank
Wishbone Theatre Collective	To Be Determined
Area IV	TBA
Imagicanary	Black and White and Read All Over
Henry Keyser	Dawn on a Splintered Heart

NON LOCAL

Yes Theatre Co.	Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-Latino	IN
George Contini	Put It In the Scrapbook	GA
The Broken String Theatre Ensemble	An Autobiography of Our Lives, As Told By a Sandwich	MD
Schedule C Productions	Where Is My Mind?	IN
Howard Petrick	Breaking Rank!	CA
Tim Lee	Scientist Turned Comedian Tim Lee	CA
SHARP Dance Company	Kinetic Concoction	PA
Martiark Art Theatre	Alarum/Transfiguration	AUSTRALIA
LA PETITE FAMILLE	DEMAIN L'AURORE	FRANCE
Company Snail	Naughty Princess	SERBIA
The Interpreters	Moksori	SOUTH KOREA
Twilight Productions	Ashes to Ashes	IN
Not Quite Opera Productions, Inc.	Absolutely San Francisco	CA
Modal Kombat	Modal Kombat	NY
Aron wolde	BiPolar-bear	MN
Michelle Glick-Wolter	Asian Belle	NY
Curt...from Detox	UnMasked	OH
Messenger Theatre Company	As We Like It	NY
Jude Treder-Wolff	Crazytown	NY
Dr. Pete	Feel the Power of the Dork Side	GA
John Leo & Jay Dunn	Handshake Uppercut	NY
Fat Violet Theater	Ivan and the Dogs by Hattie Naylor	NJ
Robert JM Productions	Beneath the Zipper	OK
Reverend Nuge	Preacherman	MI
Jaded Optimist Productions	55 Minutes of Sex, Drugs and Audience Participation	MN

Neverland at Dream

Fiction is full of Fringes.

Places that are off the beaten path, outside the mainstream, hard to find, hard to leave, with their own (il)logic and skewed beauty.

Wonderland.

Narnia.

And of course . . . Neverland.

Dream Theatre, one of the Chicago Fringe Festival venues, is currently exploring the mysterious origins of this mysterious place in the riveting "Neverland," the first part of Jeremy Menekseoglu's trilogy "Peter Pan's Shadow."

Think happy thoughts.

Rhinofest is ON!

Facts about the rhinoceros, courtesy of the San Diego Zoo:

1) The word rhinoceros comes from the Greek word for nose ("rhino") and for horn ("ceros").

2) There are five types of rhino: black, white, greater one-horned, Sumatran and Javan.

3) All rhinos have poor vision but great hearing.

4) White rhinos are actually brown-gray, but might be called white because Dutch settlers in Africa called it the "wijde," or "wide," rhino.

Facts about the Rhinoceros Theater Festival, courtesy of rhinofest.com:

1) It is a curated multi-arts festival started 23 years ago by Curious Theatre Branch.

2) The 2012 installment runs between January 13-Feb 12 at the Prop Thtr.

3) 2012 show titles include "The American Drink Book," "Civil War Dad," "Samuel Beckett, Andre the Giant, and the Crickets" and "The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs."

4) Tickets cost $12 online or $15 (or what you can) at the door.

What rhinos have in common with Rhinofest, courtesy of the Chicago Fringe Festival:

Both are totally radical and likely to leave you muttering, "Whoa, amazing."

Tips for CFF 2012 Applications!

Applications for the 2012 Chicago Fringe Festival go live on December 12! To successfully complete it:

You WILL NOT need a No. 2 pencil, because the application is not a standardized test! While you DO have to meet the basic requirements for participation to take part in the Festival, you will NOT be scored or otherwise judged on the contents of the application, because the Fringe is an unjuried festival. This ensures the Festival is truly diverse, not just a reflection of a selection committee’s tastes!

You WILL NOT need a copy of your tax returns, because the Fringe does not care how much money you have to sink into your show! All you have to pony up is the application fee and, if chosen, the participation fee. This ensures the Festival is accessible to all sorts of artists!

You WILL NOT need to furnish your references or resume, because the Fringe does not care what you’ve done in the past! Our productions are a mix of established and award-winning troupes, up-and-coming artists and performers just starting out. This makes the Festival a great opportunity for artists to reach new audiences and for audiences (including critics! producers!) to discover new talent.

You WILL need to provide some basic information about who you are. This might not be as easy as it seems. For example, last year’s production The Night of the Living Dead: The Puppet Show might have questioned whether a brown skinned zombie puppet counts as a minority cast member. (Hint: it doesn't.)

Answer honestly and do your best, and if you find yourself pondering something like the zombie puppet question, congratulate yourself on finding the perfect festival to demonstrate your madcap, anything but standardized theatrical sensibility. So get ready to break your pencils, tear up your resumes and fill out the application!

Tidings of Tap!

The Fringe offered up some Christmas in September, thanks to the Miscreants' "The Roast of Santa Claus, or: The Miscreants Kill an Hour and Go to Cuernavaca." But now that the holiday season is actually here, perhaps you're looking for a more, er, family friendly holiday show?

Look no further: Chicago Tap Theatre's "Tidings of Tap" promises to be just the ticket! And by entering promo code FringeTap11 and wearing your Fringe button to the show, you can save $5 on an adult ticket! Click here for tix.

Laura Molzahn of SeeChicagoDance.com wrote, "Never preachy and rarely predictable, 'Tidings of Tap!' doesn't provide the sentimental glow of self-approval that so many other holiday shows do. Nor does it trash the season or the human race for enjoying it. Instead it takes us on a mashed-up tour of holiday cliches, borne on the easy, breezy wings of tap-dancing."

"Tidings" is being performed on the UIC campus, so while you're in the area to see the show, you could easily revisit some of your favorite Pilsen hotspots like Decolores, Honky Tonk, Simone's and the Miscreants' watering hole of choice, Cuernavaca.