What's New to Know Right Now

There have a been a number of decisions made in the recent weeks. Our website will soon be expanded with full flourish to include this information, but here is some new stuff that should interest folks. I can see that you are hungry for it! We will do an official press release soon, but for those of you in the know, here's what's new to know right now.

Upcoming Events:

Meet N Greet # 3 - Skylark Bar, Cermak and Halsted, Oct. 20, 7pm. *21 and over only. An additional event will be planned for younger folks in the future.

Indoor County Fair - Viaduct Theatre, Western and Belmont, Nov. 15, 7-10 pm. More details about this fun event will be following soon! Right now we are casting short acts for performance and theatre companies to run fun fair booths.

New Info About the Chicago Fringe Festival, 2010:

When: September 1-5, 2010

Where: Pilsen neighborhood, centering around Halsted and 18th street in Chicago, IL

Who: Approximately 40 performance companies; each with five staggered performances each.

How Chosen: Selected by Lottery and sub lottery to ensure diversity.

What gives: $400 dollar participation fee for chosen companies. Artists will keep 100 percent of ticket sales.

Why We Are Making a Fringe For Chicago

The argument can be made that a Fringe is unnecessary in Chicago. After all, aren't there plenty performance opportunities? Isn't the viable audience for theatre bombarded with opportunities to see a plethora of fringe companies? Isn't a Fringe just another example of over saturation? Hasn't Chicago tried to have a so titled "Fringe" festival before and failed?

These are questions we wrestle with. In coming up with a vision for the Chicago Fringe Festival, it was absolutely crucial that we answer these questions not only for the community but for ourselves. After all, why torture ourselves trying to produce something that isn't needed? That we don't truly want?

I believe that the key component of our vision that makes this festival necessary is the idea of facilitating a dialogue between diverse groups of performers and patrons. The diversity of the festival will be a multi-faceted affair. We will have geographic diversity by encouraging travelling artists from the U.S. and the world to perform in Chicago. Perhaps more importantly, we will encourage diverse artists from around Chicago itself to participate - the full array of race, of gender, of geography, of ability, of language. It is vital that we engage a full plumage of different artists within our city. It is essential that we break the traditional boundaries and engage with each other's work, despite which bus it takes to get there. Fear of the unknown has haunted our community for far too long. The Fringe movement defies that fear. The Fringe movement defies that fear as laziness.

This leads into my second point. Fringe will be a targeted set of days that are dedicated to the sheer voluminous production of a mass amount of diverse material. Hundreds of performance artists will converge in the Pilsen neighborhood from September 1 - 5th, 2010. Some will meet new friends. Some will be profoundly affected by a piece they see. Some will come to view a friend's show and end up seeing four other companies they'd have rare opportunities to catch, in part because they are so busy producing their own work. Additionally, some theatre patrons will take a chance on a company they've never heard of in traditional media. The Chicago Fringe Festival will be an opportunity to take a targeted risk. It easy enough to come to the conclusion as an artist or a patron that you'd like to engage with diverse performances. It's another thing entirely to try to balance that desire with modern life - a job, kids, commuting, desperately trying to hawk your own show, etc. Fringe provides the opportunity to spend a day wandering a few city blocks and take in as much performance as you can stand.

Our commitment to annually rotate the festival into an underrepresented neighborhood also serves a need. A large part of the theatre produced in Chicago takes place in the Loop and on the Northside. Awareness must be spread to the artists working on the West and South sides. We are producing the 2010 festival in the Pilsen neighborhood around 18th and Halsted streets to high light the work being done there and also to bring foot traffic to a truly exciting Arts District.

We continually meet new people who challenge us and ask important questions. Please - talk to us. Comment here. Write me at mikayla{at}chicagofringe.org. Tweet us - Facebook us. We are producing Chicago Fringe for Chicago and need your thoughts. Nothing great was ever born without dissent.

To that end, please consider joining us at the Skylark Bar at 2149 S. Halsted on Tuesday, October 20th at 7 p.m. for our third Meet N Greet. As with the other meetings, we will have a conversation that answers existing questions about the festival, and also poses new ones that must be addressed.

Spread the word - Chicago Fringe is coming to Pilsen in September 2010.

Notes from the Meet N Greet Last Night

Had another great Meet N Greet last night - the turn out was smaller, just four folks aside from the Fringe folks, but they were mighty. We had a representative of Sideshow Theatre present. We ended up talking quite a bit about fundraising - which didn't hurt any!

We now officially have an International Coordinator. So now I am feeling much more confident that we'll be able to attempt having folks outside of North America perform at the Fringe. I wasn't sure that we'd be able to pull it off the first year, but it's looking optimistic.

As before, I will send the full notes to anyone who asks - but for the sake of this post, I will abridge the full notes. Keep in mind we are going to do one more of these this year - On October 20th. Still working out a venue at present, but it'll likely be in Pilsen.

9/28/09 Meet N Greet

Board members: Mikayla, Vinnie, Amanda, Adrienne

Others present: 4

Introductions: Mikayla: brief bio and reason for doing this, Amanda, Adrienne, Vinnie

Stephanie: knows Vinnie, majored in theatre then retired, spent lots of time with Dublin Fringe

Karie: education/outreach for Sideshow Theatre and point person for Fringe interests, seeing what Fringe is about, looking to perform in as well as support Fringe

Jason: formerly lived in Orlando, surprised Chicago didn't have theatre festival like Fringe, friend became fan on FB and J saw it

Danielle: likes volunteering for cool stuff, volunteer coordinator for soup kitchen/homeless shelter

Background:

- Distinguishing characteristics: moving the festival each year (first year in Pilsen), first week in September 2010 (9/1-9/5), enthusiastic venues in Pilsen, 30-35 shows, show selection by lottery system for equanimity, looking for both national and international flavor, multiple shows during time frame, each show is in same venue but slot changes, times: 4-11 W-F, 12-11 S-S, possibility for midnight shows, run times less than 1 hour, minimize improv 80% scripted or planned, looking to avoid censorship, sketch shows can be theatrical, giving 100% of ticket sales back to performer (contingent on fundraising success), looking for event planner/development coordinator

Questions/Comments/Concerns:

- copyrighted material: performers have to secure rights

- number of shows each company can submit to the lottery? question to be answered at some point in the future, limit number of applications, company can submit 3 to lottery but only perform 1? lottery pulls company/artist name rather than show and company/artist name has to provide show, onus of company to ensure everyone who can perform will be available to do so

- everyone on fan page on FB, can select to have all your friends made fans, mailinglist@chicagofringe.org, encourage friends, neighbors, colleagues

- fundraising event soon (end of Oct/early Nov), comment: fundraising on the north side if everyone you know is there and start moving as buzz gets built

- canvas underserved neighborhoods: standing on street corners and talking to people, putting theatre in places that aren't theatres,

- shutting down street involves a shitload of money

- busking? Fringe cafe idea - an ongoing open mic of sorts in a casual setting

- at least one outdoor venue

- Other fundraising ideas: Quick and dirty: how to make money, give them an experience, $20 at door gives them drinking for two hours plus other stuff, make it an event; dancing/dance marathon? what is in the spirit of Fringe?; costume displays of previous shows as part of a larger event; need an energetic and fun emcee; theatre companies can donate tickets, performers, arm wrestlers

- time commitment for staff positions: at least 3 hours per week, mostly email, staff meetings once per month

- we've given and continue to give lots of thought towards what Chicago needs and how to find the niche

Notes From Our First Meet N Greet

The Meet N Greet on the 18th at Mary Arrchie was excellent. We had a great turnout, about 15 folks (though I suspect some didn't fill out our sign in sheet - da bastards!) Representatives from Blank Line Collective, New Leaf Theatre, the Mammals and Tympanic Theatre were there; alongside some enthused recent grads, some skilled free agents and four of our current board members. The conversation was at turns heated, positive, but altogether thrilling. Ideas came up that I'm certain that we wouldn't have thought of on our own.

The next Meet N Greet is this coming Monday, September 28, from 7-9 at St. Andrew's Church meeting hall - at the southeast corner of Addison and Hermitage. They are designed to be an opportunity for the producers to meet folks interested in being volunteer staff members, and also a chance to riff with the theatre community about how we can best serve them.

We will also have one on Tuesday, October 20 - hopefully somewhere in Pilsen. I'll keep you posted.

So without further ado, the notes! I originally thought of posting them in their entirety, but I think I'd be asking a lot of the readership of this blog. I'm happy to send them out in their entirety to anyone who would like to see them though - just send a request to mikayla@chicagofringe.org. Transparency is always our goal. Below is a summary version.

Board members in attendance: Mikayla, Vinnie, Adrienne, Anne

Other people in attendance: 15

We introduced ourselves and spoke of the decisions that have been made about the festival so far, namely that we are producing it in the Pilsen neighborhood in September 2010, but have the intention to moving it to a different neighborhood each year, in keeping with our mission of connecting diverse groups of artists and audience members. We would like to keep the event geographically centralized no matter where it occurs. We will select shows by lottery, but are open to possibility of having sub lotteries for geographical considerations.

From there we opened the floor to questions/comments/concerns. It ended up being a pretty open group discussion. Topics that came up:

-how does this serve the Chicago community? should not be just another opportunity to produce; is good that it brings in artists from Nebraska or wherever; it serves to bring in foreign language theatre, good to facilitate blending of artists, different neighborhoods all in one community, great way to publicize smaller theatres out there, getting a larger community to the theatre

- shows? roughly 60 minutes, steering away from improv and sketch as it's already represented at the Chicago Improv Festival and Sketchfest

- specifications/application process? 2 page application, basic description, still working out specs, trying not to censor, mostly making sure applicants "have their shit together"

- make money? would like 100% of ticket sales to go back to artists

- self marketing? will be encouraged, we will market the festival and there will be access to each show but individual marketing is the responsibility of the project

- # of shows? 30-35 plays, 5-6 venues, Wed-Sun run, staggered times, outdoor and alternative spaces possible. Would go to be larger over time.

- specific volunteer staff positions looking to fill? events planning and fundraising are the immediate, looking for experienced leaders

- reviews? see what happens with the print community, NY reviews every show, DC reviews every show in equivalent of Reader and online, MN has active audience community where the audience rates shows after seeing them

- geographical center for the festival each year to buy tickets, shirts, get info, see previews

- how to engage diverse communities? (open question to the masses), next meeting should be in Pilsen, reach out to groups already in existence, include disabled artists, reach out to people you know

- take away? Facebook pages, word of mouth, get people on mailing list, find fundraising opportunities, online fundraiser (chipin.com)

- pair an out of town company with an in town company? social function only? one of the shows could be a combo show between a Chicago and out of town theatre, but could give one show an unfair advantage

- boost to theatres in the neighborhood? host theatres paired with out-of-towners as a "special" thing

- what's in it for me? recognition, don't have to leave your doorstep to see amazing stuff that isn't native

- get everyone excited, get donations from theatres in the city

- basic timeline (on website)

- fundraiser in Pilsen?

- students as free labor, Northwestern

- love to see street closed down on Saturday (ask alderman)

- other ideas for contacts: City of Chicago tourism website, office of the mayor, explorechicago.com, DCA , International Arts Festivals (film, dance, etc,) get involved, trade info

More Meet N Greets

So there was a little confusion as to the dates of the Meet N Greets, so we actually have two more scheduled as of now (we are planning to do at least one more in October):

Monday, September 21 & Monday September 28

7-9 pm
St. Andrews Church
Social Hall
Hermitage and Addison, Southeast Corner

"Follow Your Bliss"

Are you a fan of Joseph Campbell? I've got this great distinct memory of being in a Humanities course at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (the wonderful Mr. Kinsella being my professor and mentor) and watching The Power of Myth, a film about his seminal non fiction text. Near the end Campbell has this wistful moment where he says something to the effect that if you do what you love, doors will open, opportunities will manifest. At the time I was about 21, and basically just half assing it to get through my degree in English so that I could go off and do Theatre (where or how, I had no clue). Mr. Kinsella knew that, and he knew how skeptical most people around me were about my hopes, and how hard I had to fight to keep pursuing it; how really, on some level, I just felt like some pathetic lumpy piece of dashed dreams. Mr. Kinsella gave me a knowing look; I teared up. He knew how powerful that statement was to me.

Producing Fringe is effin terrifying. It's huge, complex, mathematical, political; everything. It's also just so sweet. While I still might have my day job, being able to work on this feels so right. This week I was feeling a bit of the old self doubt creeping in. Can I really do this? I say to myself...

But then things happen that can only be described as coincidences to the some, and mythical to a few. I tend to view things as the mysterious option in life personally. Makes it more fun.

We've been trying to put together a fundraising event for this fall. I wouldn't say any of us are proven experts. I have put several together in the past for my former theatre company, Tantalus, but I wouldn't say they were exemplary.

Then I specifically get an email from a woman with and outstanding resume who SPECIFICALLY states that she is very interested in fundraising. I also start to think that, hell, there are bound to be people at these Meet N Greets who would be great on a Fundraising and Events Committee. Ain't life grand? I don't need to worry about every little detail. If the last few weeks have taught me anything, it's that people are pumped for Fringe, and happy to volunteer their mad skills to making it happen.

So for me - passion and vision are key. Those qualities attract people to us who DO have the specific skills we're missing. Not only is it going to happen, but it's going to be great.

I just realized that this post probably sounds like The Secret (I've not read it) and you probably just lost all respect for me. Alas.

Blasted Human Error!

Today I got a mailing list request into my spam folder. I saw it and thought, ok let me retrieve this. I accidently checked it to delete and now it's lost forever! Blasted! I'm pretty sad about this. So poor poor anonymous soul who wanted to be added to the mailing list... if you haven't gotten our mailing about the meet n greets through your email, you didn't make it on! Please email us again at mailinglist@chicagofringe.org to be added.