Rochester Fringe 2018 Now Taking Show Submissions Through April 30th

Organizers of the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival opened the 2018 show-submission process yesterday, on April 1, 2018 at 9 a.m. (EST). Through April 30 at 11:59 p.m. (EST), artists and producers from all over the world may submit production proposals directly to the 2018 Fringe's 20+ venues via rochesterfringe.com. Complete how-to-apply instructions are available on the website (backstage.rochesterfringe.com/before-applying). Based on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe model, the vast majority of the Fringe's 500+ shows are selected by the venues themselves from these submissions.

Unlike most U.S. fringe festivals, there is no fee to apply, and the registration fees (ranging from $50-$150) are due only after the contract with a venue is finalized. Registration fees go toward the show's inclusion in the Fringe program guide and website, a centralized box office, and more.

"As always, we encourage shows to submit their applications early, as venues will begin booking their lineups immediately," advises Fringe Producer Erica Fee.

Venues accepting submissions this year are: The Avyarium by WallByrd Theatre Co., Blackfriars Theatre, Central Library (three spaces), Eastman School of Music (two spaces), Geva Theatre Center, Java's Café, Lyric Theatre (two spaces), MuCCC, School of the Arts (four spaces), and Writers & Books.

A site-specific option is also available, in which the shows propose a location other than a traditional theatre space, such as a phone booth, parked cars, buses, and elevators. The Fringe is very much in favor of this sort of unorthodox theatre because it engages audiences in unexpected ways.

Self- or Fringe-curated venues include Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre, the Spiegeltent and Spiegelgarden, Parcel 5, Gibbs Street, Garth Fagan Dance Studio, George Eastman Museum, RIT at The Little, RIT's Gallery r, and Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery.

The Fringe itself presents some big-name headliners and all free outdoor entertainment as a way to draw audiences to the festival's East End hub as well as to its Neighborhood of the Arts (NOTA) satellite hub.

"In addition to making the arts accessible to audiences, our other key mission is to make audiences accessible to artists, providing them with a platform to share their ideas and develop their skills," Fee explains, adding that this philosophy holds true for the more than 200 fringe festivals around the world that now take place on every continent except Antarctica.

The 2017 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival (September 14-23) was "our most successful Fringe yet," reports the non-profit board of directors that organizes the fast-growing, multi-genre performing arts festival. Attendance at more than 500 performances and events - 175 of them free of charge - was estimated at more than 78,000. In addition, more than 85 ticketed, submitted performances at almost every Fringe venue sold out.

Due to popular demand, the 2018 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival will expand to 11 days (Wednesday, Sept. 12 - Saturday, Sept. 22). The complete lineup will be announced Tuesday, July 10, 2018.

Rochester Fringe Festival connects and empowers artists, audiences, venues, educational institutions, and the community to celebrate, explore, and inspire creativity via an annual, multi-genre performing arts festival. The not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation was pioneered by several of Rochester's esteemed cultural institutions including Geva Theatre Center, the George Eastman House and Garth Fagan Dance; up-and-coming arts groups like PUSH Physical Theatre and Method Machine; and higher-education partners such as the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology. From its five-day debut in 2012 to its 10-days in 2017 that attracted more than 78,000 attendees, the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival has become one of the fastest-growing and most-attended fringe festivals in the U.S. More than a third of the Fringe's 500 performances in 25+ downtown Rochester venues are free, and were attended by 49,000 people last year. Renowned among the world's 200+ fringe festivals for its large-scale, outdoor, free-to-the-public performances - including the U.S. premieres of France's Plasticiens Volants and Canada's Circus Orange - Rochester's Fringe was also the first fringe festival in North America to feature a Spiegeltent, which is now an annual attraction. From comedy to theatre, from music to dance, from visual art and film to spoken word, and from children's entertainment to multi-disciplinary collaborations, the festival's diversity also extends to venues that span the gamut from parked cars to grand theatres. Fringe's overarching mission is to make arts readily accessible to audiences, as well as to provide a platform for artists to share their ideas and develop their skills, while stimulating downtown Rochester both culturally and economically.

About KeyCorp: KeyCorp's (NYSE: KEY) roots trace back 190 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $137.7 billion at December 31, 2017. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, insurance, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,200 branches and more than 1,500 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.

Photo: BUSHWHACKED: Crystal Magic Wonder Cabinet Palace Tent, credit John Schlia. In foreground: Rochester performer/writer Abby DeVuyst.

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