About Chicago Fringe

We are a group of Chicago-based individual artists and producers who have come together with the common goal of making an annual Chicago Fringe Festival a reality. We are all unpaid volunteers.

We are one of many cities in the the U.S. and around the world that are part of the Fringe Festival movement. To learn more about Fringe, please visit the United States combined website for Fringes: www.fringefestivals.us

The Chicago Fringe Festival Inc. is an Illinois non for profit organization. We were incorporated in July of 2009.

To contact us, you may email us here or call 773-428-9977

Our Mission

The Chicago Fringe Festival (CFF) invites emerging and established performing artists from Chicago, the U.S. and beyond to showcase their work and add to the dialogue of theatrical art. The Festival also seeks to enhance the perception of Chicago as a major hub for theatre. CFF encourages performers to take bold risks by providing an avenue for affordable productions. It also seeks to bring in non-traditional theater-goers through a commitment to low ticket prices and outreach into communities not commonly represented. In this fashion, The Chicago Fringe Festival provides an avenue for diverse artists and audience members to connect in a singular and immediate way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is a Fringe Festival anyway?

A: A Fringe Festival can be loosely defined as a performance festival that seeks the un-tried and the weird. A movement that started in 1947 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Fringes now appear across the U.S. and all over the world. Our closest Fringes are Minnesota Fringe, Kansas City Fringe and Indianapolis Fringe.

Q: When and where will Chicago Fringe be?

A: Our first Fringe was September 1-5, 2010, in the Pilsen neighborhood, centering around Halsted and 18th street. The 2011 festival will also be held in Pilsen, over two weekends — September 1-11, 2011.

Q: How many shows will be in the festival?

A: We will accept approximately 50 performance groups for the 2011 festival. Each will perform between 3 and 5 times.

Q: How much are tickets? Where do the sales go?

A: Tickets will be $10 to each performance, with some package rates available. Performers get 100% of their box office revenue, meaning they could make back their investment many times over.

Q: I hate to be a jerk, but why do we even need a Fringe? Isn't Chicago just a big Fringe year round? Further aren't we a saturated market that doesn't need this?

A: We're glad you asked. Yes, we believe that Chicago does need a Fringe, and we have engineered our festival to meet the needs of our city as we view it. This festival will, above all, create a place where Chicago performance artists can interact with performers from across town and the world in a fun immersive environment. It will encourage performers and patrons to travel beyond their comfort zone and get to know someplace new. It will allow patrons to show up just one day, and get to see 5 or 6 groups that they are curious about but may never have travelled to see during the year. It will allow groups struggling to get seen to catch a buzz. It will further put Chicago on the map as a, if not the, major theatrical center of the United States.

Q: How are performance groups selected?

A: By lottery.

Q: Lottery? Whaaaaat?

A: Having a lottery selection process is important to us for a few reasons. It allows us to hold true to the Fringe tradition that has been established by other Fringe Festivals – the vast majority of which are un-juried. We believe in having a place in Chicago for amateurs and professionals to be thrown into the mix together. By not having an artistic director, we open the door for truly anything to come in during those two weeks in September. Risky? Perhaps. Exciting? Definitely. The onus is on the audience to participate with and evaluate the art. It is an absolute democracy. Over time, we hope to develop a robust audience review system (a system that was started with the inaugural festival in 2010).

Q: I have more questions. Bah humbug.

A: Please contact us. info@chicagofringe.org. We are ALWAYS open to discussion, and absolutely feed on dissent.

Fringe Staff

Sarah Mikayla Brown

Sarah Mikayla Brown was Student Body President of Sts. Leo-Seton in Lafayette, Louisiana at 13 years of age. While she tried to repress that part of her by becoming an accomplished actor, writer and improviser throughout her high school (Academy of the Sacred Heart), college (UL Lafayette, Acting Up!), and post collegiate years in Chicago (Tantalus Theatre Group, Corn Productions, Rude Mechanicals, Quest, Annoyance Productions), her administrative tendencies haunted her still. She has managed to combine her right and left brain into one glorious project – The Chicago Fringe Festival. Mikayla is an ensemble member with Cult of the Stage Monkey Chicago.

Vinnie Lacey

Vinnie Lacey is an improviser, producer, writer, comedian, fashion model, commercial actor, jiu jitsu champion and artist. His Catholic comedy, Hopelessly Devoted, was recently featured at the Capital Fringe Festival in DC: hopelesslydevoted.blogspot.com. He creates entirely tasteless funnies with his sketch team Cell Camp: cellcampcomedy.com. He knows Fringe is well past due in Chicago and is proud to help serve it to ya'll.

Anne Cauley

Anne Cauley is thrilled to be a part of the Chicago Fringe Festival. When not obsessing about the magic of fringes, she is the Individual Giving Manager at Milwaukee Repertory Theater. On past adventures, Anne has worked/performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, interned at the Kennedy Center and Berkshire Theatre Festival, and volunteered at the IndyFringe, where she awarded herself the "Traveled the Furthest to Fringe Volunteer Award."

Sean Chang

A junior at the Latin School of Chicago, Sean is extremely excited to be involved with Chicago’s first Fringe! He fell in love with theatre freshman year after doing his first play, and fringe fests this summer after seeing another city’s exciting festival. He enjoys quirky, experimental theatre, helping the folks at Steppenwolf Theatre Co stay hip with teens, and red velvet cupcakes.

Amanda Dodge

Amanda Dodge is American by birth, yet southern by the grace of God. She moved to Chicago in March of 2004 and is currently living in Irving Park. Her favorite part about Chicago is any day that doesn't snow and is over 75 degrees. She and Sarah Mikayla both attended the University of Louisiana and that's where they met. She is happy to be on the Chicago Fringe team as their lovable Secretary.

Samay Gheewala

Samay Gheewala has performed improv and scripted theater on the East Coast, West Coast, and the Coast of Lake Michigan. While studying towards his undergraduate degree at the University of Rochester, Mr. Gheewala co-founded the award-winning In Between The Lines improv troupe, and served as its first business manager. He is also a graduate of the DePaul University College of Law.

Adrienne Guldin

Adrienne Guldin is the former Board President of Tantalus Theatre Group. She has worked in a number of capacities in the theatre world, including production management, stage management, design and performance. In her spare time, she enjoys decyphering idiomatic differences in the English language.

Luke Harmon

Katie Leisner

Katie Leisner retired from acting in 2004, after a three-day run in the University of Dayton's production of The Vagina Monologues. Katie's other major performances included the title role in her nursery school's The Little Red Hen and scores of appearances in her grandparents' living room in Evanston. Katie is thrilled to have the chance to utilize her 10 years of experience in resource development to help the Chicago Fringe Festival provide opportunities for us to enrich our souls, by enjoying the work of emerging performing arts groups.

Stephanie Miller

Stephanie Miller has a BA in Theater from Loyola University Chicago and recently ran away to Scotland to pursue a Master's in Education. Thanks to the magic of the internet, she is available to help answer any international artist visa queries when she's not frolicking about the highlands, drinking copius amounts of Irn Bru, or developing her champion Curling skills.

Tim Mullaney

Tim Mullaney earned his theatre degree from Northwestern, his writing degree from Washington University in St. Louis and his Fringe stripes by performing in the Edinburgh Festival. He has also performed at the Goodman Theatre and Imua Theatre, among other venues. His favorite role: Easel the singing weasel (even though the whiskers tickled!). His writing recognitions include a fellowship with the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in NYC and the 2010 Salamander Magazine Fiction Prize. He is beyond tickled (even minus his weasel whiskers!) to be part of the theatrical extravaganza that is Chicago Fringe.

Rachel Staelens

Rachel Staelens is ecstatic to be working on the Chicago Fringe Festival for a second year. She has been company stage manager of Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre since 2007 and is an associate company member with Point of Contention Theatre. Rachel graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a BFA in Theatre Directing but manages folks all around town in the hopes that eventually she will coax them into letting her direct. She would like to thank her friends and family for their continued love and support and assures them that—as always—she will return all calls when the show (or in this case festival) is up.

Tracey Wray

Tracy Wray graduated in 2007 with a B.A. in Theatre for both acting and directing , and with minors in communication, philosophy, and ethnomusicology. Upon Graduation, Tracy moved to London where she worked as a bartender for the West End's Shaftesbury Theatre. Some of her previous directing credits include Wendy Wasserstein's Heidi Chronicles, Nicky Silver's Pterodactyl, and Josh Mikel's Bethlehem Motor Community featured as the opening show for American College Theatre Festival in 2007. Her favorite acting roles include Elaine from Nature and Purpose of the Universe; Bella from Charles Mee's Big Love; Marina from Joe Cacaci's production of History of Cardenio - The Lost Shakespeare Play; & Mother from Machinal. You can see Tracy as Nurse Ratched in The Consortium Project's upcoming production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the Viaduct Theatre.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Board of Directors

• Emily Brouilette
• Sarah Mikayla Brown
• Anne Cauley
• Amanda Dodge
• Adrienne Guldin
• Vincent Lacey
• Peter Van Loon

Fringe Advisory Board

• Todd and Marrakesh Frugia - ROOMS Productions
• Michael J Gellman - Senior Faculty, The Second City
• Deborah Granite - Director & Venue/Coordinator Liaison, The Saints
• Sean Hargadon - Director, Janus Theatre
• David Johnson
• Nick Keenan - Sound Operator, Goodman Theater;
  Marketing Director/Artist in Residence, New Leaf Theatre
• Howard Lieberman - Lieberman-Nelson
• Holly Payton - Director, World Festival Network
• David Perez - Artistic Director, Pavement Group
• Jonathan Pitts - Co-Founder & Executive Director, Chicago Improv Festival Productions
• Josh Preston - Technical Director, Ballet Hisapanico
• Deborah Smith - Company Member, Rendition Theatre
• Laura Shatkus
• Brian Shaw - Founding Company Member, Plasticene;
  Associate Chairperson, Columbia College Chicago
• Madrid St. Angelo - Co-Artistic Director, Urban Theater Company