Smaller is better: What you need to know about KC Fringe Festival
The KC Fringe Festival has been growing steadily since its founding in 2005. For its 22nd season, however, growth for Kansas City’s largest celebration of the arts will involve trimming back on the number of shows and venues.
Let Audrey Crabtree, the festival’s executive director, explain.
“I’m a gardener,” she said. “So, what do you do when you want your garden to grow? You prune it back.”
Accordingly, KC Fringe will offer 37 shows during its run July 16-26 — down from 63 last year — at eight venues — down from 11. Also, the festival has discontinued its movie segment, although it will have a special project in the fall, and it has moved the visual arts portion to the fall. In previous years, both ran concurrently with the performing arts shows, which are the meat and potatoes of the festival.
Crabtree estimated the festival’s total audience in recent years at 8,500.
“We want to keep that 8,500 number but push them into a smaller amount of shows,” she said. “Adding shows, it might drive the numbers overall a little bit, but it doesn’t drive the number of people who are attending each show. That’s really what it boils down to for our partners and our artists.”
KC Fringe attracted 198 applications this year, up from 165 last year, so the pruning was painful. A lottery system determined the lucky 37.
Performers will come from around the country, including Colorado, Texas, New York and Los Angeles, along with plenty of locals. Among them will be Kansas City’s John “Br. John” Anderson, a tribute vocalist whose history with KC Fringe dates back 20 years.
Jamie Campbell, a touring stand-up comedian, actor and writer based in Kansas City, will present a solo show about surviving cancer called “Cancer?! I Hardly Know Her!” Campbell is a two-time Best of KC Fringe winner.
Among the out-of-town performers will be Kylie Westerbeck, a New Yorker who will make her KC Fringe debut with “Peg!” The show about a magical pixie princess clown premiered at the 2018 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
The artists are likely to appreciate the smaller-is-better approach, Crabtree said.
“How terrible is it if you create a show that maybe takes you a year or six months, and then you have one house that has maybe eight people in it?” she said. “That’s pretty tough.”
There also are financial benefits.
“The ticket price is split between the artists and the venues,” Crabtree said. “So (the venues) will make more money, the artists will make more money. That’s the plan.”
KC Fringe Festival
What: More than 175 performances in areas such as theater, dance, comedy, burlesque, cabaret, circus and magic.
When: July 16-26, with shows as early as 3:30 p.m. and as late as 10 p.m.
Where: Eight venues in downtown and midtown: The Bird Comedy Theater, Center for Spiritual Living, City Stage in Union Station, Fuego Cantina KC, Kansas City Oasis, Kansas City Young Audiences, MOD Gallery and Whim Space.
Cost: A Fringe Button ($5; free for 12 and under) is required to purchase tickets ($15; $8 for 3-12) to any show and to attend after parties and other free events. Discounted five- and 10-show passes are available. You can purchase buttons online, at every Fringe venue and at the Fringe 411 office at The Bird Comedy Theatre, 103 W. 19th St.
Noteworthy: A free KC Fringe Flash Preview will be offered at 8 p.m. July 16 at City Stage.
Schedule: For a complete list of shows and showtimes, go to kcfringe.org/shows.
