Last night, I was at the lottery drawing for the Minnesota Fringe Festival. This is the 20th year of the theater festival, and with it, the MN Fringe staff announced their new logo:
You see, the “I” in Fringe is an exclamation point, because it’s exciting!
Teasing aside, I love it. I mean, it’s no Wobbles, but that cat is gone, man. I need to learn to let it go.
For those who aren’t in the know, the Minnesota Fringe Festival is a large, unjuried theater festival that takes place in the Twin Cities every August.
Unjuried. Fringe throws that term around a lot, but let’s take a look at that. A lot of other Fringe Festivals have producers apply to their festival, and then a committee goes over the applications to decide which shows are going to get in. In Minnesota, instead of all that careful deliberation, we assign every application a number, put the number on a ping pong ball, throw those ping pong balls in one of those spinny cages, and randomly pull numbers out til all the spots in the Fringe Festival are filled. Then the rest are pulled and put on a wait list.
There are a lot of pros and cons to an unjuried festival. You get to see a lot of shows you might not otherwise get to see. Some of them might be utter garbage, but some might be hidden gems.
Also, our Fringe staff is pretty lazy, and deliberating over applications smacks of work. (Robin, this is a joke. Please don’t send that creepy penis guy from last year after me.)
This isn’t the most penisy picture of him, but it’s still rather dickish.
But mostly, it gives us an opportunity to throw a party centered around the holy drawing of the ping pong balls. There’s boozing and schmoozing. It’s a decent sized elbow rubbing affair.
Jesse trying to rub elbows. Picture by Rob Callahan, who usually does a much better job with his investigative reporting.
The lottery number were pulled, and a lot of my friends got in. Our Fearless Fringe Sponsorship winner Jakey Emmert got in (and I am ridiculously excited for him). Denson and Young got in. Rooftop Theater got in. Six Elements got in. Navel Gaze got in. Snikt! Bamf! Thwip! is 19th on the waitlist. The YoungNotions “not a musical” is #88 on the waitlist, so maybe.
In 2009, I first applied to the Fringe, and my number was pulled for a slot. I was sitting next to Ari Hoptman, who had applied for 4 years in a row without getting his number pulled. But this year, his 5th year trying, his number got called too! Hooray and excitement! We all get to produce! Everyone wins!
Since then, my ping pong ball has been so far down on the waitlist even Robin tells me there no hope. Usually somewhere between 20 and 7 from the end of the waitlist. It happened to me in 2010, but that was okay, as I had a wedding to produce. In 2011 when I didn’t get drawn, I ended up doing Highlander: the Musical instead. Last year when my number was at the end of the waitlist, I already had a couple possibilities lined up, and ended up participating in 3 different shows.
Every year I hope it will be different. But no. That solo show that I’ve put in for faithfully every year for the past 4 years? It’s #197 on the waitlist.
Who the hell doesn’t get drawn for Fringe 4 years in a row? I mean, aside from Ari Hoptman
Ari Hoptman. That sneaky son of a bitch. HE PASSED ON HIS CURSE TO ME!!!!!!!!!! When we were sitting next to each other, he gave me the curse so he could get in! And he seems like such a nice guy…
Ah well. There’s always next year.
I think it was subtle enough at the beginning of the lottery last night that people don’t realize that 4 out-of-town companies were allowed into the MN Fringe this year without needing to have their ball picked. So, I hope the Fringe doesn’t throw around the term “unjuried” this year.
They very specifically stated that it was a part of an “exchange program,” that they held open 4 slots for it, and only 4 out of town people applied. Instead of putting the 4 ping pong balls into the cage and drawing 4 for the 4 open slots for the exchange program, they used math. None of the shows were “judged.”
In the past, Fringe has had specific spots open for artists of color, gender, identity and orientation, kids shows, and other criteria. None of the shows were judged… all were pulled from those categories via lottery and random draw. It was a way to encourage more diversity in the Fringe. I see no difference between that and what they did last night. We have very few out of towners overall compared to other Fringe festivals, and I love meeting new people and hearing their stories.
Thanks for the response.
I do make a point to see out-of-towners shows (for better or for worse sometimes). I just don’t like that there are any special categories for the lottery. I didn’t know they had done that in the past. To me “unjuried” should mean completely random.
Unjuried just means “no jury.” No judgement, no one deciding which shows get to be in. The odds have always been different depending on various factors (better odds to get a regular venue spot than a small venue spot, for instance). I think they’re following the definition of “unjuried,” no matter how you feel about categories and odds.