Celebrating 20 Years of Experimental Performance in Over-the-Rhine
Announcing this year’s extraordinary Primary Lineup
Know Theatre proudly presents The 20th Annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival – the region’s largest and longest-running annual performing arts festival – June 2-17, 2023! A 14-day celebration featuring hundreds of live performances from independent local, national, and international artists, the Cincy Fringe is Cincinnati’s Summer Theatre Party.
This year we continue to carry the torch of creative community care and radical self-expression forward with:
- 31 Primary Lineup Performances
- 40+ Productions (Including 3 FringeDevelopment projects and several Special Events) to entertain at 6 venues across Over-the-Rhine: Know Theatre, Art Academy of Cincinnati, Gabriel’s Corner, and with space provided by our neighborhood sponsor, 3CDC.
- Free All Ages Performances on Weekend Afternoons!
- Free Nightly After Hours Events!
- And the Grand Reopening of the beloved Know Underground Bar!
Come Celebrate With Us!
Join us on May 1 for a cabaret bash celebrating 25 Years of Know Theatre and 20 Years of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival! Enjoy live performances, a delicious dinner-by-the-bite, fantastic drinks from Knox Joseph Distillery, and a silent auction as we toast the history and ensure the future of Cincinnati’s most adventurous live theatre community.
TICKETING INFORMATION
- 50% of all Box Office revenue is given to the Performance Fringe artists.
- Single tickets to the 2023 Cincy Fringe are $18.
- The All-Access Pass ($300) is good for one entry into as many productions as one person can see.
- Our 6-ticket Voyeur Pass ($90) can be used in any combination of shows and is transferable among individuals.
- All passes are currently on sale at www.cincyfringe.com
Primary Lineup Details
This year’s Primary Lineup totals 31 productions (30 in-person and 1 online) and features new work from 15 local creators, 14 productions from across the country, and 2 international artists from Japan and Australia.
With 16 world premieres, 15 regional premieres and 15 producing companies that have never-been-seen-before in Cincinnati, audiences are guaranteed to experience something extraordinary!
The 2023 Cincy Fringe Festival Primary Lineup
1nce Upon a Lie: Paul Strickland
Paul Strickland Presents
Covington, Kentucky
Paul Strickland’s NEW collection of HILARIOUS, HEARTFELT STORIES and SONGS!
Anatomica
Amica Hunter
Portland, Oregon
What’s THE BEST skeleton? Get in loser, we’re finding out.
Anchorette
Jane Carver
Cincinnati, Ohio
An abandoned baby, a ship’s crew, and an ancient superstition…
Bloodline
Paris Crayton III
Los Angeles, California
The multi-generational love story of three men with the same name.
Cry Wulf
Boris Dansberry
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Heroism, blood, absolute evil, puppets; what’s more manly than that?
Cyn of Omission
Sound Body Culture
Cleveland, Ohio
A light hearted neo-noir murder mystery with original music.
Gentrification: The Musical!
Doin’ Too Much Productions
Cincinnati, Ohio
Definitely not a musical about OTR or 3CDC.
Granny’s FixIt: An Ozarks Guide to Healing the Body and Soul
Dawn Larsen
Florence, South Carolina
Let Granny fix it, come git a cure.
Happy Go Lucky
Shoshinz/Yanomi Shoshinz
Tokyo, Japan
A one woman puppetry show from Japan.
Heart Ripped Out Twice And So Can You!
Linnea Bond
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
A (mostly) comedy about pain.
Jon Bennett: Dad (hates) Jokes
2Hoots Productions
Adelaide, Australia
Jon Bennett’s Dad is a VERY serious and VERY accident-prone man.
Julie
coyote & co creative studios
Cincinnati, Ohio
Sapphic-picaresque journey of a 17th-century, bi-sexual, gender-bending, sword-wielding woman.
Keeping Our Torch
Pones
Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky
A dance-infused performance celebrating diverse stories of intergenerational wisdom.
MADE IN AMERICA
Teruko Nakajima
Los Angeles, California
Teruko and Titi’s Triumph over Tragedy!
Magic for Animals
Liz Toonkel / Los Angeles Performance Practice
Los Angeles, California
A magic show breaking through illusions around agency and consent.
Modern Beings in Search of the Sole
Solasta Theatre Lab
Cincinnati, Ohio
To heel or heal, that is the question.
Mothering & Mourning
Megan Flynn & Teresa VanDenend Sorge
Troy, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Cincinnati, Ohio
Dances of mothering and mourning, because aren’t we all?
One Last Night with Mary MacLane
Nora Bonner and James Cargill
Atlanta, Georgia & Detroit, Michigan
19th century genius’s last gig before she meets the Devil.
plosive!
Performance Gallery
Cincinnati, Ohio
Vocal sounds giving new context to conventional language.
Rappings
InBocca Performance
Cincinnati, Ohio
Communing with the dead isn’t scary; it’s downright unreal.
RUH-Roh!
Queen City Flash
Cincinnati, Ohio
A final, hair-raising adventure for a very meddlesome duo.
Runaway Princess
Mary Goggin
Bronx, New York
A hopeful tale of heroin, hooking, and happiness.
ShMILF Life
Penny: For Your Thoughts
Rochester, New York
Stories about dating when trans and old. HINT: You don’t.
Spank Bank Time Machine
John Michael
Chicago, Illinois
Best friends, poppers, douches, & a time machine fueled by participation.
The Highway Woman
Hannah Gregory
Cincinnati, Ohio
The origin story of Wicked Lady Ferrers, Renaissance highway woman.
The Rembrandt Job
Clifton Players
Cincinnati, Ohio
Historically-accurate, hysterically-funny botched robbery of Rembrandt paintings from Taft in 1973.
Thread and Bone
Lisa Egan Woods
Versailles, Kentucky
Sometimes funny, always honest memoir about grief, heart-surgery, and dressmaking.
Todalv
Maia Morrigan Aoibheil
Cincinnati, Ohio
An Indigenous exploration of identity.
To Spite One’s Face
Zoë Peterson
Cincinnati, Ohio
The VHS from The Ring meets the women of G.L.O.W.
UDFCC (Unambiguously Destructive Family Crushes Community)
The Pajama Playhouse
Cincinnati, Ohio
Two Carls, Barry Larkin, and a banana stroll down Central.
Who’s Afraid of Winnie the Pooh?
Clevername Theatre
Saint Paul, Minnesota
It’s Edward Albee, but Winnie the Pooh.
Stay tuned as we announce the 2023 Cincy Fringe All Ages productions, FringeDevelopment projects, Special Events and Digital Primary Lineup later this month!
Know Theatre is Cincinnati’s Theatrical Playground. The Know showcases unexpected voices, new works, and plays that embrace the inherent theatricality of the live experience. Know Theatre seeks to be a place where artists and audiences feel welcome to take artistic risks, creating work that is cutting edge and accessible.
The 19th Annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival is made possible by a generous partnership with our neighbors, the Art Academy of Cincinnati and 3CDC.
Know Theatre’s work is made possible, in part, by the generosity of community contributions to the ArtsWave Campaign.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund Know Theatre with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
Know Theatre is also supported by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, which provides a simple, powerful, and highly personal approach to giving.
Know Theatre is a member of Theatre Communications Group and an Associate Member of the National New Play Network.
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Sunday, February 26th from 4-6pm at Wooden Cask Brewing Company in Newport, KY, we are holding the 2023 Cincy Fringe Unified Auditions.
Come Play With Us! The Cincinnati Fringe Festival Is Accepting Applications for 2023
Two shows at Fringe had to close most or all of their runs due to cast illness. We were all pretty disappointed about it.
Saturday, June 25, at 1:00 PM
If you couldn’t join us for our triumphant celebration at the end of the Festival on Saturday Night, here are your 2022 Cincinnati Fringe Festival Picks of the Fringe!
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 