FringeNYC Extends Application Deadline

The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), the largest multi-arts festival in North America, will present the 19th Annual Festival from August 14 - 30, 2014. Each year the festival presents programming by nearly 200 of the world's best emerging theatre troupes and dance companies. General FringeNYC applications for 2015 are currently being accepted for participants in all genres (theatre, dance, puppetry, performance art, multi-media, etc.). Separate FringeAL FRESCO (free outdoor events) and FringeJR (children's programming) applications are also available.

Applications are now available online at www.fringenyc.org. For the first time ever, applicants are able to upload their cover letter, script and support materials and a $40 application fee is now accepted via PayPal. Completed applications are now due February 24, 2015 -- 10 days later than previously announced, due to some unforeseen technical glitches with the new system that were only recently discovered and repaired.

"Sometimes when you try to make a change for the better (like allowing your applicants to upload their support materials rather than tromping through the snow to the bank and then the post office) there are technical issues along the way," notes FringeNYC Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy. "So this one time - we decided that extending the deadline was the appropriate thing to do. All applicants now have ten more days to apply to become a part of FringeNYC. After all, even the federal government sometimes recognizes that extending the deadline due to technical glitches is a good thing. So I guess we're just like Obamacare!"

FringeNYC is a production of The Present Company, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Elena K. Holy. Ms. Holy was just selected as a "Person of the Deacde" for nytheatre now's Indie Theater Hall of Fame.

In 1997, New York City became the seventh US city to host a fringe festival, joining Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Houston, Orlando and San Francisco. FringeNYC has presented over 3000 performing groups representing every continent, prompting Switzerland's national daily, The New Zurich Zeitung, to declare FringeNYC as "the premiere meeting ground for alternative artists." FringeNYC has also been the launching pad for numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway transfers, long-running downtown hits, and regional theater productions including Urinetown, Matt & Ben, Never Swim Alone, Jammer, Debbie Does Dallas, Dog Sees God, Brandon Teena, Dixie's Tupperware Party, 21 Dog Years, Bash'd, The Irish Curse, Jurassic Parq, The Fartiste, Silence! The Musical and 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche; movies including WTC View and Armless; and even a TV show ('da Kink in My Hair). FringeNYC alumni include Bradley Cooper, Melissa Rauch (Big Bang Theory), Morgan Spurlock (Supersize Me, CNN's Inside Man), Mindy Kaling, Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Pippin), Alex Timbers (Rocky), Leigh Silverman (Violet), W. Kamau Bell (Totally Biased), Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), Naomi Grossman (American Horror Story) and Chris Lowell (Enlisted), among countless other success stories.