KEYBANK ROCHESTER FRINGE FESTIVAL @ HOME Features Over 170 Virtual Productions

Organizers of the 2020 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival announced the entire lineup of their ninth annual festival (Tuesday, Sept. 15 - Saturday, Sept. 26) via a streaming, virtual BIG REVEAL press conference this morning. For 12 days, KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival @ Home will feature more than 175 online productions, information and tickets for which will be available starting at noon on rochesterfringe.com.

"We are delighted by the number of artists - from all over the Greater Rochester area, the U.S., and the world - who would not be daunted by either a global pandemic or the virtual world, and seized the opportunity to be creative and connect with audiences," exclaims Festival Producer Erica Fee. "The fact that we have so many productions participating this year proves that there's a real need for virtual platforms such as these, which allow for artists' voices to be heard and communities to address difficult issues during these challenging times."

This year's Rochester Fringe covers its usual wide variety of genres: Comedy, Dance, Kids Fringe, Multidisciplinary, Music, Spoken Word, Theatre, and Visual Art & Film. Shows range from the sublime to the ridiculous, from on-demand to live-streamed, and from amateur to world-renowned artists.

In addition, the festival has curated a few of its own shows that fans have come to expect. The world premiere of Cirque du Fringe: Quarantini will amaze and amuse in a virtual way, hosted by Fringe favorites Matt and Heidi Brucker Morgan. It features an international cast with a new twist: audiences will get to know some of the performers via live interviews. The Las Vegas-based team will also create a virtual and diverse production of their bawdy, Bard-based drinking game and late-night Fringe favorite, Shotspeare, entitled: Shotspeare Presents the Complete Works of William Shakespeare...sort of.

Last year, Fringe commissioned the release of a podcast based on local history entitled "George Eastman" by Nate DiMeo's Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Memory Palace. This year, it will release two more: "High Falls," which debuted at 2019's On-Site Listening Experience, and a world premiere about Rochester's revered Corinthian Hall called "From the Parking Lot." Both episodes will be available for free and on-demand via Radiotopia, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and rochesterfringe.com.

Finally, a new discussion series called FringeTalk will debut this year, consisting of four, live conversations with diverse groups of four, fascinating artists, discussing everything from burning issues to funny recollections.

"We applaud the creative spirit that this festival inspires in all who participate and know that this year's virtual performances will be a wonderful celebration of art and imagination," says KeyBank Rochester Market Executive Phil Muscato. "We're very excited for everyone to experience the 2020 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival @ Home!"

The 12-day, 2019 KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival featured more than 650 performances and events - over 200 of them free - and broke all previous attendance records with more than 100,000 visitors. From its five-day debut in 2012, the has become one of the fastest-growing and most-attended fringe festivals in the U.S. It is also the largest multi-arts festival in New York State. As a bifurcated festival, it allows for a combination of headline entertainment curated by the non-profit Rochester Fringe Festival as well as an open-access portion.

Rochester Fringe Festival connects and empowers artists, audiences, venues, educational institutions, and the community to celebrate, explore, and inspire creativity via an annual, multi-genre arts festival. It was pioneered by several of Rochester's esteemed cultural institutions including Geva Theatre Center, the George Eastman House and Garth Fagan Dance; up-and-coming arts groups like PUSH Physical Theatre and Method Machine; and higher-education partners such as the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology. The organization's overarching mission is to provide a platform for artists to share their ideas and develop their skills, while being as diverse and inclusive as possible.