Nice recap article on Fringe

From the June 15 Cincinnati Enquirer:
"Fringe feels its growing power"
by Jackie Demaline

It's all good news for Cincinnati Fringe Festival.

Attendance jumped by 30 percent, from just under 3,000 to 3,822 for ticketed events and "We broke even - by a nose," is the happy report from executive producer Jason Bruffy, who finished counting up the required $30,000 early this week.

The top six shows accounted for 40 percent of the festival'sattendance:

Big winners were, in order of attendance, "Britney Spears and All the Other (Stuff) We Deal With" (292); "Tectonics" by Moving Art Dance Company (262), Amy Salloway's "Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat?" (245); "A/ThePostModernLoveStory" by BlueForms Theatre Group (236); "Don't Look Down" (225) and Exhale Dance Company's "Kala Natesa" (184).

The lessons learned: Never underestimate the drawing power of University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. Both "Britney Spears" and "Don't Look Down" were written by grads, Stacey Morrison and Adam Wagner, respectively; and there just may be a contemporary dance audience in Cincinnati.

The bounce in interest, says Bruffy, "proves we can grow." He's a little disappointed because he was shooting for 5,000 in attendance. The fringe doesn't track numbers for its late-night Bar Series and Visual Fringe, but Bruffy was pleased with what he saw.

"We knew the second year would be the toughest. Anybody can produce one festival.

"The first year we were supported by Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival. This year we were on our own and the budget tripled when we became independent."

Mark the dates May 31-June 11, 2006. Bruffy and Cincinnati Experimental Arts (CineX), the festival's administrative umbrella, have already set next year's third annual Fringe Festival. Applications are already online.

After a brief breather, Bruffy would like to have performing spaces locked down by the end of July, with most of them downtown. "I want to bring it closer together again."

He's hoping to hang on to Memorial Hall, where the schedule of back-to-back-to-back performances in adjacent spaces proved popular with audiences.

Bruffy expects the fringe to continue with about 25 events next year. "We want to grow the audience before we grow the schedule" but he is hoping to take the overall quality up a notch.

To that end, Bruffy is hoping to hop from Boulder to Minneapolis to Indianapolis to Philadelphia fringes in coming weeks and put Cincinnati on the map for top fringe performers. Contributions of frequent flier miles will be most welcome.