The klieg lights have barely cooled from the fifth annual Indianapolis Theatre Fringe Festival, and Executive Director Pauline Moffat must shake off the exhaustion and begin work on installation number six.
“Our focus for 2010 is on high quality artistic product,” said Moffat, noting that the open call for entries will go out in November. As in past years, IndyFringe will be a non-juried festival in which entries are selected solely on a first-come, first-served basis. Still, Moffat is counting on quality to rise to the top.
“We have spent the past five years developing a reputation and brand that attracts high quality artists to the festival,” she said, describing IndyFringe as an incubator for new talent and new work. “The ability to attract a highly educated audience to edgy performances demonstrates to the global fringe performers that if you come to Indy you can expect audiences to support you.”
Support them they did.
The fifth annual festival drew 11,470 people to the 260 performances – an average of 44 per show and a 16-percent increase over 2008. The performers, who get 100 percent of the $10 admission fees, went home with $85,000 in their pockets. Those numbers do not count FringeNext, which drew about 30 people per show.
Counting VisualFringe (the public art shows at various locations along Mass Ave), the free outdoor stage and opening night festivities, just under 20,000 people indulged in IndyFringe.
For the performers, the reward is more than financial, Moffat said, noting that many of the performers who have taken part in other Fringe festivals across the country and around the world say IndyFringe is the best organized and most accommodating to performers on the circuit.
“The performers are grateful for the hospitality extended to them in private homes,” Moffat said, adding that the performers are also complimentary of the strong volunteer force which mans the box office, works as theater managers and ushers.
“The volunteers provide a great experience for audiences and performers alike,” Moffat said.
The human element aside, IndyFringe has taken great pains the past few years to try to find out who comprises its audience. The numbers were still being crunched for deeper interpretation at press time, but some of the raw data is compelling:
- 9.6 percent of the audience members have attended all five festivals; while 47.4 percent were attending for the first time.
- 12.2 percent had not visited the Mass Ave district before.
- Fringe spending averaged $50.
- 35 percent indicated they spent between $50 and $l00 or more while on Mass Ave.
One surprising element of the numbers, as in past years, is that the audience is much more mature than might be expected. Festival organizers believe some of the problem is that, in late August, high school and college students are busy returning to school, or getting ready to.
The demographics based on audience surveys are these:
- 35 percent have advanced degrees.
- The median income of audience members is $76,000.
- The average age of the audience is 45.
The festival did see a 3-percent increase in the l8-25 year age bracket. “We did see a lot more college students at shows, particularly FringeNext,” Moffat said.
Some of that increase, Moffat said, comes from FringeNext – the element of the festival reserved for young performers – having its own venue, the IndyFringe Building. There was one other new venue, Earth House, located in Lockerbie United Methodist Church. That venue largely featured dance performances, and Moffat said those shows proved to be strong draws despite the church being located about three blocks off Mass Ave.
Other venues were Theatre on the Square, ComedySportz and the Phoenix Theatre. For the first time, IndyFringe did not involve the Athenaeum, where performers found they could not compete with the live music emanating from the Biergarten. (Cost was a factor, as well, Moffat said.)
Moffat is now working to put more meaning to the various numbers, while looking ahead to the sixth annual festival, scheduled for Aug. 20-29. She knows that many of the most successful groups from 2009 will be among those first in line to return.
TOP ATTENDANCE
- “Blunder Construction,” Brent McCoy of Vermont.
- “7 (x1) Samurai,” David Gaines of Virginia.
- “Phil the Void: The Great Brain Robbery,” Phil Van Hest of Los Angeles.
- “Human Nature,” The (Re)Collective Company of Indianapolis.
- “Another Classic of Western Literature,” Heartland Actors Repertory Theatre of Indianapolis.
- “Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach,” Assorted Fruits and Vegetables of Indianapolis.
- “New Vaudeville,” Midwest Emerging Artists of Indianapolis.
- “Sex/Death,” Bloomington Playwrights Project of Bloomington.
- “America’s Next Top Bottom,” Assorted Fruits and Vegetables of Indianapolis.
- “55 Minutes of Sex, Drugs and Audience Participation,” Tongue Tripping Productions of Minneapolis.
The top selling show for FringeNext was “Medea,” presented by Michael Burke @ Butler.
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