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Values
ACCESS - in every sense of the word
ACCOUNTABILITY - we work with integrity and respect
CREATIVITY - freedom of expression permeates everything we do
EXPLORATION - we let curiosity be our guide
SUPPORT – empowering you to take a chance
About the Toronto Fringe
Toronto Fringe is a grassroots, charitable organization that runs the annual Toronto Fringe Festival in July, the Next Stage Theatre Festival in October, and various year-round programs that benefit youth, emerging artists, IBPOC artists, artists with disabilities, and the performing arts community at large. Embedded in Fringe’s operations are the values of Access, Accountability, Creativity, Exploration, and Support.
Toronto Fringe is a creative match-maker, connecting artists with audiences, and empowering everyone to unleash their inner artist. Toronto Fringe creates vital opportunities for both emerging and established artists to produce their work with complete artistic freedom, while making productions as affordable and accessible as possible.
Toronto Fringe is run by a staff of six full-time employees, annual contract staff, a dedicated and diverse board of directors, 150+ seasonal festival staff, and over 500 passionate volunteers. Toronto Fringe is a registered charitable non-profit organization, and has been in operation since 1989.
Toronto Fringe is a proud member of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) and World Fringe. More information here.
Toronto Fringe Festival
Founded in 1989, the Toronto Fringe Festival welcomes approximately 75-140 companies from around Canada and the world to our 5-30 theatre venues in downtown Toronto. Over the course of 12 days every July, over 1,200 artists participate in performances across the city that include comedy, drama, musicals, improvisation, storytelling, children’s theatre, dance, and much more.
During the Toronto Fringe Festival, the festival hub is the place to hang out, grab a drink or some food, and enjoy free programming like concerts, interactive performances, and dance parties.
The festival is unique in that it selects shows without a jury or curation. Fringe shows are programmed through a lottery draw or first-come, first-served. Why does Fringe do this? Because we believe every voice has an equal right to be heard. It's not about who you know or how much you know - your project holds just as much weight in the Fringe Lottery as any other. When you produce a show at Fringe, you're joining a community – this isn’t simply a co-production agreement. If you are new to producing theatre, the dedicated staff will guide you through the process of putting on a Fringe show.
Next Stage Theatre Festival
Founded in 2008, the Next Stage Theatre Festival offers a more intimate, cozy festival experience. Next Stage is the curated, sister event of the summer's Toronto Fringe Festival, where 6-12 shows are programmed by a jury of industry professionals.
Next Stage artists are on the cutting edge of “indie” theatre and are creating urgent, exciting work. Patrons can expect to see artists at Next Stage who are about to hit the mainstream – Next Stage artists frequently break out into CBC, Mirvish, Broadway, or Netflix hits within a year or two of appearing at the festival.
History of the Organization
Toronto Fringe presented its first Toronto Fringe Festival in the summer of 1989. It has since grown into Ontario and Toronto's largest theatre festival, welcoming over 90,000 patrons and giving voice to over 1,200 artists annually. To date, Toronto Fringe has returned over $7,000,000 in box office revenue to artists. Fringe has also premiered some of Canada's most successful theatre productions including Kim’s Convenience, My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, 'Da Kink In My Hair, The Drowsy Chaperone, and Mump and Smoot, to name a few. Artists such as the TallBoyz (CBC Comedy), Kat Sandler (award-winning playwright), and Irene Sankoff and David Hein (Come From Away) also got their start at the Fringe.
The Toronto Fringe Festival's early success led to fiscal stability for the organization, which then allowed for the creation of other programming and activities, including the Next Stage Theatre Festival, founded in 2008.
In 2010, the Fringe Club was created in the parking lot of Honest Ed's, Toronto's historic discount store at 581 Bloor Street West. This space served as the main hub for the Toronto Fringe Festival for 8 years until Honest Ed’s was torn down for condo development. In 2017, the Fringe Club relocated to to the hockey rink at the Scadding Court Community Centre (707 Dundas Street West), and then rebranded in 2018 as POSTSCRIPT, Toronto’s largest pop-up patio. The large footprint of the Scadding Court hockey rink meant that this iteration of the festival hub could welcome up to 1000 people into the space at a time, the largest hub in Fringe's history. It hosted lots of large scale free programming to go alongside the shows in the Toronto Fringe Festival, including the PS: Music Fest, Silent Disco, Fringe's 30th Anniversary Prom Party, countless sponsor activations, and more.
In 2011, Toronto Fringe opened the Creation Lab, housed within the Center for Social Innovation in the Annex neighbourhood. The Lab offered two fully equipped creation spaces that were rented to indie artists for as little as $6/hr, with the rest of the fee being subsidized by Fringe and generous donors, Neville Austin and Blake Thorne. This program filled a need for affordable studio space in the community, and was busy day and night. The Creation Lab at CSI closed in 2016, following a move of the Toronto Fringe's administrative office to the Queen West neighbourhood. After another move in August 2019, the Toronto Fringe found its current, fully accessible home in the east end of the city, at 100 Broadview Ave in Riverside.
In 2012, Toronto Fringe launched the Culturally Diverse Artist Project (CDAP), which encouraged people from diverse ethno-cultural backgrounds to apply to the additional CDAP Lottery for the Toronto Fringe Festival. Three artists, chosen at random through the CDAP Lottery, receive a free slot in the festival, a bursary, and mentorship as they work towards their production. In the fall of 2020, Toronto Fringe began an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Audit. Findings from this audit was shared with the public in early 2021. CDAP then developed into the two-phase lottery draw system for the Toronto Fringe Festival and has been in place since 2022. Toronto Fringe commits to reserving at least 50% of available Fringe slots in the Main Lottery for participants who are Indigenous, Black or People of Colour. Applicants who identify as IBPOC are entered into a first-phase draw exclusively for the first 50% of all available slots in each lottery category, and then in a second-phase draw, the remaining slots are drawn from all applicants in the category.
From 2014 to 2017, Toronto Fringe ran Fund What You Can (FWYC), an online crowd-funding platform for independent artists across North America. Fund What You Can offered the lowest platform fee on the market (3.5%), plus hands-on support, accessible resources, and free crowdfunding workshops. By the time the platform closed, hundreds of thousands of dollars had flowed through the platform to indie artists.
In 2017, Toronto Fringe and began a three-year funding arrangement with the Metcalf Foundation to overhaul and improve accessibility within Fringe’s two festivals and yearly operations. Similar to the CDAP Lottery, Fringe launched the Accessibility Lottery for the Toronto Fringe Festival, the which offered two free slots for the festival, a bursary for those drawn, and additional production support.
In the spring of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread government lockdowns, the in-person 32nd annual Toronto Fringe Festival was cancelled. The organization quickly pivoted to a new offering: The Fringe Collective. Held during the original dates of the festival, The Fringe Collective was an online Fringe experience, featuring many of the artists that were slated to appear in the 2020 festival. Video, audio, and written content was hosted behind a paywall on fringetoronto.com that patrons could access through a Pay What You Can ticketing model. Over $27,000 was raised for the artists in the Collective. As lockdowns continued over the next few years, the Toronto Fringe presented the digital Next Stage Community Booster in January 2021, the Digital Toronto Fringe Festival in July 2021, the digital Primetime Festival in October 2021, and the digital Next Stage Theatre Festival in January 2022.
After two years of entirely digital programming, the 34th Toronto Fringe Festival returned as an in-person festival in July 2022. The festival hub moved to a smaller footprint in the parking lot beside the Tranzac (292 Brunswick Avenue), returning to the Annex neighbourhood and to one of Fringe's original venues. In October 2023, the Next Stage Theatre Festival returned to in-person programming after an almost two-year hiatus at a new time of year and at a new venue (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre).
Leadership
Founding Members (1989 – 1991)
Gregory Nixon, Producer
Jennifer Ross, Programmer
John Sime, Manager
Gregory Nixon, Festival Producer (1991 – 1993)
Nancy Webster, Festival Producer (1994 – 1998)
Chuck McEwen, Executive Director (1998 – 2007)
Bridget MacIntosh, Interim Executive Director (2008)
Gideon Arthurs, Executive Director (2008 – 2012)
Kelly Straughan, Executive Director (2012 – 2017)
Lucy Eveleigh, Executive Director (2017 – 2023)
Rachel Kennedy, Executive Director, Co-Lead (2024 - present)
Laura Paduch, Managing Director, Co-Lead (2024 - present)