Stage Door News
Toronto: Toronto Fringe Festival announces free programming and winners of the playwriting contests
Thursday, June 20, 2024
Toronto Fringe is proud to announce FREE programming for the 36th Annual Toronto Fringe Festival, taking place July 2 - 14, 2024 at the Fringe Patio at the Tranzac, the all-new Speakeasy at the Annex Hotel, and the KidsFest Club at St. Volodymyr Institute.
The Toronto Fringe Festival will kick off with a launch party and parade on July 2 at the Fringe Patio, the social hub and heart of the festival located at the Tranzac. The night will begin with the annual Fringe artist parade through the Annex neighbourhood, accompanied by live music by Pan Fantasy. Throughout the evening at the Fringe Patio attendees can enjoy free ice cream by QB Snax, and sampling and swag from Partake Brewing and Saulter Street Brewery.
The Fringe Patio is Toronto's favourite pop-up patio tradition, with full food and bar service, and free programming including: Totally Trivia hosted by magician Keith Brown and Jeopardy! champion Nam Nguyen; Live Band Karaoke from Good Enough Live Karaoke; Comedy Night featuring Ben Sosa Wright, Cassie Cao, Brendan D’Sousza, Meg Mackay and more; the 2024 Harold Awards; and the massively popular Silent Disco dance party. The Fringe Patio will also include a Zine Workshop with Toronto Zine Library, the Indie Community Mixer, Games Nights with games provided by The Sword and Board, a multi-day Artisan Market, and the Toronto Fringe Awards Night.
On July 7 at the Fringe Patio, audiences are invited to a live reading of the 2024 24-Hour Playwriting Contest winning play, The Architecture of a Life, by Playwright Margaret Legere. This contest is generously supported by the Pat & Tony Adams Freedom Fund for the Arts.
New this year is the Toronto Fringe Speakeasy inside the Annex Hotel, an intimate space neighbouring the Fringe Patio, with exclusive programming including burlesque hosted by Força; an Indie Drag Night hosted by local drag king Coyote Ugly; and Live Music provided by Boutique Entertainment.
Toronto Fringe is happy to once again offer the KidsFest Club on the front lawn of St. Volodymyr Institute throughout the festival. The KidsFest Club is a FREE, fun, and welcoming play space for kids aged 12 and under and their families. There will be awesome daily activities, including arts and crafts, building blocks, costumes, puppets, face-painting, story times, and snacks. Families are welcome to hang out at KidsFest Club before or after KidsFest Shows, or just come by to play!
Through the generous assistance of TD Bank Group, the Toronto Fringe was able to hire an ambitious producer-in-training and an enthusiastic marketing associate to round out the stellar 2024 festival team. The Toronto Fringe was thrilled to welcome Kayleigh Mundy as the TD Emerging Festival Producer, and Elm Reyes as the TD Marketing Associate. Elm supports the communications team and oversees community outreach leading up to and throughout the festival, while Kayleigh works with the producing and operations team to plan and execute the various needs of the Festival and Patio. Toronto Fringe thanks TD for supporting these vital roles!
"At TD, we're proud to support arts and cultural experiences and initiatives that foster shared connections while amplifying the diverse voices of the communities we serve," says Robyn Small, Senior Manager, Philanthropy, Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship, TD Bank Group. "We're excited to continue to work with the Toronto Fringe Festival through our corporate citizenship platform, the TD Ready Commitment, to help increase public access to music and cultural initiatives and help create opportunities for emerging professionals to contribute to the rich narrative of our shared histories and experiences."
Toronto Fringe is also happy to announce the winners of the 2024 Playwriting Contents. The winner of the Adams Prize for Musical Theatre, funded by the Pat & Tony Adams Freedom Fund for the Arts, is Boy Boy and the Magic Drum by Chantal Forde and Jewelle Blackman. The winner of the New Play Contest, funded by Neville Austin, is POZ by Mark Keller. These award-winning shows are being presented as part of the 2024 Toronto Fringe Festival.
The 36th annual Toronto Fringe Festival will feature 77 ticketed shows in 16 venues across the city from July 3-14 with dozens of outstanding dramatic and comedic plays featuring star-studded casts, puppets, magic, dance, clown, music, and more. Tickets and passes are on sale now at www.fringetoronto.com.
Toronto Fringe is a grassroots, charitable organization that runs the Toronto Fringe Festival each July and the Next Stage Theatre Festival each October. Toronto Fringe offers various year-round programs that benefit youth, artists, and the theatre community at large. Embedded in Fringe’s operations are the values of Access, Accountability, Creativity, Exploration, and Support. As such, 100% of the ticket revenue from the Fringe Festival is returned to our artists. To help support this work, Fringe is currently running their annual fundraising campaign – donate today to help us celebrate and amplify more artists year-after-year!
Toronto Fringe Festival
July 3-14, 2024
Toronto, Ontario
Tickets and Passes On Sale Now
Fringe Patio
Tranzac, 292 Brunswick Avenue