The Present Theatre Company, Inc. – creators and producers of the NEW York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC + FringeBYOV) must raise $100,000 before the end of the year or close our doors forever.

Thank you for your contributions and pledges!

The Present Theatre Company, Inc. – creators and producers of the NEW York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC + FringeBYOV) must raise $100,000 before the end of the year or close our doors forever.

As you may have heard, following our 20th annual festival, we took a hiatus from producing a fringe in 2017 in order to conduct what we called “The Blank Canvas Project” – with  both public-facing convenings and analysis of our programs; as well as  time spent to completely revise our bylaws, employment structure, and other efforts to ensure compliance.

And in August of 2017 we were thrilled to share our three year strategic plan – FringeNYC 20/20.

In addition to the new FringeNYC – featuring the FringeHUB, pop-up performance spaces, the new Indie Covening and FringePLUS events; we’ve also added the FringeBYOV (“Bring Your Own Venue”) component – allowing both our FringeNYC alumni and indie theatres in other boroughs to be a part of the festival (while utilizing the venue, performance schedule, ticket pricing, and curatorial practice of their choosing).

Our next steps as an organization include beginning to discover how to leverage our adjudication process in order to create cultural equity, formalizing the creation of a FringeNYC Alumni Association, and bringing on board affiliate fringe festivals from across the country to utilize our custom crm buildout and ticketing integration.

With our new “bifurcated” model providing additional opportunities for artists across the boroughs, we see FringeNYC programming in non-traditional venues bending even more toward a “Maker” / DIY aesthetic (embracing our own data nerd / tech geek leanings as we create a festival at the intersection of arts and technology) and doing even more site-specific and intimate work that creates dialogue around social issues.

It was with this exciting long-term plan in mind that we applied for support from our usual suspect funders – namely the New York State Council on the Arts and the Department of Cultural Affairs (New York City) – in the beginning of the year. Although we’d previously operated on 90% earned income – we knew this new model (with formerly “stipended” staff becoming employees, and a much smaller FringeNYC in the West Village in October) would require funding.

We also knew that we needed to forge ahead with the ambitious plan we’d laid out in our grant applications – in case we received funding. Unfortunately, that is the way the funding calendar works. So although the City’s fiscal / funding year began back in July, for example, and a grant can only fund programs occurring between July 1, 2018 and June 30th, 2019; it was only DURING the festival, that we were notified we were NOT FUNDED by either the State Council on the Arts OR the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs. To be clear: we’d budgeted conservative figures for each grant. But given the margins that we’re working within and increased expenses, we now find we will end this year in a deficit if we do not raise significant funds in the next month.

Quite simply, we need to replace those funds in order to move forward.

In some ways, we are a strong, revitalized organization – ready to build upon the accomplishments of our Blank Canvas year. But given this sudden, unanticipated funding crisis – we now find it necessary to pursue every avenue (and friend of the festival) if we are to meet our most immediate upcoming expenses and survive.

Rest assured, we are putting together an extraordinary team to take this organization on the next steps of this journey, and have full confidence in our new model. We just need to make up for this funding gap in the short term in order to build what will ultimately be a much more sustainable model.

With deep appreciation for your consideration –

Elena K. Holy
Producing Artistic Director

OCT 1st – 31st, 2018