Tampa Fringe returns with more indie-alt theater

It’s Fringe time again in Tampa Bay.

Governor Ron DeSantis used fringe festivals – there are several in Florida, each with dozens of short, independently-produced acts of theater – as de facto scapegoats for his 2024 decision to forgo any and all state funding for the arts. “You’re having your tax dollars being given in grants to things like the Fringe Festival, which is like a sexual festival where they’re doing all this stuff,” he said before bringing down the axe.

Yes, some performances at Fringe 2025, taking place June 11-22 at several Ybor City venues, deal with sexuality (both hetero- and homo-) and other such topics, and there are occasionally people in drag. There can be a bit of salty language, too, which is why festival organizers enforce a hard-and-fast 18 and over admission policy.

Hey, welcome to the 21^st century. And a good percentage of the plays, cabarets and one-person comedies are not overtly sexual in content at all.

This is why Fringe president co-founder and Trish Parry (along with her counterpart at Orlando Fringe) retroactively asked the governor to take Fringe festivals out of the running in ’24, and reinstate support for all the other arts organizations. There was no response.

In the spirit of the humor that’s at the center of Fringe, Parry sold T-shirts that said “Not a Sex Festival,” and then declined to ask Tallahassee for any grant money at all this year.

“Our base knows that we’re not a sex festival,” says Parry, who’s been part of Fringe since the beginning, in 2017. “They know it. Hopefully nobody comes out that thinks it is a sex festival, because they will be sad.”

“Florida Christmas: The Musical”: A family-friendly musical set in Florida, where Alonzo the alligator dreams of a snowy Christmas. Created by Tampa-based composer and author Alena Holmes, PhD.

While Parry and her staff choose which touring performances will go into the Tampa program, the shows themselves aren’t curated – no one’s telling anybody what they can, or can’t do (with certain restrictions, of course, in the name of taste and propriety).

“We haven’t toned anything down, nor have we tried to deliberately tone anything up,” she explains. “There are folks that are aware of last summer’s issues, but will it come up at this year’s festival? We won’t know until the festival is underway. I know that at Orlando Fringe (last month), it wasn’t made a very big deal.”

Tampa’s Gabrielle Leonore: “My Life as an Inspirational Porn Star.”

Who are the performers at the Tampa International Fringe Festival? Some are local, most are regional, and some come from around the country (and even farther).

“Theater, in general, is created by people who give a damn about things,” Parry declares. “Usually theater more than any other art medium.”

Not that theater folk have the market cornered on passion, she’s quick to point out.

“The kinds of people who do Fringe, I think, are massive self-starters. And very passionate about whatever it is they’re passionate about. Whatever their craft is, whatever their message is, their platform. Fringe people are so driven to share what they have to offer that they will self-produce. And self-producing is not easy.”

Creative Arts Theatre (for kids). “Cinderella Secret Agent.”

Neither, for that matter, is arranging the logistics for 32 theatrical companies doing multiple shows in five venues, over 11 days.

Fringe Central (the main theater) and three other, smaller ones are in the Kress Contemporary building, 1624 E 7th Ave. The other Fringe facility is the Commodore, an improv/comedy club at 811 E 7th Ave.

Although Fringe is a ticketed event, admission is free to all Kids Fringe shows, including Cinderella: Secret Agent from the City of Tampa’s Creative Arts, Fringe favorites Acrobellum and the Hillsborough Community College Theatre Club with A Night of Seuss: The Musical, among others.

“I will say that I’m happy that our Kids Fringe is in a building that won’t have some of our more risqué work,” Parry says. “Since we don’t curate the main part of the festival, all we can do on our end is make sure than no minors ever make it into a show that’s age 18 and up.

“But we’ve always done that.”

Click this link for the full schedule of Tampa Fringe performances.

Click this link for the Tampa Fringe website.

“Flamencodanza,” Best Show of Dance and Physical Theatre, Hollywood Fringe 2022.

“The Murderers,” Dreki Theatre (Miami). A psychological thriller.