Orlando Fringe grows into new full-time home at Loch Haven Park
Orlando's Loch Haven Park will become the full-time home for another of Central Florida's most prominent arts organizations as the Orlando Fringe Festival moves its headquarters into the city-owned property just north of downtown.
The Orlando Fringe Festival has a new full-time home at the city's cultural hub
Matthew J. Palm
Orlando Sentinel Arts Writer
August 10, 2015, 6:02 pm
The Orlando Fringe Festival has a new full-time home at the city's cultural hubOrlando's Loch Haven Park will become the full-time home for another of Central Florida's most prominent arts organizations as the Orlando Fringe Festival moves its headquarters into the city-owned property just north of downtown.
The city on Monday approved the relocation to the park's Lowndes Shakespeare Center. Expected by November, the change of address is significant for the Fringe, which stages its annual two-week theater extravaganza in and around the park. The oldest Fringe in the United States, the organization will present its 25th festival in 2016.
"Being part of Loch Haven Park year-round is a big deal," said George Wallace, the Fringe's executive director. "It brings a different level of validity and prestige to the organization." In addition to Orlando Shakespeare Theater, the center's primary tenant, the Fringe joins the Orlando Science Center, the Mennello Museum of American Art and Orlando Museum of Art as a resident organization of the cultural hub.
For the past few years, the Fringe has been steadily raising its profile. Three years ago, it began renting billboards across Central Florida, and last year for the first time advertised on television. The organization also began offering additional monthly stage shows outside the festival and instituted a large-scale annual fundraiser at Orlando's Hard Rock Live.
Attendance has boomed; May's festival was the most successful ever. More than 42,000 tickets were distributed, up from about 34,500 the previous year. Money earned by performers increased about 35 percent, from $273,728 in 2014 to $371,153.
The Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival at Lownde's Shakespeare Center on Wednesday, May 13, 2015.
Fringe ticket-buyers visiting the center will also be good for Orlando Shakespeare Theater, which leases the building from the city for $1 per year, said managing director PJ Albert.
"Additional traffic is always good traffic as it allows us the opportunity to cross-market our own productions," he said.
The Fringe will take over about 5,000 square feet formerly occupied by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, which is moving 3 miles to its new headquarters at The Plaza Live. The Fringe had been renting offices in the nearby Ivanhoe Village neighborhood, but that space will be demolished as part of a redevelopment project along Alden Road.
The Fringe's lease at the Shakespeare Center will be for five years, with an automatic renewal for five more years. Although the lease is rent-free, the Fringe will be required to pay its share of the building's utilities and other expenses such as elevator maintenance, which will likely run about $42,000 per year, Wallace said.
Although that is a significant increase from the $12,000 the Fringe had been paying in rent at Ivanhoe Village, the move will save the organization money in rental fees, Wallace said. The Fringe now rents seven venues in the center during each festival; as a resident organization it will pay a lower rate. With its additional space, the Fringe will no longer have to rent other facilities to host auditions, workshops and training sessions for its hundreds of volunteers.
The reallocation of the center's space could be a boon to other local arts groups that stage shows there. The Shakespeare troupe will retain part of the former Philharmonic space to use as a rehearsal room. That will make the center's primary theaters more often available to rent.
"As we've become a more popular space for other groups to use, we've found it more difficult to schedule everything," Albert said. "People are now contacting us six months to a year in advance to reserve space."
Orlando Shakespeare Theater's agreement with the city stipulates that any group subleasing space in the center be a nonprofit focused on the arts, science or recreation.
"We've had an interest in the space for several years," Wallace said. "We've always been nomadic — we've even operated out of a parking garage — but we're turning 25, we're growing up."
mpalm@orlandosentinel.com
Orlando's Loch Haven Park will become the full-time home for another of Central Florida's most prominent arts organizations as the Orlando Fringe Festival moves its headquarters into the city-owned property just north of downtown.
The Orlando Fringe Festival has a new full-time home at the city's cultural hub
Matthew J. Palm
Orlando Sentinel Arts Writer
August 10, 2015, 6:02 pm
The Orlando Fringe Festival has a new full-time home at the city's cultural hubOrlando's Loch Haven Park will become the full-time home for another of Central Florida's most prominent arts organizations as the Orlando Fringe Festival moves its headquarters into the city-owned property just north of downtown.
The city on Monday approved the relocation to the park's Lowndes Shakespeare Center. Expected by November, the change of address is significant for the Fringe, which stages its annual two-week theater extravaganza in and around the park. The oldest Fringe in the United States, the organization will present its 25th festival in 2016.
"Being part of Loch Haven Park year-round is a big deal," said George Wallace, the Fringe's executive director. "It brings a different level of validity and prestige to the organization." In addition to Orlando Shakespeare Theater, the center's primary tenant, the Fringe joins the Orlando Science Center, the Mennello Museum of American Art and Orlando Museum of Art as a resident organization of the cultural hub.
For the past few years, the Fringe has been steadily raising its profile. Three years ago, it began renting billboards across Central Florida, and last year for the first time advertised on television. The organization also began offering additional monthly stage shows outside the festival and instituted a large-scale annual fundraiser at Orlando's Hard Rock Live.
Attendance has boomed; May's festival was the most successful ever. More than 42,000 tickets were distributed, up from about 34,500 the previous year. Money earned by performers increased about 35 percent, from $273,728 in 2014 to $371,153.
The Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival at Lownde's Shakespeare Center on Wednesday, May 13, 2015.
Fringe ticket-buyers visiting the center will also be good for Orlando Shakespeare Theater, which leases the building from the city for $1 per year, said managing director PJ Albert.
"Additional traffic is always good traffic as it allows us the opportunity to cross-market our own productions," he said.
The Fringe will take over about 5,000 square feet formerly occupied by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, which is moving 3 miles to its new headquarters at The Plaza Live. The Fringe had been renting offices in the nearby Ivanhoe Village neighborhood, but that space will be demolished as part of a redevelopment project along Alden Road.
The Fringe's lease at the Shakespeare Center will be for five years, with an automatic renewal for five more years. Although the lease is rent-free, the Fringe will be required to pay its share of the building's utilities and other expenses such as elevator maintenance, which will likely run about $42,000 per year, Wallace said.
Although that is a significant increase from the $12,000 the Fringe had been paying in rent at Ivanhoe Village, the move will save the organization money in rental fees, Wallace said. The Fringe now rents seven venues in the center during each festival; as a resident organization it will pay a lower rate. With its additional space, the Fringe will no longer have to rent other facilities to host auditions, workshops and training sessions for its hundreds of volunteers.
The reallocation of the center's space could be a boon to other local arts groups that stage shows there. The Shakespeare troupe will retain part of the former Philharmonic space to use as a rehearsal room. That will make the center's primary theaters more often available to rent.
"As we've become a more popular space for other groups to use, we've found it more difficult to schedule everything," Albert said. "People are now contacting us six months to a year in advance to reserve space."
Orlando Shakespeare Theater's agreement with the city stipulates that any group subleasing space in the center be a nonprofit focused on the arts, science or recreation.
"We've had an interest in the space for several years," Wallace said. "We've always been nomadic — we've even operated out of a parking garage — but we're turning 25, we're growing up."
mpalm@orlandosentinel.com
Copyright © 2015, Orlando Sentinel