The Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival returns for its 35th installment in Loch Haven Park May 12-25 with another lineup spotlighting LGBTQ+ voices and stories.
Since 1992, Orlando Fringe has provided a space for artists and performers to showcase their craft in an environment that encourages the unusual and uncensored. At Orlando Fringe, 100% of ticket sales are given back to the artists.
Its mission is to create cost-effective platforms, equitable opportunities and resources for live performance and visual arts that connect communities through creative risk-taking, experimentation and exploration.
Celebrating its status as the longest-running Fringe in the country, Orlando Fringe will present “35 Years Weird” this month, packing two weeks with more than 100 shows across seven different venues.
In addition to site-specific stages chosen by performers, venues include the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, Orlando Family Stage, the Renaissance Theatre Company, The Starlite Room @ SAVOY and Ten10 Brewing Co. The Pink, Brown, Yellow, Orange and Blue Venues are located in the Lowndes Shakespeare Center. The Green, Silver, Scarlet and Peach Venues are located at Orlando Family Stage.
The festival chooses its shows via a lottery system and even the festival organizers don’t know what they’re in for. This year’s theme is a nod to the festival’s identity as one of Orlando’s most unconventional creative spaces.
To participate in Fringe, you must first purchase a button. The button grants the wearer access to all shows taking place during the festival. Once a button is secured, patrons can buy tickets for specific shows at the Fringe box office or online.
Orlando Fringe President Marcus Williams says that for decades, Fringe has been a home for the bold, the boundary-pushing and the beautifully unexpected.
“I have always said that Orlando Fringe is a summer theatre camp for storytellers and theatre lovers,” he explains. “It also serves as a family reunion for community artists, touring performers and art advocates to congregate and celebrate our unique individuality all under one creative festival operation.”
As in years past, LGBTQ+ stories step into the spotlight. This year there are 37 of them, detailed here:
In a story of love, loss and lower intestines, Can’t Stand Sitting Productions’ Matti McLean brings “the $#!T” to the Ten10 Brewing stage on May 15,16, 19, 20, 22, 23 and 24.
Set in 2010, a Christian boy from Northern Ontario falls in love with a handsome, mischievous boy from Virginia. Fast-forward 15 years and the two are sharing a hostel in D.C. He reflects on their history as lovers to enemies to friends … to maybe something again while postured on a small porcelain throne when nature calls.
It comes to question whether the possibility of getting back together could be lost to the throes of natural bodily functions.
Attending Fringe may entail more activity than sitting and watching a show. Altamonte Springs-based Renie and Rob Productions’ “Automatic Orchestra: Just Add Music” transforms the audience into an impromptu ensemble in the Blue Venue on May 14, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23 and 24. A guest band leader will guide the participating audience members through the melody, as actors, influenced by the music, perform their roles.
While instruments are provided for the improvisational performance, attendees are invited to bring their own instruments if they would prefer — vocal instruments included.
Hailing from the West Coast, Arthur Davis III opens the floor for audiences in the Pink Venue to join him for the third coming in “Big Gay Jesus” on May 14, 15, 17, 22, 23.
This show is part fashion sermon, part psychic reading and part “spiritual seduction.” As Big Gay Jesus, he will transform himself in real-time and audiences will act as the witnesses to his “miracle.”
Davis, a champion acrobat and performer, is set to blend comedy, cabaret, song, storytelling and dance to create a sparkly and sensual spectacle of a show.
Join polyamorous domme Miss Dana in “Breaking Brains: A Lewd Lesson in Polyamory” in Ivanhoe 1915 on May 16, 17, 18, 20, 21 and 23 as she lays down the facts and unpacks the ins and outs of relationships of all kinds. This performance will teach the audience how polyamorous “love enthusiasts” have consensual open relationships with multiple people and somehow still have a balanced, fulfilling social life.
Be ready for an educational hour and comedy recounting the worst dating mistakes and greatest discoveries. Don’t forget to sharpen your pencils, as audiences will be quizzed after.
A musically styled homage to Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet” album, Orlando drag performer Rae O’Light is serving love stories — both sweet and tart. Through witty stand-up, storytelling, song and lip-syncing, “Confessions of the Tall & Tart” dishes charming love stories and laughs.
In partnership with Foxy Traveler Productions, a Winter Park-based production company, O’Light takes the stage at Ivanhoe 1915 on May 16, 19, 20, 23 and 24.
Claire Lochmueller shares her story in “CRACKS: A One-Trans-Woman Dark Comedy Memoir,” a show about growing up in the Catholic Church, attending a JROTC military high school, and the pervasive ways those places affect a trans identity.
Through a combination of stand-up, theatre and old-fashioned storytelling, audiences in the Scarlet Venue on May 15, 16, 19, 23 and 24 will be taken on Lochmueller’s journey, navigating her gender identity, substance abuse and finding joy as a transgender woman in America.
To the tune of Chappell Roan, audiences can also follow Zipporah Cain, the owner of the Pink Pony Club and a disabled, veteran, immigrant, trans-woman born in Haiti who was raised in America in Urban Underground’s “CrossWalks: A Tribute to Truth, Trans Rights and Social Justice.”
This musical production is set in a “not so” distant future after the passing of the Standardization of American Values Enactment, which has erased all groups, ideologies and expressions that do not reflect America’s core, western, heteronormative values. Told through drag, music and dance, the story centers around Zipporah, who is the victim of state-sanctioned violence and discrimination. It will be showing at the Orange Venue on May 16, 17, 22 and 24.
In Forced Perspective Entertainment’s “Dreamroles,” local performers Laurel Melina, Bryan Cantrell and Matt Cordon step into the roles that they have always dreamed of taking. Defying the typical age, gender and typecast restraints, this musical theatre cabaret will be in the Ten10 Brewing stage on May 15, 16, 17, 18, 23 and 24.
Local playwright Randy Borek makes his theatrical debut at Orlando Fringe with his original comedy production, “Double Play,” showing in the Blue Venue on May 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20 and 22. Produced and written by Borek and directed by Keith Smith, “Double Play” centers around Randy, a gay man and father navigating the challenges of midlife while parenting his two very different teenagers: a sharp-witted, wisecracking son and a strong, independent daughter. The story is inspired by Borek’s own life experiences.
“While it’s a comedy, it’s also grounded in authentic experiences and relationships that many in the queer community will recognize and connect with,” Borek says.
Audiences can piece the clues together and follow two “friends” as they meet up for an escape room as well. Secrets are brought to light, and truth is sought as the two are forced to confront what they have been hiding in Gravity Theatre’s “Escape Room: It’s Just a Game.”
Gravity Theatre is a Vancouver-based company and features performer Joanna Rannelli, a previous Orlando Fringe Critic’s and Patron’s Pick-winner along with Director Michael Knight, an Orlando Fringe Best Original Script-winner. It will be in the Starlite Room @ SAVOY May 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22 and 24.
Orlando Fringe veteran Melanie Bailey returns with “Far Too Heavy,” a dramatic comedy that rallies the crowd together in a trauma-bond at the Brown Venue on May 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23 and 24. After a wave of long-suppressed memories resurfaces in her ‘30s, Bailey must question her identity, past and the foundations of reality.
With no promises that you will leave fully unpacked, Bailey’s trauma lottery segment of her stand-up unravels the trauma stories hidden in shame and reveals how they connect more than divide her audience.
From Valerie Von Voss, “The Fast and the Bi-Curious” is their solo comedy show revisiting iconic moments of queer pop culture in the 2000s and their impact during Voss’s own age of self-discovery.
Blending playful humor, Voss details how scandalous headlines and pop culture milestones — plastered across tabloids and in cinema — influenced their queer youth. It will be showing in Ivanhoe 1915 on May 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23 and 24.
In “Four Dinners,” a new play from Paper Rose Theatrics, sisters Penny and Charlie navigate their 20s as queer women who come from a sheltered background. This story takes place at Penny’s apartment as the two are joined by her roommate, Ynez, and her girlfriend, Talia.
The play spans across four dinners, the first being a birthday dinner, and was written by two queer women. It was accepted into this year’s Fringe Festival through the Amplified Voices Lottery and will be showing at the Scarlet Venue on May 15, 17, 21 and 23.
“Generic Male,” in satirical celebration of the patriarchy, returns to Orlando Fringe in the Silver Venue on May 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 23 and 24 following an Off-Broadway run at the SoHo Playhouse. It is the story of father and sons, war and death and takes audiences to the beating heart of the patriarchy through acrobatics, dance and other theatrics.
Tod Kimbro, the winner of the 2025 Critics’ Choice Award for Best Solo Show, returns with a dynamic cabaret in the Starlite Room @ SAVOY on May 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23 and 24. “Tod Kimbro: Happy Human Song Machine” is a show about finding happiness in a broken world through passionate musical theatre performance and eclectic humor.
“Heated Ribaldry: An Opera of Musical Proportions,” presented by Opera Del Sol, will feature live music, sexy dancers and a Russian dream ballet in the Orange Venue on May 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 23 and 24. This Opera tells the tale of two superstar hockey players, Ilya and Shane, who find a mutual love for more than just hockey while battling in the rinks.
It was created by Fringe veteran Eric Pinder, who is known for his parodies and uses opera and musical performance to tell the story of unexpected gay love.
“I’m uniquely qualified to write this show as my three major interests are hockey, gay men and opera. Not necessarily in that order,” Pinder shares.
In Firebird Theatrical’s “Higher Than Rainbows — An Original Musical,” Westfield High theater kid Jason Tanner, who embraces himself unapologetically, and star quarterback Sean Robinson, who remains closeted to protect his reputation from his father and the football team, are navigating a secret romance.
Tensions rise when Jason’s best friend, Sarah, asks for his help to court Sean. He winds up using Sarah as his “beard.” Meanwhile, the school’s mean girl, Leslie, starts a rumor that leads Sean to pull away from Jason. Things take a turn when Jason becomes a victim of an assault and is hospitalized, leading to both Sean and Sarah needing to reflect.
This musical drama, a coming-of-age story that confronts identity, friendship, romantic relationships and acceptance, will show at the Peach Venue May 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 24.
Orlando Fringe “Best Solo Drama”-winner Ingrid Garner returns to the stage in the Pink Venue May 13, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 24 with “A Hollywood Horror Story,” a comedy drag drama delivered as an episode of “The Vampira Show.” Garner, a Los Angeles-based thespian and creative writing teacher, becomes television’s first horror host, Vampira.
Originally portrayed by Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi, Vampira was the actress’ camp, titillating character that shook up the sanitized, conservative 1950s America, in a culture that idolized the likes of Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. Garner’s “A Hollywood Horror Story” tributes the “Grandmother of Punk” and features LGBTQ+ themes.
Orlando-based playwright, actor and improviser Katie Thayer of Bikini Katie Productions is dishing out the darkest secrets of her dating history, including polyamorous strippers, ex-cons and Canadians, plural. Thayer takes the stage in the Starlite Room @ SAVOY May 14, 16, 17, 19, 22, 23 and 24 with her millennial musical dark comedy, “Intimi(Dating): A Cabaret About Sex and Dating.” It will reveal her secrets, scandals and what her history with dating Canadians is all about.
Join Juice in a three-character, one-clown, solo storytelling show that breaks the psychotic clown down to their most vulnerable bits and pieces. Directed by former Orlando Fringe Producing Artistic Director Beth Marshall, “john jack josie – JUICE” reveals Juice’s truest self, with a dash of self-awareness, self-centeredness, self-consciousness and self-flagellation.
The story is up for the audience’s interpretation of where the storytelling bleeds into reality and encourages their curiosity. Audiences in the Scarlet Venue on May 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22 and 23 will bear witness to the journey of self-fulfillment through four distinctly different storytellers.
A sequel installment to their successful run of “Queer Up,” James Berley, Natalie Doliner and Kate O’Neill are humorously harmonizing in a joyful cabaret for “LONGER THAN FOREVER, QUEER UP 2” in the Starlite Room @ SAVOY May 14, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23 and 24
“LONGER THAN FOREVER” embraces the unique and unusual with the hope of better understanding and caring for one another. Directed by Fred Berning, Jr., with Ned Wilkinson joining as the music director, this cabaret comedy and drama highlights the trials, tribulations and triumphs of queer life.
“My Life As An ‘Inspirational Porn’ Star” is a personal, one-woman dark comedy written, performed and produced by Gabrielle Leonore. It will be showing in the Scarlet Venue on May 15, 17, 19, 23 and 24.
Blending character work, honest storytelling and multimedia projection, it will explore sexuality, neurodivergence, stigma and finding oneself through Leonore’s own lived experiences as an autistic woman.
DJP Productions presents “Oh! I Miss the War,” a double-monologue performance from the perspectives of a gay man in 1967 London watching the new generation celebrate sodomy’s decriminalization, and another in 2024 Toronto, a “politically correct” Gen Z.
Recalling stories of the past and bringing it to the present, this piece celebrates the future in the Starlite Room @ SAVOY on May 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22 and 23.
Watch multi-award-winning Toronto-based Victoria Watson Sepejak, returning to the Orlando Fringe stage in the Pink Venue on May 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 24 with dreamlike physical comedy and deadpan absurdism in “POEMS FOR GOD,” an immersive clown madhouse solo show about an angel, who, in order to get their wings, has to save all women in just an hour.
Frequent Fringe performer P. Sparkle and a team of improvisers from SAK Comedy Lab present “P. Sparkle’s Pajama Party,” an audience interactive improv show fit for a fun night.
Over 21? Come in your pajamas for a free shot! You can find the party in the Ren on May 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, 23 and 24.
“Queer!” by Descolonizarte Teatro (Desco) is a moving, inspiring and entertaining theater piece drawing from the real-life stories of diverse queer Latinx individuals in the local community.
This captivating creation blends projections, music and dance, exploring Latin queer journeys with authenticity and artistry. It will be showing in the Silver Venue on May 13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22 and 24.
The Second Incarnation will come to Fringe in “SIN: A Modern Musical,” a high-glam pop show in the Peach Venue on May 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22 and 24, set entirely to Lady Gaga hits. Jesus Christ returns to Earth to discover humanity hasn’t learned love, but branding.
Reimagined as a viral celebrity, Christ is thrust into a world of influencers, internet culture and salvation measured in likes and followers.
“Something in the Water,” written by Erin McNellis, Lorena Cohea and Adonis Perez-Escobar, premieres during this year’s Fringe festivities in the Ren on May 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23 and 24. Audiences will witness the adventure of a group of friends exiled to a life in the swamp who discover they are being stalked to see if they can overcome what lurks in the depths of the marsh.
Written by Rheanne Walton and Savana Petranoff, “Sororicide” is a comedy, multi-ending murder mystery about the sorority sisters of Delta Nu. It will be showing at the Green Venue on May 14, 15, 16, 20, 23 and 24.
In an attempt to host their annual fundraiser, they discover their president has been murdered. All the sisters and their eclectic dates have some secrets to keep, but will they find out who did it?
Two-time Orlando Fringe Critic’s Choice Award Winner Billie Jane will present “Then, Eve,” bringing her a blend of jokes, vulnerability and unapologetic perspective to a scripted solo show about how God created Adam, while Eve created herself. Audiences can watch in the Ren on May 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 23 and 24.
In “The Lord of the Sword,” “Nerdy Gay Juggler” Jacob D’Eustachio returns to Fringe in the Yellow Venue on May 15, 16, 17, 20 and 23 with a brand-new show filled with his signature “inventive trickery that sparkles from all angles,” according to Juggle Magazine.
Featuring juggling, sword swallowing, screwball comedy and unicorns, the audience will experience a young fool’s quest to save the show and find his true identity.
“The Pink List” is London-based actor Michael Trauffer’s haunting one-man show that brings to light the untold stories of gay men persecuted in post-war Germany. Set in West Germany in 1957, the audience is introduced to Karl, a gay concentration camp survivor who is still criminalized under Nazi law.
“‘The Pink List’ explores a largely forgotten chapter of LGBTQ+ history: the persecution of gay concentration camp survivors long after WW2,” Trauffer explains. “‘The Pink List’ is a reminder that queer rights are never guaranteed — and that history can feel uncomfortably current depending on where you are.”
The show has had previous successful runs at Adelaide Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe and Fringe World Perth. It will be showing at the Brown Venue on May 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22 and 24.
“At its core, The Pink List is a queer story about survival, and about how oppressive systems shape identity, memory and the courage to exist openly,” Trauffer says. “Bringing The Pink List to Orlando feels especially meaningful right now; its themes aren’t just historical, they resonate strongly in today’s United States.”
“The Unbothering,” a three-person play written by Miriam Colvin, reveals what a chaotic day can look like living with ADHD when avoidance takes hold. Inspired by the playwright’s own experience with ADHD, character Marie has spent 99 days avoiding the problems in her life. On the 100th day, everything she has avoided comes flooding in at once.
After Marie naps and misses her sister’s wedding rehearsal dinner, her boss threatens to fire her, and she ghosts the person she’s been seeing, Marie must get through an anxiety-inducing day before it’s too late to repair all that she has broken. Audiences can find the show at the Scarlet Venue on May 14, 16, 17, 22 and 24.
Fifteen time award-winning nightclub headliner Vulva Va-Voom will also present “Vulva Va-Voom’s Medical Masochism Freakshow,” a dark sideshow burlesque comedy about “dangerous clinical obsession.” In the Blue Venue on May 13, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23 and 24, Va-Voom will share a true story of 16 weeks of full-time OCD treatment.
“I’m doing Exposure and Response Prevention exercises, basically … the thing you’re scared of, go do a lot of it, but you don’t dive straight into it, you work your way up with increasingly upsetting things until you get to the point where you’re able to tolerate the most upsetting things,” Va-Voom explains. “What it mostly means is, if it’s really severe, you’re going around having panic attacks all day.”
Va-Voom says that this show is perfect for seasoned Fringers, who will understand niche cultural references while being unoffended by the humor, a fine line between the crowd of a fancy restaurant and a dive bar. Because of years of doing Fringe, Va-Voom says their shows have progressively gotten darker.
“People will have absolutely no idea what to expect,” Va-Voom says.
In “Wild & Gay Animal Kinkdom,” the audiences in the Green Venue will join Heywood J. Sloth on May 13, 16, 17, 20, 23 and 24 as he explores what it means to be gay in the animal kingdom. Featuring puppets, guest stars and animal drag, audiences can learn just how natural homosexuality is, and “how we may not be the kinkiest creatures in the Kingdom.”
Alexander Hehr, 12th-year Fringer and the show’s creator, says that it’s a love letter to queer adults who still love puppets.
“They want to have a Sesame Street moment where they learn something,” Hehr notes. “But they get to also have drag queens and go-go boys, combining our gay culture with teaching about gay animals in the wild.”
Hehr says that in the spirit of Fringe’s collaborative nature, he’s using the show to promote other Fringe performers during the festival, which will also give him the opportunity to get to know and work with other Fringe actors he wouldn’t have had the chance to otherwise.
“Fringe is a circuit around the world,” Hehr says. “I wanted to use this show as another opportunity for fringe performers to present themselves.”
In “Younger Us,” a coming-of-age theatre production by the Bacchus Theatre Collective showing in the Brown Venue on May 15, 16, 18, 23 and 24, character Marc has been planning a birthday celebration for his boyfriend.
He invites all of their friends and wants it to be perfect, but the party begins with a surprise no one saw coming.
With so many Orlando Fringe options celebrating 35 Years Weird — LGBTQ+-focused and non — Artistic Director Tempestt Halstead has one piece of advice.
“Take a chance! See something you would not normally pick,” she says. “Walk into a room without reading too much about it. Those are often the shows people end up talking about the most.” Audiences can do so May 12-25.
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