Now in its 11th year, the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival continues its mission of platforming independent theater with a lineup that reflects the city’s growing appetite for bold, locally driven performance. Running from July 24 to August 3, this year’s festival features 24 original productions across two downtown venues: the Alliance Theater at Trolley Square and MadKing Fellowship Theater at The Gateway.
Founded in 2015 by Westminster University students and alumni, the festival has evolved into Utah’s largest and longest-running platform for experimental and emerging theater. Shianne Gray, one of the founding organizers and now co-director, says the focus remains on supporting early-career artists and encouraging artistic risk. “Some artists this year, including Sackerson and Plan-B Theatre, participated in the first ever Great Salt Lake Fringe. Others are students premiering their first works. We’re seeing a strong presence from local artists, which means more of the ticket revenue stays within the community.”
The diversity of the festival’s programming reflects its open-access model: no central theme, no jury, and minimal barriers to entry. The result is a mix of genres and formats—from polished solo performances to collaborative devised works. “Park Bench Royalty,” for example, uses a single actor and a puppet to explore homelessness and companionship, while “The Rest is Silence” reimagines Shakespearean characters in a group therapy session.
Other standout productions include “Welcome to Fat School,” a two-woman performance dissecting fatphobia through humor and research, and “5²: Twenty-Five Plays in Fifty Minutes,” a rapid-fire sequence of short sketches chosen by the audience in real time. Family audiences can attend “Hook vs. Pan: A Battle for Neverland,” a free, interactive performance geared toward children.
According to co-director Jay Perry, the expansion into two major venues reflects the festival’s continued growth. “It’s important that we’re not only supporting artists but giving audiences access to new work in high-quality spaces. These venues help make that possible.”
Tickets are available as single admissions ($15) or as part of a three-ticket ($35) or ten-ticket ($85) bundle. All passes can be used flexibly—across different shows, people, or dates. Tickets are available at greatsaltlakefringe.org, where visitors can also find a full schedule and venue information.
For those attending multiple shows in one day, organizers recommend checking the venue details carefully. “Shows sell out quickly, especially in the second weekend,” said Perry. “We encourage people to plan early and make use of both venues if they want to see a broader range of work.”
UTAH’S ART MAGAZINE SINCE 2001, 15 Bytes is published by Artists of Utah, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Categories: Theater
