The first fringe festival in massachusetts returns may 11, 2026!

Boston Fringe

THE MISSION OF THE BOSTON FRINGE FESTIVAL IS To provide a space for work that is unconstrained by curation, judgment, or the status quo. To inspire Boston artists to dream, create, & be a Fringe BOS.

Tickets!

Ticket prices are set by the artists, with a cap of $15!
All ticket sales go back to the artists!
And FESTIVAL PASSES will be available to see EVERY. SINGLE. SHOW!

FAQ

WHAT?

A week-long festival championing new work where 100% of ticket sales are returned to the artist! During the week you’ll see performances of all levels, amateur to professional, in various genres, uncensored, unjuried, and completely original.

WHEN?

MONDAY, MAY 11th – SUNDAY, MAY 17th, 2026

WHERE?

The festival will take place across 3 locations in the heart of Davis Square in Somerville, Ma$$. Davis Square is accessible via public transit and surrounded by delicious restaurants, cool shops, and unique bars.

Full Length Shows & some Shorty Shows will be featured at The Rockwell, a hidden 200-seat venue underground, provides a great stage space, lighting, sound, and projection capabilities to artists, and comfortable seats with a full bar for attendees.

The majority of Shorty Shows will perform at both Dragon’s Lair, a pristine event space connected to Dragon Pizza, and Dente’s Barber Shop, a barber shop turned performance hall for the weekend!

How much are tickets?

Tickets are only $15 per show, or buy a festival pass for full access to ALL shows!

How much does it cost to perform?

We are proud to give 100% of ticket sales to the Artists! With 10 people at each of the Artist’s shows, an Artist will make their production fee back and then some!

There is a $30 non-refundable fee to submit. This contributes directly to marketing & production for the festival.

If accepted into the festival, there is an additional production fee that varies depending on the length & location of your show.

Best Friends!! by August W. Guszkowski

Three short plays. Two actors. One writer who’s so normal and regular about his friends (seriously, he’s so chill, don’t even worry about it).

No. 1 in Heaven Starring Travels With Brindle By Chelsea Spear

The future and the past.

Uncle Yak and his Magic Comeback by Andrew Yakoobian

Once a beloved magician, Uncle Yak vanished into adulthood without anyone really noticing. Now he’s back, wrestling with time, tricks, and emotional baggage while attempting an amazing comedy comeback.

PSA: Pelvic Service Announcement by Amy Veltman

PSA: PELVIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT is a comedic, musical romp through the pelvic floor muscles to a place (almost) beyond shame. With this silly, educational show, comedian Amy Veltman seeks to become the new face of the pelvic floor.

The Cloud Collector by June Beiser

The Cloud Collector follows a young playwright, Hazel, who is drawn into a magical world. Navigating a landscape shaped by his own imagination, Hazel contends with memories, mythology, and the discovery of his lost girlhood.

Whelp! by Bryce Flint-Somerville

Whelp! is an interactive, full length show that follows a man on his quest to alphabetize an unruly alphabet. Absurd and playful, Whelp! combines puppetry and award-winning clowning to produce a show for all ages!

Keeping Secrets by Jim Vetter

Secrets are all around us—secrets that can be powerful in both positive and destructive ways. Based on events in the Boston area from the 1970s to today, Keeping Secrets is an engaging, moving, and hopeful one-person show that explores links between what magicians do and what child sexual abusers do, combining acting, visuals, and a magic trick or two.

How to Peel an Orange by Magdalena Poost

Under sky that is slowly turning orange, one clown seeks companionship.
Written and performed by Magdalena Poost, How to Peel an Orange is part tragic clown show, part romantic comedy, and part climate story exploring love in a changing landscape.

Cuts by Seth Pate

Cuts is a little cabaret show — dark, quiet, and warm. Original tunes for voice, keyboard, bass, and some other stuff.

The Parade of Dreams by Kyle Winslow Smith

The Parade of Dreams is a magically-realistic musical about the things we might do to work through or around our grief.

10 Skills 2 Years by David Piccolomini

Comedian David Piccolomini quit video games (healthy!). He then decided to use the free time to teach himself 10 skills in 2 years (slightly less healthy!). From Piano, to Spanish, and Basketball, join him as he spends an hour showing you what he’s learned about the skills, learning and addiction.

Shorty Shows

These 30-min shows are coupled by genre to make a full hour!

The 8 Love Movements by Deby Xiadani

The Ancient Greeks had 8 words for love to describe different types of love we have with our family, versus our romantic partner, versus our best friend. This blew my mind. This movement piece explores the different types of love we experience in our lifetimes. It’s more than “love.”

Spare Tire Presents: the Good, the Bad, and the Dipstick

Two people in a relationship and Bo do 30 minutes of sketch comedy. Come for the laughs, stay for the free oil change.

SlapSchtick Comedy

Boston’s premier all-Jewish comedy troupe brings you 30 minutes of cutting edge improvisation that will make anyone laugh regardless of religion or ideology.

Carnival of Sorts by Erik Bartlett

Growing up in the wilds of Cape Cod, Erik Bartlett always dreamed of running away with the circus. After honing his skills on the fairgrounds of the country touring with the oldest and one of the last remaining traditional American carnival sideshows, he brings his madcap blend of comedy, circus, and escapology to the Boston Fringe Festival!

Good Boy by Luke Fraser

Good Boy is one act musical comedy about achievement, expectation, and one high-achiever slowly realizing he can’t checklist his way out of being gay.

Limit/Old Mother; Fugue

Limit is the conversation between AI and humans, who are at their limit. An asteroid is hurtling towards Earth. In order to save the world, AI must use all the water on the planet to calculate an equation to move the asteroid off its path. Humans don’t think this is worth it, but it might be too late to change AI’s mind.

Old Mother; Fugue is the musical dialogue between a mother and a daughter who struggle to see eye to eye. They speak at each other, to what end?

Half-Orphan by Kevin McNulty

A comedian bravely exploits his father’s death to create the perfect one-man show.

What the Hell Is a 401K?? by Danya Goldstein

Watch Danya navigate religion, identity, bad dates, and even worse life choices, all while her bangs block her view of reality (because she hasn’t trimmed them in three months). A 30-minute comedy show masterclass on how to succeed in life, so you too can become a comedian and give pride to the parents who thought you’d go to medical school.

Our Lord and Savior by Alana Corrigan

A youth group prayer circle of Evangelical teens is led by their pastor Rendel, whose wife has recently left him for her lesbian lover. Told through hymns, the group studies gender roles, romance, and what Jesus would do.

Lt. Love Dr’s Boot Camp for Lonely People like You by Chloe Matonis

Lt. Love Dr. Hotty McTotty has traveled back in time to revive human connection.. before it’s too late! Through a series of hilarious drills, together, you will end the loneliness epidemic.
Fresh off a 4-star run at the Edinburgh Fringe, this interactive, silly, and heartfelt show inspires us to love again.

Cody McComedy by Cody McInnis

You can’t spell “Comedy” without “C-o-d-y”! Come watch another white male success story in the making.

Indie rock with Alfred Be Loud

Get swept up in the sound of Alfred Be Loud, a female-fronted indie rock band from Boston as they play original music from their forthcoming debut EP, Heavy.

Sunshine Duo by Krissy Larsen and Andy

The Sunshine Duo is a narrative improv duo focused on character storytelling and emotional connections.

The Dutch Castaway by Lawrence Gullo

The queer historical text of an 18th century castaway’s diary lays the foundation for this story, which centers two English sailors who discover the pages written by a man punished for sodomy, surviving on a deserted island. In uncovering the troubling account of survival, guilt, and hallucinations, the two sailors find chilling realization and profound comfort in each other.

Forward Thinking by Nora Butler

On the verge of a mysterious operation that will ultimately transition him into the body of his cat, Mr Bronner spends his last human day with his young neighbor, Sandy. As he confronts the loss of his partner and the slow shrinking of his social world, this minimalist dystopian short play explores grief, loneliness, and the absurd sacrifices we make to feel “alive.”

In A Minute by Tess Saoirse Liddy

After dancing for 16 years, Tess Saoirse Liddy had to take 2 years away from dance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This piece explores her own mind, as she comes to terms with her own neurodiversity and seeks to understand it.

The Trouble with Happy Endings by Riley Duggan

In a world selling comforts at every turn, it’s easy to run from grief. Riley Duggan’s one man show weaves music and comedy to explore where running from his grief led him, and what he lost along the way.

Charlie’s Spring by Justin Beauchamp

Through the journey of seasons—focused on Spring, a time of rebirth and blossoming—this one-human show uses original music, poetry, drag, and more to explore how we can understand, embrace, and express our most authentic Selves.

Highly Disordered by Casey McNeal

Highly Disordered – ADHD? OCD? THC? LGBT? We’ve got it all in this fun show for the alternative and neurodiverse.

A Plausibly Authentic Midnight Vaudeville Ghost Show, OR “The Importance of Being Haunted” by Gwen Coburn

When a wannabe spiritualist stages a midnight ghost show straight out of vaudeville’s heyday—complete with ectoplasm, floating tables, and campy spectacle—to contact her deceased actress grandmother, they wrestles with the hardest trick of all: communing with something they don’t think exists. Can you stay close to a ghost when you don’t believe in ghosts? Tap once for yes.

SQUIRES* by Charles Wainwright

Squires of sword and sorcery go on a mythical quest to prove themselves as heroes, with a little help from their magical bags of holding, and a hand from the audience.

Becoming Psychic by Gada Jane

After accidentally meditating on vacation, a skeptic finds herself talking to statues, consulting the DSM-5, and doing psychic readings. Becoming Psychic is a darkly funny solo show about doubt, belief, and the cultural line between insight and insanity.

Field Trip Sketch Comedy

Three motormouths speeding breakneck down the comedy superhighway, local sketch comedy trio Field Trip is driving audiences across North America wild! Riddled with callbacks, callforwards, and thematic throughlines, a Field Trip show is a guaranteed joke-a-minute extravaganza.

Immense Joy by McKenna Mobus

A clown celebration on finding moments of immense joy in the every day.

Revenge of the Soy Boy by Justin Avery Smith

After being heavily mocked online by Star Wars fans in 2025, Justin now uses Star Wars as an intersection for personal and social comedic commentary about the galaxy far, far away, our own world, and discovering his place in all of that.

A Tall Girl’s Lament by Lauren Schultes

In this laugh-out-loud musical parody, Lauren Schultes battles bad dates, ruthless casting calls, and a world that insists she’s more “evil queen” than “girl next door.” Featuring original parody songs from “Wicked,” “Les Mis,” and more, “A Tall Girl’s Lament” follows one woman’s journey to land the leading role, both on the stage & in her love life.

Empty Night by Abhisek Bhattacharya

An injured thief runs into a wounded Bengal tiger under the shadow of a prominent politician’s house, where the hunters are celebrating a successful hunt. The play portrays how the construction of a dam near a village destroys the forest and farmland, and disrupts the lives, hopes, and dreams of a farmer who turns to stealing, and a tigress who must take care of her cubs in whatever way she can. Their chance encounter brings hidden questions to the surface as both the creatures confront what life has in store for them.

Sitayama: her side of the fire by Payal Patnaik

Join us for a night of original Indian Americana songs rooted in mythology — a modern feminist interpretation of the two-millennia-old Sanskrit epic, the Ramayana. ‘Sitayama: Her Side of the Fire’ asks what Sita’s story looks like when told by her: not as a lesson in purity and devotion, but as one of resilience through loss.

Timeline

Application window opens: December 14, 2025, 12pm EST

Applications window closes: January 14, 2026, 11:59pm EST

Performer confirmation letters sent: Feb 1, 2026

Signed contracts, show info, and production fees due: Feb 8, 2026

Performance schedule set: April 1, 2026

Tech rehearsals at venues: May 11-15, 2026

Dates of festival: May 11-17, 2026