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Join us for our 6th annual Winter Mini Fringe, a cozy and creative evening with the Elgin Fringe Festival!  Celebrate the spirit of the fringe with an intimate showcase of diverse performances by local and visiting artists. This event is the perfect way to experience the magic of the Fringe Festival in a more intimate, wintry setting. Whether you're a longtime Fringe fan or new to the experience, all are welcome to enjoy this evening of artistry, community, and delicious food!

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The event is in the Backspace at Side Street Studio Arts. This space is up a steep flight of stairs, with no elevator access.

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WINTER MINI FRINGE
SCHEDULE & TICKETS​​​​​​​​​​
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2:00PM – 8:00PM

Anna Lenz Art Show: Opening Reception

FREE / OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Winter Mini-Fringe kicks off with the opening reception for a new art show by Anna Lenz, our 2025 Elgin Fringe Festival Featured Artist! Come early and enjoy this special exhibition in the Side Street Studio Gallery. 

 

Anna’s painting painting “Going Places” was voted 2024 Fringe Audience Favorite in Visual Art. About her work, Anna shares, “I make artwork as a means to process my inner life. I rely heavily on bright, saturated color that demands to be looked at. It’s my hope that the colors and their shapes both unsettle and resettle into a new sensibility - a reordering that ultimately feels reassuring. In the end, each piece feels like a new home in which for me to reside. Hopefully, the viewer will join me there.”

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3:00PM – 8:00PM

MINI-FRINGE POTLUCK!

ENJOY FOOD BEFORE, DURING, BETWEEN & AFTER THE SHOWS! 

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Bring a dish to share and enjoy a communal meal with fellow art lovers and performers. Share food and conversation before, during, between, and after the performances. Guests are welcome to bring food into each performance.

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3:30PM

Fringe U: Parallel Timeline Series: DILII FUTURI

AUGIE MARADO

Having spent decades on ice, Fringe University (FU) (established 2023) thaws out for 2052 (not a typo) Winter Mini Fringe! Join us as we host three panelists from nearly three decades in the future to give us spoilers on what to expect by the middle of the 21st century. What problems did we solve? What new ones popped up? Can we stop them? Is it cruel to future generations if we resist fate? How guilty by association will they be for our sins? Coffee, donuts, and cold bagels included.

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5:00PM
A Very Dangerous Woman vs. the Holy Fathers of the American Inquisition

RAMONA ROTTEN

Inspired by the historical legacy of Anthony Comstock and the enduring contemporary consequences of his moral crusade, A Very Dangerous Woman vs. the Holy Fathers of the American Inquisition offers a provocative and immersive experience that challenges the viewer to confront their own stance in the face of censorship.

This interactive performance invites participants to navigate a series of choices that illuminate their complicity, resistance, or apathy in response to oppressive forces. At its core, the work serves as a collective act of creation—a living archive that documents and interrogates the profound costs of compliance, obedience, and the mechanisms of societal control.

Through this confrontation, the performance seeks to transcend mere critique, instead gesturing toward the radical potential for imagining and enacting new possibilities for liberation. Rooted in both historical reflection and urgent contemporary relevance, A Very Dangerous Woman vs. the Holy Fathers of the American Inquisition calls on each participant to grapple with the boundaries of agency, accountability, and transformation within systems of power.

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6:30PM

"Pants" Labyrinth

HAUS OF RUCKUS • CALVIN VO & T. GREEN

When he loses his tuxedo pants before a friends’ wedding Fungus and Johnny are thrust into an adventure of mythic proportions, as they dare to venture into the pants labyrinth. There they must face off against a rascally puppet , an oracle with an unreasonable copay, a Minotaur with a flair for pants and disco dancing, a choreographer with snakes for hair, and an over reliance on the beejees. irreverent comedy tells its story with disco music, dancing, and puppets.

Winter Mini Fringe is produced by Side Street Studio Arts with support from the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission.

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