The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has announced the recipients of the 2025 Keep it Fringe US fund.
This is the first year of Keep it Fringe US, inspired by the UK Keep it Fringe, which has provided grants to Fringe artists in the UK since 2023.
Five US-based artists will receive a bursary of $2,500, in addition to support from the Fringe Society’s Artist Services team to help audience and career development, including marketing, screen development and industry networking opportunities.
The Fringe Society explained that the partners and supporters who made this pilot possible include JetBlue, Playbill and individual donors Scott and Holly Plank, Heather and Paul Innella and others who wish to remain anonymous.
THE SUCCESSFUL RECIPIENTS OF KEEP IT FRINGE US:
A Drag is Born – ZOO
Edu Diaz, a New York-based Spanish artist, presents A Drag is Born: a ‘non-verbal blend of clown, drag and queer joy’ that ‘reminds us it’s never too late to embrace your true self’.
In A Drag is Born, ‘an ordinary man finds himself magically transformed into the Queen of the Carnival. With advanced age, abundant body hair and limited talents, he is an unlikely candidate.’
Driving in Circles – Gilded Balloon
Set to an ‘astonishingly cool electric art-pop score’, Driving in Circles, from New Haven-based EPs Theater, ‘traces the aftermath of intimate violence – mapping our hero’s darkly funny, deeply felt, defiantly hopeful journey through the bodymind-altering landscapes of trauma towards something like happiness.’
I See You Watching – Gilded Balloon
Blind Faith Productions, based in Philadelphia, presents I See You Watching, a ‘haunting, rigorous and sometimes brutal theatre show’ exposing ‘the invisible cages confining women in today’s world’ and questioning ‘whether true freedom lies in victory, surrender or something else’.
Leo Still Dies in the End – Gilded Balloon
‘Presenting a one-woman parody re-enactment of Titanic in which Alice plays all the parts and the scenes are selected at random’, New York-based Alice Fishbein presents a show ‘about how childhood obsessions shape who we are as adults, nostalgia for aging ’90s media, and claims of boats too big to sink’.
Simple Town – Pleasance
Hailing from New York, Berk’s Nest presents Simple Town, a sketch show combining ‘smart ensemble riffing with dumb slapstick in one hard-hitting hour’.
Tony Lankester, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: “We look forward to welcoming the Keep it Fringe US artists to Edinburgh this August, to experience the unmatched atmosphere and opportunities the Fringe offers.
“2025 is a pilot year for Keep it Fringe US. We are keen to continue offering this opportunity to US artists. If you would like to find out more about supporting the initiative, please get in touch with the Fringe Society team.”
The Fringe Society hopes to continue Keep it Fringe US going after this year, and is actively seeking new funding and donations to ensure the long-term sustainability of this important initiative.
Donations can be made via Chapel & York
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
