In The News

As national conversations continue to frame borders as division, the San Diego International Fringe Festival is moving in a different direction by treating the border as a shared cultural space—and stage. For its 14th annual edition, running May 12–24, 2026, the festival expands across San Diego and into Baja California, Mexico, with the launch of Baja Fringe, a pilot initiative connecting venues and artists across San Diego, Rosarito, and Ensenada. Rather than a symbolic expansion, Baja Fringe formalizes a cross-border arts corridor at a moment when regional cultural exchange is often casual or fragmented. While Fringe programming has previously extended into Baja California, this year’s effort marks a shift toward building lasting infrastructure designed to support recurring binational collaboration rather than one-off programming. It arrives just ahead of the World Fringe Congress, taking place May 19–22, 2026 in Southern California in partnership with SD Fringe,…

“I went to See Shakespeare and a Fight Broke Out.” Experience the Bard’s most visceral scenes, from the battlefield stakes of “Henry V” and the fiery tensions of “Romeo and Juliet” to the sharp-tongued duels of “Much Ado About Nothing.” Witness the combative courtship of “The Taming of the Shrew” and the entangled rivalries of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Immediate, unfiltered, and wildly entertaining—where live swordplay is as sharp as the classic wit. Poway Shakespeare, a new professional theatre company, debuts this thrilling collection in its own dedicated venue at Old Poway Park. Originally posted on: https://www.kpbs.org/events/ongoing/poway-shakespeares-bards-with-blades-at-san-diego-international-fringe-festival…

San Diego International Fringe Festival kicks off tonight with a free preview at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater, and then continues through May 24 with a plethora of shows from local artists as well as from across the country and around the globe. Let me confess up front I am a Fringe geek. I have attended the past 13 San Diego Fringe Festivals, gone to Edinburgh to follow a show from friends, and sampled New Zealand and Hollywood Fringe. I have seen some of the best theater I have ever experienced as well as a few of the worst. But every year I dive in with wild enthusiasm in the hopes of finding something amazing and every year I do. But Fringe is about being as experimental as the performers putting on the shows so dare to try something that might not sound like…