Glendale International Fringe Festival
Cultivating Artistic Emergence
February 12–28, 2027
The Glendale International Fringe Festival is a gathering of artists, audiences, and communities exploring human possibility through performance.
Produced by Arizona Theatre Matters, GIFF presents stories of people confronting injustice, loss, transformation, memory, myth, survival, and the enduring complexities of being human.
Across 50 free performances, artists invite us to imagine new ways of understanding ourselves and one another.
GIFF is guided by a simple belief:
Human beings are often more complex than the systems designed to understand them.
Through theatre, storytelling, and artistic exchange, we create environments where new possibilities can emerge.
WHY GIFF MATTERS
Theatre matters because stories are the substance of community.
Through performance, we encounter lives, histories, and possibilities beyond our own experience. We discover not only what makes us different, but what connects us.
Our festival is free because cost should not decide who gets to experience art.
Our festival recognizes that human beings perceive, communicate, create, and contribute in many different ways. Deaf, Blind, Disabled, and chronically ill artists have long expanded our understanding of what art can be.
Our festival takes place in public libraries because civic space is cultural space.
Uneven Minds at GIFF
GIFF is informed by Arizona Theatre Matters’ Uneven Minds initiative, which explores how artistic, educational, and organizational environments shape what becomes possible.
Rather than asking people to conform to a single way of participating, GIFF seeks to cultivate conditions where diverse forms of perception, communication, creativity, and contribution can flourish.
Artistic emergence occurs when individuals and communities encounter new possibilities for expression, connection, and understanding.
GIFF exists to create those encounters.
Designed for Human Complexity
GIFF incorporates ASL interpretation, captioning, audio description, livestreaming, and other pathways into artistic experience, participation, and community engagement.
These elements are not additions to the work. They are part of how the work is created, shared, and encountered.
Detailed participation information will be available for each performance as programming is finalized.
Festival Schedule
All performances are free.
Glendale Main Library
The WoBo Show
Fri Feb 26, Noon
Fri Feb 26, 2 PM
Fri Feb 26, 4 PM
Sat Feb 27, 10 AM
Sat Feb 27, Noon
Sat Feb 27, 3 PM
Futakuchi Onna
Sat Feb 13, Noon
Sun Feb 14, 3 PM
Wed Feb 17, Noon
Thu Feb 18, 4 PM
Fri Feb 19, 4 PM
Mon Feb 22, 6 PM
Thu Feb 25, 4 PM
Sun Feb 28, 1 PM
How I Learned (Not) To Drive
Fri Feb 12, Noon
Sun Feb 14, 1 PM
Thu Feb 18, Noon
Thu Feb 18, 6 PM
Fri Feb 19, Noon
On Track
Fri Feb 12, 4 PM
Sat Feb 13, 3 PM
Sun Feb 14, 2 PM
Wed Feb 17, Noon
Thu Feb 18, 2 PM
Sun Feb 21, 3 PM
Mon Feb 22, Noon
Mon Feb 22, 2 PM
Wed Feb 24, Noon
Thu Feb 25, 2 PM
Sun Feb 28, 3 PM
Foothills Library
Jen Gantwerker — Title To Be Announced
Fri Feb 12, 2 PM
Sat Feb 13, Noon
Wed Feb 17, 2 PM
Thu Feb 18, 2 PM
Sat Feb 20, 1 PM
Mon Feb 22, 6 PM
Wed Feb 24, Noon
Thu Feb 25, 6 PM
Sat Feb 27, 3 PM
Sun Feb 28, 3 PM
Brelby Productions — Title To Be Announced
Fri Feb 12, 4 PM
Sat Feb 13, 3 PM
Wed Feb 17, Noon
Fri Feb 19, 4 PM
Sat Feb 20, 3 PM
Sun Feb 21, 3 PM
Mon Feb 22, 4 PM
Wed Feb 24, 2 PM
Thu Feb 25, Noon
Fri Feb 26, 2 PM
Closing Celebration & Awards
Sunday, February 28, 2027
Details coming soon.
FOOD TRUCKS & RADICAL HOSPITALITY
GIFF invites audiences to stay, talk, eat, and gather.
Food trucks will be announced closer to the festival. Vendors are encouraged to welcome a wide range of communication styles, sensory needs, and participation preferences.
Hospitality is not an amenity. It is part of the festival.
Some of the most important conversations happen between performances.
SPONSOR GIFF
GIFF offers sponsors an opportunity to support free public art, artistic emergence, Deaf, Blind, and Disability Culture, independent artists, civic gathering, and community hospitality.
Sponsors help cultivate environments where creativity, contribution, and human possibility can flourish.
Sponsorship opportunities are available for:
• Artistic Emergence
• Artists
• Food Truck Gathering Areas
• Livestream and Digital Participation
• Community Conversations
• Closing Celebration & Awards
• Festival-Wide Presenting Support
Venues
Glendale Main Library Auditorium
Foothills Library Multi-purpose Space
Digital broadcast and livestream access
Contact
Patrick Reese, Festival Director
patr@arizonatheatrematters.org
Made Possible By
In addition to generous individual contributions, GIFF is made possible by grants from:
National Endowment for the Arts,
Arizona Commission on the Arts, and
City of Glendale, Arizona.
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