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EnglishWhat Is The Fringe Files? History and Background of the Touring Theatre Company
Updated
The Fringe Files is a multi-award winning touring theatre company based in the West of England that has been producing new plays collectively since 2010. Its founder is Michael Starr, and the company's own website documents its history through retrospective posts, including a decade-in-review piece and rediscovered early material such as a 2011 DVD trailer. If you want to understand what the company is, how it started, and what it has produced, the site's blog archive is the primary public record.
The Basics
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | The Fringe Files |
| Type | Touring theatre company |
| Base | West of England |
| Founded / active since | 2010 |
| Founder | Michael Starr |
| Working method | Producing new plays collectively |
| Recognition | Multi-award winning |
The phrase "collectively" matters here. It signals that the company's new work is developed as a group effort rather than handed down from a single writer or director — a common model for small touring ensembles that need to keep costs and creative ownership shared.
How the Company Started
The Fringe Files has been producing new plays collectively since 2010. That start date is the anchor for everything else on the site: the retrospective content is framed around roughly a decade of continuous activity, which places the company's formation in the same period as its first productions.
The founder, Michael Starr, is the named figure behind the company. A December 2024 post, "A Decade of The Fringe Files: Founder Michael Starr Looks Back…", is the site's own account of that history, written from the founder's perspective. If you want the company's version of its origins and turning points, that post is the place to start.
What the Public Record Shows
The website functions as an informal archive rather than a formal press kit. Its visible content includes:
- "A Decade of The Fringe Files: Founder Michael Starr Looks Back…" (December 2024) — a retrospective on the company's first decade.
- "Formatting a Stage Play: How to Beginner's Guide…" (December 2024) — a craft-focused post, suggesting the company also shares practical theatre knowledge.
- "Rediscovered DVD Trailer from 2011!" (November 2024) — early promotional material tied to The Curse of Miss Fortune, indicating that production was part of the company's early output.
The blog runs to roughly 41 pages of older posts, so the archive extends well beyond the most recent entries. For anyone researching the company's full production history, working backward through that archive is more reliable than relying on the homepage alone.
What This Means If You're Researching the Company
- For programming or press enquiries: the key facts are the 2010 start date, the West of England base, the collective new-writing model, and Michael Starr as founder. Those are the details the company itself foregrounds.
- For production history: start with the decade retrospective, then work through the tagged archive. Early material like the 2011 Curse of Miss Fortune trailer shows the company was already producing and promoting full shows within its first two years.
- For a sense of the company's voice: the mix of retrospective reflection and practical craft writing suggests an ensemble that documents its own process rather than only advertising upcoming shows.
One caution: the site presents itself as a working blog, not a structured database. Dates, production titles, and awards are mentioned across posts rather than consolidated in one place, so cross-checking multiple entries is the practical way to build an accurate timeline.