Denver School of the Arts’ Theater Department has earned a coveted invitation to the American High School Theatre Festival at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland - the world’s largest arts festival.

DSA’s stellar Theater Department will represent Denver Public Schools, the state of Colorado, and the United States at this world-renowned event. There were 800 nominees, only a few high schools in the United States were selected.

The DSA theater students will have the chance to present four performances of a play of their choice at next summer’s event. To prepare for the Fringe, the DSA cast will stage their show at least five times in and around Denver this spring. Ticket sales from these shows will supplement the costs involved with traveling to the Fringe.

Mounting such a production means commitment and expense; the cost of taking the show and its cast on the road is more than $150,000. Of this total, $60,000 of which has already been pledged. The school is seeking support from businesses and organizations to make up the difference in order to bring a shining example of Denver’s outstanding arts education to the global stage.

Sponsorship means recognition for any business or organization at all nine performances of the show, both at home and overseas. Depending on the level of support, any business or organization would receive reserved seats to a performance of the show and be prominently featured in DSA’s festival program, as well as on all flyers, signs, and other promotional material. Additional recognition will be gained on T-shirts worn by all the DSA students while in Edinburgh.

About The Fringe Festival
The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland began in 1947 as a post-war effort to reunite Europe through culture, with a number of distinguished musicians from war-ravaged countries invited to perform. Aware there would be a good crowd and press interest, eight Scottish and British theater companies decided to turn up uninvited. A critic dubbed this gatecrashers' enterprise "the fringe of the official festival drama," and the name and the spirit of the Fringe was born.

Now Europe’s premier theater event, the Fringe draws a million people to 20,000 performances involving 12,000 actors - 1,500 shows in 200 venues around the city during August. The Denver School of the Arts has been selected to mount one of these productions in 2003 under the auspices of the American High School Theatre Festival Association (AHTFA).

The Virginia-based AHTFA was created a decade ago to give our nation’s most talented theater students a chance to perform on the international stage. Directors from state, regional and national theater groups nominate the best high school drama programs, and those schools are invited to apply. The final few are chosen by an elite panel of theater professionals.

DSA was nominated in January, applied the next month and was selected in April. Now 30 DSA theater students plan to stage a musical in Denver in April 2003 to prepare for their four performances in Scotland. To make this once-in-a-lifetime experience a reality, the students and their families have committed to raising nearly $150,000 to produce their show and take it on the road.

Sponsorship levels are available beginning at $500 - and up to $20,000. Some donors will receive front row seats to DSA’s Scotland-bound musical and recognition in DSA’s Fringe program.

Also as a fund-raiser, the school has created a classy set of note cards with images donated by watercolorist William Matthews. Matthews’ work can be viewed at www.williammatthewsgallery.com. A set of four note cards is $10 and they are available at Card Blanche, Crane Stationery, D’June, Eccentricities, Mollys of Denver, Papyrus, and both Tattered Cover locations.

For more information, please call the school at 303-722-4669.