Founded in 2015 by Dale Heinen and Jeffrey Pence, BorderLight’s mission is to present visionary international theatre and build cross-cultural understanding. The BorderLight Festival debuted in 2019 as a biennial summer event.
The BorderLight International Theatre + Fringe Festival is a collaboratively programmed festival, featuring:
- a curated selection of international touring productions,
- commissioned collaborations between Cleveland professional theatres and international artists, and
- a fringe festival programmed through an open call for submissions, featuring all genres of theatrical performance self-produced by local and national artists. The selection is guided by a peer-review panel of local theatre artists and community leaders.
In its inaugural year, BorderLight hosted 40 unique productions and special events from artists from 8 countries + across the US, selling over 4.5K tickets and attracting a total of 10K visitors to downtown Cleveland for free public performances and other special events.
“BorderLight has ignited a beacon.” – Thomas Mulready, COOL Cleveland
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, BorderLight’s 2021 program will be exclusively virtual and remote access, including virtual interactive experiences, video on-demand shows, and self-guided audio adventures.
