Scranton Fringe Mobile Theatre Unit
Theatre Anywhere.
Scranton Fringe is developing a dedicated, year-round touring program that connects professional artists with audiences in libraries, parks, senior residences, youth centers, and other community spaces throughout Northeast Pennsylvania and beyond.
The Scranton Fringe Mobile Theatre Unit will build on our experience creating performances for different places and audiences, bringing that work into a sustained program of touring productions, creative workshops, and ongoing community partnerships.
Mission of this program
To make professional theatre more accessible by bringing imaginative performances and opportunities for creative participation into the places where people gather, learn, and live throughout NEPA (and beyond) – not just in Scranton.
We believe that experiencing and making theatre should be part of community life. Through this program, we want to create more opportunities for people to share their stories, encounter new perspectives and discover their own creativity.
Built on Years of Community Performance and Cultural Exchange
For years, Scranton Fringe has created theatre beyond traditional stages. Productions such as The Importance of Being Earnest (2025) and The Wind in the Willows (2026) at Doherty Pocket Park, our annual performances at Lackawanna County’s winter marketplace on Courthouse Square, and various special commissions and community collaborations have helped shape our approach.
That experience also includes bringing work beyond our region, including Mandy Pennington’s Girl Walks Into a Movie Theater to Narrowsburg, New York, directed by Simone Daniel.
Our production of Ulysses of Scranton traveled to the Ballina Arts Center in Ireland in 2025, as part of our cultural exchange with Scranton’s sister city, Ballina. In 2026, the production continued to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland – the world’s largest arts festival – bringing a work rooted in Northeast Pennsylvania to an international audience.
These projects have built the experience and relationships that the Mobile Theatre Unit will carry forward: adapting work for different settings, collaborating with local hosts, and connecting artists with new audiences.
Picture: Ulysses of Scranton cast, Edinburgh Fringe 2026
The Mobile Theatre Unit brings that experience into a dedicated, ongoing program. We’re developing productions specifically designed to travel, with flexible staging and opportunities to return to communities over time. Each visit can become part of a continuing relationship between artists, hosts, and audiences.
What We Want to Achieve
Expand access to professional theatre. Reduce barriers related to cost, transportation, geography, and unfamiliarity with attending live performances by activating spaces where communities already gather (senior centers, housing development parking lots, public parks, libraries, etc.).
Keep audience participation free or affordable. Build support from hosts, sponsors, grantmakers, and individual donors to make performances and workshops widely available.
Create paid opportunities for artists. Support actors, writers, directors, teaching artists, designers, and technicians through meaningful work in our region.
Develop imaginative productions that can travel. Build a repertoire that works across different spaces while maintaining high-level creativity and quality audiences expect from Fringe.
Build lasting community partnerships. Listen to local hosts, understand their audiences, and develop relationships that can grow through repeat visits and shared planning.
Invite people into the creative process. Offer workshops and activities that encourage storytelling, collaboration, curiosity, and self-expression across generations. We are also highly interested in making the work as inclusive as possible by (long-term) developing bilingual works and providing other means of accessibility.
What a Visit Could Include
Our initial plans include imaginative, all-ages-friendly adaptations of known works that use familiar stories as starting points for inventive staging, humor, and playful theatrical experiences. We are also interested in using this program to launch new/original works.
Alongside performances, we envision workshops tailored to each host’s audience and preferred age range. Activities might explore character creation, improvisation, storytelling, or adapting a favorite book for the stage.
We’re interested in working with libraries, schools, community centers, senior centers and residences, residential buildings, youth organizations, and partners in juvenile justice and correctional settings.
Part of a Wider Theatre Tradition
Our approach draws inspiration from The Public Theater’s Mobile Unit in New York City, as well as programs such as PlayMakers Mobile in North Carolina and Baltimore Center Stage’s Mobile Unit. These programs offer models for bringing professional theatre into community settings and developing relationships with audiences beyond a traditional theatre building.
Help Shape What Comes Next
The Scranton Fringe Mobile Theatre Unit is currently in development, with a fuller rollout envisioned for 2027–2028. We’re beginning conversations with potential hosts, collaborators, and supporters as we develop the productions and partnerships that will make it possible.
Could your organization host a performance or workshop? Are there audiences you would like us to reach? Would you like to support the program or explore a creative collaboration?
Complete the interest form below. Tell us about your organization, community, space, or idea. You’re welcome to get in touch even if you’re still exploring what might be possible – we’d love to start the conversation.
EXPRESSION OF INTEREST FORM – complete the form below and someone from Team Fringe will follow up:
