3 September 2026
Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Luke Eisemann is the new Director of the New Zealand Fringe Festival. With a background in theatre and devised theatre, the next festival will be his sixth year at the Fringe, but until now he’s been “in the background”.
We find out more about the man whose job is wrangling the programme of hundreds of events spanning the spectrum of arts – dance, theatre, cabaret, burlesque, circus, puppetry and more.
Luke Eisemann in a devised performance
Luke Eisemann says landing the job as Fringe Director has been a “whirlwind”. Having flown to the United States to be at the side of his sick father, he had his first interview the day after his Dad died “and my second interview was the week after that – the night before his funeral. It was like a bad sitcom.”
But back in Wellington with his feet now firmly under the desk at Creative Capital Arts Trust’s central city offices, Luke is enjoying his “dream job”.
Luke (35) studied theatre and devised theatre at New York University and after performing, directing and producing devised works with friends in New York, he set off to travel ending up in New Zealand eight years ago.
“New Zealand is very much home now – it says so on the mortgage!”
2027 will be Luke’s sixth Fringe Festival, but his first at the helm. Until now he’s worked in roles as ticketing manager, operations manager and last year as a judge of the awards.
“I know the systems and processes and the leadership team is very collaborative. But it has been funny connecting with people who have been part of the Fringe for a while and I’m reintroducing myself. I was very much behind the scenes but it means I know the people, I know their shows.”
Luke has performed and directed shows in Wellington including some dinner theatre shows while working in hospitality.
“I love writing, performing, directing and being part of the collaborative process to put on live performance and really that’s what this job is – it’s the producing job for producers. My job is to help producers achieve their goals.”
The New Zealand Fringe Festival is an open access event meaning anyone can find a venue and register to put on a show. The Fringe team provides a raft of support for artists and Luke’s keen to develop this further.
“Often we act as a facilitator to connect artists with venues, and three venues – Hannah Playhouse, BATS, and Gryphon Theatre curate their programmes.
“I’m excited to see how the New Zealand Fringe fits within the international and national ecosystem of the performing arts.
“We work closely with other Fringe festivals, particularly Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney and I’m keen to see how the New Zealand/Australia summer festival season can be a drawcard for international artists and be an opportunity for New Zealand artists.
“We don’t have shows that run for the whole period, but we often have performers who return year after year and use the Fringe Festival as an opportunity to try something new. And that’s not just New Zealand either – we have a Welsh guy who brought one show out, then the following year he brought a new show and added on a tour with his original show. We provide an opportunity to test out new work, particularly for people wanting to go on to Adelaide, Edinburgh or the United States market.
“We say the Fringe is the birthplace of brilliance and it can be a step in an artist’s career. In Wellington we have the advantage of having theatre training here and we are often seeing performers bringing their ‘first babies’. We see a lot of performers in the first decade of their creative careers.”
Recent talk of the cost to take shows to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe – the largest in the world with more than 4000 shows across hundreds of venues and sees many artists out of pocket or struggling to compete – highlights the importance of focusing not only on the financials, but on opportunity.
“Most people don’t lose money at the New Zealand Fringe, and we do offer help with budgets. But it is important to see the Fringe as the opportunity to test work and make sure your show is ‘tour-ready’ before taking the plunge to go overseas.”
Supporting artists in developing tour-ready shows is a key goal of the New Zealand Fringe Festival. “We have a ‘Tour-Ready’ Award which is reciprocal with other Fringe Festivals – Sydney, Melbourne, Dunedin, Adelaide and San Diego, and we host venue staff from Edinburgh Festival Fringe who are scouting for talent.”
The 2027 New Zealand Fringe Festival takes place from February 12 to March 6. Registrations are open now. Find out more HERE.
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