This is my 11th year on the wait-list.
If you’re in the top 5-10 for any tier, start planning now. Odds are you’ll be in by the end of March. It’s hard to tell for certain exactly how far down you’re guaranteed, since the the number of venues changes every year, but I’d still plan on getting in with the top 10. Some years, the top 20 have gotten in before May.
If you’re further down on the wait-list, that doesn’t mean you won’t have the opportunity to produce. Once July hits, placement means nothing. They send out an email if someone’s dropped, and the first one to respond gets it. This is how I produced Memoirs of a Welfare Queen. I was drawn 7th from the end on the wait-list that year. It can be done.
I recommend assessing how much time you need to put together your play. Memoirs was a one person storytelling show, so it’s not frowned on to read from a script. That was doable with two weeks production time. The circus themed show I did, with multiple people and and memorizing, needed closer to 3 months (and sat in limbo from 2014-2019, when I finally got higher than 20th from the bottom of a wait-list).
So figure out how much time you need, figure out what that date is you’d need a call by, and if that date comes and goes without a call… Well, I have a sympathetic and well experienced shoulder for you to cry on.
You can also take a last minute spot and produce something different than your original plan. Improv, game show, collective story telling show… If what you want is experience producing, the last minute production is a great way to get that time in.
Also, there are other people out there producing. Offer your help, go to auditions, put yourself out there. I’ve been involved with at least one show each fringe since 2008. Sure, it might not be yours, but you can still get the fringe experience, and frankly, it can be nice to be involved without having to worry about the rest of the production stuff.
Hope this helps. I know it sucks to be wait-listed. Trust me, I know. But it’s not the end of the world. And I know it sounds like a platitude (because it is, but that doesn’t make it any less true)… There IS always next year.