Thoughts from the 30th Edmonton Fringe Festival
by Keir Cutler
I was photocopying programs and flyers for my new solo play “Teaching Shakespeare: A Parody,” debuting shortly at the 1999 Montreal Fringe Festival. A woman, that I’d never seen before in my life, photocopying at the machine beside me happened to look over my shoulder and see what I was doing and asked. “Are you performing in the fringe festival?”
“Why yes, yes I am.” I answered proudly.
“Well then you must not be any good!”
I looked at her stunned. I wasn’t getting insulted for a show I’d done. I was getting insulted for a show I was going to do. She’d never seen me onstage, but she saw the word “fringe” so obviously I must suck. What do you say to that? Nothing.
We just continued photocopying.
Kate Taylor of the Globe and Mail: “Message to the Fringe: Bad theatre isn't fun.”
In 2000 before my first Toronto Fringe, I was greeted by Kate Taylor of the Globe and Mail's pre-festival article titled “Message to the Fringe: Bad theatre isn't fun.” Her attack not only belittled the vast majority of shows as “badly written, woodenly performed, under-rehearsed or self-indulgent” but also Fringe audiences “as they go from play to play, uncovering only the mediocre … it's always possible there just isn't a single needle in this haystack.” Ironically, her condemnation also included comments about “The Drowsy Chaperone” which had premiered the previous year at the Toronto Fringe. Taylor contemptuously called the future Tony-award-winning Broadway hit, “a completely forgettable little satire,” that would look “seriously insignificant” if transplanted to a real theatre.
Back then, many in Montreal and Toronto had either never heard of fringe theatre or like Kate Taylor, had a bad impression of it. I loved the opportunity fringe festivals afforded me, but wasn't thrilled about the contemptuous attitude some people had towards the growing theatrical movement.
I asked if the verbal abuse hurled at the fringe bothered him. TJ told me there was a promised land to the west.
Fortunately, I had met “Fringe God” TJ Dawe, who was not yet fully deified but already making a name for himself more than a decade ago. I asked if the verbal abuse hurled at the fringe bothered him. TJ told me there was a promised land to the west. Cities where the fringe was not only respected but loved, revered, and massively attended.
Could such places exist?
The following summer, on TJ's suggestion, I traveled to Winnipeg and found banners announcing the festival hanging from downtown streetlights, the word “FRINGE” on the side of every city bus, and the Winnipeg mayor greeting the artists on the fringe site. Wow! (I wonder if today in 2011 the mayor of Montreal has even heard of the fringe?) I performed that first year in a beautiful air-conditioned theatre in Winnipeg's Planetarium to soldout crowds and audience excitement I had never before experienced. Winnipeg has a fifth the population of Toronto, but twice the fringe attendance. In fact many Winnipeggers take their vacation during the fringe to get to as many shows as possible.
I have witnessed a Montrealer, when asked about our fringe, roll his eyes and say with disgust, “it's another one of those festivals.”
If Winnipeg was astounding to me, Edmonton was totally mind-blowing. The Edmonton Fringe Festival is the grand daddy of them all, and the first fringe in North America. My first appearance there was in 2003. It is very much like the Winnipeg Fringe only bigger and wilder. Along with the indoor shows, this festival features closed off streets with thousands of people surrounding street performers from around the world. Contortionists, whip-cracking cowboys, pushup specialists, fire breathing jugglers and dare-devil acrobats entertain huge crowds. A half million people swarm the site during this 11 day event which the Edmonton Journal calls “the most anticipated festival in the city's busy summer season.” Quite a statement to my mind, coming from Montreal, where the Montreal Fringe seems dwarfed by the largest jazz and comedy festivals in the world and several other summertime events. I have witnessed a Montrealer, when asked about our fringe, roll his eyes and say with disgust, “it's another one of those festivals.”
My first year in Edmonton I had the great luxury of receiving a 5 star review before I had ever performed in the city. Reviewers are sent to fringe festivals in other cities that precede Edmonton's. “Teaching Shakespeare” was a hit before I even opened, and my run was a sellout. Most astonishing for me was a noon show I had on a Tuesday. I arrived at my theatre at 11AM to find a lineup already formed for tickets. Some people ended up getting turned away. For a noon weekday show!
I was hooked on Winnipeg and Edmonton. Now I apply every year and when I fail to get in by lottery, I rent what is called a “BYOV” or “Bring Your Own Venue.” This is more expensive but it gets you in the festival.
My all-time favourite Edmonton Fringe story tells of a patron on a Saturday evening running happily through the fringe site waving his arms and shouting, “I got a ticket! I got a ticket!” Someone from the crowded street asks, “To what?” The excited man answers, “I don't know!” On a busy Saturday night, he was elated just to get a ticket to anything.
Yesterday, I witnessed a fringe-goer buying and laying out 50 tickets to 50 different shows.
This summer is the 30th year of the Edmonton Fringe Festival. There are 180 different productions at 42 separate venues. Yesterday, I witnessed a fringe-goer buying and laying out 50 tickets to 50 different shows. He carefully checked his computer spread sheet which displayed his schedule for the entire festival. He told me he could go to more shows, but he stops at 10PM each night. I was pleased to see my opening show on his agenda. “Oh, I always go to your shows," he told me. Made my day!
A recent upgrade Edmonton gives performers real time internet access to ticket sales. I can actually see online every time a ticket is sold, for how much and for which performance! No other fringe to my knowledge does this.
Thousands of new works that might never have been created, much less put onstage, exist thanks to these annual festivals.
This year is my eighth appearance at the Edmonton Fringe. I have had the great fortune of getting a terrific billet that I have stayed at every year here. A lovely home a small distance to the fringe site. This wonderful couple actually keeps a bike of mine from year to year. It sits in their garage until August each summer. Travelling fringe performers depend on kind people giving us a place to stay. It is greatly appreciated. We also depend on the hundreds of volunteers who work the festival. There could be no fringe festivals without them.
Far from being what Kate Taylor once described as “the most inefficient route to great art anybody could have invented,” the fringe festival circuit in Canada is an extraordinary treasure. Thousands of new works that might never have been created, much less put onstage, exist thanks to these annual festivals. Winnipeg and Edmonton are the two largest, but every festival in the country is important in developing and nourishing theatrical work. TJ Dawe, Nicola Gunn, Chris Gibbs have made careers out of the fringe and are great inspirations to me. They are not just astonishing fringe performers, they are outstanding performers period. I could name many, many more who have presented first-class work over my dozen years of fringe performing. Canadians should be proud that we have a theatrical circuit unlike any in the world.
Long live the Fringe!
Listen to Keir and Gaëtan L. Charlebois discuss the importance of the Fringe on This Is The CPC, episode 3 (also available on iTunes)
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