News: (Toronto) SummerWorks Launch Event (Report)

Launching SummerWorks: 
The countdown begins
by Lisa McKeown 
@lisammckeown

SummerWorks started, in the 90s, as a Fringe Festival, transitioning to a fully juried Festival around the turn of the century. It also now features predominantly new Canadian works, and is a great breeding ground for all kinds of Canadian artists working in dance, theatre, and performance art more broadly construed. Last Friday was their annual Launch Party for the Festival, comprised of the VIP portion in the early evening, and followed by a Pay What You Can dance party. 

Michael Rubenfield, the current artistic director of the Festival, was one of the hosts of the evening, amusing the crowd with his spontaneous humour. Peppered around the surrounding gates were the posters of the upcoming Festival's lineup, and throughout the evening the guests were treated to a sampling of some of the performances and exhibits that will be a part of the Festival in August. A Maracatu band (from the upcoming Maracatu You!) started off the night with drums, singing, and dancing. Passers-by on Queen Street even stopped to watch the band's lively anthems.

On The Fringe With Nancy Kenny, January 23, 2014

So You Want To Do a Fringe Show in the United States?
by Nancy Kenny
@nancykenny

[ED: As we head into Fringe 2014, Nancy Kenny comes aboard to file an occasional story about her Fringe journey. Here, to start, is an article that first appeared on her own site and which has become the most read piece there...you will see why.]

Are you an American citizen who has a cool little show you want to produce on the Canadian Fringe Festival Circuit? No problem! You DO NOT need a work permit if you are a performing artist who:

• will perform in Canada for a limited period of time,
• will not perform in a bar or restaurant,
• are not being hired for ongoing employment by the Canadian group that has contracted you and
• are not involved in making a movie, television or radio broadcast.

You just need a letter from the festivals you will be participating in confirming the items above.

Are you a Canadian citizen who would like to take your cool little Fringe show to one of the American Fringes (New York, Orlando, San Diego, Indianapolis, San Francisco, and Boulder) who are members of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, or one of the many other unrelated Fringe Festivals in the U.S.? No probl…

Wait, what?

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In a Word... Sam Mullins on the upcoming Fringe (2014) frenzy

The Fringe, Broken Hearts, Blazing Through and Fatherly feelings

by Gaëtan L. Charlebois

Sam S Mullins is a Vancouver-turned-Toronto-based writer/humorist.  He is a staff writer for the CBC sketch comedy radio program The Irrelevant Show.  As a storyteller, he is a regular contributor to the CBC storytelling program Definitely Not the Opera, has contributed to NPR's The Moth and has been featured on the New York-based comedy podcast RISK!.  His one-man show Tinfoil Dinosaur won "Best of Fest" at the Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal Fringe Festivals, and was nominated for the 2012 Just for Laughs Award for Best Comedy.  His new solo-show Weaksauce just picked up the 2013 Award for Best Script at the Montreal Fringe, was nominated for the 2013 Just for Laughs Award for Best Comedy and was selected to be Held Over at the 2013 Edmonton Fringe.

CHARPO: It seems to me the Fringe season has just ended and here we are with the lotteries! First, how many are you in for sure, and have you wound down at all?

MULLINS: So far, for my 2014 Fringe tour, I'm confirmed in Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver. I'm waiting to hear on Calgary and Victoria's lotteries.  I was also fortunate enough to get my show Weaksauce into UNO, which is a Victoria-based solo festival in May that I've always wanted to participate in.  I couldn't be more excited about it.  I studied at UVIC, and I haven't had the opportunity to go back and perform there since I graduated in 2008. I'm sure it'll make for a pretty nostalgic time.  Lots of me pointing at inanimate objects and turning to the person (who isn't really there) and saying softly, "Remember?".

I'd say I allowed myself some 'wind down' time after this year's tour.  I took off all of September to sort of bum around in British Columbia.  Y'know. I swam in lakes, drank some wine, ate some casserole prepared by my mother, caught up on some reading and AMC programs. It was pretty fantastic, actually. 

I even quit smoking again. But if my Mom asks, I didn't restart in the first place.