Sunday Feature: Benjamin Wert on This Prison (Fringe: Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton)

Fringe/Complex
Making a set important in a Fringe show is a job
by Benjamin Wert

Theatre of the Beat will be performing 'This Prison Or: He Came Through the Floor' at the Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringes. Theatre of the Beat is a traveling theatre troupe that has been performing together since 2011. They just finished a 33-venue tour of 'Forgiven/Forgotten', performing the play from Ontario to Alberta in theatres, churches, high schools, and prisons. 

What do most traveling fringe shows have in common? Most have no set, or something small... nothing fancy, just something you can pack in a suitcase and take on the road. Most have a small cast and crew, many are solo operations. You don't want to have to feed too many mouths on fringe bucks and travel can get cramped when you get too many in the van.

Last year, Theatre of the Beat performed Gadfly at the Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver Fringe festivals. We had a compact set made out of a folding table and a bunch of milk crates, with a cast and crew of five.

This year, we've downsized cast and crew to three, but we've certainly gotten ambitious with the set.