Sunday Feature: Gwynne Hunt wraps up the first Alberni Valley Fringe

Fringe-Tastic!
by Gwynne Hunt

Gwynne Hunt is a writer, publisher, researcher, artistic director and producer. Her last two books were, Rampage:the pathology of an epidemic and a chapbook, brusies and bad haircuts. She teaches creative writing and theatre and currently runs an arts and crafts supply store while doing as much theatre as she can. She is the Artistic Director of the Alberni Valley Fringe Theatre Festival. 

A few months ago I wrote an article called “To Fringe or Not To Fringe?”  I was challenged to bring a Fringe Festival to the small 17,000 person town called Port Alberni, BC.  After 14 years of producing a Fringe Fest in the Fraser Valley (Abbotsford/Mission) I felt I was up to the task. We received 20 entries and as we got closer to the June 21, 22, 23 Fringe dates I was getting worried that I was throwing a party that nobody was going to attend. 

By 10 PM of the first night when I was sitting in the back row watching Bitts of Tease Cabaret to a howling audience of over 150 as Vava Vunderbust was beating the bongos, I knew I had made a difference to the town, the Port Alberni theatre scene and to the future of small Fringe Festivals.  It can be done.

We had 959 ‘bums in seats’ as we like to say in Fringe-speak. You can’t do a head count as many of the people who go to Fringe shows go to several so we add up the ‘bums in seats’ and the total house for the festival; 959.

Sunday Feature: Gwynne Hunt, artistic director of the new Alberni Valley Fringe

To Fringe or Not To Fringe

by Gwynne Hunt, Artistic Director, Alberni Valley Fringe Theatre Festival

Gwynne Hunt is a writer, publisher, researcher, artistic director and producer. Her last two books were, Rampage:the pathology of an epidemic and a chapbook, brusies and bad haircuts. She teaches creative writing and theatre and currently runs an arts and crafts supply store while doing as much theatre as she can.

In 1998 I volunteered for the Abbotsford, B.C. Fringe Festival. A freelance writer, familiar with community theatre, I thought it might make for a few good articles. It was a life changing experience. After a solitary writer’s life, never knowing what people thought of my articles, I realized that writing and producing for a festival was instant feedback, a forum for my words and I got excited about the possibilities. I watched the parade of shows recognizing that instead of writing about the Fringe, I could write alternative theatre.

My first play called Breadlines was about poverty and my characters lined up at a soup kitchen, each in turn starting their monologues with, “I don’t belong here, I’m not like the rest of them.” It was the beginning of my writing and producing over 20 plays. 

Soon Abbotsford Fringe organizers felt the job was too big, people were coming from all over the world and it was too much of a responsibility. It took about three minutes of thought before I offered to take over.