A happy Fringe venue!

We hear lots from Fringe artists, volunteers, and audience members. But there’s one special group that we never hear from: Fringe Venues. As we emerge from our winter caves and gather together, we thought we should give voice to those crucial Festival players. So, without further ado… in their classic short email production of A Spring Fling Far Flung, we give you the Venues!

Spotlight centre stage.

Fringe Onsite (sobbing softly): Why have they left me?

Waterfront Theatre (a Fringe Mainstage): Oh stop with the drama, Onsite! I miss all the Fringe people, too, but they’ll be back soon enough. With all your unusual outdoor stages, can’t you just relax and enjoy your many identities?

Onsite: You’re right, Waterfront. It’s just that I feel like a bunch of ordinary places without them… You know, when they arrive I can actually feel them—it’s so exciting to become a stage! Waterfront: Yeah! Especially the first people, with their voices bouncing around my lobby. Then that rush as they stream in, all laughter and anticipation!… and those artists on my stage!! Oh my! Onsite: I can’t wait! Folks will find me on a floating dock. No! A spooky garage. No! A beautiful park!…

Waterfront: I’m excited too, but let’s focus on what’s important.

Fringe Bar (holding a disco ball): Legendary dance parties!! Waterfront: Uh, not quite. I meant how we bring this all together to happen again this year!

Fringe Bar: Right! Should be easy! Who doesn’t love the Fringe?… Wait a sec, this awesome Festival passes on 100% of the ticket money to the artists, right?… Onsite: Exactly!!… Uh… but then who pays for us??

Blackout. House lights come up on you.

Yes, friends, Fringe Venues need funding too. Help give artists and audiences the venues we all need. For a small monthly donation of only $21 or a lump-sum gift of $250—the cost of one Mainstage performance—you can help keep our lights on and our Festival strong! Smaller donations add up quickly, too.

Our goal is to fund at least one performance for each of our 28 years. You can get us there—do it for the Fringe Venues who love you!

Spring for a performance, Spring for the Fringe… Let’s make 2012 the best Festival ever!

Presented by the Fringe Venues who miss you and eagerly await your return! xoxo

The Vancouver Fringe is a registered charitable organization #118919547RR0001

Spring goslings invade Granville Island in all their cute fluffiness!

At last, we’ve turned the office heat off and opened the windows to that long-awaited Spring sunshine. The sun has returned to warm our bones. Granville Island is inundated with fluffy goslings, waddling after their mothers. Happy chirping in the air, the smell of cut grass, and the warmth on our faces (oh the warmth!) tells us Spring has sprung!

‘Round these parts, that means essential elements of the 2012 Festival are gathering as they emerge from hibernation like hungry bears. Artist lineups are being confirmed, volunteer recruitment is gearing up, and new staff are learning the ropes. But, truly, nobody is more essential to the Festival than YOU… and it’s Spring for you, too! It’s time to stretch out under the sun and provide the missing element that makes the Festival possible for everyone–the donor support of Fringe Lovers!

Though the ticket money goes right to the artists, donations provide the venues for them to change your world and the worlds of thousands of other people. 
You all know: this is YOUR Fringe and your investment makes it fantastic!!

In past years we’ve fundraised in October through $5K in 5 Days, inviting you to “Fall” for the Fringe and become a Fringe Lover. But with just over 100 days to the Festival, right now seems a much better time of year to be talking Fringe Love. So, we’re leaving Fall behind and asking you to Spring for the Fringe! We’ve got until Friday to reach the $7000 goal!

Believe it or not, a gift of $250—that’s only $21 a month—funds a single Mainstage performance and the type of indescribable experience that only happens at the Fringe. Spring for the cost of one of those performances and make that experience possible for you and hundreds of others in 2012. Smaller, monthly gifts also sustain performances and they add up quickly.

Spring for the Fringe with a $21 monthly investment or a one-time $100 gift!

Do it for the artists, your friends, yourself! Do it for the goslings! Do it for Spring!
Spring for the Fringe and help make 2012 the best Festival ever!

Auction Update

Wow! We’ve now got a luxurious trip to Cancun for our September 4 Opening Night Auction—save that date!

The Exquisite Hour Lives!

Lemonade lovers, don’t fret! The Exquisite Hour, which was supposed to be remounted as part of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company’s Recital Hall Series, has now moved to the Revue Stage!

A lonely bachelor and an encyclopedia sales lady connect in The Exquisite Hour. May 1-12 at the Revue Stage on Granville Island.

We were all shocked by the Vancouver Playhouse’s sudden closure last month. The effects are widespread and deep. One of the losses is the support that the Playhouse gave to up and comers like Relephant Theatre and Snafu Dance Theatre (Little Orange Man). These companies were the first recipients of the Fringe Playhouse Award and were to be remounted as part of the Playhouse’s season. It will take a long time for the community to rebuild, but efforts are underway. As part of that rebuilding we will look for ways to recreate the opportunity for Fringe artists to be seen on the stages of professional theatres around town. In the meantime we are thrilled to announce that The Exquisite Hour WILL GO ON!

As a precursor to the Award’s official launch at the 2011 Festival, the 2010 Vancouver Fringe show, The Exquisite Hour, was supposed to be on at the Recital Hall from April 20 to May 5, 2012. Sadly, with the Playhouse closure came the cancellation of the production.

The team at Relephant Theatre quickly went to work to find another venue. After all, they had been preparing for months! With a little help from friends in the theatre community, including the Arts Club, which is providing production support, the Relephants were able to secure the Revue Stage on Granville Island for The Exquisite Hour, which will run from May 1 to 12!

Lucky for you, you can still catch this enchanting production about a bachelor and an encyclopedia sales lady, all while drinking a lovely glass of lemonade. Click for more info and tickets.

Giant Invisible Robot Part of TREMORS Festival

Did you hear that? Or maybe you felt it?

The TREMORS Festival is on April 10-28, 2012.

Emerging artists are descending on Vancouver for TREMORS, Rumble Productions’ performing arts festival, including Fringe Festival hit, and the 2011 Georgia Straight Critics’ Choice Award winner, Giant Invisible Robot!

Giant Invisible Robot features Russell, an extremely shy young man, and his giant, invisible, and destructive robot. It left a few Fringe staffers in tears and more than one of us developed a little crush on performer and writer Jayson McDonald. Rumble’s Laura Efron saw the show during the 2011 Fringe and it stayed in her memory too. So when another performer had to drop out of TREMORS, Giant Invisible Robot came to mind right away. It’s on at the Cultch April 17 to 21.

But there are other shows too, and for a mere $40, you can see three of the four shows (Giant Invisible Robot, Endgame, and A Last Resort), plus you get 20% off if you choose to see The Last Days of Judas Iscariot too! Click here for more info and tickets.

Plus, there’s also the (free!) TREMORS Showcase with emerging artists and their original pieces on April 15 at the Cultch! Visit Rumble Productions’ website for details.

The 2011 Fringe staff bonded pretty quickly. Think you can bond with us too? Apply for a job or internship!

Work for the Fringe

The 2012 Fringe Festival is just around the corner! To get ready, we need a big team of seasonal staff and interns. Think you’ll fit right in? Check out our postings! Right now we’re hiring for the following positions:
Volunteer Coordinator
Lead Designer
Communications Coordinator (internship)
Fundraising & Events Assistant (internship)
Artist Services Coordinator

We’ll be posting more positions soon, so keep any eye out!

P.S. Although we joke about Exquisite Robots in the headline, we do not actually want to work with robots, exquisite or otherwise.

Thanks for Taking the Quiz!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to learn about charity fraud by taking the CanadaHelps and Capital One Charity Fraud Awareness Quiz! And special thanks to those of you who chose the Fringe at the end of the quiz for your donation—you make the Festival happen!

As your charity of choice, the Fringe will get an extra $10 from Capital One for your donation. You lovely quiz takers raised $1,147.72—that amount funds the entire run of a Mainstage artist!… And we haven’t even counted the top ups from Capital One yet!

If you donated $25 or more, you get the fame of recognition on our website (among other Fringe Benefits). Donated $1-24? We love you too! Ask us for a hug anytime! And a BIG SECRET SMOOCHY HUG to the mysterious Ms. or Mr. Anonymous who gave $250. Whoever you are, you are Anonymawesome!

Missed out but still want to make amazing theatre possible? You can choose from lots of cool (and easy) options.

So, huge thanks to the following quiz takers who donated to the Fringe!