Who’s in the 2010 Vancouver Fringe?

This past Saturday, December 5, the Fringe’s mainstage lottery was held at the Carousel Theatre. For those of you who don’t know, our mainstage shows are chosen by a draw! The lottery! Donors, volunteers, artists, staff, and fans of the Fringe came together to see who would be in the 2010 Fringe!

After some prerequisite mingling, and with beverages in hand (from our lovely sponsors St. Ambroise and/or Wild Horse Canyon), we handed out the bingo (or Fringe-o) cards and David Jordan, the Fringe’s Executive Director, got things started. After explaining our bizarro version of bingo that included 20 second dance parties and eating gummie worms, we got down to business.

We split 45 mainstage spots evenly among three categories (provincial, national, and international). The international category had three spots reserved for the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals lottery winners, leaving 12 spots to be drawn. Each application corresponded to a numbered ping pong ball, placed by category into one of three crazy hats. The fuzzy purple and white hat held international balls, the yellow and black hat held the national balls, and the big black hat held the provincial balls. Then the draw began!

Meanwhile, our Communications Coordinator, Debby Reis (that’s me!), was tweeting the results as they were drawn, with help from her lovely assistant Sandra Perry. There were loads of shenanigans interrupting the draw such as the aforementioned 20 second dance parties, but there were also random prizes given away from Theatre Conspiracy, the Cultch, Touchstone Theatre, Pacific Cinematique, Cocoa Camino, and of course, Fringe t-shirts and vouchers.

There was extra jubilation in the crowd when Frances Kitson (seen here jumping up as she won) and Melissa Haller of Connecting Flights Theatre won spots in the lottery. We also got immediate response to our Twitter feed when we tweeted that Liz Wilton had made it in. Liz was following “at home with risotto and champagne” and was “ecstatic” when we announced her name!

All in all, the night was a blast! To see the full list of lottery winners, check out our website. If you’re an artist hoping to be part of the 2010 Fringe, there’s still an opportunity to participate by producing a BYOV show. You can find a BYOV application and all the details here.

The Fringe is Hiring!

Our Festival Manager, Isabella Kessel, is having a baby! And that means that we’re looking for a interim Festival Manager to cover her maternity leave.

The deadline for applications is December 11, so have a look at the posting, and if you think you’ve got the stuff, send us your cover letter and resume to administration@vancouverfringe.com!

Countess de la Fringe

For all the props we give to the artists and creative people who contribute to the Fringe, we wouldn’t be able to put on a great Festival without the help of our Finance Manager, Kathy Costello. Kathy keeps track of all our money issues–budgeting and making sure that artists get paid just being a few.

But that’s not to say that Kathy isn’t the creative type. She made a collage of Fringe tickets that adorns our office wall, and she’s often on our “Quotes of the Week” list. In fact, she’s still trying to get us to change her official title to “Countess de la Fringe!”

For fun, Kathy started Geocaching last year. In that brief time, she’s found 337 treasures and hidden four, including one on Granville Island.

On top of her Fringe responsibilities, Kathy handles the accounting for two law firms–very serious places compared to the Fringe. “I keep a list of ‘things I don’t do at my other job,’” Kathy says. Her list includes “not having to reimburse for the purchase of a ‘Lovin’ Lamb,’ [the prize for the Nasty Award] or not hearing radio calls [like] ‘if anyone sees the guy wearing the helmet and jockstrap could you send him back to his venue.’” You can tell she loves it and we love having her aboard!

FYI Granville Island Visitors:

If you’re coming down to Granville Island between now and January 29, you may notice that there’s extra construction going on outside of the Net Loft. That’s because they’re constructing an Island Plaza on the east side of Net Loft. They’re remove a curb, add additional bike parking, add a cross walk between the Net Loft and the Public Market, and make the Net Loft more accessible and visible.

In the meantime, the construction will cause some traffic congestion, so please schedule yourself some extra time, and be conscious of pedestrians near the Public Market and the Net Loft.

Fringe Flashback: The Queens

Directed by Katrina Dunn
Photo by Deborah Dunn
Actor: Dianne Brown

Written by Quebecois playwright, Normand Chaurette, The Queens is the story of six royal women vying for power in London in 1483. The Queens was also one of Ruby Slippers‘ early productions and it was featured at the Vancouver Fringe Festival in 1992.

This past July, at our 25th Anniversary Party, Diane Brown shared a story about one night at the Fringe when there were some technical difficulties with lighting.

“There we were, a group of actors dressed up like various old Victorian Queens, exposed in the harsh house lights pushing around the humongous plaster walls of the set, trying to make it look ghostly and magical and easy….! We did the show in house lights, and got a standing ovation. For effort. And we loved it.”

Happy Holidays from the Fringe!

There are lots of holidays this month: Hanukkah, Eid al-Adha, Yule, Kwanzaa, Christmas, New Year’s, and of course, Festivus. Whatever you celebrate, we here at the Fringe want to wish you a fabulous holiday season!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 3:54 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.