The Fringe Turns 35!

April 12, 2019

Help Us Celebrate with 35 for 35!

Not bad for 35, right? Help us celebrate our anniversary by donating to our 35 for 35 campaign!

Did you know the Vancouver Fringe is turning 35 this year? Time sure flies by fast—that means thousands of volunteers, hundreds of shows, scores of staff—all amounting to countless hours of showcasing Theatre for Everyone! 

We’re going to be celebrating our 35th anniversary by raising $35,000. Help us achieve this goal by donating through our website! As a thank you, we will give you a special shout-out on social media, and your name will be added to the list of 35 for 35 supporters, which we’ll feature at the donor booth during the 2019 Festival! You will also be invited to a special, exclusive 35 for 35 event during the 2019 Festival, which includes a private performance by a Fringe Artist and features food, drinks, and a chance to meet your fellow Fringe donors! 

Interested? Donate now, or e-mail our Director of Sponsorship and Development, Chelsey Stuyt, for more information! 

We <3 Our Volunteers!

We’re extremely grateful to all our volunteers! Photos by: Nandia Syabrina (top left and bottom right), Al Ricard (top right), and Cody Leung (bottom left).

This National Volunteer Appreciation Week, we want to thank and celebrate our more than 500 volunteers who have donated thousands upon thousands of hours of their time to the Fringe! With 11 days and 97 shows in the 2018 Festival, we can confidently say that the Festival would not have been possible without all the work volunteers do—from selling tickets, bartending, and to helping out with production, among other tasks. We also want to give a shout out to our Theatre Wire volunteers, who help operate our front of house smoothly. We seriously can’t do this work without you!  

One of our volunteers shared:

“Volunteering with the Fringe Festival was an amazing experience. I got to live a roller coaster of emotions in a very short period of time: from being mesmerized by all the shows that I got to attend for free, to the beautiful sense of community and belonging that I got to feel with the Fringe Family, whether it’s with other volunteers, staff, artists, or even patrons. I got to explore new venues around Vancouver, and memorize Granville Island like the back of my hand! The Fringe Festival gave me a beautiful sense of belonging, and I will definitely volunteer again next year.” 

We certainly look forward to having our returning volunteers back at the Festival, and welcome new ones to join our ever-growing family! Keep your eyes open for when we start recruiting volunteers for the 2019 Festival in June!  

Special thanks to Shear Comfort for generously supporting our volunteer program! And thanks to all the other sponsors who contributed to the program: Phillips Brewing and Malting Co., Wards Cider, Foodora, Road 13 Vineyards, The Keg, Mobi, Hardbite, Boston Pizza, Habibi’s Mediterranean Foods, Clif Bars, Georgian Bay Spirit Co., and Rush Order Tees!

Once again, from all of us at the Fringe, thank you to all of our past and present volunteers, and we hope to see you at this year’s Festival! 

The Theatre Scene

Just a taste of what Vancouver has to offer in the way of Theatre!

Never the Last
Now – April 20
ANNEX
Catch the world premiere of Delinquent Theatre’s Never the Last, which follows the passionate relationship of Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, one of the most innovative composers of early 20th century Europe, and expressionist painter Walter Gramatté. She is passionate, rude, and gifted; he is witty, emotional, and compassionate. Their love affair spans 10 years, four cities, artistic successes and failures, and tragedy.

Zee Zee Theatre’s Dead People’s Things opens next week!

Dead People’s Things
April 17 – May 5
Studio 16
Dead People’s Things by Zee Zee Theatre explores the story of Phyllis, a Millennial, who inherits a house and all of its contents after her estranged hoarder aunt commits suicide. She then must work with neighbour Beatrice, a Baby Boomer who has been named executrix, to try and make some sense of the life and death of a woman she barely knew, through the things she left behind.

BLANK
April 30 – May 4
Progress Lab 1422
Get ready for a reversal of the typical theatre experience with BLANK, presented by Rumble Theatre, in association with Aurora Nova! This Canadian premiere production of Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour’s work is an interactive experience where audience and performer collide and collaborate to spark a new, moving life story each night.

Porn & Pinochet
May 1
The Backroom Theatre in The Heritage Grill
Fringe alumnus Andy Cañete is coming back with his show Porn & Pinochet…this time, as part of Way Off-Broadway Wednesdays! Andy Cañete grew up as a Chilean in Canada until age 13, when his family returned to Pinochet’s Chile, and he became a Canadian in Chile. While traversing the peccadilloes of a difficult family life and being an outsider, Porn & Pinochet touches on both risky and risqué themes.

Boarding Site-Specific Snails

March 19, 2019

How to Cultchivate Multiple Organism

Mind of a Snail’s Multiple Organism is about to start its run at The Cultch as part of winning the Cultchivating the Fringe Award!

Since sweeping accolades at the 2017 Fringe, including the Georgia Straight Critics’ Choice Award and winning a Public Market Pick of the Fringe spot, Mind of a Snail’s Chloé Ziner and Jessica Gabriel have been busy performing Multiple Organism in festivals across North America. All these performances have fine-tuned their “gender and genre-bending surrealist comedy for adults” in time for their upcoming remount at The Cultch as part of winning the Cultchivating the Fringe Award!

“Repetition is magic… [w]e have been making small changes inside the text/words of the show as we deepen our understanding of the layers of narrative. Our puppet manipulation also gets a little more refined each time we do it,” Jessica says of Multiple Organism’s evolution from its run in the Fringe leading up to the opening night at The Cultch.

The Cultchivating the Fringe Award provides artists an opportunity to showcase their work and hone their craft beyond the Festival by giving them a run in The Cultch’s upcoming season. Jessica adds that Mind of a Snail appreciates seeing their show’s growth thanks to the Award, as well as the technical and marketing support provided to them.

“We really took risks making a show that’s just for adults, full of taboos, and that uses the nude body as a projection surface…. [Multiple Organism] has many shadow projection tricks and is full of surprises. Everyone has a body, and in this way, everybody can potentially relate. It’s definitely not a show for the faint of art,” she says.

Whether you saw the award-winning show at the 2017 Fringe or missed its sold-out run altogether, get your tickets to see Multiple Organism at The Cultch now. And, as if you didn’t need another reason to see it, Mind of a Snail will be selling glow-in-the-dark t-shirts they designed and hand-printed themselves after each show!

Fringe Even More with Site-Specific Shows and the Dramatic Works Series

Slumber Here was one of our site-specific shows in 2017! Photo by Al Ricard.

Maybe your show didn’t get drawn during the Mainstage Lottery. Maybe you missed the deadline for one (or more) of our BYOVs. Maybe you just realized now that you want to apply for the Fringe. Or maybe, you’re just waiting for us to open our applications for Site-Specific Shows and the Dramatic Works Series!

On a first come, first served basis, we’re now taking applications for these two categories! Site-Specific Shows are created for spaces outside the traditional theatre setting, and must provide their own technician, lighting, and sound. The shows must happen within walking distance of Granville Island or Havana Theatre on Commercial Drive. You can apply to showcase a Site-Specific Show through Eventotron.

Meanwhile, the Dramatic Works Series is a Mainstage category dedicated to previously published dramatic scripts featuring two or more actors. The Festival supplies the venue, a technician, and basic lighting and sound. Artists may not apply with their own script, and the shows must be 30-100 minutes in length. You can apply to this category through Eventotron.

Don’t forget that you can still apply to one of our pre-approved BYOVs, Arts Umbrella! They will be taking applications until March 30. Apply here, and make sure to read through the application form for more details about the venue to see if it’s the right fit for your show.

For more information, check out the “For Artists” page on our website.

Be Our Artist Services Coordinator!

The Fringe is now looking for an Artist Services Coordinator for the 2019 Festival!

One of the Artist Services Coordinator’s responsibilities is managing the Info Centre during the Festival! Photo by Al Ricard.

The Artist Services Coordinator is responsible for the coordination of and communication with the Festival’s artists, with a special focus on publicity and promotion, as well as the organization of the Fringe Info Centre. This is a seasonal position, beginning on May 6, 2019 and finishing on September 27, 2019. Click here to read the full job posting. The application deadline is March 31, 2019.

We’ll be posting more positions in the coming weeks and months. Be sure to visit our Work With Us page for current postings!

Come on Board at the Fringe!

We’re looking for two new members for our Board of Directors! Could it be you? Photo by Bruce McPherson.

Love the Fringe? Show your love by helping us find new board members for the Vancouver Fringe Board of Directors!

We are seeking two new board members to strengthen our board—someone with accounting expertise and someone to help us with our equity, diversity, and inclusion work.

You’ll get to see behind the curtain and help the Fringe operate, grow, and thrive. We encourage submissions from people with a broad range of backgrounds including, but not limited to: race, ethnicity, ability, gender, and sexuality.

If you or someone you know is interested in this awesome opportunity to embrace the arts, please e-mail jim.sibley[at]gmail.com.

The Theatre Scene

Just a taste of what Vancouver has to offer in the way of Theatre!

Theatre Wire alumni Hardline Productions are bringing Redpatch, which tells the story of an Indigenous soldier during The Great War, back on the stage at the Arts Club!

Redpatch
March 7-31
Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre
Theatre Wire alumni Hardline Productions are back with Redpatch! Nominated for multiple Jessie Awards including Outstanding Production, Redpatch reflects on the role of over four thousand Indigenous men who volunteered to fight and die for Canada during World War I. This play tells a part of this story through the eyes of a soldier from the Nuu-chah-nulth nation of Vancouver Island. From his childhood home to the battlefields of France, follow him as he endures the horrors of the Great War in a new play that uses dance, myth, and mask to tell both a universal and a personal tale.

Jesus Christ: The Lost Years
March 13-23
Havana Theatre
Although Easter doesn’t happen until April 21, Fringe veterans Monster Theatre will give you something to chew on until then with their show, Jesus Christ: The Lost Years! Ever wonder what Jesus was really up to between the ages 13 and 30? Or how Jesus reacted when told “Joseph isn’t your real father!”? Find out in this remount of Monster Theatre’s funniest play.

Envision
March 20-23
Performance Works
Presented by Boca del Lupo, Envision showcases nine immersive micro-excerpts of new contemporary work by Women of Colour, Multiracial, Indigenous, and Métis artists. Envision is a showcase originating from the 3.7% Initiative, envisioning a new future of representation in performance.

Pull Festival
March 27-30
Havana Theatre
SpeakEasy Theatre’s annual play festival is back for its eighth year! This festival features a repertoire of six original, un-produced plays from Vancouver-based playwrights and along with Pull’s artistic team, produces, develops, dramaturges, and supports the presentation of these new works. And for the first time in history, Pull will be presenting one National play!