Appetite for Productions: the 14th Annual Ottawa Fringe Festival
In the dim light of the Academic Hall theatre, an impossibly tall man in a dark suit and tie locked eyes with me and leaned across the front row. His penetrating gaze froze me to my seat.
Ever since I started masquerading as a theatre journalist, I knew this day would come.
“Are you aware of the Communist threat here in Ottawa?”
Of course, it was only Sterling Lynch of G-Men Defectives, stack of promo cards in hand.
See, this is why I love the Fringe: everyone’s already in character, and it’s still over two weeks away.
The 14th annual Ottawa Fringe Festival is playing host to 60 production companies, at an unprecedented 16 venues (most within about 20 minutes’ walking distance from each other) over ten days. It works out to just under 400 events, if you count the parties. That’s a lot of theatre.
Ottawa Fringe Festival Executive Producer Natalie Joy-Quesnel took the podium to kick things off with an explanation of this year’s theme: food. The “Fringe Feast” advertisements are up everywhere around the city and online; like the best hotel buffet, the Ottawa Fringe Festival “always has something for everyone.” Indeed, this year’s offerings span the spectrum from puppet shows to phone sex, from poetry to dance, from intimate vignettes centred on Ottawa to surreal comedy from Japan.
Yes, Japan. We’re on the cultural map, folks: start building hotels.
Competition for spots in the Fringe was particularly fierce this year; the expansion from five to eleven Bring Your Own Venues outside of the main five venues is a result of this, and even then the Fringe had to turn away some applicants. Margo MacDonald’s Shadows only made the program at the last minute, as a spot opened up.
Ottawa festivals are usually a stretch for parents, especially on the weekends; this year the Orleans Young Players Theatre School will be running Mini-Fringers—an afternoon-long drama camp—in the Courtyard on both Saturdays. Drop your kids (aged four to thirteen) off, see some shows less than five minutes away, and return to be treated to a performance at the end of the afternoon.
This also marks the first year that the Fringe is a registered charity. As always, 100% of box-office sales go to the production companies—the Fringe makes no money from ticket sales. This year, the Fringe has teamed up with three charities to form the Fringe It Forward fundraising campaign; donation boxes will be at each venue, with the proceeds being split half between the Fringe, and the other half to partners Hopewell, Jer’s Vision / Day of Pink, and Big Brothers Big Sisters Ottawa.
If you’re looking for a souvenir of the Fringe (which you should), there will be more merchandise options available than ever before: bracelets (that I’ve been repeatedly assured are fabulous, but have yet to see), T-shirts (for the first time T-shirts will be available for purchase; previously you either had to be a volunteer or staff, or plead really hard with cash in hand to get one), and even Fringe beer steins that you can have labelled with your name and store in the beer tent, in the name of convenience and waste reduction.
We were treated to a video preview of some of the local Ottawa shows, including Deliver’d from Nowhere, Mixing Boal: Kitchen of the Oppressed, and The Initial Reaction. Of course, there were performers, playwrights, directors, and producers on-hand in the audience including, but not limited to, Wayne Current and Nadine Thornhill (Prisoner’s Dilemma), Jessica Ruano (Capital Poetry Rocks the Fringe), and Emma Zabloski (Six: At Home).
Pat Gauthier, Community Manager, took the stage to mention the Fringe’s Facebook and Twitter presence, as well as FullyFringed, a combined initiative of Apt. 613 and the Wellington Oracle (with help from OttawaTonite, via yours truly) to review every single Fringe show—a phenomenal undertaking, beyond the scope of any one website, and another first for this year.
We think about the Ottawa Fringe Festival as being a local event; it’s easy to forget that it showcases acts from across the country. Emily Pearlman previewed a selection of the 20 shows from across Canada that will be a part of this year’s Fringe, including nine from Toronto. Of particular note are It’s Raining in Barcelona, a Saskatoon production translated from the original Catalan, and The Duck Wife, in which a dance troupe brings an ancient Inuit folk tale to life accompanied by live band Grub Animal.
Not that we’re not doing amazing things here at home: Heather-Marie Scheerschmidt, for one, will be presenting the Lunchtime Artist Series. These five sessions are pay-what-you-can, each showcasing a different aspect of the theatre art through interviews and discussions with playwrights and performers. (Her indescribable video interview with herself was also the most hilarious thing I’ve seen on a screen in some time.)
Did I mention Japan? Pierre Brault gave a taste of the international flavour that the Fringe has to offer. Productions from Boston, Glasgow, Melbourne, and all over the globe will be visiting Ottawa. I’m particularly interested in seeing David Gaines of Arlington, Virginia, in his one-man show 7 (x1) Samurai, in which he plays 47 different characters, as well as Breaking Down in America, from Burbank, California, chronicling a cross-country roadtrip taken in a $500 car. And it would be rude of me not to see A Day in the Life of Miss Hiccup, seeing as how Infinity Live Productions is coming all the way from Japan to perform.
After the presentation, as I was siphoning fruit juice over at the well-appointed refreshments table I spoke with Louisa and Julie, the Fringe’s Volunteer Co-ordinators. Good news: they have received a lot of interest from people ready and willing to volunteer. Better news: they still need more—it’s not too late for you to sign up! Best news: I agreed to take at least one volunteer shift this year…
The variety of different shows—and different styles of shows—that this year’s Ottawa Fringe Festival has to offer staggers the imagination. To help you navigate all of your Fringe options, stay tuned to OttawaTonite for insight into the backstory and the artists behind some of these productions, the Ottawa Fringe Festival official website for previews and updates, and visit FullyFringed for independent reviews.
Andrew Snowdon is a theatregoer, concert attendee, writer, and proud returning Ottawa Fringe Festival volunteer living in Lowertown, Ottawa, sandwiched between a MacBook and a typewriter, with a cup of coffee.
Tags: dance, Fringe, Ottawa Fringe, Ottawa Fringe Festival, poetry, Theatre
June 7th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
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