EXCITEMENT AND TERROR
Fringe can be daunting for newbie artists
First-time Fringer Jennie Emms has a recurring nightmare.
It’s opening night and Emms, stage manager for a show called Rig Pig Fantasia, forgot to give actors their props. Or she’s at rehearsal, but has misplaced her script and computer with all the production’s information on light cues, and blocking.
“Those are the worst, because then I can’t do anything,” said Emms, shuddering at the thought.
On the flip side, Emms is in the midst of what could be described as a dream for a newbie stage manager — being part of a team led by local director Chris Bullough producing a play at the 2018 Edmonton International Fringe Festival. As the largest festival of its kind in North America, Fringe is a launching pad for many a successful theatre career here in Edmonton, and elsewhere.
Kim’s Convenience — an awardwinning CBC television sitcom — began its life as a Fringe play in Toronto. Smash hits like Jake’s Gift (appearing this year in Edmonton) have gone on to national tours following humble beginnings at fringe festivals coast to coast. Locally, Fringe spawned the careers of playwright Stewart Lemoine, artistic director John Hudson, and Heartland actor Shaun Johnston.
Emms, entering her fourth year in the stage management program at the University of Alberta, sees this first Fringe as a way to gather credentials.
“Most of my experience has been in really small community theatre in Red Deer, and in school. Real world theatre can be very different. I want to know more about how other theatres run and what’s expected of a professional stage manager,” Emms said.
Fringe can be a place to start a theatre career. But as Fringe artistic director Murray Utas points out, first-time participants are split between those who are young and “looking to cut their teeth,” and those who have spent their lives as members of the audience and have longed to send their own creative message into the world.
Full disclosure. I am one of the latter group. A lifelong theatre fan, I have written and am producing my first play, WALK, at Fringe this year. The play is about a Canadian soldier who loses his legs in Afghanistan and returns home to discover his wife and 16-yearold son have been keeping a secret. It’s directed by Michael Bradley, a graduate of the master’s of fine arts program at the University of Alberta, another first-time Fringe participant.
Fringe is perfect for newcomers of all descriptions, Utas said.
“A lot of things are looked after for you,” Utas said. “You’re going to have a venue, technical support, and ways to reach out through the artist’s board. There is a sense of community that’s going to help you get through this first time.”
Fringe is also a boon for firsttimers without deep pockets. Carmen Morgan, writer of Apricot Stones, will produce her show for about $1,300. That includes the Fringe fee of $750 and the cost of props. Rehearsal space was donated by Sandy Lane Auto, which also helped to defray the cost of printing playbills.
Apricot Stones is the story of a young woman who joins the women’s movement in Afghanistan. Morgan, who is of Muslim descent, began to ponder Apricot Stones after the outbreak of war in Afghanistan in 2001. But she never thought it would happen.
Then she met a playwright at a writing workshop who encouraged Morgan, a professional business writer, to take a crack at a script. She said the hardest part has been the magnitude of work involved in putting the 50-minute play on at Studio Theatre (Venue 11 of Fringe, at 10330 84 Ave.).
“It’s been a year and a half of writing and researching, planning and, of course, now, the rehearsal stage,” said Morgan, 40. “It’s a commitment every day.”
The best part of being a first-time Fringer is the support.
“I feel closer to all that Edmonton has to offer since doing this play,” she said. “I feel I was living in a suburbia bubble before.”
Standup comic and first-time Fringe performer Adam Dyck decided to mount a one-man show, Adopted, to develop his dramatic writing and performance skills. The play is at El Cortez (8230 Gateway Blvd.) and chronicles Dyck’s experience of being adopted.
“The story explores universal themes about growing up, and finding my place, and what a family is,” said Dyck, 25.
He describes the shift to drama as “a learning process.”
“The biggest difference with a storytelling show and a Fringe audience is that they don’t come just to laugh. They want to feel something and to learn something. Not having a joke come out of my pocket every 10 seconds has been scary, but also thrilling.”
What’s not so thrilling, Dyck said, is promoting the show.
“I’m not looking forward to handbilling,” he said of one of Fringe’s key marketing tools, the dispensing of promotional material about your show on the Fringe site.
First-time Fringe artists say handbills are just one of an overwhelming number of tasks necessary to ensure your show has an audience. Fringe virgin Lauren Hughes, one of an ensemble of actors in a show called Concord Floral at the Academy at King Edward (8525 101 St.), says Fringe is a great way to get a show on its feet. But it takes an all-out commitment.
“With Fringe, you’re putting it up yourself,” said Hughes, 23, entering her final year at the University of Alberta’s bachelor of fine arts program. “You have flyers and promotion, and your sponsorship. You have to get the word out.”
She loves working with her 10-person cast, who have been performing together for two years. But Hughes’ greatest fear is the team will give their all, and not enough people will come out. The performers are all using social media platforms, including Instagram, to get noticed.
“Because it’s such a huge pool at the Fringe ... you could easily get swallowed up,” Hughes said. “You want to find a way to be on the list of shows that people don’t want to miss.”
Utas says festival organizers work hard to get bums in seats for the 1,600 performances on-site, and there is a variety of tools available to help the first-time Fringe artist.