LIFE ON THE FRINGE
THEATRE MARATHON BEGINS FRIDAY AMID JUMP IN POPULARITY
Fringe festivals are like steeplechases: how many shows can you clear without stumbling? The Calgary Fringe Festival — which kicks off Friday in Inglewood with an 11-day marathon of theatrical offering ranging from masques and monologues to comedy, drama and the downright risque — is a case in point.
Thirty-four shows in nine days is a lot of no-holds-barred, uncensored theatre — even if the performances are only about an hour in length.
Stumble, and you might miss out on something good.
But, says Calgary Fringe Festival director and producer Michele Gallant, think of it as one big social event. Festival patrons, Gallant points out, “like to engage, interact and talk with one another.
“And I think it really helps when the artists go and interact with them, too. Calgary patrons really like it when the artists go talk to them while standing in line for other shows,” she adds.
Gallant recalls an example of just how well such performer-patron interaction can work in everybody’s favour.
At the start of the 2010 Fringe, Gallant found herself wondering how American solo performer Cameryn Moore’s comic monologue, Phone Whore, would fly in a city noted for its right-wing views on certain matters, especially those of a religious nature.
“But you know what? She (Moore) went out and talked to a lot of lineups for different shows, and talked up her own show,” Gallant says. “She gave them a chance to engage with her so they could see what type of person she was.
“And because of that, I had patrons tell me later, ‘We weren’t planning on seeing her show because we thought it would be too risque for us. But after we talked to her — she was such an interesting person, we had to go see her. And it was awesome.’ ”
As much as the Calgary Fringe Festival is becoming steadily more popular — “Every year, we keep growing by at least 15 per cent,” Gallant says — the Fringe concept itself is gaining traction.
In the past five or six years, new festivals have sprung up in Canada — Nanaimo, B.C., boasts the most recent example — and the United States.
Most share the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) core mandate, which includes points such as artist selection by lottery on a first-come, first-served basis; no censorship; and all box office receipts going to the artists themselves.
Currently, there is a demand for Canadian Fringe performers to work the festival circuit south of the border, Gallant says.
But because of work rules and tax regulations, it’s not so easy — not nearly as easy as it is for American performers to come north to do their Fringe thing, according to Gallant.
“So CAFF as an organization has hired a lobbyist to petition our government, to see if they can petition the U.S. government to make it a little easier for Canadian artists,” she says.
Why is the Fringe format catching on so well?
Well, the price is right, for one thing ($10-$15 a show).
For the cost of a ticket to a mainstage production at one of Calgary’s bigger theatre companies, “I can see four or five Fringe shows,” Gallant says.
But there’s more to it than that.
Gallant says she gets a lot of feedback from Fringegoers who have seen a performance, “and they may come out saying something like, ‘Well, it’s not my type of show. But man, I admired the energy and passion behind their work — and I’m willing to try something else. What else have you got?’
“So for me,” says Gallant, “it’s all about the Fringe experience, and having that engagement.”