Theatre Ontario at Fringe 2010

by Mandy Rumbolt, Membership Coordinator

As Theatre Ontario increases our outreach to the province’s independent artists, we’ve been working on developing relationships with the Fringe Festivals of Ontario. Last year we offered all participants in the Toronto Fringe the opportunity to get a discount on Theatre Ontario memberships (PDF form), and at the Hamilton Fringe, we offered discounts and also hosted an Industry Night at the Fringe Club—we did the same again this year and hope to make this an annual event!

This year we took things a little bit further with Toronto Fringe, creating the Toronto Fringe Connection—a website and forum that allowed Fringe producers and artists to connect with each other for auditions, job postings, venue assistance, resource sharing, and general tips, advice and conversations. The Toronto Fringe Connection was a hit this year, and we’re hoping to bring this service to the other Fringe Festivals in Ontario —tell the Fringe in your city that you want the Fringe Connection!  We want to continue to branch out and work with all five Fringe Festivals across the province, and are working on developing those partnerships. So we hope that next year Theatre Ontario will be coming to Fringe near you!

Toronto Recap

I spent lots of time at the Fringe Club this year! The new digs were AWESOME. The expanded Fringe Club was located behind Honest Ed’s, and this spot really did become Fringe central for two solid weeks. Only steps away from the new Fringe headquarters at Randolph, the tent had the usual info booth and beer tent. But they also stepped in up a notch, with an expanded stage space and rotating roster of tasty food vendors. The new Fringe Club was officially launched at a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 30th with Mayor David Miller and Councillor Joe Pantalone, David Mirvish, and Toronto Fringe Executive Director Gideon Arthurs.

This year, the Toronto Fringe presented a series of workshops and speakers in the tent in the afternoons—Theatre Ontario hosted a session on Independent Producing.  There also were some great talks conducted by Playwrights Guild of Canada, Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), the Dance Umbrella of Ontario, and the Toronto Fringe’s own Derrick Chua. There were also a series of workshops (everything from stage combat to belly dancing to improv), and free performances going on every night.

And of course, as always, the shows! The busy schedule saw local Fringe favourites Morro And Jasp, the return of the aerial antics of the Femmes du Feu, and the international sensation Die Rotten Punkte from Berlin.  There were also lots of Fringe first-timers, lots of great family entertainment with the FringeKids! lineup, and the debut of the 2010 Fringe New Play Contest Winner Short Story Long by Joel Fishbane.

It was amazing to see the growth of the festival this year, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year.

Hamilton’s Industry Night

We had a great time at our Industry Night in Hamilton! It was good to see so many people come out, and we had a chance to talk to a lot of the great artists from this year’s Hamilton Fringe! In between some pretty memorable karaoke moments, we gave away a bunch of door prizes courtesy of Playwrights Canada Press, Theatre Ontario, and Second City. We hope everyone who came out had a great time, and we hope to see you again next year! Congrats to Hamilton on another successful Fringe year!