#23 – Amy Blackmore

Amy Blackmore is the Executive & Artistic Director of MainLine Theatre and the St-Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival and the Artistic Director of the Bouge d’ici. An award-winning creator, she has produced, choreographed, performed and assisted the work of many companies, including The Montreal Highlights Festival, Kidd Pivot, Just For Laughs and RUBBERBANDance. Her work has been seen in MainLine Theatre’s The Mid-Life Crisis of Dionysus, MTL Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Macbeth, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Unseamly by Infinitheatre. Amy sits on the board of Quebec’s English Language Arts Network.

twitter: @_amyblackmore

Mainline Theatre
@mainlinetheatre
http://www.mainlinetheatre.ca/

Montreal Fringe
http://2016.montrealfringe.ca/
@fringemtl

Stageworthy:
http://www.stageworthypodcast.com
Twitter @stageworthyPod
Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Transcript

Transcript auto generated. 

Phil Rickaby
God spoke to Moses, he appeared to him in a burning bush. When he spoke to Noah, and Ezekiel and Samuel David, he whispered to them on a mountaintop for me, it was a little different. Welcome to Episode 23 of stage worthy, I’m your host, Phil Rickaby. And you’ve just heard a teaser for my play the commandment, which will premiere this July at the Hamilton Fringe Festival in Hamilton, Ontario. If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll come by and see my show or any of the other great shows that you can find it to fringe. You can buy tickets online now at Hamilton friends.ca. And you can find out more about my play at the commandment.ca. On stage really, I interview people who make theatre actors, directors, playwrights and more and talk to them about why they chose the theatre to their work process and anything in between. You can find stage worthy on Facebook and Twitter at stage with a pod and you can find a website at stage with a podcast.com. If you like what you hear, I hope you’ll subscribe on iTunes or Google music or whatever podcast app you use and consider leaving a comment or rating. My guest today is Amy Blackmore, the executive and artistic director of Montreal is mainline Theatre and the st was Montreal Fringe Festival as well as the artistic director of the booze DC. Amy directs and choreographs mainlines annual production of the Rocky Horror Show and has performed her own works at Fringe mainline and other locations around Montreal.

Thank you so much for coming on. I’ve actually wanted to talk to you for a little while. And not just because of the Fringe Festival connection and your connection to mainline theatre. But also because if you come not I correct me if I’m wrong, but you come more from a dance background than a theatre background? I do. Yeah. So let’s, let’s talk about that for a little bit. Because I would love to talk about the, the journey from from dance to theatre. Were you always a dancer?

Amy Blackmore
Well, it’s sort of an interesting story about how I got involved in dance, and then also how that relates to the Montreal fringe. When I was a child, my mother was actually a caretaker at a church. And at the church, there were dance classes. And so as an infant, I would go through the work and she would just sort of leave me in the little like, childcare best like basket, under the sound system. And then kind of I kind of grew up, always sitting under the sound system and watching dancers. Whenever I went with her to work, and when I was around three or four, the dance studios said, you know, you should probably think about putting me in classes. And I, you know, it’s it was amazing. It was like a recreational dance school. Or that those kinds of classes and ballet and Highland and I started competing and I’ve spent a good part of my life with that dance school. It’s actually the Cameron School of Dance in Greenfield Park. And I became a dance teacher, a coach for the competitive team. And I actually had to retire from doing that a couple years ago when I when I got my job running the Montreal fringe, unfortunately. But then that kind of brought me to a path of being excited about performing and being in front of an audience even in facilitating because I also went to that church, and it was a beautiful park United Church. And you know, it was a very open kind of church very all inclusive, and we did a lot of performing there and a lot of theatre and shows like, you know, spaghetti supper variety shows that job, you know what I mean? And as I discovered the fringe when I was a teenager, but if you skip ahead, I actually ended up doing my BFA in dance at Concordia University and contemporary dance to specialise in choreography, actually. So it’s kind of an interesting thing, how it all fits together. I mean, at the Montreal fringe, you know, we’re really known as being a multi-discipline than any kind of festival? Yes. Whereas, I mean, every every fringe, the great thing about it is, every fringe has its own local flavour.

Phil Rickaby
Yeah, it’s true.

Amy Blackmore
Yeah, it’s like we all have those four guiding principles, but you know, how we, how we work with them. And the things that really make us us definitely changed from city to city. And in Montreal, you know, choreographers are really a dime a dozen over here. And there’s a lot of different little scenes that come out. And because our community is kind of small, even though it is Montreal, the artistic community is pretty tight over here, and live in kind of in, in the neighbourhood that the plateau, the plateau while the where the fringe takes place. So I think that’s why we see so many different styles.

Phil Rickaby
Did you always intended to just to keep on the dance topic? Just for a second? Did you intend that that was going to be your career path that you would be a dancer?

Amy Blackmore
That’s a good question. I mean, I actually read in a notebook recently, like a little scrapbook that my mother had kept from many years ago. And it said that when I was four, I wanted to be a ballerina. When I was five, I wanted to be a ballerina. But when I was six, I wanted to be police officers. So I think maybe there were years where yes, and years were no. I always wanted to be involved in dance. I wouldn’t say dance is my first passion and fringe to become the second passion. But I’m still in love with dance. You know, in my role as executive and artistic director of mainline theatre, we’ve really brought a lot of dance into what we do. There’s so because there’s so much crossover and because I’m passionate about it, like we do the booth, DC Dance Festival, and our sort of one of our major productions of the year is Richard O’Brien’s, the Rocky Horror Show, which is a musical that I’ve direct. But I also get to choreograph a good chunk of it, which is really great.

Phil Rickaby
So you were saying that you discovered the fringe? I think you said at 17? Was it a boat? Was it in your teenage years? Yeah. So how did you discover friends? It’s a little

Amy Blackmore
twofold. I had a best friend at the time, Nancy, her parents were actually both volunteer venue managers for the festival. And they wanted to keep us out of trouble. So they said, you know, you guys should come and discover the fringe. I’m looking back and like you can get into a lot of trouble at a fringe, but especially the Montreal fringe, but we’ll leave that aside for now. But the real discovery moments are the real like, aha moment for me was when I was walking with my friend upscaler on Boulevard. And it was around sunset, it was really hot day, the street sale was going on. And I could see or I can hear from the distance there was just like rock music playing. And it sounded really cool. And we’re like getting closer, we want to figure it out, see what it is. And it’s the fringe park that’s on the corner of Rachel and scelera. And we’re like, oh, let’s go check it out. So we walk over and get closer, the music’s louder and louder. We walk in the tent, and it is jam packed full of people. everyone having a good time, people dancing, people talking, there’s artists, people are like dressed up in costume. There’s people like flyering. And it kind of felt like carnival leaving a certain extent. And a real kind of sensory overload. At the same time, and we so we go in. And I think after being there for a couple minutes, we both had tonnes and tonnes of people just come up to talk to us. How are you? Oh, is this your first fringe? Welcome to the fringe will come see my show? No, come see my show. What do you think about a show? Do you like theatre? Let’s talk about dance. And it just became, we were just like, included immediately. And I think that as a 17 year old girl, you know, or teenager at the time, that really meant a lot to me to have people ask like, what they thought I had to say about something. And then before we knew it, we were both at the info booths that night talking to because they was like, I think the volunteer coordinator was walking through the tent. And it was like, Okay, wait, you’re a fringe volunteer. Right. And I was like, I think so. Kind of the info booth, we need some help. And I just, you know, obliged and stuck with it.

Phil Rickaby
You know, you were saying about just just about, you know, people like welcoming you. At fringe. I do have to say that having gone to a bunch of fringes. That is one of the notable things. I mean, there’s a lot of notable things about the Montreal fringe, but it is one of the notable things about Montreal is a Fringe Festival that is generally really welcoming that you can sort of walk in and people are welcoming and wanting to talk to you and things like that in a way that I think that I haven’t found in other fringes that I’ve been at. I mean,

Amy Blackmore
thanks for saying that, that makes me happy. But I think, you know, there might be a couple reasons why, you know, Montreal is, you know, people ask us, where do we stand on the scale of the Canadian fringes, right? And I say, Well, it depends how you measure it. But if we just talk about size, we’re sort of the smallest of the biggest. And we’re certainly still a festival that does quite a lot with very few resources. And it sort of makes it so that it really is a people power kind of fest, it’s all about the people that come you know, we have 300 volunteers annually, who and most, most of the people that you’ll meet at our fringe, selling tickets at the beer tent, excetera. They’re mainly volunteers, our staff is quite small. So I think that’s part of it. And, you know, we really stress with our staff and with our volunteers that it’s a value based festival, you know, it’s it is a value proposition we’re offering. That’s all about diversity, accessibility and artistic freedom. And that’s, I think, where most of our artists, media, staff, patrons, volunteers really come from when they come to the fest, they start in that place of knowing that, yes, we’re here for art, the art is really important. But we’re also here, because we believe in the values. So it kind of allows for this, more of a little bit more of a laid back experience. You know, a little less corporate, a little less? Well, it’s hard to talk about what we’re not, you know, I don’t want to say what, you know, but but it does allow for that kind of different experience, I think, I think, and most of our staff are also used to be artists or volunteers themselves. So there really is that kind of vibe going on, like people who work here, people who come like, you know, our fringes are pretty dedicated and hardcore about at all.

Phil Rickaby
Definitely. And you before you were the artistic director of both? Well, your artistic director of of three things your artistic director of, of the Fringe Festival, the mainline theatre, and the Bucha, DC Dance Festival. So I think you were our artistic director of a fringe first, I think. So, you took over from from, I guess, I guess, Jeremy, at a certain point, but I mean, you’re, you’re, you’re doing a lot. So you’ve gone from one to two to three? How do you juggle all of that?

Amy Blackmore
We just had a meeting with our staff about that today. And I asked them, How do you juggle it? And I gotta tell you, no one had a quick answer. I think it’s really about I mean, it’s really about prioritising and, you know, and knowing when to not be married to an idea. You know, a lot of things don’t play out that we want. But I mean, I think for me to, you know, the sort of my progression in my career has come in phases. So, you know, with booze DC is actually a festival that I founded with a group of dance friends when we were at Concordia. And it’s sort of grew from there, and was a bit of a side project that we only really brought into the mainline family after I started running the company. So that kind of worked out that way. And, you know, I mean, Jeremy was my mentor for many years. And, you know, he, he set me up well, I think to be prepared to deal with the madness of the fest, is a man with lots of really great advice. And I think they really set me up well, and I mean, we’ve got a great team. And this, this this key lately, I think, especially for our organisation, not just for me is we’ve had the same people on staff for more than two years at a time. And that sort of through line makes a huge difference. You know, I spend, I think I do spend most of my time doing HR kind of work, trying to make sure that everybody else is set up, so that they can do their work and so that they can move forward because when they’re strong that helps me be really strong in what I’m doing.

Phil Rickaby
You said when you started as a volunteer, how, what was your journey to becoming the artistic director of the Montreal fringe?

Amy Blackmore
Well, I think the first part of that path was falling in love with the fringe. And again, for me at the time, I fell in love with the idea that I was allowed to be involved and included right away that sold me. And then it became the party and the shows and just the vibe, right? But what ended up happening is the following year, my high school actually did a production at the fringe. In the venue nine, which is the May, which we still use as a venue, it was called so cruel teenage wastelands. And I think there must have been, we were a cast of about 12, good dozen. And it was our high school drama teachers who put the show together. And we, you know, a bunch of fresh 18 year olds running around the fringe in Montreal legal ages 18. But you know, running around the fringe and discovering this beautiful thing. I mean, I think the fact that it would, we got to do this gang really helped. And it was a really fun show, we won an award at the Frankie awards, and that was all over. And then I ended up coming back to volunteer in 2000 to 2003 2004, I kind of wasn’t around as much like I had a breakup wasn’t good. So I wasn’t around to volunteer that much. But then I came back, and I did my own show, actually, in 2006. And it was, I live in New York, we actually brought it to the Buxton fringe that summer, which was crazy. You know, it didn’t make any money, but it was good experience. And that year that we did a live in New York, the thing that was important for us was, let’s do our show, let’s have a good time. But let’s integrate into this community. And this is myself and the rest of the cast. And so we all you know, we always tell artists that are coming to our festival that you know, for your show to be successful. It’s really great to integrate yourself volunteer Hangout, and so we were volunteering, like crazy. And I remember, I think that there was a night where I was venue managing for my own show, because that I was in but it was because our, the our venue manager. Last minute she just she was ill she had to leave and the festival had nobody else to send and so I sat there for a good half hour, putting on makeup and selling tickets all at the same time. It’s kind of nuts. And so yeah, so then, sort of tangentially I was starting to get involved with mainline theatre because mainline theatre opened its doors in October of 2005. And there were volunteer opportunities there. And I actually big Jeremy to hire me like over and over again, he wouldn’t hire me. I think because there was no work but anyways. And then so time was by my big sort of breakout show was hardcore policy that I did at the fringe in 2007. And we got the cover the mirror that year, which is sort of, you know, the mirror was was one of the main or weeklies at the time, which no longer exists as many of them no longer exists, unfortunately, but now what that was a big breakout year for I think, not just me as an artist, but me in the community. And my I’ll be honest, I did have a goal going into that fringe, I said I want to be on the cover the mirror, I want that honour, I want to represent the festival. And I want to make sure that I get a job the next year. And I can’t so I kind of already knew and that was also the same year that I started my dance programme at Concordia. And I remember actually a friend reminded me the other day that at the beginning of class, on the first day, our technique teacher had us all go around in a circle and say, you know, where do you want to be in 10 years. And apparently I said I want to be running the Montreal Fringe Festival. I don’t remember that. Apparently that was a thing. Anyways, so I got hired to be Jeremy’s assistant after that in 2008 2009, he made me Associate Producer 2010 was our 20th anniversary. And when I CO produced that addition, and then and that was the year that our festival actually became 21 days instead of just the 10. And then Jeremy kind of moved on and ran the company and stuck around for a couple years and then at the end of or yeah the end of 2012 beginning of 2013 sort of pass the reins of the company on to me and here I am still around a tune what I hope I do best I almost said doing what I do best but I’m not sure

Phil Rickaby
what we were doing this long you must be doing you must be doing something right. So it’s funny. I mean, what am I first fringes away from where I’m from the Toronto fringe was actually the Montreal fringe. It was my first away from home fringe. And it sort of set the tone For a lot of the fringes that that my company went to, because it was the one since it was our first away, we took to heart the idea of the importance of integrating into the fringe community in the city that you’re in. And it was an important lesson to take. And I think that we found a little bit more success in some of the cities we went to, because we were willing to roll up our sleeves and get some stuff done. And that’s a lesson that we took from Montreal. So I think it’s an important one. Yeah. So in terms of, of when you’re putting a fringe together, obviously, there are things that that you know, to be a part of the fringe circuit, you’re there are certain principles that apply. What goes into aside from like, making sure that those principles are maintained. What goes into being the artistic director of a Fringe Festival?

Amy Blackmore
Yeah, well, I mean, you’ve definitely, you know, hit it on, what’s the expression? I’m terrible with expressions these days? You hit it on the nail, hit the nail on the finger, hit it on the head, what is it?

Phil Rickaby
I think it’s hit the nail on the head,

Amy Blackmore
you hit the nail on the head. On that one, I mean, the principles Yes, most important. When people asked me, you know, but you have the word artistic in your title, your executive and artistic director. My, my response to that is that the art of non curation is still is still an art. And it’s the main part of my job is to be a spokesperson of the festival, to maintain the integrity of these principles, as they’re not always understood. And it’s not the kind of thing that everyone automatically just understands. You know, on paper, it sounds like a really crazy idea of Fringe Festival, and the way that we do the programming. And for those who haven’t experienced it before, let’s say a granting agency, or a new sponsor, or a new community that we’re trying to develop within. There’s definitely a lot of work there with that. I know one of my first big challenges I took on was trying to figure out how the Francophone audience and media, how they sort of saw us as a festival, also the artists how they used the fringe. And so we did it, we did a big study about it with McGill, non for profit consultation community, and discovered some really cool things about it that don’t apply to the Anglophones in Montreal, you know, such as a lot of our Francophone artists use it as an opportunity for workshopping for the most part, or a springboard because it’s their first production out of school, or their first couple of productions out of school. And those tend to be the two main, there’s obviously many other reasons, but those tend to be those. And then for audiences, you know, francophones don’t understand what the word fringe needs, because it doesn’t really translate very well. Like I get invoices that say, the Fringe Festival, the French festival, like the French festival, you know, and it’s kind of funny. But so yeah, I mean, that’s the sort of, you know, the main part of my work is really to be an advocate for what we do, you know, and, I mean, there’s lots of details within that, you know, I am the the main person that writes all of our grants, we, we do have sponsorships at the Montreal fringe, we try to not do too many, because, you know, our audience isn’t really into that. And, you know, so I try and seek out sponsorships and partnerships that fit sort of with our mandate and ethos, you know, that ethically makes sense for us to be pursuing. So I think there’s a lot of examination of that, that happens too. But then when you get down to the nitty gritty of it, it’s like booking all the venues, creating the schedule, that is a mess, it takes months I’ll bet it’s crazy. It’s you know, we 800 performances and I sit there with all of the company files and try to make some really hard decisions who’s going to get that like 8pm prime spot to open their show on the Friday night you’re gonna get and who’s gonna get the midnight spot and how do we make the schedules kind of balanced and all that kind of thing? So there’s certainly a lot of work with that and then there’s marketing and the development Yeah, yeah.

Phil Rickaby
Well, Montreal you I mean, talk just talking about the the Francophone community Montreal is pretty unique in the fact as far as the Fringe Festivals go in that you it’s a bilingual Fringe Festival then that there’s the English programming and the French programming. You have the fact that I think and correct me if I’m wrong, but the Montreal for and is a little Anglophone heavy, because of the fact that the Francophone community doesn’t know what to make of French. Is that right?

Amy Blackmore
I would say that we’re hoping that’s evolving. But yes, you’re right for sure. So we actually made a strategic move a couple of years ago, it used to be so because most Fringe Festivals have quotas to fill. So we have, it used to be the the local quota was split to be 30, French companies, 30 30% English companies, and then 20%, international, and 20%. Canadian. And we made a change for a couple of reasons, we wanted to be able to, well, I’ll say the change first, actually, we went to 35%, local French 35%, local English, 15, International and 15. Canadian. We wanted to up the French side to receive more Francophone companies into the festival. But then we also wanted to have slightly less but not by a significant amount of international and Kenyan companies, because we were finding that they were having a hard time integrating or getting francophones out to their shows. And we wanted to be able to give them more attention. So that their capacities would go up as if they could end up making more money in the end. But it’s really, you know, the Montreal fringe was actually when it started mainly just an English fest, the fringe, the fringe movement is Scottish. Most Fringe Festivals take place in the English language. And, you know, so it was founded by two students of McGill University, and the first five editions were at the McGill campus. And that’s where the beer tent was, and all the venues where unfortunately didn’t get to go. It was like 1991 to 1996. But I was in elementary school, but but I think moving to the plateau is what’s kind of opened it up a bit more and then you know, really working on understanding their needs more. And what we find now is francophones go see English shows, and vice versa. Anglophones go see French shows. And the jokes that you know we have in the office these days is we almost need a bilingual quota right now in Montreal, because so many shows are bilingual. Or we have a company this year, for example, to add to that PSBs they have the show that they’ve only performed, or they perform mainly in French. And they’re quite an established company in this province. They’re about to bring their show to Edinburgh to do it in English for the first time. So they’re gonna test it out touring English audience here first, which is like, that’s so amazing. You know,

Phil Rickaby
that’s really exciting. Yes, yeah. The the challenge with getting the French audiences out is is I mean, you’ve made you sort of made like a conscious effort to try to get those audiences out. How, and that’s working well, do you think? Or is it like just too recent to really be able to say,

Amy Blackmore
it’s hard to say, I can tell you that there’s definitely signs that the work is starting to pay off, just looking at our volunteer pool and walking around the festival last year. So we have walkie talkies, that all of our venue managers were, and they report to each other about tickets going on sale. excetera. And traditionally, this was like an all English all the time kind of channel. And last year, there’s so much French been spoken, it was amazing became this, like free English hybrid of a channel. And, you know, definitely looking at our volunteer pool. We have a lot, a lot more francophones participated on that. And, and, you know, we’re really excited to do our audience survey this year to see if it’s, if it’s worked if it’s changed. And, you know, I think that the signs again, are there. Our French houses have increased significantly in recent years. And we had like meadow Lamott, who is like, if he, for anybody who comes to Montreal cabaret Meadow is like the best drag queen bar to go to, and Meadow is like Montreal is most famous drag queen. She’s a French drag queen, but she likes to yellow, the Anglophone is in English. So she was our spokesperson last year. And that’s, I think, really helped us reach a new audience. And even this year, again, we’re gonna have a French company to catch up who swept most of the awards in recent years as a company awards that traditionally wouldn’t go to a French to Francophone companies. So there’s definitely a shake up and something happening looks exciting. Yeah, I think so. I hope so. We’ll see that Okay,

Phil Rickaby
just to talk a little bit about about mainline I think I spoke a while ago, I used to have a another podcast that I did years ago, or maybe two years ago, I spoke at the opportunity to talk to all the friends at the time. And I think that he was general manager at mainline at the time. And he saying that what drew him to mainline as somebody who didn’t initially wasn’t really a theatre person, was the fringe vibe that he got that it was like mainline was continuing the Fringe Festival, even after the Fringe Festival had ended. Was that the intention of mainline from the beginning or did that sort of just happen organically or accidentally?

Amy Blackmore
I think that the way mainline has evolved in, in recent years has happened a little more organically. When it opened, it was opened up to address the need of English indie companies. There were no spaces at the time, for no structured spaces, let’s say for English independent productions didn’t really take place in Montreal, because you know, you’ve got the big houses, right? If the seagull centre, and then you have Centaur theatre. And then there was really anything else in between. So, you know, we definitely opened it up so that there’d be a place for artists to go on the way to these other places, after the fringe, and you know, mainline did their own productions at the time, but we’d also see companies like side March performed here in those early years, and they were really starting to get their feet wet tablet old theatre, who is now a more established company in Montreal now. And it’s interesting because the fringe vibe kind of just came with that. You put a bunch of fringe artists in a in a wacky weird, kind of like punk rock style kind of space. In that vibe sort of continues. Now we’re seeing a lot more dance here. For obvious reasons, I think, right? But we’re also seeing more fringe companies interested in the space, wanting to put on work, that kind of thing. It’s become, it’s interesting, you know, we Jeff, who is the current General Manager, him and I were having a chat the other day about all the things all the work we do. And we were talking to just about the interesting idea of mainline over the years sort of been a catalyst for things to play out. For change on the street in the community. I mean, now, we see places like Montreal improv that is taken up shop down the street, and they have two spaces. And that’s a thriving community. And these, this is a gang that they started as fringe artists, they were teaching improv workshops. And, you know, they were doing bring your own venues at the fringe, and sharing the venue, and then it’s like, okay, then they opened their venue. And then we see freestanding room that popped up just north of us. And now, you know, Jeremy, who used to remain lines opened up the wiggle room across the street. So I think that there’s certainly a role that that mainline has sort of quietly played in that over the years, it’s not something that we sort of, like yell about. But it’s something that I think we’re really proud of, you know, facilitating community over the years, and that we just actually opened a brand new space down the street called the mainline gallery, then we’re I think we’re hoping that that that becomes another piece of the puzzle of of show, there’s the kind of budding show district in the Plateau right now. You know, I don’t know if we call it the Uptown theatre district or what but something like that.

Phil Rickaby
It’s interesting, because I mean, I look at the way that different different cities are deserted, like dealing with their indie theatre scene. In Toronto. There is there are we’re starting to see a lot of storefront theatres. Amazing. So and that’s, I think that started a few years ago with the red sandcastle in one area. And then across town, there was another storefront theatre, and there’s there’s a few more that have popped up. And it’s really great to see independent, the independent scene sort of thriving in that way that there are spaces that are now affordable to independent artists. And I think it’s also great to see mainline and the effect of mainline Theatre in Montreal being sort of similar in that. It sort of like be spawned all of these spaces for independent artists to really find a space for themselves to work?

Amy Blackmore
Well, I think it really starts with just the idea of doing it, you know, and that was a big thing that, you know, Jeremy, and Jeff, actually, Jeff, who is now GM opened mainline with Jeremy back in the day, and then he disappeared for a while, who knows what he did. And then he I swept him back into the main line of just super great, but you know, I think that was a big part behind it is like, just go for it, just do it show that it’s possible. And hopefully others will believe you and catch up. And, you know, I think especially in Montreal, I think the people with the money aren’t interested in opening small spaces because there’s no money in it anyways. So you see a lot of collectives getting together. And, and this and trying to figure out different models of how to do things. I mean, Winchell, improvs greatest success is that they really are community they have. I don’t know how many right now. But I feel like they have hundreds of students who take their classes, who populate their shows, and who spread the word. And, you know, the free standing room, for example, their venue is like membership driven, I think they have about a dozen members, they all pay a certain amount every month, they have access to a rehearsal space. And then they can also put on their shows. And there’s a new venue that just opened up called mem Roselle up closer to the Mailand kind of neighbourhood. And it’s a burlesque dancer who wanted to start doing things herself. So she’s opened her own bar, and it’s just, it’s so great. And then we see like, oh my gosh, I’m just so excited about this these days. But there’s a lot of places on Celeron Boulevard that are becoming Multi Purpose multi use kind of spaces like studio bliss, was a yoga studio was also trying to be a performance space, etc. It’s, it’s certainly a good time as these places are becoming more affordable. And as artists are becoming more confident, I think it’s very

Phil Rickaby
true. Now one of the things that I think is a little bit unique to Montreal, is, whenever I talk to Montreal artists, I hear more talk about the collective that they belong to, that enables them to get a rehearsal space, or performance spaces, things like that. Whereas in other places, you find the theatre company, people from a theatre company, and then they’re all struggling together to find the money to do their show, and things like that. I’ve often thought that that the collective is something that’s pretty unique to Montreal, that the rest of the English Canada and other places that really just sort of borrow a little more fro from so because we could probably get a lot more done. If we could find a way to work together in that way. Do you have a sense of what it is about Montreal that encourages the collective to work together in that way? Or is that is that something that just is?

Amy Blackmore
Well, the interesting thing about it, is that the English theatre community in Montreal, first of all, is a small community. It grows, it’s growing. But there is a history of having to work together to survive. Because there is a very large French theatre community that historically, and I have to say, I think things have gotten a lot better. But historically, we’re getting most of the grants most of the space, a lot of the audience and excetera and the the English theatre community really struggled for years to figure out how to tap into that other community, how to build bridges between the communities, but also how to take space. So I think that there certainly was an sort of need to work together to get things done. I’ve heard other I’ve heard people who’ve been around a little longer than me talk about that as being a real important factor in that, and, and the funny thing is, is that that sort of approach has stuck around. And I do think that that’s a big part of it. It’s not, not in a way to protect ourselves, but again, in a way to survive and in a way to move forward and, you know, you see in recent years, places like centres theatre, doing or creating partnerships with some of the smaller professional companies like black Theatre Workshop or Geordie Productions or Imago. A lot of them have moved their shows to the centre to sort of work together pool resources and try to make the best theatre they can with what they have.

Phil Rickaby
It’s so it’s so great to see and to hear that that’s that’s like, really happening. The Montreal fringe it goes for 20 On days, as you were saying, totally, what was the impetus for extend expanding beyond the the 10 days to the 21 days?

Amy Blackmore
Well, so it started as a idea that we were only going to do once. And it was we would have 20 days of fringe to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the festival. And the interesting thing, we planned it out, and then realised it was actually 21 days. But that’s okay. Mistakes happen. So it kind of became, you know, the first year we did it, it was a way to celebrate the 20 years at the festival, let’s put a bunch of events together that our community really loves to go to, we already will kick it off at the fringe for all we’ve always had the fringe for, I’ll be kind of the official kickoff of the fringe, and then we always kind of just had like a dead zone. And then the festival would start. And then we just, we decided to keep it and it was my first year running the fringe by myself or sort of as the head was the year we decided to keep it and it’s sort of as a way to celebrate what is happening in the fringe community. Because I think because we’re a value based festival, again, there’s a lot of communities that have the spirit of the fringe at their events all year. So for example, you know, we generally have the slow dance night, which is a real all inclusive, queer positive event that we haven’t mainline. And then, you know, this year, for example, we have roller derby, which is like, I, in my opinion, the most punk rock out of all the sports ever and the most badass, you know, we’re working with them, and a lot of other partners that are doing things that are fringy that don’t necessarily fit within our mandate for lottery shows. But this certainly contribute to the flavour again, of, of our fest, and a lot of it is also competitions, like we have an air guitar competition, lipstick, which is like a lip sync competition. And it’s a way to really motivate people get them excited. And we try to really get our artists involved in these events. Because at the end of the day, to a certain extent, it is kind of a bit of an experiment in marketing for the festival at the same time. That said, all those events do stop once the lottery shows open, because those really are the focus of the fests and we don’t want to, of course away from them. But yeah,

Phil Rickaby
is there anything that you’re looking forward to this year? At the Montreal fringe?

Amy Blackmore
Oh, my gosh, anything and everything we’re doing, we’re doing some new things this year, which, which I’m excited about. And also really nervous about if I can say at the same time, there is there is a trend in Canada right now, where we are. Some fringes have gone to 100% of tickets being available right away. So and this is a new thing. I think that maybe you can count the fringes and do it on one hand, because it used to be a lot of festivals would save what, like 25% of tickets to sold the door? Yeah, I think so. I mean, that was definitely the case for us. And so we’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon, the very scary, cheery bandwagon to go to having 100% of tickets on sale. And we’re already feeling the effects of it. People are already buying their tickets for the festival like earlier than ever. And we have shows that, you know, I think are going to sell out before the festival even opens this year. And that’s to me really exciting, because I think sellouts breed sellouts. Yeah, yeah. I’m sad because it does mean that for certain people, they’ll have still have moments where they can’t get a ticket for a show. And that really breaks my heart. You know, like the idea of like, waiting to hear the buzz and then choosing what to go see there. I think going 100% means that you got to plan a little more, you’re not going to

Phil Rickaby
do you do lose that you do lose the the spontaneity the what is the hot show trying to get tickets, and you also lose the, you know, those walkups that often happen that used to have, but it does mean that an artist can have the security of knowing that their show is doing well. They can sort of gauge even before they they come how they’re selling and what kind of work they’ll have to do when they get there.

Amy Blackmore
Certainly, and that’s and that’s a big part of it. You know, ultimately at the end of the day, like when I when I tell people about the fringe. For me the Montreal fringe is a fest suitable for artists, by artists, most of our staff are artists or selves. And we want to make sure that they have a good experience and a good time. And I do say that this is going to make a huge difference. And and you know what, for those who don’t know what to see, because their shows sold out, you know, we’ve got the hashtag fringe buzz that we’ve really been pumping up in recent years. And we find that that’s kind of replaced a bit of the word of mouth, right? Yes, of course, you know, moving on to Twitter, but really aggregating it through that hashtag fringe buzz has really worked out well for us. And our artists, and I have to say, I’ve started to notice other fringes using fringe buzz, and it would be nice, it would be nice to see the traditional move across the country throughout the summer.

Phil Rickaby
You know, it really would, it would be good to see that sort of thing, because I think that there is there are different levels to the use of social media across the country. And some users use social media more than others. And Montreal I think has used it very successfully in the last few years. Thank you. Well, we’re basically at the end of our time, I want to thank you so much for talking with me today. This is great. This has been fun.

Amy Blackmore
Yeah, it has been fun. And I mean, you know, talking about all things friends dance, mainline I mean, for me, that’s a happy day.