Toronto Fringe Preview
This week on Stageworthy, host Phil Rickaby assembles a who’s who of Toronto theatre podcasters, to talk about Toronto Fringe, shows you should see, the Next Stage Festival, ticket prices and much more!
This episode features podcasters:
Alison Mullings from Creative Full Time
Janine Marley from A View From the Box
Alexandra Lean from Being Dramatic
Ryan Borochovitz from Cup of Hemlock Theatre Podcast.
This episode was live streamed on youtube on July 17, 7:30pm.
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Transcript
[Phil Rickaby]
Hello and welcome to a Stageworthy live stream. I haven’t done one of these in a while and I want to welcome everybody who is watching live. I am joined today by a who’s who, a veritable who’s who of Toronto podcasters.
Joining me in this podcast are Janine Marley from A View from a Box, Alison Mullings from Creative Full Time, Ryan Borochovitz from The Cup of Hemlock, and Alexandra Lean from Being Dramatic. If I didn’t say it already, I’m Phil Rickaby, the host of Stageworthy, and we are here today to talk about the Toronto Fringe. All of us have our programs in whatever form we prefer, whether it is a digital format or if you like a little analog version like me, that’s how I like to go through and I highlight all of the things I like.
And to get things started as we start this Toronto Fringe preview, I thought maybe the first thing that we could talk about before we start talking about shows that we’re interested in or that we think that you should be interested in, I thought maybe we would go around and talk about like aside from shows, what are we most excited about in this Toronto Fringe? Let’s start with Janine. Janine, what are you most excited about?
[Janine Marley]
Hi, I would say I’m most excited about the community. Like I love seeing everybody out at Fringe. It’s like the two weeks where even though all of our schedules are completely different, we all know that we’re all at Fringe and I find that I rarely, even though I book all of my shows sort of like independently, I’m rarely actually seeing a show by myself.
I have run into somebody in line. I’ve now made friends with somebody in line. Or sometimes I’ll end up accidentally spending a whole day with another critic because we happen to have booked all the same shows and that turns into meals in between and whatever.
And so it’s very much about just getting to be with other theatre lovers, running into friends. It’s great. It’s a really sort of communal two weeks.
[Phil Rickaby]
It really is. And it’s funny you mentioned meals. That is the one thing in my Fringe schedule that I always forget is the book time for meals.
And at some point during the Fringe day, I will kind of be feeling bad. Maybe I’m like, people really like this show. Why am I kind of mad about it?
And I realize it’s because I didn’t have lunch today. And I think, I don’t know, I see a bunch of people nodding about that. So maybe that’s something we all need to encourage each other to do.
Alexandra, what are you looking forward to?
[Alexandra Lean]
I’m looking forward to going. As in for many years, there’s always these events that I want to desperately go to. And I just can’t never bring myself to go.
But this is the year that I can go. I feel I have the energy. I have the time.
I have some money to devote to going to see the shows that I want to see. So that’s what I’m looking forward to.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, absolutely. Alison, how about you?
[Alison Mullings]
I was gonna say the people in the lineups. I love meeting new people in the lineups who are standing there in the rain or the beating hot sun. And just talking to people, seeing what shows they’ve seen and what’s good.
And this is my second fringe as media. So I’m very excited to see as many shows as I possibly can and have my snacks and water bottle and bag.
[Phil Rickaby]
It is like just being able to talk to people about those is kind of the best thing about a lineup, about going to a patio. Personally, that’s a part that I really like. Hearing what people are really liking about a show, that’s awesome.
Ryan, last in the lineup, first in our hearts, I guess. I don’t know. Thank you for being patient.
What are you looking forward to?
[Ryan Borochovitz]
I think something that was striking me this year is that we’re kind of back to pre-pandemic numbers of shows, which I think is very interesting this year. Because last year, I think there was like around like 60 to 70 shows in fringe and I saw like more than half of them. And that was amazing.
And this year, there’s a lot more. And I will try to see as many things as I can. But I made my two friends who I host my podcast with promise me at the end of our final fringe episode last year to remind me to see less things this year.
Because I did definitely burn myself out on the volume of things I saw. And like good friends, they did remind me when the program first went out. But then as I looked through the program, like, I might see more.
[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, that is hard because when the number, when you know, when the shows are fewer, you can see more. But more shows means more shows to see. For me, the thing that is kind of that I’m really looking forward to is I’m looking forward to how the fringe hub at the Young Center in the distillery shapes up this year.
To me, it is, I’m hoping that it feels a bit like the Mirvish Alley. I don’t know if that predates folks in this podcast here. But back when the fringe hub was behind Honest Ed Mirvish’s store, that was a home for quite a quite a while.
And it really felt like a place where fringe had put down roots for a bit. And there was so much going on. So I’m hoping that it kind of feels like a home there.
Is there anything else that that you’re looking forward to that you would like to highlight?
[Ryan Borochovitz]
Maybe the next stage series is something that is unique and different this year. I’m not sure if folks have opinions about this that they’d maybe like to unpack here on the air. But I do want it.
[Phil Rickaby]
I do actually want to get to that a little later in the program. I want to talk to that as a specific topic about the addition of next stage. So why don’t we jump in?
We’ll put a pin in that for now. And we’ll come back to that. If you’re watching the live stream and you have a question or a comment, make sure that you use the chat.
And we’ll see that. And we can if you have a question about something that we haven’t covered that we’re going to cover, something that you want us to talk about, put that there. And we will see it and we’ll be able to address that.
So don’t hesitate to use the chat. Let’s take a second and talk about the shows that are on your lists as shows that you think people should not miss this year. Allison, would you like to go first?
[Alison Mullings]
Absolutely. Let me just pull up my list. So I have a few.
I mean, I have a lot. Here’s my top five I came up with. So one of them is Almost Ever After, a new musical.
It’s by Andrew Sieck. I saw Rosamond last year. Absolutely loved it.
I had him on my podcast to talk all about it. And we talked a little bit about this upcoming show as well. So I’m very excited to see that one.
I’m also excited to see People Suck, a musical airing of grievances, because I think that title is all the marketing you really need. I think that’s a genius title. I had them recently on the podcast for a virtual interview.
And it sounds like a hilarious good time. So I’m very excited to see that one as well. Who Drinks Mocktails on the Beach?
Spoiler alert, my top three are guests that I’ve had on my podcast. So I talked to them about this show coming up as well. And I’m very excited for that one.
It has some Fleabag vibes. And so I’m a fan of Fleabag. So very excited for that.
The other two shows that I’m excited to see is Bob Marley, How Reggae Changed the World, and Apothecary. Those are ones just from what is on the Fringe website, caught my attention, and I’m very excited to see as well. You are muted.
[Phil Rickaby]
Thank you. Thanks for that. I am muted.
I muted myself and then didn’t unmute. Gotta love the live aspect of the live stream. That’s right.
I had a number of those people on some of the short interviews that I’ve done. Apothecary, Laura Pichanan has a great track record as a performer in Fringe. So Apothecary is definitely a show not to miss.
Also, Who Drinks Mocktails on the Beach, again, sounds like a show that is, like, I love the title. And it had, like you said, that Fleabag style, that Fleabag feel.
[Alison Mullings]
Yeah, absolutely.
[Phil Rickaby]
Alexandra, would you like to go over your picks?
[Alexandra Lean]
Yes, I would love to. So Alison did say two that I have chosen as well, which my first pick is Apothecary. The synopsis really stood out to me.
In a world built for men, women create community within the magical walls of a living sanctuary situated in neither time nor place. That just sounds like exactly like something I would be interested in. The other one that Alison said that I would like to see is People Suck, a musical airing of grievances.
It just sounds really funny and basically sounds like my life. My second pick would be Reborn. A rising star lands the role of a lifetime.
When a mysterious devil appears, her reality begins to unravel. Basically, my why is always like the premise, just sounds really interesting and something I would want to see. Control Alt Delete, an alphabetical musical.
The English language is downsizing and can no longer afford to employ 26 letters. It just sounds absurd and funny, and I love that. And my final pick would be David Lynch’s Seinfeld.
Just the title alone stood out.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, absolutely. The David Lynch’s Seinfeld certainly sounds interesting. And also, the People Suck musical feels like a return.
I don’t know. There’s something to be said for a period of time where there was what you might call a fringe title for a show, and People Suck kind of sounds like a throwback to that kind of fringy title, which sort of gives you the show up front and kind of draws you in. Janine, could you give us your picks?
[Janine Marley]
Yeah, absolutely. So first up for me, I have Screaming in the Rain by Eli Pashuk. I saw his The Exorcist and Operetta a couple of years ago, and it just absolutely tickled me just by the fact that I’m not a horror fan.
And so this is apparently a lot more of like a standup, but mixed in with songs. And he’s just a wonderful entertainer, so I’m very excited to see that one. That was another immediate one where my fiancee was right away ready to sign up for to go see that show.
Next up for me, I also have Almost Ever After on my list. I love Andrew Soak’s musicals. They are so great and so innovative, and so I can’t wait to see what he does with this one.
And I love a good like twisted fairy tale situation. From like my picks number three and four, they sort of have the same reason. So I’m really looking forward to A Play We Wrote Just Now and Frat House Evicted.
Both of those are drag shows. So A Play We Wrote Just Now is drag queens, Frat House is all drag kings, and Frat House has other guest drag performers in it. So, so excited to get to support local drag through Fringe.
Like this is just amazing. Just got to figure out if I need to bring my tip money or not. That’s my only question.
And then last up is Confessions of a Redheaded Coffee Shop Girl. I was listening to Rebecca’s interview on your podcast, and I haven’t gotten a chance to see her show. And so I’m really excited to go check it out.
I mean, it’s the 10th anniversary. So I’m like, heck yeah, I want to be there.
[Phil Rickaby]
That’s great. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely to all of those.
Ryan, before we do mine, I want to hear what you have on your list.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
Okay, well, I came so prepared with all kinds of backups, expecting that you lovely folks would anticipate some of mine. And in the spirit of highlighting as many things as possible, I didn’t want us to just all be saying the same things. And yet my top five have not yet been said by anyone.
So that’s exciting. The very first one that I want to shout out is Iris Says Goodbye, which is written by Margot Grieve and Ben Kopp. Folks who went to Fringe two years ago might recall Killing Time, the game show musical, which they also wrote, which I think was one of the standouts of that year.
Such an amazing piece. A lot of the cast members from that are returning. It was just so funny, so clever.
The music was great. They put out a cast album that I listened to for a very long time after. I should probably revisit at some point.
But just the second that I saw that they had another show this year, and I was like, well, I’m definitely going to see that. There’s no way of avoiding it. The plot, I believe, has like an interesting element of variability to it that for those who saw Ages of Feeling at Soulpepper Illuminato last year, Hayley McGee’s solo show, I believe it sort of evokes similar ideas of that.
So just across the board, there’s so much about that one that I think is very exciting. Number two, similarly ones from two years ago or returning artists from two years ago that got me very excited is Dollar Sign, Dollar Sign, Dollar Sign, Money, Money, Money, which is by Shanice Stanislaus and Rachel Resnick. Two years ago, they did a show called Mail Ordered, which was one of the funniest things I think I’ve ever seen at a Fringe.
Definitely like a very high tier show in my memory of very great Fringe shows that I’ve seen over the years. The premise of that one was that Shanice plays a clown character named Lila who is trying to sell herself into a mail ordered type marriage arrangement, and it was very audience interactive and had so many twists and turns. This time she’s back with a co-clown, Rachel Resnick, and the two of them have devised this very interesting show about just the concept of money, and they are trying to crowdsource the audience to give them money to support a hypothetical Netflix series that they intend to make.
So I think these are just like very exciting artists, and I’m so looking forward to what they have next. Next one, The Adding Machine, which is a 1923 expressionist play by Elmer Rice that has a plot that is somewhat similar to a lot of interestingly bureaucratic works by Franz Kafka. I always feel like you should try to see one adaptation of a very old thing at Fringe.
We always think of Fringe as something that highlights like the new, the exciting, the bold, but it’s really just a playground where people can do anything, and there actually are quite a few shows on offer this year that are these types of things, but this one seemed particularly exciting because it is an adaptation but not one that a lot of people seem to know about or are likely to know about, so there’s a lot of room to both introduce people to something new and to show them something exciting in their bold adaptation when people aren’t so precious about the source material itself. Also Guillermo Verdecchia is involved in the project I believe as a dramaturg, so it’s always exciting to see big artists like that putting their their weight behind Fringe shows and really supporting these kinds of things. And that’s three, right?
Number four, Quiz Icarus is one that I’m very excited about because I’m a big trivia nerd and a big Jeopardy nerd, and you know what’s exciting when you’re a Jeopardy nerd? Seeing people you know from Toronto Theatre show up on Jeopardy, and that’s exactly what happened when Nam Nguyen was a Jeopardy contestant and a winner, and he’s joined by Aaron Brown who’s also been on Jeopardy, and the two of them are hosting a trivia show for the lovely Fringe patrons, so that’s very exciting. In past Fringe years, maybe last year, maybe the year before, Nam had hosted an event at the tent or at the hub of Fringe that has had like a pub trivia vibe, but it’s really interesting that this is actually one of the shows that’s on offer this year, so the second I saw that I knew I have to see this.
And last one, I feel very obliged to shout this out, is Zeitgeist, which Janine, you recently did an interview with my good friend Ben who’s the author of it. I feel like I have to shout this one out because I’m technically credited as a dramaturge on this one. Ben is a good friend of mine and we’ve collaborated, I wouldn’t even say collaborated, it’s like it’s his play, but like he’s shown me various versions of it over the years and I do work as a dramaturge on the side, so I’ve been helping him refine the script over the years.
I actually haven’t seen the latest version of it, I haven’t been involved at all in this Fringe iteration, but it’s a very exciting show about just the ennui and angst of being a young person in this particular time and place that I’ve been so fortunate to be part of the development process of and can’t wait to see it finally get up on its feet.
[Phil Rickaby]
Nice. I want to point out that Steve Fisher has let us know that People Suck, just like Confessions of a Redhead Coffee Shop Girl, is a returning show, as in it’s been performed at the Toronto Fringe in the past. Some of my picks have already been mentioned, but I’m going to mention them again anyway because I think it’s important.
If we’re all aligned, then people should probably get tickets to these shows. But the first one on my list, and these are in no particular order for me, is Things My Dad Kept, which is a story about a woman who 12 years after her father died, she cleans out a drawer and discovers exactly how much he had documented her life as she was growing up. And so it’s a story about grief and catharsis and death.
And then I think there’s actually a few shows that deal with grief this year. Another one that’s on my list, coincidentally, Adam Bailey, My Three Deaths. Adam Bailey is a, I would call him a fringe stalwart.
He has been on the fringe circuit for many years. I think the first show he did was in Toronto, but he’s toured extensively since then. And this is a show about the three times he died, two of them physically.
And so he is a wonderful storyteller. And so I would recommend seeing his show to pretty much anyone. And Adam probably is a show that’s going to sell out.
So if you haven’t already, you should probably get tickets to that as soon as you can. Another one guaranteed to sell out is Confessions of a Red-Headed Coffee Shop Girl. 10 years ago, I did not get to see that show because I slept on tickets too long.
And I missed my opportunity. And not only did that show sell out at Toronto, it then went on to the Edinburgh Fringe and sold out its entire month-long run in Edinburgh. So if there is a show that you’re thinking, I don’t know, should I see this one?
Get tickets now while you can, because that is a show that if you wait too long, you will be out of luck. I also wanted to shout out Jimmy Hogg’s The Potato King. And I think, and the reason why I wanted to shout out Potato King is because Jimmy Hogg, as far as I recall, has not been back to Toronto for quite some time.
But he is at other fringes across Canada, a draw and somebody that you should not miss as a storyteller, as a performer. So I highly recommend that you also check out The Potato King. And finally, I will choose String of Pearls, which is another show that Fuchsia Boston, who is the writer and a performer in, is going to be on an episode of one of my Fringe Extras.
And that is a show that’s really about how power dynamics work and what happens when new leadership comes into a theatre rehearsal and into a theatre company. And I find that one super fascinating as well. Does anybody have any honourable mentions that they didn’t, weren’t able to put in their, in their fives since I was cruelly very limiting?
Alex, I see you waving. So why don’t you go first?
[Alexandra Lean]
Okay, so I did, I want, I want to see a dance show. They all looked really good, but Mutual Aim sounded like something I would be interested. It said that mixed satire and sincerity and just people dancing.
I want that. Yes, yes. Give me that.
Also, you know, because I choose because my schedule. So I’m going to try to see all the magic-y ones in like one day. So I’ll see Apothecary and then also, what was that other one?
Don’t Fall In. I really do want to see that one. And I also want to see 100% Wizard, just because.
[Phil Rickaby]
Listen, if anybody was thinking they wanted to check out some magic, Keith Brown’s 100% Wizard is going to be another show that you must not sleep on. If you’re thinking about shows to get tickets to, you really have to get tickets early to that one, because that’s the way that it’s, it’s like, that is a show that is going to be, it’s going to sell out. Keith’s shows always do.
And so you absolutely should check that out. Any other honorable mentions?
[Ryan Borochovitz]
I guess, I’m sure. Go ahead, Ryan. Yeah, since we’re talking about magic anyway.
I don’t know if any of you saw last year at Fringe, a fellow by the name of Fish the Magish, he had a show in Tarragon. So he’s coming back this year with a show called Fish Tales. His name is Rob Fishbaum.
So Fish the Magish is his moniker as a stage magician. And I have this very weird personal history with this individual, because when I was, I guess, 11 years old, he performed at my older brother’s Bar Mitzvah as a magic act. And I told this story when we reviewed his show last year on the podcast, but I was at the Fringe lottery party last year.
And they called Fish the Magish, your show was in. I’m like, oh, I know Fish the Magish. That’s so weird and amazing.
And little did I realize the guy sitting next to me, who I hadn’t seen since I was 11, stands up and goes on stage and starts doing magic tricks. But that’s, I was sitting next to Fish the Magish this whole time. So I’m like, oh my god, I have to see this show.
This is such a weird throwback. There was no like, objective way that I could review this. But I had such a great time watching.
He’s a very dynamic comedian, a very dynamic magician. And it was just like a real treat. My parents decided, who they never go to Fringe, they decided to go to Fringe to see Fish the Magish, just because it was a weird, special family thing for us.
[Phil Rickaby]
That is so awesome.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
That is so awesome.
[Janine Marley]
I am so tickled by this story. I love that story.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
I mean, you smiled. Did you see his show last year?
[Janine Marley]
Yes, I did. Kyle and I went to that one. And it was the most delightfully unhinged magic show I’ve ever been to.
It was perfection. Yeah, I loved it.
[Phil Rickaby]
I love the name. I love the name Fish the Magish, because I think that sets a particular tone for what you may be seeing. And I love that.
Any other honorable mentions? Allison, do you have any? Oh, Janine, go ahead.
[Janine Marley]
Sorry, if you don’t mind, I just want to shout out some of the other shows from my future podcast guests, because Ryan thankfully covered both Zeitgeist and Iris Says Goodbye. But I have also interviewed a couple of people who are going to be in some of the other shows. One is a dance show, Temple of Desire.
There’s like a sort of like a TYA show at the end of Kali Yuga. And then regarding Antigone, all of those episodes are coming up. And I’m really excited.
So I’m going to make it to most of them. And I’m really, I’m really excited to see what I’ve been chatting to people about.
[Phil Rickaby]
It is so difficult to see all the shows of people that you’ve been chatting with or talking to. It’s so hard to make that schedule. Allison, any honorable mentions from you?
[Alison Mullings]
Yeah, I was interested in Sweet and Salty Burlesque. And also Nearly Departed by Kathy Boyd. She was on Canada’s Got Talent.
I used to produce comedy shows. So I’m familiar with her as a comedian and want to see what she does with this show as well. And what else do we have on this?
Plan V, The Rise of Reverence. And I think those are my backups that I have on the list. But so many shows that I want to see.
So many.
[Phil Rickaby]
Steve Fischer is just a little bit ahead of me, because Laura Ann Harris’s Have Fun, Kids is another one of the trilogy of shows about death and grief that I picked up on this year. We have two shows about potatoes, Potato Potato, and The Potato King. We have three shows about death and grief.
And these are sometimes the way that fringe shows shake out. I sort of jumped in to see, I will be seeing Bitty Bat as one of my shows. And that just sort of, I think it was the name that made me choose it.
But between those, I do want to say that Laura Ann Harris is, again, another reliable performer whose show you should buy tickets to early. Ryan.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
Yeah. Also, in the spirit of Steve’s question, the one that, Phil, you didn’t just shout out Sweet Action Theatre, that’s a bring your own venue show that has an identical cast or nearly identical cast to the Sweet and Salty Burlesque, if I’m getting the name correctly that, Allison, you just shouted out. So these are going to be very busy artists who are running back and forth between venues doing, I assume, a different show.
I’m not exactly sure what the finer points of what makes these shows different from each other. But if you’re interested in things like burlesque and clown and sketch comedy, I think you could probably do well to see either of those shows, or maybe both, if you’d like to apply some sort of comparative gaze to it.
[Phil Rickaby]
Excellent. There’s a topic that just, it’s a topic that just occurred to me, and one that I do want to address, thanks to something that Ryan mentioned. And I want to talk about these additional venues.
In another city, we would call them bring your own venue, BYOV. Toronto has not had a BYOV system for quite some time. And this year, I’ve noticed that, although we’re doing unconventional venues or that sort of thing, there’s a number of them, a number of venues, which are doing something that hasn’t been permitted before.
And that’s to have multiple shows at that venue, which is something Fringe frowned on and didn’t allow in the past. Do you guys have any thoughts about BYOVs and how they work in Toronto, as opposed to other fringes?
[Alison Mullings]
I’m pretty new and pretty fresh, so I more would love to learn more about it than have an opinion on it.
[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, historically, there was a period of time where there was a theatre venue called Bread and Circus, and Bread and Circus created its own mini Fringe. They mostly did musicals at this particular venue. That is the venue at which my mother’s lesbian Jewish Wiccan wedding first premiered, which then went on, Mervis picked it up, and then without that, we would not have come from away.
But that was the last time there was a purely bring your own venue where a theatre could sort of create its own season. In other festivals across Canada, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton, even some of the smaller festivals, they have theatres like that, which will sort of create their own venue. But Toronto hasn’t had that since the days of Bread and Circus, and so it’s been something that they’ve resisted or been against until quite recently, or at least now we have a situation where you can now have more than one show at a venue, which previously was completely verboten.
[Janine Marley]
Yeah, I don’t mind. I like being able to sort out my Fringe not just by neighbourhood, but by venue. Last year, I think I camped out at Terragon for three days straight because they had three venues within Terragon, and there was enough shows that I wanted to see that I’m like, yeah, I can easily compile three days worth of shows, plus the occasional meal break, to get that done.
So I know this year, Theatre Passe-Mouray is almost exclusively doing musicals, and that’s really cool. It’s like, at least we know that that’s where we’re going for a lot of those. But no, there’s something really great to me about just being able to camp out in a single venue and see a whole bunch of shows, especially when the TTC is less than lovingly reliable, and especially with this year, everything’s down at Soulpepper, but the streetcar that gets you to Soulpepper is under construction right now.
So it gets diverted. So it’s going to be interesting, right? I like being able to plant myself and not have to worry about crisscrossing all over town.
[Phil Rickaby]
Not just the streetcar that gets you to Soulpepper, but to get from Soulpepper to Theatre Passe-Mouray, or even to Terragon. We are going to have to make sure that we factor in extra travel time this year, at least because of the construction.
[Janine Marley]
I have left myself hours, plural, in my schedule if I have to change venue locations, because there’s a couple days where I have to, or I’ve planned that for the weekend, when I can have the car. Because then it’s like, I will happily bounce all over the city if I can drive, but if it’s going to be me on my feet with the transit, no. We will plant, thank you.
[Phil Rickaby]
That was smarter than me. I decided to use the prayer method of traveling between venues, where I just sort of hope that it’s all going to work out. Dear TTC gods, please let me get to my show on time.
Please let me get to the show. I remember a number of years ago, pre-COVID, no, post-COVID, I ran into Janine at the Accu-Studio. I was going to run to see another show.
The streetcar failed me completely, and I had to bail on the show I was going to see. And that’s just the lottery that is the TTC.
[Alison Mullings]
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I made that mistake last year of booking my shows in the, I scheduled them and which ones I wanted to see and not by venue. So I was jumping around the entire city, all the fringe, and then I would end up, I would start at this venue, go to this venue, go back to this venue, but I could have just stayed there all day.
So this year, more strategic planning with the venue and shows is definitely on my to-do list.
[Janine Marley]
Yeah, or at least the neighborhoods, right? I made myself a little cheat sheet of which venues are close to one another.
[Alison Mullings]
Yeah, see, we got this. The fringe spreadsheets are out.
[Janine Marley]
Yeah, so that then at least there’s a lot of them that are absolutely walkable to one another. So I would way rather be like, yeah, I can bounce between these, but at least I’m on my own two feet and I know I can hoof it in that 12 minutes or whatever it is.
[Alison Mullings]
Yeah, that would be fun.
[Alexandra Lean]
Yeah, this is really good advice because I just wrote down the plays I liked and the times that worked for me, and I didn’t even consider the venue. So I should go back and look. I haven’t like fully about which one I’m going to at which time, but I really should look at what venue it is and make sure.
[Phil Rickaby]
It is planning that needs to be done. You know, it’s funny, you guys are, you’re mentioning spreadsheets. I have a story from like back in late 90s.
I’ve dated myself. I’m an old man. Let’s get that out of the way.
And I was at a theatre and John Kaplan, the late great John Kaplan, who at the time, I think would may have been the only fringe reviewer, came out of a show, knelt down, reached into his bag, pulled out what I thought was a book, and he started to unfold it. It was his analog spreadsheet of shows and his plan for the day. So digital certainly saves us a lot of pocket space, but spreadsheets are a long tradition as far as it goes with scheduling, going to see shows.
[Janine Marley]
There you go, Ryan. We’re in like the best possible company.
[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely.
[Janine Marley]
Like 50,000 little sheets of paper.
[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. You know, I want to jump into the topic that put a pin in earlier, and that is Next Stage. This is the first time that Next Stage has been wrapped into the Fringe Festival.
Previously, it was the coldest theatre festival of the year in January, and then I think it moved to October, and now this is the first time that we are seeing it as part of the Toronto Fringe. In fact, the show, Laura Anne Harris’s show, Have Fun Kids, is part of Next Stage. What do you guys think about Next Stage as part of Fringe?
Janine?
[Janine Marley]
Oh, is that okay? Yeah. I’m only a little disappointed because I go, oh, well now what do I have to look forward to in the fall?
Like, I really enjoyed, because basically how I used to do Next Stage, or I did for the past couple years, is I, again, just sort of plant myself as Buddy. They would usually do six shows. I would see three the one night, three the other, and I didn’t get home until like 11 o’clock, but whatever, and I could get the whole thing done, get the reviews out, and then it’s, you know, and then I’ve taken in the whole festival.
Now trying to work it into Fringe is like, Fringe is already overwhelming without being like, oh yeah, but then the Next Stage shows. Like, shoot, yeah, I got to make sure I get into those as well, but at least they’re all at Soulpepper, so that makes it a little bit easier. I think I am still seeing all four over, like I have to see like one one day and then three the next, but like, it’s just, yeah, I’m going to miss that in October.
Those couple, you know, that week is going to come up, and I’m like, ah, I normally have things to do.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, for sure. I will say that I won’t miss huddling in a tent in January.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
But it hasn’t been like that a while.
[Phil Rickaby]
It hasn’t been like, I’m old, I’m old.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
Yes, I remember that, those days too, but thankfully ever since it moved to Buddies, it’s been a little more acclimated.
[Phil Rickaby]
I don’t think, I have to say, I haven’t been able to attend Next Stage since they did it and started doing it in the fall, but again, I also kind of felt that the fall was a little too on the heels of Fringe. I kind of liked having a few months’ distance from the Toronto Fringe to the Next Stage festival. I had seen shows that were at the Toronto Fringe get another life at Next Stage, which could be a great way to sort of take the show to the next level.
But look, anything that gets us more shows on the stage is good by me. Any other thoughts on Next Stage?
[Ryan Borochovitz]
Yeah, kind of complicated thoughts about just what it means spiritually for the Fringe to have a curated selection of old and intimate, because like you said, Phil, Next Stage was often exciting things that got their start at Fringe, or artists who got their start at Fringe and had their talents and exciting shows recognized could have a new place to go beyond the Fringe. And I think while I completely understand the likely budgetary constraints that are responsible for not having two festivals operated in the year, I think there’s a bit of a double-edged sword about the problematics of having the selection in there. One, it’s basically highlighting these shows as these are the good ones.
Fringe is a crapshoot, a lottery, anybody can get anything in there, but these are the ones you’ve got to see. They’ve been curated, and that’s fine when it’s a separate festival that’s just like, oh yeah, I would like to see a curated festival of good shows, but I do worry that they will draw attention away from the more curated selection, or the uncurated selection, rather, of the lottery shows. And the other side of that is I worry that it could also deflect attention away from the Next Stage shows themselves, because there’s just so many things to see in Fringe, and unless you are adamant on, I have to see the Next Stage shows because I think those are the important ones, then I worry that they’re not going to get the same kind of audience as they would have as they have when they are in their own segmented series later on.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, I can definitely see that. I can definitely see that as an issue, and I actually hadn’t considered the fact that you have the difference between lottery shows and curated shows, which is certainly something to take into account for how these things shake out in the future. Anybody else with thoughts on Next Stage?
[Alison Mullings]
Yeah, I do wish it was a separate thing. I don’t like the idea of it at the same time as Fringe. We’ll see how it works out because of the already mentioned reasons.
I did interview the two co-leads of Fringe. I have that interview coming out on Thursday, and they did talk about it. October wasn’t really working as well as they had hoped, and so they’re trying this out.
So we’ll see how it goes. But yeah, it feels like an extra stress when Fringe is already a little bit stressful when you’re trying to see as many things as you possibly can.
[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. Alex?
[Alexandra Lean]
I was just going to say, I didn’t really know that there was a difference. I mean, I knew, but I didn’t really, I don’t know, I guess. And then just looking at Laura and Harris’s show, I’m really grateful she’s making the show that’s written by Jordan McKenna post-hocumously, I guess.
Thank you. I’m looking forward to seeing this. I don’t know.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, absolutely. That is another one of those catharsis shows because I think it’s a catharsis for Laura, as well as anybody who knew Jordan. And also, I mean, let’s face it, anybody who knows somebody who died by suicide, it’s going to be a show.
That’s why you’ve got that show, you’ve got Things My Dad Kept, and Adam Bailey, My Three Deaths. It’s the death trilogy at the Toronto Fringe, I suppose, or the death cycle, I’m not sure. The life cycle, perhaps.
Oh, the life cycle. I like that. That’s good.
[Janine Marley]
That also just sounds like I need to remember to pack a little, like, pack a Kleenex in my bag. Like, that’s going to have to be… I like doing a video of, like, here’s what I’m packing in my Great Big Bag of Everything to bring for Fringe.
Apparently, that’s going to have to be a small pack of Kleenex.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yes, this year, especially where these shows are concerned, make sure that you’ve packed a little package of Kleenex.
[Alexandra Lean]
When I was thinking of what shows I want to see, it’s like, I want to see if… I want funny ones, I want a dance one, and I want something that’s going to make me cry. And I hadn’t really chosen that one, and I guess now I’ve chosen that one.
[Phil Rickaby]
You have some choices. You definitely have some choices. One of the things that we should move on to is venues.
We sort of talked about the Young Centre as a venue, but the thing that I find interesting about that is, I was just looking at the map today, and I was thinking three theatres as well as a hub. It’s four plus Kids Fringe, so it’s five venues in that theatre. So you could plant yourself at Soulpepper for a day, and there’s food there, so that also becomes a benefit.
But also from there, there’s also the Alumni Theatre and the Aki Studio in walking distance, so you don’t have to go too far. I’m very happy to see the Helen Gardner Fellon Playhouse back in the rotation. I feel like I missed that one, and I never performed there, but something about having that theatre back is kind of, I don’t know, heartwarming.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
What do you guys think about the venues this year, Ryan? I think to your point about having the HGP Playhouse back is U of T used to put up three or four different venues, that they had theatres all over campus, and that created a sense of hubness to the Fringe also, because it’s also close to Honest Ed’s, where the hub already was, and then you had things like Randolph and Annex, and then it’s not too far from Tarragon, and then at other times you had the St. Vlad’s Centre, which for the past few years has been where the Kids Fringe are. There was very much central Toronto around U of T, around Bath and Bloor kind of hub, and that works out very well for me, because I actually live very close to that area, and all of the things that are at the HGP Playhouse and Tarragon are basically either the first or last thing that I see in a day, before I then ship off to Soulpepper, or somewhere else in the East End, or Theatre Pass, where I then see a bunch of things there, and then come back and like, okay, it’s 10 o’clock, I will see something at Tarragon, and then walk home. So it’s interesting. Steve had a comment in here about how spread out everything has been this year, and that’s been a the discourse around it, because even though it feels like it is centralizing itself in the East End, the fact that it is not entirely there does create this sense of fracturedness, even if it is bringing back some remnants of the old hub, and it’s almost like there’s a Central Toronto versus East Toronto feud, perhaps, happening beneath the surface of this, who could say?
[Phil Rickaby]
I will say that it used to be that Fringe had some pretty specific borders for its venues. If you were thinking about a non-traditional venue, at one point it couldn’t be further east than Bathurst, and it had very specific borders. So although going from Tarragon to Factory was a bit of a race, it was doable.
Steve is absolutely right, this is a challenge. It does spread the venues out in a way that I think is kind of new for the Fringe, to be this spread out. Although there was that one year where they had like Crow’s Streetcar as the eastern venue, but now there’s even more of a split.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
It’ll be interesting to see how that shakes out. Yeah, and now Video Cabaret, too, even further east than the main hub, which is going to be a difficult one. You could kind of get, it’s like about a 30-minute walk or a 20-minute streetcar from Soulpepper to get there, but it’s not as convenient as the two walking distance venues that you mentioned are also kind of right there.
So I’ve planned a whole, this is my Video Cab day, the one day where everything I want to see at Video Cab is playing on the same day, I’m like, I’m just going to hang out there for that day and then probably see something at Terragon later that evening.
[Phil Rickaby]
It is a tough one, that is a tough one, because when we had the shows at Crow’s Nest Streetcar, that venue would have been perfect, but that’s not happening now, so it is probably one of the more difficult ones to get to. Janine?
[Janine Marley]
Yeah, and just the other one that’s way out in Leslie Vela’s Artist’s Play, which is a really cool, very funky venue. I went there for a Talk Is Free theatre show, so that’s where Almost Ever After is going to be, which while I’m very glad that the Andrew Sucks musicals are not going to be at Trinity St. Paul’s, because as stunning as that venue is, there is zero air circulation, and when it is the middle of July and you pack enough people into a church, no thank you. I nearly passed out, I think, every time I’ve seen a show there, so I’ll be happy for the potential of some temperature control, but at the same time, yeah, it’s a real consideration.
I’m with Ryan that I had to really plan and leave the space for. Okay, if I’m here, how long is it actually going to take me? Because it says 20 minutes, okay, but how long is it actually going to take me?
Probably close to 30 if that streetcar doesn’t show up, so you know, you have to really plan and book for it.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, you’re certainly going to need a buffer for your transportation between venues this year, especially because of the construction, not just construction on King Street, but the entire blockage of Queen Street, which throws everything into chaos as well. Do we have any other venue thoughts? All right, actually, Steve had an interesting thought, and that was if next stage programming has replaced FringeTO’s selected fundraiser show programming, and I don’t know, we didn’t come up in the conversations that I was having, because this used to be something that Fringe would do, is they would select some show, specific shows to sort of feature, and those shows would act as a fundraiser show within the festival, and then the artists would split with the Fringe 50-50. But I don’t know if this is sort of replacing that this year, or if it’s entirely separate.
Has anybody heard anything, Janine?
[Janine Marley]
Well, I was just gonna say, is that like related to or separate from the like Best of Fringe thing that happens after Fringe?
[Phil Rickaby]
Oh, that was separate from it. It was something that happened during Fringe, where there were shows that sort of, I mean, listen, I was in a couple of festivals, and there were some rumblings about the fact that this show that’s got this main stage space and a bunch of really great performance times did not get drawn in the lottery, and you find out that they are doing a 50-50 with the Fringe, and sometimes they were upfront about it, and sometimes they weren’t. I don’t know if this replaces that. I haven’t heard anything about that.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
I think Steve is bringing to light something that’s kind of interesting, like the spiritual dilemma that I brought up of, how do you highlight these certain shows when the ethos of Fringe is that anyone has the same chance as everyone, is that it was kind of never quite the case as lovely as that sounds, as an ideal that some of these types of shows that operated as the fundraiser, and honestly, they were often some of the best shows you’d see at Fringe, because they were really good at picking artists that people already knew and liked. Like I know, don’t quote me on some of the specifics of these, but I think like when Morrow and Jasp used to have a show in Fringe every year, that was often the case, because they knew that everybody loves Morrow and Jasp, and we would come see them, and that was a good way to help sort of finance some of Fringe. I think part of the question here is that if we don’t have shows like that this year, and the next stage series is kind of occupying that same conceptual space, is it having the same half of the profits go to Fringe format?
And I don’t know how that works, I don’t know how the financial models behind these things work, but it’s an interesting question of to what extent curation has always been present in Fringe, and how that is part of the financial infrastructure that helps the festival run.
[Phil Rickaby]
I mean, again, I’m not certain about how that is shaking out, but I think it’s a very interesting question, and it will shake out over Fringe. I think we’ll find out more over the festival, and we’ll see how that works. Maybe I think having a curated festival within Fringe might take the bad taste out of some people’s mouth, that the secret fundraiser shows would sometimes take on.
[Ryan Borochovitz]
Actually, Steve is bringing up something here, that the fundraiser shows had less performances usually four or five compared to six or seven, and yes, it would be big draws, arguably, choice of venues and time slots. I did notice that Emilio’s A Million Chameleons, the Adam Francis Prew show, only has four shows on the program for this year, and he is an artist that many people like if they’ve seen some of his other interesting puppet shows, so perhaps that’s an example of the fundraiser model here, but again, don’t quote me on that.
[Phil Rickaby]
I think that one may not be, I think that just might be a measure of how busy Adam is this year, because I know that right now, I think he’s in Chicago, and he was in Orlando, and I think he’s just moving through as many fringes as possible this year, so good on him, and once Fringe season is over, I hope he gets to sleep. I do want to talk about something that is a little bit, maybe a little bit controversial, because I can see both sides of this, and that is the price of tickets. We have gone from the price of tickets being, at its height, maybe $12 to $18, or I think $23.75 for a next stage show. Now, the reason I can see both sides of this, I know that for many years, a lot of Fringe artists were begging the festivals to increase the ticket price. They were, especially traveling artists, were spending a lot of money on travel, bored, it’s been harder and harder to get billets throughout Fringe, even local artists are spending more than they were before to afford rehearsal spaces, and all of the things that they need to pay for, so definitely I understand that fact. On the other side, I also feel like it means that the artists may be struggling, but so are the people who are buying the tickets.
They are going to be able to see fewer shows, and that is the cost of having a higher ticket price. I don’t know what you guys think of that. Again, like I said, I see both sides, and I don’t think I have a perfect answer.
I’m curious about your thoughts on ticket pricing. Janine?
[Janine Marley]
So, until you had brought up our free show, you were like, I want to talk about ticket prices. I was like, oh, let’s talk about that, and then opened up my program and looked, and I went, oh my god, what? Okay, so for one thing, I’m with you.
I get it. These folks are, you know, you get paid peanuts, and you get paid based on how many people show up, and that’s a lot of pressure, but the fact that, so Fringe has decided to roll Next Stage into Fringe, but then they’ll charge you more for a Next Stage ticket. I’m like, wait, whoa, whoa.
I thought this was part of this. If it’s its own thing, then cool, you can charge whatever you want, but I thought this was part of this, so that was, that’s, and I mean, when I was buying my tickets today, I did see that for Next Stage, there’s like tiered levels of pricing. You can pay like a certain, there’s like a $15, $20, and $25, something like that amount.
They’ve also added in pay what you can performances this year, which I think is really awesome. Like, at least that gives people an opportunity that if you can only pay five bucks, at least that’s there, but like, then you’re going to have to hunt for those performances, right? Like, some shows have a whack of them, some of them have like two, so it’s, yeah, it’s difficult because I know like, Phil, you’re talking about how a lot of like, we make art, a lot of art gets made for other artists to come and see, and yet we are broke because we work in the arts, so it’s a really weird like, snake eating its own tail situation.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Alex?
[Alexandra Lean]
I don’t know, just as like a consumer, meaning I’m probably going to get a pass, that gives me a few, and then to, and then probably try to go to some of the pay what you can’s, as well as the pass of however many they get, I get. I just feel like the cost of everything has gone up, so therefore it just makes sense that the price would go up, but if I could pay full price for everything, I would, because I think all the artists deserve all the money, and that’s what I think.
[Phil Rickaby]
I think absolutely, I agree with you, the artists deserve all the money. The difficulty becomes, I know people who, they were looking at their ticket price, and when the tickets are almost ten dollars, their thought is, but I’m taking a risk on a show, you know, this show was chosen by random. When the tickets were twelve dollars, I didn’t feel so bad about like, maybe seeing a show that might not be awesome, but now I’m paying almost twenty dollars.
People also, I mean, we, the audiences have less money to throw around. It’s a difficult, it’s a difficult topic, and I don’t, again, I’m completely of two minds on this. Anybody else have thoughts on that topic?
Allison?
[Alison Mullings]
I do. I just think when you put it in perspective, the ticket is a price of now a McDonald’s meal. I feel like, or if you want to put it in theatre terms, you can see three Fringe shows or one Mirvish or one Stratford performance, and honestly, I just saw Macbeth.
I would rather go see three Fringe shows, because Macbeth wasn’t even that great.
[Phil Rickaby]
Okay, no, we need to, I mean, that is, that is, that is a topic for another day, and I would love to have that conversation with you. I would have opinions on that.
[Alison Mullings]
I do like the pay what you can option. I think that’s fantastic, and the artists, they, you can opt in, like the shows opted in to pay what you can, so that it was, and I think about half of the shows opted in to at least have one pay what you can show at the Fringe. I think that’s a really great way to go.
Again, I think that the next stage should be a separate thing from Fringe. I think that, that it would really benefit them from having it as, at a later date. But yeah, I think, I think the, I think the price is fair for the times.
Like, everything has gone up. As I said, it’s a McDonald’s meal now. Like, those used to be dirt cheap too, and now you get a meal, and it’s like 18 bucks, and you’re like, what happened?
[Phil Rickaby]
You bring up an excellent, you bring up an excellent point, and that is the the price of everything, and you know, we do, unless I would, I will say artists, you know, they deserve to be paid what they’re worth, and this is not what they’re worth. They’re worth more, but again, this is Fringe. I really hope that, I really hope people see the prices and do not, are not reluctant to see shows when already people are having to struggle to pay for other things.
But as Steve points out, the way to ameliorate single-toast tickets is passes, which is a great way to go if you’re thinking about seeing shows. You can get a six-ticket pass for $107. Again, as Alison points out, you’d be lucky to get a Mirvish ticket for that price, so that’s certainly something to look at.
Any other thoughts on ticket prices?
[Ryan Borochovitz]
Yeah, like Alison, I hear what you’re saying about this inflation argument, but I think I would be surprised if most Fringers take inflation into account when they decide how many things they’re going to see. I think traditionally people are like, I will set aside $100 for Fringe shows and see however many I can see with that, and if the prices are going up, the sad reality is that if they don’t adjust for inflation in that purchasing decision, they will see less shows. And that’s, I think, very unfortunate, because yes, it does put more stock in the reviews or the returning artists that people have name recognition for, and I think the people who, I don’t want to say suffer, because that sounds melodramatic, but who really get the short end of the stick on this are the unknown artists trying something out who don’t have any kind of name recognition, maybe somebody who gets a bad review, and then suddenly that review means a lot more because it’s a much weightier purchasing decision than it would have been.
It’s like, yeah, $10, I’ll see that. It sounds like an interesting premise.
[Phil Rickaby]
It’s definitely an interesting topic, and one that I think that we’re probably going to be talking about next year, maybe the year after. Prices aren’t coming down, so it’s something that is going to continue on. One of the things about Toronto Fringe in particular that is a little bit different from other fringes is a lot of people are looking for the next show, the next Kim’s Convenience, the next The Kink in Her Hair, the next Drowsy Chaperone, the next My Mother’s…
The next Monks. Yeah, the next Monks. The thing is that with that search, as people want to be a person who can look back and say, I was in the audience during Toronto Fringe when Kim’s Convenience premiered, and can talk about that magic, people want to have that moment.
It does mean that I think some people wait a little longer in the Fringe season to go and see shows. They wait until the reviews are out to see what is picking up, what’s the hit. I think there is a certain reward inherent in taking a risk on a show in the early days and choosing something because it sounds interesting rather than because it’s the next big thing.
I’m curious if any of you can think of a show that you’ve seen in previous years that you went to see early and it was a gem of a show that you never could have expected? And if you can’t, that’s also okay, but I see Alison raises her hand.
[Alison Mullings]
Last year, just the first thing that comes to mind, which I know just did their Montreal Fringe was Paws. I went in absolutely blind and didn’t know what to expect. I fell in love, I laughed, I cried.
It was everything that you wanted from theatre, so I’m so happy to see that it’s still doing its thing. I went to another show of it, another performance of it a month or so ago, and then it was doing Montreal Fringe. I think it’s just wrapping up now, and so Paws was definitely one of those shows that stuck out for me.
You’re muted.
[Phil Rickaby]
Thank you for that. I am muted. Anybody else have a thought of any one of those?
It’s a difficult thing because sometimes I will be hard-pressed sometimes to think of what I saw last year, let alone a few years ago. Ryan, did you raise your hand?
[Ryan Borochovitz]
Yeah, I’m stewing on this a bit because, yes, I see so many Fringe shows each year that for a while you do remember the ones that stand out, but it’s kind of hard to think of them. I think you’re asking a canon formation question essentially here, and I think this has been on my mind a lot lately, especially in relation to certain reviews I’ve written lately, but I think, yeah, when we look at something like Kim’s Convenience or The Drowsy Chaperone and we’re like, yes, this started at a Fringe and it’s special, I think the thing that people need to remember is that if it’s going to be that thing, yes, you want to have that core memory of I was there on the ground floor, but it’ll come back. You’ll have ample opportunity to see the things that crystallize into this is an important one that you don’t want to miss, so I don’t think you should necessarily be holding out for those kinds of things. I know I maybe tipped my hand a little bit earlier by saying that Monks was one from last year’s Fringe that was a, I don’t know what I was expecting going in, but it just defied all expectations and it has already come back twice in Toronto alone just in the year since Fringe at various short stints, and I think I saw that another regional theatre is programming it soon, and in my review of it I proposed that it should probably be on CBC, so there will be a future for something like Monks that I think is quite revealing when we kind of glom onto something of like this is the one that everybody should, if not see during Fringe, keep your eyes peeled because these artists are doing something special and unique.
[Phil Rickaby]
It is super interesting to think about that because you are right, those shows that become like that think they are coming back. Kim’s Convenience, for example, will come back. There are shows that are landing in a bottle and they’re at the Toronto Fringe once and you will think about them years later and wonder why didn’t that show go somewhere because you loved it so much.
Alex, go ahead.
[Alexandra Lean]
I just want to say for the artists who might be thinking, try not to put that kind of pressure on yourself and just enjoy having a spot in Fringe and getting to do the thing that you love to do and show this thing that you’ve worked on. Even if it’s just a moment in time, it still matters. Even if only a handful of people see it, it still happened.
You’re still an artist, you’re still doing it, and good on you.
[Phil Rickaby]
I always say at the end, you did it. You did a show at the Toronto Fringe and that’s a sprint. Toronto Fringe is a sprint and you did a show and you made it all the way through and you should be proud of yourself.
Janine, did you have thoughts on that?
[Janine Marley]
Yeah, for sure. I was just thinking, so first of all, I totally agree with Ryan about Monks because what I loved is, so I saw it at Fringe last year and then when it was at the Theatre Centre, what I really enjoyed was the number of partners that people had brought with them. My fiancé had absolutely no choice as to whether he was going to go see Monks or not because he didn’t see it at Fringe.
He was like, you need to experience this show. And then I looked around and basically everybody had done the same thing of bringing an extra person because it was just that. And yeah, it’s going to be at Prince Edward County Theatre, so that’s really exciting.
But for me, I think one of the things that I’m excited about is a show that I saw at Next Stage last year has actually gotten picked up at Tarragon. So Bremen Town was on at Next Stage last year and it’s going to be one of the first shows of the Tarragon season. So again, that’s another one that I said to Kyle right away like, hey, cool, you’re coming to this with me because that’s a show that stuck with me big time at Next Stage.
I was talking about that show for weeks afterwards and I’m like, okay, I’m glad to see it getting that next step. I think anytime that we see a show that it’s like, oh, we saw this in a baby version and now it’s at Tarragon, how exciting. It’s cool as a theatre critic to be like, oh, cool, I’m going to get to go and see that again and reevaluate.
Let’s see what it looks like on this stage. Let’s see what it looks like with not a shoestring budget. Let’s go.
So yeah, it’s exciting.
[Phil Rickaby]
Absolutely. Absolutely. Just as we start to wrap things up here, does anybody have any final thoughts about this year’s Toronto Fringe?
Anything we haven’t covered that is a burning thought that you want to talk about? I think Janine looks like…
[Janine Marley]
Oh gosh, no, I’m okay. I just like how you put that. No, I just, you know what, now that I got my scheduling done, I’m actually really excited.
The scheduling is like the anxiety part of it for me. Now I’m like, cool, I have a plan. My tickets are on my phone.
Let’s go. Let’s just like go have some fun. I just need to stock up on snacks and then I’ll be good to go because number one tip, everybody, bring snacks.
[Phil Rickaby]
Snacks and water.
[Janine Marley]
Snacks and water, yeah. We’ve got like the big boy water bottle and some snacks and I’ll be good to go and some sunscreen because you will be waiting outside in the sun.
[Alexandra Lean]
Yeah.
[Janine Marley]
But like, yeah, no, I’m just really excited. It was really cool to get the opportunity to talk about this with you guys. We all have such different perspectives and a different sort of relationship with Fringe.
And so it’s really exciting to get to chat with you about it like this.
[Phil Rickaby]
Yeah, absolutely. Just as a sort of a last thought, I want to just make a note, if anybody is out and you’re around Fringe and you see me around, I have Stageworthy buttons. So if you want a button, just come up and talk to me.
I will have them and I’ll happily give you a Stageworthy button. Not just the folks here in this room, but also anybody who’s around listening, happy to share those. I do want to just, as we’re sort of coming to a close here, I want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to subscribe to and listen to all of these amazing podcasts.
Create a full-time, a view from the box, Be Dramatic and Cup of Hemlock podcast. Just if you have the opportunity, make sure that you snap a picture of the QR code or search for them on your favorite podcast app. Do not miss these shows.
This is here, as I have assembled, as I said earlier, this is the Justice League, the Who’s Who, the creme de la creme of Toronto podcasts. So I want to thank you all for joining me here. Thanks for your thoughts and thank you for being part of this Fringe preview.
[Janine Marley]
Listen, thank you so much.
