Your Guide to the 2026 Toronto Fringe, with Four of Toronto’s Essential Theatre Voices
About This Episode:
As the Toronto Fringe Festival prepares to launch, Phil Rickaby gathers four of Toronto’s most dedicated theatre content creators (Janine Marley from A View from the Box, Ryan Borochovitz from The Cup Podcast, Alexandra Lean from Being Dramatic, and Ryan McCollom from Plates & Playbills) for a lively live stream preview of the 2026 festival. Together they dig into what makes Fringe such a unique and exciting event, share their personal histories with the festival, and break down what their coverage will look like across podcasts, written reviews, and social media throughout the run.
This episode explores:
- Each panelists Toronto Fringe Top 5, must see shows, plus a wildcard selection largely based on title alone.
- A breakdown of how each content creator covers Fringe, from roundup podcast episodes and daily written reviews to short-form TikTok recaps
- Practical tips for navigating venues, surviving the heat, eating on a budget, and planning your Fringe days geographically
- And much more
Connect with Janine Marley, Ryan Borochovitz, Alexandra Lean, and Ryan McCollom:
🎙️ Ryan Borochovitz: The Cup Podcast
📺 Youtube: @cupofhemlocktheatre2934https://www.youtube.com/@cupofhemlocktheatre2934
📝 Alexandra Lean: Bad Reviewer and Being Dramatic
✒️ Bad Reviewer: badreviewer.substack.com
🎙️ Being Dramatic: https://open.spotify.com/show/04EUsQsiw1wrUMNLjdqDmy
📸 Ryan McCollom: Plates and Playbills on Instagram
🤳 Instagram: @platesandplaybills_
📹 TikTok: @platesandplaybills_
🌐 Janine Marley: A View from the Box
✏️ Website: aviewfromthebox.net
📹 Tiktok: @aviewfromthebox
📸 Instagram: @avuefromthebox
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Transcript
Hello, welcome to Stageworthy. I’m Phil Rickaby, the host and producer of this podcast. Stageworthy is Canada’s theatre podcast, and on Stageworthy I talk to theatre makers of all kinds, from actors to directors to playwrights to stage managers.
If they make theatre in Canada, I talk to them. Some of the people I talk to are household names, and the rest are people I think you should get to know. This week on Stageworthy, as the Toronto Fringe Festival prepares to launch, I am going to bring you an encore presentation of the live stream conversation that I had on Monday the 22nd of June, where I spoke to theatre reviewers and content creators about the Toronto Fringe.
They’ll get introduced in the course of the episode, but I wanted to bring that to you as sort of like an encore, so you can hear that conversation as well as those who were attending the live production. If you’re in Toronto and you are fringing, have a great Fringe, and if you are elsewhere in Canada and there is a Fringe Festival in your area, when that comes up, I hope that you have a great Fringe as well as the season goes on. Anyway, let’s get into it.
This is my conversation with four theatre content creators in Toronto, covering the Toronto Fringe, and let’s talk Fringe. Hello, welcome to Stageworthy. Thank you so much for joining this live stream preview of the 2026 Toronto Fringe Festival.
In case you’re new here, I am Phil Rickaby, and I am the host and producer of Canada’s theatre podcast, Stageworthy. The Toronto Fringe is Ontario’s largest theatre festival, featuring theatrical productions of all kinds, from comedy, to drama, to musical, to dance, and everything in between. The Fringe is my favourite theatre event of the year, because you never know what you are going to get, because all of the shows are chosen by lottery.
The shows are vetted, no one’s theatrical qualifications are checked, all it takes is an entry fee and a lot of luck. And for that reason, I find the Fringe so exciting. There’s a chance for every show to shine, and some of the shows that get presented at the Toronto Fringe go on to become legendary.
Joining me in this conversation are four Toronto theatre creators. Joining me are Janine Marley from A View from the Box, Ryan Borochovitz from The Cup Podcast, Alexandra Lean from Being Dramatic, and Ryan McCollom from Plates and Playbills. Before we get into the Fringe, why don’t each of you take an opportunity to tell us about yourself and what you do.
Alexandra, why don’t you go first? Hi, I’m Alex. I’m the host of the podcast Being Dramatic. I also have a sub-stack called Bad Reviewer, where I write reviews, and I really like everything, so it really won’t be a bad review, I promise.
And that’s it. Thank you so much. Next up, why don’t we go to Ryan Borochovitz.
Tell us about what you do. Hi there. My name is Ryan Borochovitz.
I am one of the co-producers of Cup of Hemlock Theatre Podcast, which we informally call The Cup, and we do long-form discussions all about Toronto and sometimes global, sometimes digital theatre. We do a lot of reviews, interviews, roundtables, editorials. Yeah, lots of interesting stuff there.
I’m also the theatre editor at Next Magazine, but with this isn’t about legacy media, so we’re not going to talk about that today. This is for independent content creators, of which I also am. We can talk legacy media if we want to.
There are no rules here. Janine, why don’t you give us a rundown about what you do? Sure. Hi everyone.
My name is Janine Marley. I am the author of View from the Box. I’m a theatre critic, as well as the host of View from the Box, the podcast, which is a bi-monthly interview-style podcast that I produce.
Amazing. Ryan McCollum, are you there? I am here, yeah. Can you guys see me, hear me? Yes, we can.
Amazing. Hello everyone. I’m my creator on Instagram.
I create content promoting and uplifting Toronto’s theatre scene. Amazing. Thank you so much, all of you.
Let’s talk a little bit about Fringe in general. Why don’t we start with your Fringe experience? How did you start going to the Fringe, and what made you keep coming back? Ryan McCollum, why don’t you go first? That probably makes sense because my baby Fringe, this is only my second Fringe this year. Last year being my first Fringe, really just wanting to get to see more theatre, and especially smaller, more independent theatre, something I’ve talked to Phil a lot about.
But what I really loved about Fringe was, of course, the shows were amazing, but just the community and the energy around the Fringe Festival, like standing in Soulpepper’s lobby with so many other people waiting to see one of four Fringe shows in the building, with the cast of a show getting ready to load another cast, loading out of this. Such an amazing energy that I haven’t found matched in any other theatrical experience. Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. Janine, how about you? I first started going to Fringe, not the Toronto Fringe. I actually started my Fringe life with the Windsor Fringe years ago.
I’m actually trying to remember now how long ago it was, but we started one at the Windsor for a few years, and so that was sort of how I got introduced to what Fringe is and how a Fringe works. And then I came to Toronto and went, oh boy, because instead of it being a whole bunch of shows in one or two venues, you’ve got multiple shows across the city, and 100 plus shows. So this will be my fifth Toronto Fringe that I’ll be reviewing this year, which is a wild thing to say, but I’m really excited to get going with this year’s Fringe.
Yeah. Where am I here? Oh, Alexandra, how about you? So my introduction to Fringe was in 2013 when I wrote my first musical, Nobody’s Idol, and then in 2019 I did my next one at the Toronto Fringe, Ghosted the Musical, which I co-wrote and directed. And then I just didn’t go to anything, any theatre at all, and then last year I wanted to start going to more theatre, and I really do love the community for the Toronto Fringe.
I think it’s really great, and I wanted to have excuses to see more theatre, and just engage more with the community. And yeah, so that’s my introduction. Awesome.
Ryan B., how about you? Yeah, I feel like I’ve also been going to Fringe since about 2013, at the time I was doing my undergrad, and I think a friend of mine said, hey, I’m doing a show in Fringe, and I’m like, what’s that? They’re like, oh, it’s super cool, there’s hundreds of shows for very little ticket cost. I’m like, what? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll see yours, sure, but tell me more about this festival. So I think the first year I went, I got like a 10 pass, and I saw my friend’s show, sure, but I took a lot of just total crapshoots on things I’d never heard of before, artists I was unfamiliar with, and just fell in love, and I’ve been going ever since.
And like Janine, I’ve also been covering Fringe on my podcast for the past five years, since it returned from the pandemic. So we are going into our fifth year, which is exciting. Amazing.
Interestingly, I remember like very early Fringes. I’m an old man. And so I think the first Fringe that I participated in might have been 1995, 96, somewhere around there.
You want us all to tell you how old we were that around then? Please don’t. That may cause me physical pain. I’m sorry.
Because I know that I know that everybody would be like, I wasn’t born yet, or something like that. So I know I’m curious. Okay, well, no, no, no, let’s do it.
Let’s do it. We’re doing it now. Can you look at you? I was five years old.
What year was it? Sorry? What? 1995. Oh, I was in grade five. I was one years old.
Okay, that’s all good. That’s all good. That’s all good.
So like my journey with Fringe started then. I’ve done one across Canada Fringe tour. I’ve done some Fringes out in the East Coast.
It is one of my favorite things just in general. So that’s why I love covering and because I live in Toronto. That’s why I love covering the Toronto Fringe.
And speaking of all of that, I’m curious what your coverage for Toronto Fringe looks like for each of you? Are you putting out a lot of reviews? How many reviews? What does coverage look like for the Toronto Fringe for you? Ryan B, why don’t you go first? Yeah. So during the main theatre season, Cup of Hemlock does long form discussions on individual shows. And that’s our reviewing format.
We can talk for anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours about a single show. We really get into the weeds. For Fringe, there’s too many shows that we don’t have time to do that.
So the first year we did it, we just did everything we saw. We went into one big roundup episode that was like, I don’t know, maybe like 30 something shows that we talked about over almost three hours. And in like little 10 to 15 minute segments.
That first year, we didn’t yet have a press pass. So we were beholden to whatever we felt like paying for tickets for. But then the subsequent year, and henceforth, we’ve had press passes.
So that really was a game changer in terms of the volume of things we’re able to cover. In their second year covering Fringe, we did two long episodes in that roundup format. And the year after that, we did three.
Last year, we also did three. I’m really hoping we don’t have to do four this year because it’s a lot. But yes, we keep ballooning the number of shows we’re able to cover.
And yeah, we do these in depth types of review discussions as in depth as we can in a shorter format. That’s still probably more words than the average written Fringe review. When you’re doing those, Ryan, are you doing those like while Fringe is going on? Are you dropping those episodes while Fringe is going on? Oh, that’s an important thanks for bringing that up.
No, we do post festival roundups. And this is kind of something that’s contentious why we sort of thought maybe we shouldn’t have a press pass because part of the stipulation for the press passes that you see the shows as early in the festival as possible and get your reviews out in order for them to be helpful at generating buzz and selling tickets. So when we first got our press pass, which kind of happened by accident, like this must be a mistake.
We shouldn’t have this. Our coverage comes out after. I spoke to the lovely folks at Fringe and said, okay, how about this? What if I reach out individually to every producer whose show we want to see, explain the terms of our content, how it’s coming out after and ask them if they’re okay with us taking a comp because we don’t want to rip anyone off from their potential ticket sales.
A lot of these shows are very difficult to sell. A lot of them are in very small venues that have with a number of seats, costs are very high. So we don’t necessarily want to be like, hey, I have a press pass, I’m gonna book as many things as I can.
We want to make sure that they’re okay with the terms of this coverage. And overwhelmingly, most of the shows that we reach out to are very enthusiastic about it. So we’ve had, like I said, more shows every year that we’re covering.
That’s great. I will say that doing like any kind of video or audio podcast as it’s going on is pretty brutal. For a number of years, a while ago, I used to do a roundup with a bunch of theatre of Fringe artists, and I would have them come on the podcast, we’d talk about how their Fringe was going, and then I would edit and put that out that day.
And I don’t recommend that. That is too much. How many shows did you get to see that day? Oh, I didn’t see any shows that day.
So that day was just taken up by like editing and then collapsing. Because I would have them over early because I needed to have them over early on a Saturday so that they could go out and then do their shows. Yeah, don’t recommend that.
Alex, what is your Fringe coverage look like? I’ll see shows and then I will write about them. And I will probably do them as soon as I can. Do you have a goal for yourself about how quickly to turn around a review? I hope to do it like right after I see it.
I’ve made it so that my schedule has time for that. Because that’s what I’m thinking of when I go see a show. I’m like, well, if I see a show, then that means I’m writing a thing.
But then I have all these templates. And then this is where my thoughts go and stuff. Having a template is a really smart way to do it because you need to offload as much as you can to make it as easy as you can to get it done.
Ryan M., how about you? What is your Fringe coverage look like? Yeah, so I’ve already been putting a few videos out, less around recommendations, which I will be getting to a little more this week after this podcast. I was saving it all for us tonight. But just kind of talking about how to Fringe and how to get the best of your experience with last year being my first Fringe, really taking everything I learned and sharing it with someone else who might hopefully be attending their first Fringe festival this year.
During the festival, I will be going against all of your recommendations. I will be putting out videos live as we go. That’s kind of how I normally do my content.
If I see a show and I’m doing a review on it, I will have that out the next day. Just being on TikTok, my longest video was ever three minutes. So what you’ll be seeing from me during Fringe will be quick little snippets of a show.
Here’s what I loved about it. Here’s what I maybe thought that the show could do a little bit differently. So you’ll see little quick recaps from me every day, hopefully.
Do you think you’ll be doing those in the moment, live on site to record it and upload it? Or will you wait until you get home? I’ll wait until I get home. My plan is the next morning, do a quick rundown of the previous day. Or I’m also already planning on, I have a 30-minute walk to Soulpepper.
So maybe I’ll do some recording as I’m walking. We’ll see. Nothing wrong with that.
How about you, Ginny? Because I know last year, listen, I think you see a lot. I know you see a lot and you’re publishing your reviews as Fringe goes. So tell me about what your Fringe coverage looks like and how do you do it? Mine is kind of a hybridization of everybody’s.
It’s like, yes, all around. So already I have out on my website, my Fringe 5 Stage Door Dialogues. So I send the same five questions to a whole bunch of the Fringe artists, whoever sort of expresses interest.
And I put them all on one big document. So you can get to know about a whole bunch of Fringe shows all at once. Two out of my three Fringe podcasts are already out.
So I had one at the beginning of the month and then just one that released today, which is wild. It’s my 22nd episode of my second season out on the 22nd, which I thought was really cool. Didn’t realize it till this morning.
Then once Fringe gets going, I will, yeah, I post written reviews every day. I, like Ryan was just talking about, like doing sort of mini wrap ups in the morning. So basically how a Fringe day looks for me.
I get up, I write, I then make some social media content, head out the door. As I’m walking to the subway, I’ll do like, I’ll post like an Instagram or a story or a TikTok story to tell people what I’m seeing today. And then I see the shows and then it’s just sort of wash, rinse, repeat for the next several days.
Yeah. I am trying to figure out exactly what I’m going to do myself. I do love the idea of doing some video or audio content, but I have to try to fit that in with, because I’m still editing episodes that are already in the bank.
So I’m trying to balance all of that while I see shows. Mostly what I like to do, because as a lot of you know, I don’t review shows and I’m always trying to be clear with people that I don’t review shows. But I do try to make sure that any time I see a show, I’m putting it on my social media.
I’m talking about the fact that I’m seeing it. And if it blows me away, I can’t help but talk about it. But I try not to do like an in-depth review, because that, especially, I’ll be honest, if I don’t like a show, I don’t want to talk about it because I don’t want to be that guy.
I don’t want to be that guy. Because I am a guy who makes theatre and it feels awkward for me to do that. But Phil, also for what it’s worth, you’ve been putting out long form interviews with fringe artists in this lead up.
That’s part of your fringe coverage as well. That is true. Thank you.
Thank you for that, Ryan. Thank you for letting me be a little bit off the hook there. So I actually, I asked you guys to make a list of your top five shows that you think should be on everyone’s list.
It doesn’t have to be in any particular order, but it should be five shows that you think people should see. And so I’ll ask each of you to share that. And I will start with Janine.
Okay, cool. So one of my first picks is not per se a single show, but more of a genre that I have noticed a pattern, if you will, that I’ve noticed this year, which is that there’s a whole bunch of Shakespeare stuff. And like Shakespeare based stuff this year, which for me is absolutely thrilling.
So I am going to try to make it out to as much as I can, if not all of the Shakespeare themed shows. Next up, I have The Wounds of Love and Other Stories, which is a new musical by Bruce Dow. I used to watch Bruce at Stratford growing up.
And so I’m really excited to see what he’s going to create as a writer and as a composer. And it uses some of the texts, like it uses Oscar Wilde’s words, which I love Oscar Wilde. So I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.
And then for my last three picks, I want to shout out the shows who I got to interview, like the creators of and who I’m like, I’m genuinely excited to see these shows, which are Assembly, Suggested, 2% of Condoms and Artificially Intelligent 2.0. Can we talk about, like, is there a particular reason, like the shows that you’re suggesting, what is the other, aside from the Shakespeare stuff, because we know that Shakespeare, you know, you love the Shakespeare. We all, many of us love the Shakespeare. But was there anything about these shows that jumped out for you that was like the reason why, why these shows? Um, I think, so for sure with Assembly Suggested, I like things that tread into the surreal, into almost like the absurd.
And that one really sort of, like, scratches that itch for me, I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun. 2% of Condoms just has a really hilarious premise, like the fact that these two girls like meet in university, and they’re like, hey, I didn’t grow, I grew up, like not really having a dad around, like, no way, me too, wild. And getting to talk to them about the show more, I started to fall more in love with the premise.
And then Artificially Intelligent 2.0 is like, I know we’re going to talk a little bit about AI coming up, but like, it’s such a present topic. And I didn’t get to see it the last time it was at Fringe. So now it’s like updated bigger, better than ever.
So I’m like, yeah, let’s go. I want to I want to make sure to catch it because I know it was definitely a hot pick in 2024, when it was first at Fringe. Is that the show that is purportedly written by Chad GPT? Yeah, like basically Anesti Danellis, who created the show, like he was stuck for what to do per show.
So he put some nonsense into Chad GPT. And it’s about even worse nonsense. And he went, Oh my god, I can write a show about this.
So he has like actually written it written it but like the song lyrics and stuff like that are all absolute garbage that Chad GPT spat out at him. Okay. Yeah, I had feelings about that premise.
And then you said he wrote most of it, except for the lyrics. And then I decided that I will say those feelings. The whole show is more about his relationship with Chad GPT and the garbage it spews.
Then yeah, he didn’t let it write the whole thing. Oh, that’s good. Ryan M, how about you? What’s what’s on your list? What are your five? All right.
So first up, I have Little One. It’s written by Hannah Moscovich. I’ve heard her name a ton of times.
I haven’t had a chance to see a show by her. So really excited to see that. And it’s a psychological thriller in an unconventional venue, which takes two huge boxes for me two things that I’m really excited about.
Next up is Uga Chaka. And that is presented by Puckers. I first saw a show by Puckers last year, Concord Floral, which they did at the Theatre Centre.
And I left that show just feeling so excited about the future of theatre because this is a young theatre company. It’s by Stephen Howe and Alison Mackenzie. And just seeing how creative they were with this show.
I thought I am so excited to see something else by them. So definitely looking forward to that one. You Up is my next show.
It is about four Border Patrol officers discovering forbidden love. And it was just one of those shows like, I can’t explain it. I read what it’s about.
And I thought, yep, I’m going to see that. I want to see this. I have a feeling this is somewhere else on everyone else’s list.
But sorry, I got there first. Next up Above the Hospital. So this is one that is kind of a slow build of a drama.
And what I liked about this or what interested me is one, it’s by a Vancouver-based theatre company. I don’t see enough Canadian theatre outside of Toronto. So if they’re bringing it to us, even better for me.
I’m definitely catching it. And it’s a show that is not premiering at the String Festival. So it was first performed by them in 2018.
So I like filling my schedule with a little bit of something brand new and a little bit of something that’s been played in front of an audience a couple times, tested a couple times. And then my last show is going to be Such Ado. So like Janine was saying, following the Shakespearean arc, I love Shakespeare, but particularly when someone does something original and creative with Shakespeare.
And this is a queer retelling of Much Ado About Nothing. So yeah, didn’t take much. I saw that and I said, I’m in.
Nice. Alex, how about you? Okay, so let me see on my list. So I want to see Lifeguard by Catherine Agus.
And I’m just going to say the names of them. That’s it. I’m just interested in seeing that one.
I want to see Whose Lineage Is It Anyway? An Improvised Shakespearean History, Vancouver’s Spontaneous Shakespeare Company. I really like improv and Shakespeare, and I would like to see that. I want to see A Moment For Frayed Nerves by Kevin Wong and Alyssa Piers.
I want to see Two-Man No-Show, Balls Out. I have seen that many years ago, and I know it’s going to be funny, and I want to see funny. I want to be fun.
I have to skip the Wounds of Love and Other Gifts, and my backup was, I don’t know, oh yeah, Minimum. I thought that one sounded interesting. Absolutely.
I should say, just come back to Ryan for just one second. I know Little Ones, I think, had to change its venue. So if you are only looking at the print program, the venue has changed.
If you saw that company, Leroy Street Theatre’s show last year, The Adding Machine, it’s in the same space where they did that one, which is very close to Theatre Passe Muraille. Thank goodness. We need as much of that as possible.
Yes, we’ll talk more about that later. Yeah, absolutely. How about you, Ryan? What’s on your… Actually, Alex, in terms of the shows that you’ve chosen, is it the titles that made you like those? So I was like, I want a little of improv.
I want a little of sketch. I want musicals. I want a little drama too, obviously.
I’m being dramatic, but that’s basically it and what fit in my schedule. Yeah. How about you, Ryan? I didn’t get to ask you.
I didn’t ask you, is there anything in particular that is like a cohesion between the shows that you listed? I think the closest thing to a cohesion between a lot of them is just, I’ve been going to Fringe for a very long time. You recognize certain artists’ names. You see their work.
You’re like, oh, right, I liked that show by that person in the previous year. So, oh, sorry, did you mean the other Ryan? I did make the other Ryan. I meant Ryan M. I should have specified it.
This is part of the chaos that will continue to ensue if I don’t remember to say which Ryan I’m speaking to. I’m like, what an excellent prologue for my, oh, no, wait. What an amazing prologue for your list, which we have not yet heard.
Now we have an idea of the reasoning. Ryan M., could you tell me, could you answer this? Yeah, well, I’ll steal what Ryan just said. That was an excellent point.
A bit of it is if I’ve seen something by someone before and liked it, or even if I was going through the cast list and spotted an actor whose performances I’ve enjoyed before, that goes to my list. But really, that’s not the only thing. If I see something that I’ve never seen that person’s name before, but it’s a concept that I really like, I’d say of my entire list that I have for the festival, it’s probably about 20% seen something by this person before, 80%.
There’s just something about the concept of the show or the genre of the show or the premise of the show that is going to catch my eye. Absolutely. OK, Ryan, what is what is on your list? Ryan B., what is on your list? The chaos will continue.
Yes. So, yes, by that same token, yeah, shows by people I’ve seen in the past definitely makes me gravitate towards them, especially if they’ve enjoyed their previous work, to which my first pick is Camp! by Mixtape Productions. Not to be confused with that other show, Camp!, that was about the Holocaust recently, but this one’s about summer camp and it’s really fun.
It’s by the team that gave us previous Fringe’s Killing Time and last year’s Iris Says Goodbye. Margot Grieve and Ben Kopp are an excellent musical writing duo, and I’m just always really excited to see whatever they have next. So that’s number one.
To stick with musicals for a little longer, Songs for Moby Dick is another one that I’m excited about. And the thing that first drew my attention to it is I like Moby Dick and I’m kind of pretentious that way. So I thought, yeah, I’ll watch anything that’s kind of Moby Dick.
But then what made me even more excited about it is that I saw that Adam Palazzo is directing it and I’m quite fond of his work and I’ll see anything he does. So that’s two reasons to see anything about this work. So, of course, I’m going to check out a one man musical Moby Dick, sign me up.
Next up, I have, let’s continue this scene good things by these companies before trend, You Choose, an improvised murder mystery. This is done by the Howland Company, which used to be Fringe stalwarts, but have now ascended and are partnering with a lot of major companies like Crows. They recently had a show at Buddies.
So they’ve gotten a little big for the Fringe britches, but they used to do this show called Entrances and Exits. That was a funny improv thing where you would see a scene with two doors happen and then you would see what happened on the other side of the wall and they would reverse the going in and out sparsicle through those doors and it was all improv and it was amazing and I always really loved it. So now You Choose, an improvised murder mystery, is that same premise or a similar type of improv premise, but it’s a murder mystery by the Howland Company.
I like their work. I like their improv work in particular. I’m really excited for this one.
What was that? Three? I’ve already crossed a few off that some of you folks have named. Let’s go. Another one that I’m excited about for that same type of reason, God Save the Sodomites, which in addition to just being an excellent title that is a little bit queer, a little bit biblical, it is by some of the same folks who made last year’s show The Ensemble, which I really liked.
It was one I knew very little about going in, but it had this really interesting meta-theatrical vibe. It’s based on an old play I’d never heard of before, but they seem to update it and make it very interesting and new. This one I don’t know a lot about, but these artists and the title really hooked me.
And last one for my five is one that just knew how to catnip me right there, and that is every fringe show you’ve ever seen all at once. And as somebody who’s been going to fringe for I’d say 12, 13 years, I’m excited to finally have somebody condense it all into a single show. So maybe I don’t have to spend so much time going to all of these individual shows moving forward.
Yeah, so you could just see the one show and then write a review of all shows. Yeah, perfect. I’ve done it.
I have consumed all of Fringe. That’s amazing. I have five picks myself, and fortunately I haven’t had to use any of my alternates, which I’m kind of excited about.
I wanted to… First on my list is Dads, Taylor Trowbridge’s show about dads. I had the chance to talk to Taylor and it sounds like a great show. It’s in the video cabaret space, which is sort of a new, I think it’s a new space.
I don’t think we’ve done a show there of Fringe there, but also that space is entirely in the round, which is an interesting challenge for any show moving into a fringe space. My next pick is John Bennett, Americant. If you don’t know who John Bennett is, John Bennett is an Australian fringe legend.
He has done many tours across Canada, not always here. The first show of his I came across was when I was at the Montreal Fringe, and his show at the time was called Pretending Things Are a Cock, and it was weird and weird, and his shows are always something that you really have to see. My next one is Will and the Amazingly Obsessive Theatrical Vinyl Collection.
That show, as I was reading the description, sort of tickled all of the theatre kid points in my brain, and I decided that one’s definitely got to be on my list. That’s got to be one that I see. Orbit, which I actually had the pleasure of hearing some scenes from that in a writer’s workshop earlier in the year, and so it was interesting to watch that grow, and I’m really excited to see where that’s gone since then.
Fascinating play about, it’s a science fiction play about somebody trapped on a drifting spacecraft who has to call tech support to get things going again. So I enjoyed that. And then finally, my last one is 110% Wizard, because when Keith Brown does a magic show, you go and you see Keith Brown do a magic show.
Correct. Thank you, thank you, but I thought that was the correct answer. Yeah, what about your wild cards? Let’s read for a little, does anybody, who wants to go first on their wild card show? This is a show that maybe isn’t on your top five, but the title or the premise was such that you were like, this show just jumps out at me as one that is interesting, at least sounds interesting.
What are your picks for that? I could see Ryan B, he has one that he wants to talk about. Catching a cheese pervert. A Priscilla Patton mystery.
How did I miss that one as I’m skimming through the, what is it about that show that made it on your list? Need I explain? The title is Catching a Cheese Pervert. What is a cheese pervert? I don’t know. Why do we have to catch one? Well, clearly they are at large.
The subtitle of this is, I believe, a Priscilla Patton mystery, and the art that they have for this that we might talk about a little further is like a Sherlock Holmes cow with like a pipe and a deer stalker looking at a plate of cheese. I don’t know anything about this. I don’t need to know anything more.
I saw that title and I’m like, yep, that’s on the list. Got to see the cheese pervert show. Will we catch him? Got to find out.
I mean, this is the thing is that show now is like, nobody needs to talk about the title. They just did like, nobody needs the full title. Are you going to see the cheese pervert show? That’s going to be the one.
Are you the writer of the cheese pervert show? You’re the cheese perv. Are you the cheese pervert? Yeah, like, holy. Yeah, that’s, I mean, you have to be prepared to live with that one.
Alex, how about you? I’m going to go see Dance Macabre, and it’s for the title, and the description sounds great too. And it’s a winner of the Toronto Fringe New Play Contest. And I don’t know, it sounds really interesting.
And, you know, Dance Macabre, that is the title, has words I would like. And, you know, I mean, there is a long history of shows that win the New Play Contest being hits. Kim’s Convenience was a New Play Contest winner years ago.
So that’s a great, that’s a great choice. Ryan McCollum, how about you? Yeah, for my wildcard, I went more for a genre that’s normally not up my alley. So Tango After Midnight is a dance show.
And dance is something that I don’t expose myself to nearly enough. But it was something that fit neatly in my schedule at Tarragon. And it is performed by the 2025 Canadian Tango Champion.
So I figured if I’m going to see more dance, I might as well see the best of the best. So I’m really looking forward to that one. Absolutely.
Janine, what’s your wildcard? Well, I had initially written down one. And now I’m like, I think I got to change it up. Because technically, it was like one of the ones that fall under like my Shakespeare category.
Mostly because of the one, it’s called At Home with the Bards, which I was like, oh, this basically glimpsed into my future. But I think the other, the other like my sort of like actual wildcard, because I don’t tend to cover a ton at Kids Fringe, but I get to, I’m hopefully going to get to take my nephew this year, is The Everlasting Friendship of Billy and Vink, also by Will Perry. And it’s just because yeah, a puppet Kids Fringe show just sounds like it’ll be the perfect like, way to chill out my day.
Absolutely. I chose my wildcard 100% based on the title. And it’s $20 Sandwich Ruins Your Neighbourhood.
Ruins Your Childhood. Ruins Your Childhood. I wrote down Neighbourhood.
Thank you. Does that make you not do it as your wildcard? No, it’s still like $20 Sandwich. Listen, they had me at $20 Sandwich Ruins.
But you thought you were still going to do gentrification, but no. You can finish that sentence with anything, and I’m going to see that show. $20 Sandwich Ruins Your Adulthood, Your Childhood, The Playground, whatever it is, I’m interested in that show just based on the title alone.
Yeah, $20 Sandwich is a returning fringe company. They’ve done improv shows. Last year, this show Will Change Your Life, which was quite fun.
So yeah, I would encourage people to check that out. Nice. Awesome.
So one of the things that this year, I think, Fringe has extended its footprint yet again. As we mentioned, the video cabaret space, which is Queen and Logan area, but like behind that, if anybody knows where the Red Sandcastle Theatre is, it’s behind that. And so that is a new venue.
They had that venue last year, actually. Oh, did they have that venue last year? Yeah. Okay.
All right. I didn’t see anything there last year, so it didn’t hit into my brain. But with that, Factory, Passe Muraille, and then Tarragon way up as the big venues, including Soulpepper, Alumni, and the two venues at the Aki Studios, the Native Earth venues, there’s a lot of ground to cover.
And we also have World Cup going on, at least on the second. Anybody have any tips or tricks for people traveling to Fringe? And have you ever had a travel snafu that made you miss a show, late for a show? What are your traveling between venues stories? Anybody want to go? I didn’t prep us for that question, Phil. I know, I know.
Do you have one? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
I think it was either my first or second Fringe. I got stuck just outside of what’s now Sankofa Square, trying to head over to the east end of the city because the streetcar ahead of me had hit somebody. So now I’m on the streetcar behind.
And the thing is they don’t update you enough to know if you’re going to get moving in enough time. And so I just sat there looking at my phone going, do I have enough time? If I ran, can I make it? Nope. Now I definitely can’t.
Okay. So I just had to unfortunately miss a show entirely. And then when I got to the venue, so seeing my next show was at the same venue, I was saying that’s one of the Fringe volunteers.
And they said, oh no, no, that’s basically the center square on the bingo card. Like, don’t worry about it. Like everybody, it’s a quintessential part of your Fringe experience if you have had to miss a show because the TTC has completely destroyed your day.
Um, so I, like I, you’re talking about Tarragon way up north. So I live further north than that. Um, so my big tip, leave lots of time.
If you are scheduling shows, like when you are looking at your, you know, your, your Fringe day, schedule things in the same neighborhood. Do not crisscross the city and be like, I’ve got 45 minutes. I’ll be fine.
They give you this handy dandy map. It’s on the website. It’s in your little book, schedule things in and around the same neighborhood.
You can see that a lot of the little dots are quite concentrated. That is handy. That is how I do things.
Now I do things by neighborhood and I’ll just sort of like take a day and be like, okay, this is a soul pepper day, or this is a soul pepper and area day because if I can walk there within 10 minutes, I’m cool. But if I have to get from like over here to way up here, that’s not a thing that’s going to happen. Or if it has to be, leave yourself time, like just so much time, because you cannot guarantee, even if you’re going to take an Uber, you can’t guarantee that you are going to get from point A to point B at any kind of time.
Also, thankfully, you know, FIFA is all at BMO field. So that’s way over at the X. Everything else, what we’re doing is way over this way. So just don’t… It is.
It’s just that some people might be impacted by road closures and things like that. Exactly. So again, it’s just time.
Just please plan accordingly. I maintain that the only mode of transport that you are in full control of is your feet. If you can walk it, then do it because then you can at least judge the time that it’s going to take you to get there.
Anybody else have any horror stories or tips for getting around between venues? I don’t think I have any horror stories because I give myself a lot of time. Co-signing that piece. I will say to Janine, your point about the map on the website and in the booklet, one of my favorite people who I’ve never met, the Redditor Nefarious Plots, did a very helpful thing in the rslashtorontotheatre subreddit where they broke down geographical zones and pockets of which things you can get to conveniently.
That was a few weeks ago now, so you’d really have to scroll through to find that thread and that post in it. But I kept that open in a tab while I was making my schedule to make sure that I could get to things very conveniently and found that very helpful. Nefarious Plots, if you’re watching this, thank you for all that you do.
I don’t necessarily have horror stories or anything. Just maybe some thoughts that I also have about the way that the venues are always changing and the geography of what Fringe looks like and where it’s located is changing. Last year, I’ll point out that we didn’t have Factory Theatre as a venue.
Historically, Factory has always been part of the Fringe infrastructure, usually part of the central hub of where Fringe is. And this year, or among the sort of Bathurst line of the central hubs of those theatres. And last year, we didn’t have Factory.
This year, Factory is back, which makes bundling things with Theatre Passe-Muraille very convenient. You can kind of do like an oasis of that day in that little pocket of southern Bathurst, and that could be very helpful. Because Factory has two spaces and Theatre Passe-Muraille has one, there’s a lot of things you could do with that.
And as I mentioned, if you want to see Little One at Puppysphere, which is apparently a puppy yoga studio, that’s also very close to there, too. Don’t expect any dogs in the show Little One, but that’s what it is during the day. I will say that something that’s notable this year is also that Tarragon, which has three venues within it, this year is only providing one venue for Fringe, and that is its main space.
So previously, you could usually treat Tarragon itself as a type of central hub where you could spend whole days at a time just going between shows in Tarragon. You can still do that by just saying, this is my Tarragon day, I’ll see these three or four things that are in the Tarragon main space, but the options are limited because there’s just less there. I’ll also say that I’m a little sorrowful about that, personally, because I live in the Annex and I’m a very short walk from Tarragon.
So that’s always been a very helpful hub and handy for me, but I think for the most part, I’m just gonna be either starving or ending a lot of the days there and then go off to Soulpepper in between. We’ve also, over the years, lost, speaking of the Annex, a lot of the U of T venues. I don’t think we have any of them this year.
Last year, we had the Helena Phelan Garter Playhouse was the only one, but in previous Fringe pasts, there was like three or four different venues on U of T campus that also, being fairly close to Tarragon and kind of in between Tarragon and Theatre Passe-Muraille, created more of a filling in of the space between things. So this is just something to be aware of. I do appreciate heroes like Nefarious Plots and Janine for pointing out the map there that are drawing our attention to the fact that you really have to think geographically about how you want to plan your days.
There is, I mean, the movie between space, last year’s, having the Helen Gardner back, I had so much nostalgia about that. I had really missed like those university, because I can remember like, yeah, there were three venues. There was the St. St. George, Helen Gardner, and then there was another one.
There was the George Ignatieff, which is like right there by that. That’s right. And then there was the Robert Gill, which is like Robert Gill, which was the, that was great because you would be in air conditioning while you were waiting for a show.
It was one of my favorite venues to wait for a show in because you had to wait indoors. It was amazing. One of the things that I find interesting this year is it looks like in addition to while Fringe is going on, there is a show at the Young Centre put on by Soulpepper.
So in the midst of all of the chaos of Fringe, there is still a regular season show as part of Soulpepper. And I don’t know what the logistics of that are going to look like. I don’t know if I’m just throwing this one out there.
You guys have any thoughts about that? I don’t know logistically if it should really impact anything majorly. That’s going to be confined in the Bailey Venue, which is not one of the many theatre venues that they do have in the Soulpepper building. It’s going to be very crowded for people who just want to see Medusa, which is what that show is by Aaron Shields and co-production with Outside the March.
But what I think might actually be the upside for that is while it could be like crowded and weird for people who are just coming to see that show, what are all these people doing here? People will tell them, hey, it’s Fringe. There’s so much theatre here. You like theatre.
You just came to this show. Come see this other show. And maybe we can get people who only see main season theatre to become Fringe converts through this process.
So if anybody is the type of person who likes to do flyering for their show and get the word out, those are the people I think you want to target, not the people who already have full Fringe schedules like us. That’s true. I mean, the question then comes to do people flyer anymore? Some do, especially the out-of-towners.
The out-of-towners do. The out-of-towners do. I have noticed a complete lack of flyering in the last couple of years.
It’s gotten less and less. I remember the first couple of years that I was reviewing, I’d get approached by people online all the time. And then definitely last year and maybe even the year before, it was hardly anything.
Which I mean, on the one hand, it’s great because then I don’t end up with 50,000 little pamphlets and things that I don’t know what to do with because I’ve set up my Fringe schedule, but I feel bad if I don’t take one. But at the same time, yeah, it’s weird. I had always thought that that was part of the experience, was getting approached by random artists in line, wherein I get to go, no, hi, I’m Janine from A View from the Box.
I’m going to come see your thing tomorrow or whatever. Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I often encountered shows that weren’t on my radar because somebody flyered me in the line. I do kind of miss that. Ryan M., as a newer Fringer, you probably don’t have that? Or have you been flyered in a line before? A few.
I would say last year, over the three days I spent at Fringe, I maybe collected 10 or so flyers. But kind of same thing. I like Ryan’s point about we’re already here.
We know that Fringe Festival is going on. So those other Soulpepper audiences, that actually would be exciting to get them into potentially, hey, I have a show going on literally in 20 minutes, so take a bathroom break and then come on back in and see our show. Absolutely.
Alex, what about you? I don’t know. When I see someone flyering, I will take the flyer. I just remember viscerally flyering.
And that’s such a nerve-wracking experience to just go up to people and just be like, here’s my show. It is literally the part of Fringing that I’ve hated the most when I am Fringing. I can remember doing my show in 2019.
And we were pre-pandemic, so everything was flyering at the time. And just the amount of breathing between my knees, just taking deep breaths before I would have to go and flyer because I hate it so much. So for the more introverted Fringe artists, great.
You don’t have to do it anymore. Let’s talk about something that I think a few people have some opinions on. I know I do.
A while ago, not so long ago, it was pointed out on a few social media platforms. I believe it was Curtis Campbell, a previous Fringer who pointed out that a number of companies are using AI posters. And I’ve seen varying takes on AI posters.
I know how I feel about that. But before I get into that, I know Ryan has some feelings about that. And then if anybody else wants to pipe in, we could do that.
But Ryan, what are your feelings on the AI posters? Which Ryan? Sorry, Ryan B. So I have a lot of feelings about this and a lot of mixed, complicated feelings. Right off the top, I’ll say out of the gate, I hate AI. And I have very strong personal feelings about that and a personal policy about never touching the stuff myself.
That said, there’s a lot of this discourse about how if you are like an artist who is using AI, you know, how do we trust that your show isn’t just because you did a poster? Can we believe that you even wrote your show if you’re the kind of person who will take those sort of shortcuts? Isn’t that like, just indicative of you being part of the problem and contributing to the death of art and not really caring about art and artistic sensibilities here? And I don’t really think I personally agree with that extreme take. And I say that as a certified AI hater. I really don’t envy artists working on shoestring budgets.
Hiring a graphic designer can be very expensive. So if it feels like there’s an easy way of striking that one budget fine, and being able to put more of your money and your resources into the show itself, the part that for you is the actual art and not just the additional marketing part of the thing that sells the art, I can understand that temptation. And the thing that I want to add to that is a lot of well-meaning artists have a very long history of exploiting the generosity of their graphic designer friends.
Because if you’re an artist and you’re making theatre, you often think, oh, I know a graphic designer. You’re my friend. Will you help me out? Will you make this show? I’ll cut you into the profit share.
Or I’ll pay you this. And there’s a lot of, you know, we talk about how AI is exploitative of artists. And it certainly is.
It is cannibalizing their work. And they’re not getting paid for it. It is just spitting out something else on the other side.
But I don’t think we should lose sight of the fact that artists are also very good at exploiting other artists. And graphic designers in particular often get the front end of that stick. I think I’m open to the existence of the AI posters.
Not because I like them. Not because I think they look good at all. But because not every theatre person is a graphic designer.
Not every theatre person can afford to hire a graphic designer. Or if they do, it heavily eats into the budget for their show. Not everybody can make something that looks good.
So I do get that temptation. The flip side of that, however, is that it looks terrible, the AI art. And not only terrible, but looks terrible in a way that is obviously drawing attention to itself.
And for people who are much more adamantly against anybody using it than I am, it just feels like you’re shooting yourself in the foot by putting that out there and inviting the scorn of the people who are inclined to be scornful about that. But I also kind of think there’s some interesting contradictions in the way that we in the theatre community talk about AI. Phil, I thought this was really interesting.
I was listening to your recent episode. It was interviewing Victoria Sullivan of Minimum, who got a shout out earlier in this. And you and her, you had this whole conversation about AI and all the way that impacts it, which I thought was kind of strange because I’m pretty sure she has an AI poster for Minimum.
That is very interesting. I know I had not seen that poster at the time that we had conversation. And when I did see it, I have to admit, I did hope that perhaps that was not AI.
Well, it is because there’s certain aesthetics of AI. And hers looks like that kind of discount Simpson people. That is one of the recognizable ways that AI art often looks.
Perhaps what she’s doing is riffing on that because this is a show about labor and exploitation and probably a whole bunch of other things and the politics thereof, because it’s about the Ontario premier. But yeah, here’s the image of it for those. And I’m not trying to put her specifically on blast here.
Like I said, I don’t have a problem with it. I’m planning on seeing that show, actually, because I think it sounds really interesting. And I just did my whole spiel for why that doesn’t dissuade me personally.
But I do think there is this kind of interesting contradiction of like, we all hate AI. We’ll all talk about it. But that doesn’t stop a lot of people from using it.
And it’s a real, you know, AI for me, but not for the kind of argument that I think exists in a lot of these spaces. And artists know that it’s the correct answer to say, I don’t like it. I don’t use it.
I hate anyone who uses it. I hate how it melts a glacier for me to make this little Simpson looking image for my show. But the world is changing in a way where we can’t necessarily like think about, oh, there is no there is no practical use for it.
There’s no good reason for it. And I say that as somebody who to this day has never once even went on Chachi, BT or Claude or any of these things to use it. But I think these things are tools that can help people in ways that similar to the contemporaries of Gutenberg who thought it wasn’t a real book unless it was written by hand.
Like there are ways that our society is changing accordingly that I think we who are scornful towards it should maybe think about what our own positionality towards things are and what a healthy future that includes some version of AI could look like rather than just being like, great, it’s here, we love it or great, it’s here, we hate it. You know, one of the things that I’m going to jump in and just give my two cents worth, because I think one of the things that kind of turns me off on the AI usage is for years, if you had asked me, like one of the things that turns me off a show. It’s when they have years ago, it was like, oh, their image in the program is a clip art image.
Like they didn’t put any thought into this. There’s no thought, no effort into their early imagery or their imagery. And I always sort of like, if I didn’t like the image, if I thought the image was sort of half-assed, that always sort of put me off.
And I find to me the use of AI images in posters, it sort of like sits in that same place for me, regardless of the fact that the artwork is stolen from actual artists to generate the art, the environmental concerns and everything else. For me, it becomes a matter of, it says to me that you weren’t really thinking much about your promotional package that you didn’t consider much. You went for a shortcut.
To me, like, yes, maybe you can’t afford a graphic designer or your graphic designer friends are tired of being exploited by you. But there’s always a service like you can use Canva for free and create something that looks good without using its AI aspects and things like that. I feel so, it makes me, it actually made me relatively angry once I started to see the AI images.
And I didn’t notice them so much when they were small in the program. And then I went on the fringe website and I started to see them and it started to make me angry because I do think that if, to me, if you had written your show and you create your show, and then somebody comes along and steals that content for and uses it in AI to create their own thing, I would be pretty pissed about that. And so I have a lot of feelings about that.
But I do see where you’re coming from, Ryan, in a lot of ways. I just, for me, it is a full stop, no, for me. I don’t know if anybody else has any thoughts about it.
Yes, Alex. Okay. So this is what I think.
I really like the posters that are just the pictures of the people in the show. Those were the ones I was drawn to. The poster didn’t factor into my decision of what I was going to see.
I did, okay, because you said we were going to talk about this, I was thinking about, remember the Willy Wonka experience from 2024? I was like, oh, it’s kind of like that, because it’s this image from AI, but then in the end, you’re going to go see a fringe show. And I’m all for high concept, no budget. I love high concept, no budget.
So that’s what I was thinking. Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you, Alex. Anybody else have thoughts on that? No, that’s just the perfect analogy, like, that was so perfect. Ryan B., did you have more? I can share a couple of thoughts.
Oh, yeah, please, Ryan M., go ahead. Yeah. Yeah, I think, I didn’t actually think I had as many thoughts until listening to both of your opinions, Ryan and Phil, but I think, for me, the way that I’ve always felt with AI is that it does not belong in the creative world in a creative capacity.
Like, I, you guys are saying you haven’t touched AI. I have, I use it in administrative capacity. So like, I’ll give an example.
For my content that I make every month, I put out a video with shows that are coming up for this month. I research that myself, I write that myself, but when it comes to putting that list of shows in my caption with the dates and with everything formatted how I want to do it, I do put that into chat GPT and say, hey, format this list for me in XYZ format, because that saves me about 20 minutes that I don’t think, that I think is a better use of my time to be researching the video more than to be making sure that I put my dashes in the right places. However, when it comes to creative work that either myself or a creative person could be doing, that’s where I think that AI has no place in the creative landscape.
However, I would say that fringe artists are where we should give the most slack, because I think, I think I’m the only person on the screen who isn’t a theatre maker. And there are tons of people who are putting shows on fringe for their first time as a theatre maker. And I’m sure their primary objective is, I want to make every aspect of this the best possible.
So to Brian’s point of view, if there’s someone who doesn’t have the budget for a graphic designer, or who wants to put their budget elsewhere, I would not have this point of view, but I could see them thinking, you know what, I’m going to use AI, because this is how I could get the best poster possible. But thinking about kind of how all of us have our opinions on it, and how, like you’ve said, Phil, we’ve seen so many opinions on different social media platforms, I think because AI is evolving so quickly and becoming a bigger, bigger point of our lives, this is something that maybe the festival itself should have a conversation on. And we want AI to be a part of our festival, to be using these artificially created posters in next year’s festival.
So it’s something that I think would be good to look at and potentially next year, there could be a policy for fringe participants to not have AI created posters. And alongside that, for those people that are thinking this is yet my best poster possible, maybe fringe can put together some resources for them on how to create posters without using this artificial intelligence. I will say that I do think that the fringe may want to put out a policy or a statement about the use of AI, but in its entire history, it has never policed or had rules around posters, except for, you know, use our logo.
And I think that would be a very dangerous thing for a relatively hands-off festival. But I do think that they should have a statement about it of some kind. I have a proposal that, Brian, I think thanks for bringing that up.
And I do definitely, you’re touching on where I’m coming from with the giving the grace to the artists who aren’t, don’t have the resources and don’t think of this, and are maybe even trying this for the first time and fringe is the venue for that. My silly proposal that, hey, fringe, if you want to do this next year, then, you know, credit me for it, I guess. Have all of the artists come to the fringe office and have a big box of crayons and paper and make everybody sit down there and draw an image for their show.
And most of them will be bad, but they’re real. And they’re all kind of on the level footing. Some people are better artists or better at drawing than others, but everybody’s is made with just regular waxy Crayola crayons in under an hour.
And then that way there isn’t this stratification of who has access to the best graphic designers, who’s defaulting to AI as an easy fix. Because, Brian, to your other point, I think this is actually interesting. Because you use AI for your non-artistic endeavors.
And I think that makes sense. And that is part of what I’m saying about how the world is evolving. And as much as I’m an old man who will cover my ears and be like, I don’t like it, I’m not going to use it.
I have a hard time getting too mad at too many people who are using it. Especially in contexts like that. I think where the disagreement perhaps between that perspective and Phil’s exists, and Phil, you talk about this in basically every episode of your show, is that you see the marketing apparatus as part of the art itself.
That you talk about Gillian English in basically every episode and how she would think about the poster before she would decide what the show is and how she’s going to market it is going to be a big part of it. So in your mind, there is this non-difference, this total synergy between the way you sell a show and the art of that show itself. I think the mindset that most of the people using the AI posters are, is exactly what Ryan and you described of that’s not the artistic endeavor.
That is an administrative thing, a marketing thing. It’s separate. And I’m going to put all of my energy into my art.
And isn’t it great that I have this tool that can do the other thing that I don’t want to do? That is a really interesting point of view because, and you’re right, I do see the promotion as part of the creative endeavor. In fact, something that one of the first things I try to do is what is the image for this show? What does that look like? And for a lot of companies, especially newer companies, they are not thinking about promotion until later in their cycle. That’s why I’m starting to get people asking me to come on the podcast now.
We all start to get messages from people asking for some promotional or this, that, and the other thing, and it’s too late. But it’s because for them, they’re not thinking about the promotion as early as maybe they should. Yeah, and I don’t fault them for that, I guess, is my thinking.
They’re creative artists. They’re not marketing people. They don’t have the budget to hire marketing people.
They were so focused on making their show exactly what they want that they forgot, oh right, part of the culture and the mechanism of having a successful fringe show is that I need to think about marketing. I need to think about the poster. I need to reach out to podcasters and critics and get this on their radar as early as possible.
And yeah, fringe is a space where I don’t fault people for not having all the answers for those things, even if we know that there are seasoned fringe artists who know exactly what they’re doing from the moment that they conceive their show in conjunction with the poster. And I think there’s also just interesting examples of Dance Macabre, the new play contest winner that Alex you shouted out earlier. They have a real AI sloppy looking poster, despite having the pedigree of they won the new play contest.
And yet, if you go on the fringe website right now, that poster is gone and there is a now photograph of something related to their show. So fringe, I think, gives the grace and the latitude for it’s too late to fix what’s in the print program here. But yes, if you mistakenly thought this was okay and then probably got a lot of feedback on social media about how this makes me not want to see your show, people are learning, and this goes back to what I said about like it’s just ugly and very obviously AI based, that the longer that this becomes a thing that artists revolt against, the longer or rather the sooner artists will understand that, okay, this isn’t as much of a save for this one item of my checklist of things I need to do, because it’s actually going to hurt my show rather than help it.
I don’t know if I agree that it should, but if enough people feel that way, then eventually the market will correct itself. Janine, did you have any thoughts on this or should we move on? I may. I think we’re okay to move on.
Okay. All right. I just want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to speak on the topic.
I do want to, as we’re heading towards a close here, I want to ask about what Fringe looks like this year, what makes it a little bit different from previous years in terms of maybe it’s the Fringe patio or whatever we’re calling it this year. What are you guys thinking about? What are you looking forward to? What do you see in the way that the Fringe is set up, whether it’s venues and distance? Let’s just have a free-for-all about all of that. Sure.
I can kick off. One of the things that I’m the most excited about is that Kids’ Fringe is at its own venue again this year, because I went a couple of years to see things when it was at St. Vlad’s down on Bloor. I thought that was really cool, because then the lawn would just be full of all these little kids having fun and playing and doing stuff.
I’d come out of the show and be like, wait, I want to screen print a tote bag. What? It was a lot of fun, and there was a lot of interaction from both the parents and the kids. I thought that that was a great atmosphere to have in conjunction with Fringe.
The fact that it’s at YPT this year, which is perfect, like, yay, young people’s theatre in young people’s theatre. Let’s go. I think we’ll open it up to having that fun and interactive space for kids again, where it’s just kids.
Last year, Kids’ Fringe was technically all happening in one of the venues at Soul Pepper, but there’s also three other venues with a whole bunch of adult shows that aren’t really for kids. The fact that it’s at its own space again, I think, is really fitting and I hope will be a lot of fun. I think Kids’ Fringe is best when it’s at its own venue.
I think that when it has a space and the kids can be kids and see nothing but kids’ shows, I think that’s great. Anybody else? Yeah, I would agree with that. I actually hadn’t even considered that.
Oh, right, that was a thing where I knew that Kids’ Fringe was in the Soul Pepper, but it didn’t really occur to me that that was a big departure or difference for how Kids’ Fringe is done and how it becomes its own little oasis in there. It is convenient that YPT is a short walk from Soul Pepper, so it’s not too far from the hub. I think in general, in terms of what Fringe looks like this year, being the second year in Soul Pepper and that whole setup of the new hub that’s kind of off the beaten track from the rest of the things that previously had been hubs or hub adjacent, I feel like this will be an interesting year to see what lessons were learned about that spatialization of Fringe.
Like right off the bat, we don’t have one of the studios, what I think is the TD Studio that we had last year that was kind of just like a broom closet that they put some shows in. That isn’t on the list anymore. The Kevin and Roger Garland venue that was Kids’ Fringe last year, that is still there.
So those who perhaps avoided that venue because they weren’t that interested in kids’ shows will now get to see more things there. We have the Michael Young is the big venue. We have the Wayne Imangesha Studio, and we still have the RBC Bank Studio.
So there’s still plenty to do in Soul Pepper. I’m curious to see if they figured out the patio, if they have new solutions for that, because that was a big point of contention and discussion for a lot of people. And overall, I’m just excited to see a whole lot of theatre in a very short amount of time.
For me, I think I am also looking forward to seeing what kind of lessons were learned from last year regarding especially around the patio aspect. I felt like there was a lack of signage last year because the patio included the Soul Pepper lobby and the restaurant across the street. But I didn’t know that because I don’t think the signage was clear.
So hopefully we can do something about that. The one thing I think that I think for me is one of the bigger complaints about being in the distillery is food is really expensive there. If you did not think to pack a lunch, there’s those restaurants there.
I guess you could make an escape over to the Corktown area or the Canary District and see if there’s something over there. But I find if you are running between shows and I have a bit of time, I can go to a restaurant. Those restaurants aren’t particularly cheap.
So if you are considering shows, bring a snack, bring a lunch. Anybody else have any thoughts about venues, about the footprint, about patio, anything? I agree about your food comment though. I pack snacks all the time.
I know Ryan B has a very specific system, which I appreciate and admire. But I always make sure that I have and I’ve got my giant water bottle. Oh, look at the branding.
Yeah. I go through at least two of these on a fringe day or at least I did last year. So freaking hot out.
So that’s like one of I think not like venue related. No, I suppose it kind of is because I think what some people forget is that at most venues you are waiting outside. So it is hot.
So like my fiance very kindly bought me like one of those neck fans for this year so that I can have it just like right here, hands free, keeping me cool. I have saved 1000 Facebook videos about how to do my hair up this year in fun styles because having it down is untenable in the heat. I feel I know you have to worry about that all the time.
But you know, but no, it’s like, keep yourself hydrated. Keep yourself cool. Keep yourself fed.
Like most of us, especially those of us who are theatre critics, like we’re out from like noon till late, every night, you know, going to see shows. So keeping yourself and so so I will extend it to everybody. That’s like a thing.
Keep yourself hydrated, snacked. And like make sure you’ve got at least a little bit of a budget for eating out because and factor in dinner breaks in breaks to eat, you will just be so much happier if you just factor in like a half an hour you’ve been to find yourself a Wendy’s and get some food. Absolutely.
Ryan, did you have a system? Have you worked anything out about like hydration food, moving around? I think same thing as Janine like water bottle snacks 100%. I think another thing that if someone hasn’t visited these venues before is I think most of the venues that Fringe is happening at do have a water bottle refill station, which is huge, because you could spend probably $20 a day in water alone. But yeah, I don’t have too many food breaks planned out.
I think I like I never have a show where I’m like running from show to show to show for most of the day. So just planning on bringing some snacks and when I have do have more than half an hour, maybe trying to find someone somewhere to get the not most expensive sandwich. That is the question.
Everybody needs to share where the cheap sandwiches are. Not a $20. No, no, not a $20 sandwich.
I have to say the number of times 20 you know what it will ruin my childhood. I do have to say that I have done last year I did a couple of mad dashes alumni to salt pepper to AccuStudio. I don’t recommend those runs.
I don’t recommend running between those venues. It is if I just made it in time for a bunch of those shows. So that’s not a great way to start your theatre experience.
Alexandra, did you have any thoughts? Anything you want to share? No, but just like I haven’t been to AccuStudio. So I’m gonna go see something there. I haven’t been to Sweet Action Theatre.
Where’s that? I don’t know. I hope my phone is charged and will lead me and guide me to where I’m supposed to go. Sweet Action Theatre is actually really interesting.
It is near Trinity Bellwoods. So again, spreading out the footprint further into the West End and closer to FIFA if you were heading in that direction. So keep that in mind if you’re going to see something at Sweet Action.
Any final thoughts before we call this to a close, folks? I’m just really excited for Fringe this year. Like I know we were talking about we were joking before we went live about, oh, how hard are we gonna push ourselves this year? I really, I feel like it’s not about pushing myself this year. Like my goal is just to see things that I’m really genuinely excited about.
Like that’s why my top thing was like, I’m gonna go see all the Shakespeare stuff. Why? Because I’m going to have a good time. Like the fun part about Fringe is that there’s something for everybody.
If you have like a niche thing that you like, there’s probably a Fringe show that is either about that thing or at least that thing adjacent. So like get out there, find something that’s fun. Like last year for me, it was the drag shows.
This year it’s Shakespeare. You can find something. Go, you know, just explore.
It’s so much fun. Absolutely. Well, I want to thank you all for joining me on this live stream.
Those of you who are watching, thank you so much for watching. Thanks so much for participating and your comments. And I look forward to seeing you all around at Fringe.
Yeah, we’ll see you around. Thanks so much for hosting this, Phil. It was a great time.
Thanks. Thank you.
