Fringe Benefits

Something about Mary: Tracey Power as Canadian-born silent film actress Mary Pickford in Living Shadows: A Story of Mary Pickford. Photo Jane Weitzel/By the Clock Productions.

Calgary isn’t just awash in oil, it’s also rich in theatre. The city boasts two big regional companies, Alberta Theatre Projects and Theatre Calgary; a healthy alternative scene led by the renowned One Yellow Rabbit troupe; and a pair of national theatre festivals: Enbridge playRites (which premieres new Canadian plays) and the High Performance Rodeo, which lassoes avant-garde artists like Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass and Marie Chouinard.

But for years, there was one gaping chink in Cowtown’s theatrical armour: it was the only major Canadian city without a regular summer fringe festival. More recently, it became downright embarrassing, as the fringe phenomenon spread to burgs with only a fraction of Calgary’s one-million-strong population.

“You now have fringe festivals in places like Prince Rupert [B.C.], Swift Current [Sask.], London, Ont.,” Calgary playwright Jason Rothery points out. “We’ve been an anomaly for a really long time.”

Those red-faced days could be over, though, with the launch of the ambitious Calgary Fringe Festival, which looks set to make up for lost time. The 10-day bash, with a budget of more than $400,000, offers 36 theatre productions, 23 street performers, a comedy showcase, body art exhibits, mural painting, a youth circus and a mini-film fest screening 62 independent films. The activity is spread over 14 downtown venues, with the primary site at 17th Avenue S.W. — on the “Red Mile,” the strip of bars and restaurants made infamous by raucous Calgary Flames fans.

In an interview shortly before its Aug. 11 opening, the festival’s producer, Blair Gallant, sounded — pardon the inevitable western analogy — like a cowboy let loose on a wild stallion.

“We wanted to start off with a bang,” he admits, “but it scares the living bejeebers out of me! The average start-up festival has a $30,000 budget. It usually takes four to five years to get to the point where we’re at already in terms of our budget and programming.”

It’s the logistics that have Gallant spooked, not the potential for poor attendance. A week before its opening, the festival had already sold two-thirds of its 9,200 advance tickets, with some performances completely sold out. Clearly, this boomtown is ready for a belated Fringe.

“We have a lot of migration from all over the country — everybody seems to be moving to Calgary,” says Gallant, “and people who come from those bigger, more multicultural urban centres love this kind of thing.”

It doesn’t hurt that Canada’s fringe festivals have enjoyed a high profile of late. The Drowsy Chaperone, the Canadian-made Broadway musical that won five Tony Awards this year, started off as a fringe show. So did ’Da Kink in My Hair and BoyGroove, both of which have since received commercial engagements in Toronto, ’Da Kink packing the 2,000-seat Princess of Wales Theatre last year during a three-month run. Successes like that have helped elevate the fringe’s image from that of a ragtag, anything-goes festival to a place where you could potentially catch the hit shows and hot talent of the future.

Catching up with the Saviour: Ryan Gladstone as Jesus Christ in the fringe play Jesus Christ: The Lost Years. Photo: Michelle Field/Monster Theatre.

Of course, the variety and, often, sheer wackiness of a fringe lineup is a big part of its appeal. The Calgary festival’s lineup is typical of that, with productions ranging from Living Shadows, an acclaimed drama about silent-screen star Mary Pickford by Edmonton playwright-actor Tracey Power, to a zombie horror comedy by Red Deer’s Pineapple Grenade Theatre called Eat My Brain. The list of shows also reflects global concerns and interests of the moment, with titles like Iraq and Back, Jesus Christ: The Lost Years and Jihad Me at Hello.

“It’s the immediacy of the fringe [that is one of its attractions],” says Rothery, who is serving as the Calgary festival’s director. “At most theatre companies, the newest new play you can get has probably still been three to five years in development. Whereas at the fringe, every year you’re getting shows that, to a large degree, have been created over the course of that year. So there’s a relevance that probably doesn’t exist in your average regional theatre.”

Katherine Sanders, co-author and co-star of Jesus Christ: The Lost Years, cheerfully admits that her play is a blatant cash-in. “[Actor-playwright] Ryan [Gladstone] and I came up with the idea for this show about six years ago and just sat on it. Then, with The Da Vinci Code and all the interest in the Gnostic Gospels, we realized the time was right.”

A two-person comedy from Vancouver-based Monster Theatre, Jesus Christ: The Lost Years has been touring the Canadian fringe circuit this year, garnering a five-star review from Toronto alternative weekly Now. The play tells the story of Jesus between the ages of 13 and 30. “In the Bible there’s a plot hole — there’s nothing about what he did between those years,” says Sanders. “So we made it up. Monster Theatre has found the lost Gospel.”

A Calgarian, Sanders was involved in organizing the city’s last, short-lived attempt at a fringe six years ago. That festival, overseen by the Loose Moose improv company, ran until 2002, but was discontinued when Loose Moose lost its theatre over a rent increase. (The current attempt is on more solid ground, with seed money from a private foundation as well as corporate sponsorship.) Sanders believes the reason Calgary has been fringe-less for so long is partly its traditional rivalry with Edmonton, which hosts the oldest and largest fringe festival in North America.

“I think there’s always been this pressure that if Calgary has a fringe festival, it should be as big as Edmonton’s, which I think is a huge mistake to make,” Sanders says. “We don’t need two fringes that big so close together.”

Something naughty: Mia van Leeuwen plays Sabina in the erotic comedy Peepshow. Photo Mandy Malazdrewich/ Out of Line Theatre.

The Edmonton festival, which now draws more than 500,000 patrons annually, was launched in 1982 and is credited with bringing the British fringe concept to North America. (The template is the venerable Edinburgh Festival Fringe, currently celebrating its 60th anniversary.) Today, there are 18 official fringe fests across Canada and almost as many in the U.S. According to the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF), approximately 1,100 fringe productions are presented every year across the country, with about 4,000 to 5,000 artists participating and several hundred thousand tickets sold.

To anyone who has ever attended a fringe, the attractions are obvious: cheap tickets, a slew of shows to choose from and a casual, party-like atmosphere. But it means a lot more to the artists and to the communities that stage them.

Traditionally, fringe festivals aren’t juried or censored. Artists who submit an application are chosen by lottery or on a first-come, first-served basis. The festival provides a venue and technical support, and the artist gets to keep 100 per cent of the ticket sales at the door. “The fringe is a free-for-all that gives everyone a crack at performing,” says Sanders. “There are no other festivals like that.”

As a result, it’s become the entry level for many young people seeking a way into professional theatre. “That’s the power and importance of the fringe movement across the country,” says Chuck McEwen, president of CAFF and producer of the Toronto fringe. Many of Canada’s senior artists today trace their roots to the early fringe festivals, including playwrights Daniel MacIvor, Jason Sherman and Brad Fraser, horror clowns Mump and Smoot, and marionette maestro Ronnie Burkett. “They all used the fringe to help develop their craft,” says McEwen.

The fringe also introduces theatre to new audiences, adds Rothery. “People that wouldn’t necessarily spend $60 or $70 on a theatre ticket will spend $10 at the fringe to try it out. I’ve met a lot of audience members on the circuit that didn’t think they were theatre people until they started coming to the fringe.”

For a city whose biggest cultural attraction remains the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede, it’s also another small step towards creating a more eclectic image.

“I’ve found people are looking for another way to brand Calgary other than as a cowboy community,” says Gallant. “Being involved in the arts makes them feel better about the city they live in. It shows them that we’re not all cowboys and that there are other voices out there besides the traditional western voice.”

The Calgary Fringe Festival runs Aug. 11-20.

Martin Morrow is a critic, author and former Calgarian now based in London, Ont.

CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites - links will open in new window.